Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 187
Singing Stone Whispering Wind: Voices of Connemara by Raymonde Standun and Bill Long
Hardback; 25.00 IEP / 20.00 USD / 30.00 UK / 31.80 EURO; New Island, 224 pages [Add To Basket]
When Raymonde Standun set about photographing the local people of the South Connemara Gaeltacht, she quickly sensed that here were stories to be told that lay far beyond the reach of her camera. This unique place, these unique people, were for her a nucleus of Irish culture: its language, music and dance. Yet these people, like their ways, were old, and many were passing away. Collected here are fifty-one interviews she conducted, stories at once singular and closely intertwined with shared themes. Martin Flaherty on the Black and Tans; Julia Greaney on Fair Day at Spiddal; Cait Nic an Iomaire on making her own wedding dress; Festy Conlon on his father's first fife. Set against Standun's stunning images are stories of poitin for two bob, the baker's island-delivery boat and the trials of line-fishing, alongside darker tales, still vibrant in the collective memory, of landlord brutality, famine and emigration. Edited by Bill Long, who also introduces the volume, here are the extraordinary voices of the ordinary people of Connemara.
Stepping Stones: The Arts in Ulster 1971-2001 edited by Mark Carruthers and Stephen Douds
Hardback; 25.00 IEP / 20.00 USD / 30.00 UK / 31.80 EURO; Blackstaff, 286pages, with black-and-white and colour photos [Add To Basket]
The Troubles of the past three decades saw Northern Ireland catapulted into the headlines across the world, yet during the dark years of violence there was an impressive, but much less reported, flourishing of creative energy. Now, at a time of unprecedented social change and regeneration, a distinguished panel of writers has been invited to comment on the artistic accomplishment of this extraordinary period. This book records the highs and lows of the past thirty years of northern theatre, poetry, fiction, visual arts and music. It celebrates the best in achievement, but equally points out what was less successful and suggests how the various arts disciplines might develop in the years immediately ahead.
Memorable Quotations: Irish Writers of the Past compiled and edited by Carol A. Dingle
Paperback; 12.95 IEP / 15.00 USD / 11.50 UK / 16.50 EURO; iUniverse; 118 pages [Add To Basket]
This compilation of notable quotations is a treasure of perceptive wisdom, beautiful thoughts, and sharp wit gleaned from the words of Ireland's finest writers, including: William Allingham, Samuel Beckett, Brendan Behan, Elizabeth Bowen, Edmund Burke, Maria Edgeworth, Oliver St. John Gogarty, Lady Gregory, James Joyce, Patrick Kavanagh, C.S. Lewis, Robert Lover, George Moore, Thomas Moore, Arthur Murphy, Sean O'Casey, Sean O'Faolain, George Bernard Shaw, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, James Stephens, Laurence Sterne, Jonathan Swift, J.M. Synge, Oscar Wilde and W. B. Yeats.
There is a Time by Johnny Duhan
Hardback; 15.99 IEP / 18.50 USD / 14.50 UK / 20.40 EURO; Brandon, 243 pages [Add To Basket]
This book is the vivid inside story of one man's journey into song. It begins in Limerick with his mother's breakdown, an event that ended his childhood. A close uncle takes him to the carnival and shows him that the law of gravity can be turned on its head. Then his uncle is jailed for drunken disorder and petty theft, and the world grows heavy again. Adolescent tension is channelled into pop music and angry games with friends at Dino's Café. At fourteen he sets out for Dublin and a Rolling Stones concert, and winds up in a doss house, but he is set on a wavering path to the bright lights. A band is formed, a friend lost, a steady job thrown back in his father's teeth. On the road like a 1960s Don Quixote - 'my lance a guitar, my horsepower a transit van' - he goes in search of fame and the girl. Still in his teens, he becomes one of the original Irish pop stars, fronting a band of innocents called Granny's Intentions. But his journey turns out to be a bug-infested, drug-ingested odyssey leading to betrayal and a cul-de-sac. Later her reincarnates himself as a songsmith. Best known for his works recorded by Christy Moore, Mary Black, Dolores Keane, Mary Coughlan and the Irish Tenors, this book maps out the songwriter's journey in life. By turns sadly moving, richly humorous, and deeply reflective, this book is an outstanding story of an exceptional songwriter.
Irish Classical Recordings: A Discography of Irish Art Music by Axel Klein
Hardback; 90.00 IEP / 110.00 USD / 80.00 UK / 115.00 EURO; Greenwood, 288 pages [Add To Basket]
Though the term 'Irish Music' typically evokes images of fiddles and flutes, Ireland and its culture have also given rise to a wealth of classical music, including compositions ranging from string quartets to operas. In this important new work, the author provides much more than a mere discography: he documents and promotes a largely unknown aspect of Irish culture in a unique combination of discographical and biographical information. Featuring ninety-three recorded Irish composers and forty-three international composers influenced by Irish music, the book offers the means for scholars and general readers alike to familiarize themselves with a subject to which most of the world, until now, has not been exposed. The book also provides full discographies of the better-known emigrated Irish composers such as John Field and Charles V. Stanford as well as of Anglo-Irish composers E.J. Moeran, Elizabeth Maconchy and Howard Ferguson. As most of the music described is currently available on compact disc, Klein's compilation serves as an invaluable resource guide for both academic and amateur enthusiasts.
