Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 161
Irish History
Wild Geese and Travelling Scholars by Frank D'Arcy
(Paperback; 4.99 IEP / 6.00 USD / 4.00 UK) [Add To Basket]The departure of soldiers known as the 'Wild Geese' from Ireland to Continental Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is a part of Irish history that is little remembered today. In fact, the scattered exiles of those centuries were by no means all soldiers. What was their fate, and what connections did they retain with their ancestral home? Who were the students and clerics in the Irish colleges in Paris, Bordeaux, Salamanca, Prague and a dozen other Continental countries? Who were the many generals in the service of a series of kings and dukes over a period of almost 200 years, and what were the often mixed causes for which they served? These and many other questions are answered in this book to provide a picture of a significant epoch in the history of Irish migration.
The War of Independence by Edward Purdon
(Paperback; 4.99 IEP / 6.00 USD / 4.00 UK) [Add To Basket]The truce established between the waring IRA and government forces on 9 July 1921 signalled the effective end of what historians now prefer to call the Anglo-Irish War, since the independence won was partial and its stated aims had not yet been achieved. In the two and a half years of the war's duration, a total of 1,300 people had been killed - more than 1,000 of them Irish. This book traces the causes, course and consequences of the war.
Wolfe Tone by Sean McMahon
(Paperback; 4.99 IEP / 6.00 USD / 4.00 UK) [Add To Basket]Theobald Wolfe Tone was just thirty-five when he committed suicide, with none of his ambitions achieved. Yet his reputation is as the founding father of Irish republicanism. His name was used by Thomas Davis and Padraic Pearse almost as a mantra, and his grave at Bodenstown, County Kildare, is one of the most hallowed of republican sites. This short, comprehensive account of his life and work shows him to have been a true patriot, but also a much more complex character than the icon-makers would have us believe.
Robert Emmet by Sean McMahon
(Paperback; 4.99 IEP / 6.00 USD / 4.00 UK) [Add To Basket]For nearly 200 years, since his death on the scaffold in Thomas Street, Dublin, on 20 September 1803, Robert Emmet has been the 'darling of Erin' - the archetypal young martyr for Irish freedom. Because of the romantic story of his fatal love for Sarah Curran, he has always had the reputation of being a brave but foolhardy young man whose brief insurrection was vain and whose life was needlessly sacrificed for love. Yet, as this book shows, he was far from being a reckless dreamer. His preparations for the rising which he led show him to have been a meticulous planner, a master of security, an ingenious inventor of effective weapons for urban warfare and the deviser of a revolutionary plan that, but for sheer bad luck, might well have succeeded.
In Their Own Voice: Women and Irish Nationalism edited by Margaret Ward
Paperback; 8.99 IEP / 11.50 USD / 7.00 UK; Attic Press; 198 pages [Add To Basket]This collection of documents enables some of the women who took part in the movement for Irish national independence to be heard in their own voices. Through their writings these women express their hopes and dreams, their criticisms and their disappointments, their terrors and their refusal to accept defeat. This is their voice as they explained themselves in autobiographies, letters and speeches. Maud Gonne, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and Constance de Markievicz are among the better know contributors, but the voices of lesser-known witnesses to this formative period of Irish history prove to be equally rich and illuminating.
History of Dun Laoghaire Harbour by John De Courcy Ireland
Hardback; 35.00 IEP / 45.00 USD / 28.00 UK; Four Masters Press; 181 pages, with b/w photos [Add To Basket]Dun Laoghaire Harbour, recognised as one of the most picturesque in Europe, was built early in the 19th century as the consequences of an explosion of popular anger at the continuous deaths from shipwrecks in Dublin Bay. The most competent and experienced navigators at the time had described the port of Dublin as the most perilous in the whole world for a ship to leave or approach in certain circumstances. Thanks largely to the efficiency and foresight of Captain Hutchinson, the first harbour master, the port built an 'asylum' harbour or port of refuge, which became with the introduction of steam-driven passenger and mail carrying ships the busiest port on the western shore of the Irish sea, also a leading fishing port and popular yachting centre. Recent controversies about the new system of harbour management under recent legislation has revived sharply the question whether Dun Laoghaire can continue to be considered as the 'People's Port' as it has been since its inception.
The Diocese of Elphin: People, Places and Pilgrimage edited by Francis Beirne
Hardback; 30.00 IEP / 41.50 USD / 17.50 UK; Columba; 403 pages, with b/w photos [Add To Basket]This book outlines the history of the Diocese of Elphin from Patrician times until the end of the second millennium. It is a compendium of historical detail on the thirty-eight parishes on the clergy and religious, and on a host of other aspects of the life of the diocese. The extensive bibliography will be a treasure trove for historians, researchers, students and everyone interested in Irish ecclesiastical history. The Diocese of Elphin stretches from the bridge of Athlone to the bridge of Bunduff on the outskirts of Bundoran, and includes parts of Roscommon, Sligo and Galway.
Sacred Places and Pilgrimage in the Archdiocese of Dublin by Brid Liston
Paperback; 9.99 IEP / 13.50 USD / 8.50 UK; Veritas; 142 pages, with b/w photos [Add To Basket]Getting to know the Irish local environment and its relationship to our spiritual tradition is part of our ongoing religious development. Our Christian tradition in Ireland is rich in sacred places, and pilgrimage has been a central theme in the celebration of the Jubilee Year 2000. Many of these places are well known to us, but many too have almost been forgotten. This book ensures that a knowledge of these very special places, as well as they prayer of pilgrimage, will not be lost to tradition.
The Faith of the Catholic Church: A Summary by David Konstant
Paperback; 12.00 IEP / 15.00 USD / 10.00 UK; Vertias; 135 pages [Add To Basket]This book is for those who wish to gain a basic knowledge of the faith and moral teaching of the Catholic Church.
Bloody Sunday: Lord Widgery's Report, 1972
(Paperback; 9.80 IEP / 12.00 USD / 7.50 UK) [Add To Basket]This book contains Lord Widgery's Report of Events in Londonderry, Northern Ireland on 30, January 1972.
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