Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 393 - 13 October 2007
Irish History
A Candle in the Window: A History of the Barony of Castleknock by Jim Lacey
Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 10 UK; 220 pages, with black-and-white illustrations throughout
The Barony of Castleknock lies six miles from Dublin on the Navan Road. Its first castle was built by the Norman Hugh Tyrel and it was the rallying point for the forces of the last High King of Ireland, Rory O'Connor, in his vain attempt to drive the Gall from the village of Dublin in 1171. And that was only the beginning. There is no better guide to the place than Jim Lacey, whose family has lived in Carpenterstown for four generations, especially since his sparkling text is enhanced by the photographs and paintings of his parish priest, Father Eugene Kennedy. The story of the unquenchable candle of the title is only one of the fascinating tales of the area. Lacey's coverage extends backwards chronologically and forwards geographically, taking in Luttrelstown, Porterstown, Coolmine, Mulhuddart, Blanchardstown, Dunsink and Cabra, recording their often stormy histories. He makes us view the northwest of the Ford of the Hurdles in a new light, realising that a thousand years of history went in to its making. If stones could speak, they would praise the loving work of the pair of local patriots that contrived this fascinating book.
Dorothy Macardle: A Life by Nadia Clare Smith
Trade Paperback; 20 Euro / 28 USD / 14 UK; 160 pages [Add To Basket]
“The passion for national independence can be as personal, heartfelt a thing as love or ambition or the fear of death.” DOROTHY MACARDLE, the Nation, 24 August 1929.
Mainly remembered for The Irish Republic (also available from Read Ireland) and her close association with Éamon de Valera, Dorothy Macardle (1889-1958) was one of the most popular and influential Irish historians of her time. She was not only a historian, but also a journalist, playwright, novelist, political activist, and student of the occult. This first biography of Macardle traces her life from her involvement in the War of Independence to her role as a leading civil libertarian in the 1950s, and discusses her literary career and international human rights work. An Irish nationalist writer with an international reputation, Dorothy Macardle was a woman of many parts, and her career sheds light on modern Irish political history, interwar-era women’s history, and Irish historiography and literature.
Trouble with the Law: Crimes and trials from Ireland’s past edited by Liam Clare and Máire Ní Chearbhaill
Trade Paperback; 25 Euro / 34 USD / 17 UK; 216 pages
The ten stories in this collection reveal the variety of ways in which human beings got into trouble with the law, whether through extortion, adultery, bigamy, petty crime or rebellion. The intrigue, outrageous behaviour, massive fraud or petty crime committed by a range of characters in Trouble with the Law uncover something of the local, public and private worlds of Ireland in the past. They reflect the relations between husbands and wives, between rulers and the ruled, and between buyers and sellers.
Law-breakers fascinate historians. Their interest is not limited to questions of guilt or innocence but extends to what the breaking of the social rules tell about those who lived in former times. As the authors show, trials were not simply technical events in which the law was applied. They were events that returned the world to normal and the rituals of the courtroom were part of the affirmation of the prevailing social order.
Causes for Concern: Irish Politics, Culture and Society by Michael D. Higgins, with a foreword by Declan Kiberd
Trade Paperback; 17 Euro / 23 USD / 12 UK; 340 pages [Add To Basket]
This book collects some of Michael D Higgins's best and most insightful writing on Irish society, culture, human rights and the larger context of Ireland in Europe and the wider world. While four of the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation were poets, you would be hard pressed to find the same number in today's Dail chamber. A man who fits the bill as poet and politician is Michael D. Higgins . perhaps one of the few public representatives today who enjoys widespread respect across all political hues. Causes for Concern covers some aspects of Michael D.s early personal history, Irish politics, culture and broadcasting, global politics, and the human condition. Drawing on material produced over more than forty years, Michael D Higgins discusses the Irish political system, the role of the Left, Nicaragua and South American politics, Irish film, his own personal journey and the issue of human rights and the best ways to protect them. In the extensive section on Ireland and the Global Community there are pieces on Turkey, Iraq, Somalia and Lebanon amongst others, which are sure to be of interest to any observer of international relations and Ireland.s role therein. The book features an extensive foreword by commentator and writer Declan Kiberd.
The History of Ireland by Finbarr Madden
Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 10 UK; 306 pages
The History of Ireland New Edition is a comprehensive guide to a fascinating history. Taking you from ancient Ireland up to present day conflicts, this book will give you an understanding of the background to events that have dominated the headlines in recent years. Consider the impact of recent political events on society and culture and discover the key figures who have characterised this dramatic history, in a book that will keep you hooked from beginning to end. This new edition has been fully updated to address the most recent developments in Ireland, including the murder of Robert McCartney and Denis Donaldson, the IRA's formal order to end its 30-year armed campaign and the subsequent decommissioning of arms, and the many twists and turns of the peace process.