Endgame in Ireland by Eamonn Mallie and David McKittrick
Paperback; 16.90 IEP / 20.00 USD / 13.50 UK / 21.45 EURO; Hodder; 314 pages, with colour photo insert [Add To Basket]
Eamonn Mallie and David McKittrick are two of the most respected writers on Irish affairs. They have been granted unique access to the research undertaken for the television series, 'Endgame in Ireland'. This book, as in the television series, tells more vividly than ever before the inside story of the Irish peace process from 1981 through the words of the key people involved - many of whom have never talked 'on the record'. Those interviewed include both British and Irish Prime ministers and their senior aides, including former cabinet secretaries. They also include former leaders of both the IRA and the loyalist terrorist groups. Many hours of exhaustive interviews have produced more than a million words from key figures such as Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, John Major, Nobel Peace Prizewinners John Hume and David Trimble, Martin McGuinness, Gerry Adams, and Johnny Adair. The award-winning authors bring to bear their years of experience of reporting on the conflict to relate this extraordinary account of secret meetings and clandestine negotiations, as all the parties struggled to overcome centuries of distrust. This book is not only a new portrayal of people and events, but it also makes an important contribution to our understanding of Irish history.
1916: The Easter Rising by Tim Pat Coogan
Hardback; 25.60 IEP / 30.50 USD / 20.00 UK / 32.50 EURO; Cassell; 192 pages, black-and-white photos throughout [Add To Basket]
In this book, the author has written an outstanding account of the Rising by introducing the major players, themes and outcomes of a drama that would profoundly affect twentieth-century Irish history. Well-chosen historic photographs and maps and documents of Dublin enhance the day-to-day events of the Rising detailed in this remarkable story during the bloody six days. The result is not only an important history of a turning point in Ireland's struggle for freedom and independence, but also a testament to the men and women of courage and conviction who were prepared to give their lives for what they believed was right.
The Course of Irish History by T.W. Moody and F.X. Martin
Paperback; 16.50 IEP / 20.00 USD / 14.50 UK / 21.00 EURO; Mercier, 462 pages, with black-and-white photos throughout [Add To Basket]
First published in 1967, this book has been regularly updated and revised in response to the continued demand for a balanced view of Ireland that is both popular and authoritative. It is widely regarded as the best single-volume overview of Irish history. A classic general history of Ireland, the book covers the economic, social and political development of the island of Ireland from prehistoric times to the present day. It provides a comprehensive overview of the major events; personalities and movements in Ireland's past that have shaped the country, which exists today. In this edition, a new chapter covers the momentous changes that occurred in Ireland between 1995 and 2001. The Good Friday Agreement and devolution changed the face of Northern Ireland, bringing a measure of peace and stability to a troubled land; economic prosperity and an increasingly liberalised society transformed the rest of the island. The book is illustrated throughout and includes a detailed bibliography and chronology to aid further reading and research. It is an essential book for anyone interested in the history of Ireland.
Making My Mark: An Artist's Early Life by James MacIntyre
Hardback; 25.00 IEP / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK / 31.80 EURO; Blackstaff Press, 160 pages, with colour and black-and-white illustrations throughout [Add To Basket]
There wasn't much in the way of art education for Shankhill Road youngsters when James MacIntyre was growing up in Belfast. Times were hard, and the emphasis for boys was on getting into a trade, not messing about with pencils and crayons. But James was born with a great talent, a talent that, by sheer instinct and stubbornness, he developed into a profession. He had his first show when he was only eighteen and soon was a respected member of the group of artists, which included Gerard Dillon, Dan O'Neill and Arthur Armstrong. This book is MacIntyre's own story of those early days - his own portrait of the artist as a boy and young man. It presents a vivid picture of Belfast in the 1930s and 1940s, and an unforgettable account of his struggle for artistic fulfillment against the odds.
Once in a Green Summer by Thomas F. Walsh
Paperback; 7.99 IEP / 9.50 USD / 6.50 UK / 10.20 EURO; Mercier Press, 254 pages [Add To Basket]
Once in a green summer in the west of Ireland there was a large family that grew up in a small house surrounded by fields. There was fresh water in the well, food to be harvested from the earth and not a plastic bag to be seen. There was love of the land and fear of the Lord, and there was a priest in the family. There was a father who cared for the straightness of his drills and the shape of his corn stacks, whose sons all left and who saw the old world crumble around him. There was a mother who left a well-to-do family to raise ten children in a small cottage and who gave them love beyond measure. It was a world where ghosts were real, where stories were as old as time, where imagination was more powerful than fact. It was a world we once lived in, now vanished forever. The author has put together a delightful collection of memories of that vanished world, seen through the eyes of a child who grew up in the shelter and certainty of its unchanging ways.
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