Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 186
Nice Fellow: A Biography of Jack Lynch by T. Ryle Dwyer
Hardback; 20.00 IEP / 24.00 USD / 17.50 UK / 25.40 EURO; Mercier, 416 pages [Add To Basket]
Jack Lynch was born in August 1917 at St. Anne's Shandon, Cork, at his family home, within yards of the famous Shandon Bells. Known as Jack from his youth, he was a superb sportsman. He was first elected to the Dail in 1948 and became parliamentary secretary to the government in 1951. As Minister for Education in the late 1950s, he was responsible for abolishing the ban on married women teachers. In succeeding Sean Lemass as Taoiseach in 1966, he thwarted the ambitions of George Colley, Charles Haughey, and Neil Blaney. This book portrayal of Lynch as Taoiseach concentrates on his phenomenal electoral popularity; his leadership in keeping the Republic out of the Northern conflict, his vital role in bringing Ireland into the EEC, and his victory in the 1977 election, employing the tactics that opponents had used to defeat him in 1973. Controversies surrounding the Arms Trial, difficult relations with successive British governments and Lynch's early retirement - which resulted in Charles Haughey becoming Taoiseach - are examined in detail. Since his death in 1999, popular opinion has been divided about whether he was one of the country's greatest leaders or a weak leader who was manipulated by others, but there is no disputing the fact that he played a central part in the shaping of modern Ireland.
Haughey's Millions: Charlie's Money Trail by Colm Keena
Paperback; 8.99 IEP / 10.50 USD / 7.50 UK / 11.50 EURO; Gill & Macmillan, 312 pages [Add To Basket]
In 1979, when Charles Haughey was voted leader of Fianna Fail and Taoiseach, he gave a press conference. At it, he was asked where his money came from. He said the question presumed he was rich, which wasn't the case; ask my bank manager, he replied. We now know that it was a better joke than it seemed. At the time, he was in debt to the Allied Irish Bank to the tune of 1.1 million Irish pounds.
Haughey dominated Irish political life from the 1960s to the 1990s. He had always lived beyond his visible means. From 1969 on, he lived like a prince in Kinsealy, at times on nothing more than a backbench TD's salary. The author of this book traces the origins of Haughey's lifestyle back to the 1950s and to his early life as a partner in Haughey Boland & Co. He follows his early involvement with Des Traynor and his developing relationships with property developers and other business figures.
Through all the ups and downs of Haughey's amazing career, the financial background was always a mess. He was constantly in debt. The bank leaned on him. He leaned on his friends. Less than two weeks after becoming Taoiseach, the property developer Patrick Gallagher agreed to a 300,000 Irish pounds deal to help settle Haughey's bank debts. While he was Taoiseach, the money rolled in. Haughey was in effect a kept man. This book tells the whole tangled story, from beginning to end.
Cracking Crime by Niamh O'Connor and Jim Donovan
Paperback; 8.70 IEP / 10.00 USD / 7.50 UK / 11.00 EURO; O'Brien Press, 302 pages [Add To Basket]
This book provides a unique, fascinating and compelling insight into Ireland's most notorious crimes and criminals. Cases covered include: The dreadful murder of Mary Duffy; the assassination of Lord Mountbatten; the Lisdoonvarna arsonist who left behind a glove a flesh; James Lynagh - ritual killer; the fatal sex games of Adrian Bambrick; and Garda murders - Noel and Marie Murray. It also looks at international crimes such as the Lindbergh kidnapping, the killing spree of 'Dr. Death', Harold Shipman, and how DNA finally solved the mystery of the missing Nazi, Martin Bormann. It also includes a first-hand account of the duel between forensics and Ireland's most notorious criminal, Martin Cahill, which Cahill tried to resolve by placing a bomb under Dr. Donovan's car - causing him horrendous injuries.
They Never Came Home: The Stardust Story by Neil Fetherstonhaugh and Tony McCullagh
Paperback; 8.99 IEP / 10.50 USD / 7.50 UK / 11.50 EURO; Merlin, 243 pages [Add To Basket]
The fire that engulfed Dublin's Stardust nightclub in the early hours of St. Valentine's Day, 1981, killed 48 young people and injured and disfigured many more. Countless others continued to suffer the emotional scars of loss and grief for the remainder of their lives. The official inquiry into the disaster found that the Stardust's owners had acted with 'reckless disregard' for the safety of its patrons, but no charges were ever brought against them. In fact, they went on to win substantial damages for the loss of the nightclub complex. Victims of the fire always claimed that the inquiry did not go far enough. Why, despite numerous inspections of the Stardust by Dublin Corporation, were the owners able to get away with repeated breaches of fire regulations and building bye-laws? What caused the flames to spread across the vast nightclub so rapidly? Why were so many patrons prevented from escaping by locked or chained fire exits? Why were steel plates fixed over all of the toilet windows? At the twenty-first anniversary of the Stardust tragedy, the authors of this book investigate disturbing new evidence that casts doubt on the original finding of 'probable' arson.