The Mayo Evictions of 1860 by Gerard Moran
Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 10 UK; 144 pages
Between the Great Famine and the Land War, ideological conflict was added to the material sufferings of the poverty-stricken tenants in depressed districts such as Erris, Partry and Connemara. Gerard Moran has produced an absorbing and objective account of the clash between 'the Patriot Priest of Partry' - as he has been called by Cardinal O Fiaich - and Baron Plunket of Tuam, a harsh landlord, condemned by the "Times of London". Among the topics in a book which will prove compelling reading for Mayo and Galway people especially, are 'soupers', 'jumpers' and the workhouse; the Achill Mission; the Brothers, Third Order, etc.; the Party Evictions; riots and court actions at Ballinrobe and elsewhere; the 'Castlebar Settlement' (another treaty of Limerick in its way); the stand of landowners like George Henry Moore on the one hand and Sir Richard O'Donel of Newport on the other; the drift to Fenianism when non-violence appeared ineffective. Fr Lavelle was probably the most famous man ever born in the Westport area, and indeed one of Mayo's most noted sons, while the Partry Evictions, like the Maamtrasna Murders, have left an indelible mark on the folk-memory of the west of Ireland.
A South Roscommon Emigrant: Emigration and Return, 1890-1920 by Diane Dunnigan
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 7 UK; 78 pages [Add To Basket]
Emigrants were a common sight in nineteenth and early twentieth century Ireland as they left their family farms to make their way to the boat at Queenstown or Liverpool en route to a new, and hopefully more prosperous, life in a strange land. Much is known about these people in aggregate but their individual and local experiences and poorly understood. Even less well understood are the stories of those who later returned from America to their own homes bringing with them money, the latest New York fashions and a different experience if life. This study analyses the experience of emigration and return through the life of Margaret Brennan of south Roscommon who emigrated to Boston in 1902 and returned home to marry in 1911. Using a unique combination or oral testimonies and documentary evidence, this work recreates the experience of Margaret and some of her contemporaries in the different worlds in which they lived. It paints a vivid picture of the realities of the world that the emigrants left, the experience of emigration itself, the world they made for themselves as maids, navvies and policemen in American and finally their return to their homes to settle.
Edenderry, County Offaly, and the Downshire Estate, 1790-1800 by Ciaran Reilly
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 7 UK; 78 pages [Add To Basket]
In the history of the 1798 rising in Ireland, Offaly is regarded as the forgotten county. It was not the scene of major military activity but that does not mean that it was unaffected by the disturbances that afflicted the Irish midlands in that year. This study shows that in one part of the county, around the old Quaker settlement of Edenderry, the agrarian secret societies that underlay the rising were as active as in many other parts of Ireland. In particular, problems between the landlord, the marquis of Downshire, and his tenants fed social tensions produced by more general economic conditions to ensure that Edenderry would be as disturbed as many other parts of the country during the years 1795-7. Why then did these problems not translate into more open violence during 1798 itself? This study answers this crucial questions, central to understanding the history of the 1798 rising a local level.
Local Government in 19th Century County Dublin: The Grand Jury by David Broderick
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 7 UK; 78 pages [Add To Basket]
Much has been written about the politics and government of nineteenth century Ireland at a national level. Yet the point at which government touched the lives of most people was the local. Over the course of the nineteenth century new local government structures, especially the grand jury, replaced the older parishes. In addition they acquired many duties in addition to the responsibility for roads and bridges that they had held in the eighteenth century. Tramways, gaols, aspects of public health, including dispensaries, and compensation for malicious injuries all came within the ambit of the grad juries. This study shows how one grand jury, that for County Dublin, faced the challenges presented by the expansion of their duties and how it rose to those challenges in making County Dublin a better place to live in the course of the nineteenth century.
Restoration Strabane, 1660-1714: Economy and Society in Provincial Ireland by William J. Roulston
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 7 UK; 78 pages [Add To Basket]
During the seventeenth century its larger and more imposing neighbour, Derry, often overshadowed Strabane, in the west of Ulster. Yet the story of Strabane in the later seventeenth century is more typical of the urban experience of plantation Ulster generally. This study follows the history of Strabane over the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, a period of social development which is usually little written about in most histories. It explores the role of the landlord, the earls of Abercorn, and the corporation in the development of the town and traces the history of the settlement and economy that emerged as a result of their efforts. It also charts the evolution of local social structures, forged to meet the needs of the fledging town. This includes the emergence of the various confessional communities in Strabane and the relations between them. A pioneering piece of work on one of the small towns of Ireland.
Please note: Prices were correct at time of original posting but are subject to subsequent change without notice.
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