Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 164
Ordnance Survey Letters Dublin edited by Michael Herity
Hardback; 35.00 IEP / 50.00 USD / 28.50 UK; Four Masters Press; 94 pages [Add To Basket]These Ordnance Survey Letters are reports written from the field to the Superintendent, Thomas Larcom, at Mountjoy Barracks in the Phoenix Park, discussing the derivation and English orthography of the names to be printed on the first edition of the Survey's maps. John O'Donovan and Eugene Curry began work in south Dublin at the end of March, 1837, after a long spell of research on Tara, County Meath, in the Dublin libraries over the previous autumn and winter. The fieldwork was continued by Curry over the summer months after O'Donovan had left for Longford and Roscommon. Encouraged by George Petrie and with the help of the artists George Du Noyer and T. Butler Williams, Curry described and mapped more ordinary field monuments than had been so described in any county in Dublin before.
Ordnance Survey Letters Meath edited by Michael Herity
Paperback; 25.00 IEP / 32.50 USD / 20.00 UK: Four Masters Press; 146 pages [Add To Basket]Covers work done by John O'Donovan in Meath begun in July, 1836.
Ordnance Survey Letters Donegal edited by Michael Herity
Paperback; 25.00 IEP / 32.50 USD / 20.00 UK; Four Masters Press; 148 pages [Add To Basket]Covers word done by John O'Donovan in 1835
The Prehistoric Archaeology of Ireland by John Waddell
Paperback; 25.00 IEP / 32.50 USD / 20.00 UK; Wordwell; 433 pages, with drawings [Add To Basket]On present evidence the human settlement of Ireland commenced some ten thousand years ago and the prehistoric story thus covers over eight and a half thousand years. Now in a second edition, this book provides a chronological account of this long timespan and, with numerous illustrations, charts the development of the first hunting and foraging communities, the achievements of the earliest environmentalists with their remarkable megalithic tombs, and the technological advances of the later bronze- and iron-using societies. Recent decades have seen some exceptional developments in the study of the prehistoric archaeology of Ireland. New discoveries, excavations and research, new theoretical approaches and the increasing application of radiocarbon and tree-ring dating techniques have all made an enormous contribution to the better understanding of this remote past. As well as being a comprehensive and original review of the subject, this book answers the need for a detailed introduction to a large body of archaeological evidence.
Sister Genevieve by John Rae
Hardback; 20.00 IEP / 27.50 USD / 17.50 UK; 268 pages; Little Brown [Add To Basket]This book is the story of Mary O'Farrell, who became Sister Genevieve, one of the most remarkable yet little-known heroines of our time. A woman of great courage and spirituality, she devoted her life to the education of the girls of West Belfast during the Troubles, defying the Catholic Church, the IRA and the British Army in her determination to give her under-privileged girls the best possible start in life. When she arrived in 1956, Catholic West Belfast was one of the most deprived areas in western Europe. By the time she left the secondary school she led for twenty-five years, she had transformed the lives of its pupils. More astonishing is that for nineteen of those twenty-five years, she was running her school in the middle of a guerilla war between the IRA and the British Army. The girls were lifted by the army and brought in for questioning; their homes were taken over by gunmen or turned over by soldiers; their fathers and brothers were killed on active service or sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. Yet through all this, Sister Genevieve remained loyal to her pupils and was compassionate to all who suffered in the conflict. This book is the biography of an inspirations headteacher and a fascinating and highly complex woman. It is also a unique insight into the Troubles from the point of view of the 'civilians' who were living on the front line.
How the GAA Survived the Troubles by Desmond Fahy
Paperback; 9.99 IEP / 13.50 USD / 8.50 UK / 12.70 EURO; 174 pages, with b/w photos; Wolfhound Press [Add To Basket]The GAA can claim members and supporters in every town, village and parish throughout Northern Ireland. Its clubs provide a social and cultural centre for the people, and are an integral part of community life. However, for more than thirty years, the events of the Troubles have represented a significant challenge for the GAA. With its members and property coming under concerted and often savage attacks, the Association has been forced to move away from its rigid non-political stance and respond publicly to what was happening in the wider society. Focusing on the human stories behind the facts, this book traces the GAA's journey through the turmoil - both political and social - on the three decades of the Troubles. The author interviews the families of victims and speaks to members about their experiences, and also discusses the effects and future of the controversial rule prohibiting members of the British Security Forces and RUC from joining the Association.
Contemplating Ireland: Images and Verse Photographs by James Gleason
Hardback; 9.99 IEP / 13.50 USD / 8.50 UK / 12.70 EURO; 96 pages; Atlantic Ireland [Add To Basket]This book is a visual meditation on this ancient island. James Gleason's photographs, complemented by selections from Ireland's rich poetic tradition, transport the reader to ancient Celtic burial sites, barren coastal islands and crumbling monastic ruins. Haunting land and seascapes draw the reader to quietness: from Kerry's mountain ranges and Clare's Cliffs of Moher to Connemara's stone walls and Mayo's sea-carved coastline. Long-since deserted castles, houses and churches awake imaginations of generations past.
The Celtic Cross: An Illustrated History and Celebration by Nigel Pennick
Paperback; 14.00 IEP / 17.50 USD / 12.50 UK; 160 pages, with b/w drawings; Blandford [Add To Basket]This book combines a fascinating and informative text with the author's beautifully detailed line drawings and photographs to present an historical overview of the emblem acknowledged throughout the world as the symbol of Celtic Christianity. The book traces the rich diversity of the Celtic Cross through its historical backgrund and predecessors, by way of the evolution and development of Celtic Christianity, and through to its influence to the form and pattern of Celtic art. In addition, the author provides a comprehensive gazetteer covering sites in Ireland, Britain and Brittany in France as a guide for those who wish to celebrate the cross as a continuing manifestation of the finest traditions of Celtic art.
Bringing It All Back Home: The Influence of Irish Music 2nd edition by Nuala O'Connor
Paperback; 13.99 IEP / 17.50 USD / 12.50 UK; 162 pages, with b/w photos; Merlin [Add To Basket]Irish music is flourishing in all corners of the world today, thanks to centuries of emigrations. This book chronicles the remarkable journey of Irish music from its origins in rural Irish communities to reinvention in the melting pots of America and Britain, and return home to a new generation of exciting musicians. In times past, Irish music belonged to remote rural communities. The hauntingly beautiful Sean Nos (unaccompanied) singing tradition in the Irish language originated with them, and there were ballads, jigs, reels, slides and polkas taught by itinerant dancing masters. Irish emigrants carried their music and dances with them to the New World, where over time it was changed by their new lifestyles and enriched by contact with other cultures. Twentieth-century technology also sent Irish music in unexpected directions. It melded rock, country, pop, electric folk, blues and the avant-garde, giving birth to artists from the Clancy Brothers and Bob Dylan, Planxty and Clannad, to the Pogues, Van Morrison, John Cage, U2 and Sinead O'Connor. Modern music and Irish tradition were alchemised, through the use of instruments like the bodhran, the harp and the uilleann pipes, to form that unique sound that is unmistakably Irish.
Ireland: Collectors Coins Year 2000 by R.J. Marles
Paperback; 3.50 IEP / 4.25 USD / 2.75 UK; 48 pages, with b/w photos; Richards Reference [Add To Basket]This is the new edition of a compilation of averaged selling-prices drawn from dealers' lists, auctions, and numismatic magazines regarding Irish coinage.
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