How It Was: A Memoir of Samuel Beckett by Anne Atik
Hardback; 30.00 IEP / 34.50 USD / 25.50 UK / 37.20 EURO; Faber, 128 pages [Add To Basket]Anne Atik, the poet, and her husband, the distinguished painter Avigdor Arikha, were part of Samuel Beckett's circle in Paris from the 1950s until Beckett's death in 1989. Atik began jotting down conversations with Beckett in 1970, and these document his interests and passions - for chess, sport, music, and above all his deep knowledge of literature in several languages. Atik's recollections deal in minute particulars - details of their dinners at home or nights out in Montparnasse, the classical recordings to which Beckett preferred to listen, the passages he would quote and re-quote from the poets, the paintings he admired, the touchstones by which he measured himself and others. The book is a revealing portrait of a man whose reticence and privacy were paradoxically among his most famous traits and shows a side of Beckett that is hardly known. The memoir is complemented by facsimiles of unpublished Beckett letters, family photographs and some of Avigdor Arikha's well-know portrait drawings of the Irish writer.
The Irish Story: Telling Tales and Making It Up In Ireland by R.F. Foster
Hardback; 20.00 IEP / 26.50 USD / 17.50 UK / 25.40 EURO; Allen Lane, 282 pages [Add To Basket]Roy Foster's books on Ireland have always generated vigorous discussion, and in this book he breaks fresh ground even by his own standards. Here he argues that, over the centuries, Irish history itself has been turned into 'a story'. He examines how and why the key moments in Ireland's past - the 1798 Rising, the Famine, the Literary Revival, Easter 1916, the shifts and dislocations of the 1960s - have been worked into narratives, drawing on Ireland's powerful oral culture, on elements of myth, folklore, ghost stories and romance. The result of this constant reinterpretation is a 'Story of Ireland', complete, as any story is, with plot, drama, suspense, revelations. And, of course, its own fascinating cast of storytellers - from Sullivan and Standish O'Grady to Butler and Lyons, from Yeats and Bowen to Frank McCourt and Gerry Adams. Endlessly varied, surprising and funny, the book examines the use of biography and memoir as national history, and explores through linked essays the stories that people tell each other in Ireland and why they tell them. Foster also shows the danger of myth-making: the idea of history-as-entertainment. His book is a rallying cry for anyone anxious that Ireland is becoming an historical theme park.
FishStoneWater: Holy Wells of Ireland by Anna Rackard and Liam O'Callaghan
Hardback; 20.00 IEP / 26.50 USD / 17.50 UK / 25.40 EURO; Atrium, 144 pages, full colour photos throughout [Add To Basket]
Holy wells are places of popular religious devotion where people come to pray and leave simple offerings. There are hundreds of holy wells all over Ireland, many of them still in use. They vary greatly in appearance, some are very simple, decorated only with rounded river pebbles, others are highly ornate and adorned with holy statues, medals, pictures, rosary beads, flowers and candles. The water at many of the wells is believed to have healing powers, and a few are said to have power over the weather. This book captures the unique spirit of these sites through stunning photography and illuminating text, exploring the individuality of each well, their many forms and settings and the assorted personal offerings that decorate them. The authors visited the wells on special days of devotion to record the activities of local people. They travelled the length and breadth of the island to locate wells and to learn about the different attributes of each. The result is a glimpse into a beautiful and strange landscape of faith, imbued with intimate expressions of hope.
Reflections on a Summer Sea by Trevor Norton
Hardback; 18.20 IEP / 21.50 USD / 15.50 UK / 32.20 EURO; Century, 307pages [Add To Basket]
This book is a wonderful evocation of a magical place caught in time - a funny and touching true story of talented ecologists who, as a hobby, spent forty summers at their privately owned field laboratory in a stunning corner of south-west Ireland. The sea laps on every page, for events take place beside and beneath a stunning marine lake in this beautiful country, where myths seep from the ground like will o' the wisps and eccentrics are always in season. Some of the stars of the book are the marine creatures that occupy the lake: sea urchins that won't dine unless they wear a hat, otters that steel experiments, and worms that will only mate by order of the moon. Only that of the ecologists themselves matches their extraordinary behaviour. Their antics, and their interactions with their Irish neighbours, are described with warmth and wit. But for all its humour, this is also a moving account of two ecologists who collaborated for forty years until their friendship came to a tragic end. Mixed together are all the rich flavours of Ireland, the wonders of natural history and the magic of being a marine biologist just for the fun of it.
Into the Heart: The Stories Behind Every U2 Song by Niall Stokes
Hardback; 16.99 IEP / 20.50 USD / 15.50 UK / 51.40 EURO; Carlton, 184 pages, black-and-white and full colour photos throughout [Add To Basket]
This latest edition of the critically-acclaimed book is brought fully up to date, including all the songs on 'All That You Can't Leave Behind', as well as U2's contribution to the 'Million Dollar Hotel' soundtrack album. This is the only book to explore the background and inspiration behind every U2 song. It includes original and revealing interviews with the band members. It also explores U2's rich cultural and social context. The author is a leading music journalist, and in this book he traces U2's meteoric rise from the early days to their continuing status, as one of the world's most influential rock bands.
My Eyes Only Look Out: Experiences of Irish People of Mixed Race Parentage by Margaret McCarthy
Paperback; 9.99 IEP / 11.50 USD / 8.50 UK / 12.40 EURO; Brandon, 236 pages [Add To Basket]
From Premiership footballer Curtis Fleming, to Lorna, who longed to live in America, this unique book introduces the reader to a wide variety of people of mixed-race parentage. Some, like Curtis Fleming, are well known for high-profile achievements; most are private citizens in everyday occupations; all have their own experiences of growing up in a mostly white society. These are their stories.
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