Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 204
Songs of Irish Rebellion: Irish Political Street Ballads and Rebel Songs, 1780-1900 by Georges Denis Zimmermann
Paperback; 25.00 Euro / 21.00 USD / 18.50 UK; Four Courts Press, 343 pages [Add To Basket]
Ireland has long been noted for a proliferation of songs revealing the predicament of simple people caught in difficult historical situations, giving vent to nationalist - or loyalist - feelings, or inciting to rebellion. This book is based on the study of thousands of Irish broadside ballads and of hundreds of songbooks printed between the last decades of the eighteenth century and approximately 1900. It examines the themes, the symbols, the recurrent text forms and the music of songs that are representative of different periods, from Jacobite survivals and through the age of the United Irishmen, the Napoleonic era, the Tithe War and the time of O'Connell, the Young Ireland movement and 1848, the Famine, the Fenian episode, the age of Parnell and of the Land War, to the partly new nationalism that was developing at the end of the century. Songs of the Orange Order are included in this survey. Efforts have been made to characterize the different kinds of creators of those ballads, their modes of distribution, the performers techniques and the reactions of audiences. One hundred song texts are given in full, often with variants and tunes. There is also an extensive bibliography. Originally published in the late 1960s, this book has been long recognized as a standard work in the field. This edition includes a new preface that places the work into perspective, takes note of subsequent publications, and suggests further lines of research on an important historical, cultural phenomenon that affected many ordinary Irish people and influenced Irish writers in different ways.
A Paper Landscape: The Ordnance Survey in Nineteenth-Century Ireland by J.H. Andrews
Paperback; 25.00 Euro / 21.00 USD / 18.50 UK; Four Courts Press, 350 pages [Add To Basket]
The earliest six-inch Ordnance Survey mapping of Ireland was undertaken in 1824 to determine townland boundaries and acreages as a means of equalising local taxation. Thanks to the zeal and vision of a small group of military officers, and the devoted labours of many soldiers and civilians, the survey soon evolved into an all-purpose cartographic record, making the Ireland the first country in the world to enjoy the benefit of published maps depicting its entire territory at a scale large enough to show every house and every field. This book describes the making of the economic background of the time; it also examines various subsidiary cartographic developments including the production of large-scale town plans and a national mosaic of one-inch topographical sheets together with the abortive scheme for a government-supported geographical memoir intended to act as a commentary on the Survey's maps. A final chapter describes the re-survey of Ireland at a larger scale of 1:2500 to facilitate the ambitious land reforms initiated in the 1880s and goes on to epitomise the later history of Ordnance Survey mapping in both the north and south of Ireland up to and beyond the Second World War. In a new preface to this second edition of the book, the author summarises more recent research and writing on the history of the Irish Ordnance Survey.
A History of Irish Thought by Thomas Duddy
Paperback; 23.40 Euro / 20.50 USD / 18.50 UK; Routledge, 362 pages [Add To Basket]
This book is the first complete introduction to Irish thought. It presents a wide-ranging and inclusive survey of the varieties of Irish thought and the history of Irish ideas against the backdrop of political and social change. The author offers a clearly written, engaging and stimulating exploration of the philosophers, polemicists, ideologists, satirists, scientists, poets and political and social reformers who have come out of Ireland. Beginning with the thought of an anonymous seventh-century monk, the Irish Augustine, the reader encounters among others John Scottus Eriugena, Robert Boyle, George Berkeley, Jonathan Swift, Francis Hutcheson and Edmund Burke on the way through to the twentieth century that includes W.B. Yeats and Iris Murdoch. This book rediscovers the liveliest and most contested issues in the Irish past, and brings the history of Irish thought up to date. It will be of great value to anyone interested in the Irish culture and its intellectual history.
Myths of the World by Padraic Colum
Paperback; 21.60 Euro / 18.50 USD / 16.50 UK; 350 pages, Floris Books [Add To Basket]
This book is a treasure-house of stories from ancient myth and legend told by one of Ireland's greatest storytellers. This book was originally published in 1930 under the title 'Orpheus: Myths of the World'. In this classical collection of tales from the ancient world are found all the legendary heroic and tragic figures of the time: Iris, Osiris, Gilgamesh, Hercules, and Pandora, to name just a few. These stories, once scared, even now have a deep human significance, and are written in a language that recalls the rhythm and melody of traditional storytelling.
Irish Food and Folklore by Clare Connery
Large Paperback; 5.99 Euro / 5.20 USD / 4.75 UK; Chancellor Press, 143 pages, with colour photos throughout [Add To Basket]
This book is a guide to the cooking, myths and history of Ireland. With over 100 authentic recipes, detailed descriptions of heritage and myths, and a glossary, the book is an invaluable and inspirational guide.
Towelsail Yawls: The Lobsterboats of Heir Island and Roaringwater Bay By Cormac Levis
Hardback; 20.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 16.00 UK; Galley Head Press, 148 pages, with b/w photos [Add To Basket]
From the 1870s to the 1950s, the sailing lobsterboats of Heir Island and Roaringwater Bay dominated the lobster fishery of the south coast. Leading a semi-nomadic lifestyle, the lobsterman fished a stretch of coastline of over a hundred nautical miles in their small open boats. In this book the author tells, for the first time, the remarkable story of these boats and the men who fished them, providing a fascinating insight into a unique way of life that had been in danger of passing unrecorded into oblivion. The author also puts forward evidence of the existence of a pre-Famine lobsterfleet, and details the modernisation and eventual demise of the lobsterboats in the 1950s and 1960s.
Irish Potato Recipes: More Than 100 Favourite Dishes by Gill & Macmillan
paperback; 12.99 Euro / 11.00 USD / 9.50 UK; Gill & Macmillan, 96 pages [Add To Basket]
This book contains more than 100 recipes using different types and varieties of potato. Beautifully photographed dishes and clearly described methods and techniques provide a wealth of ideas for both preparation and presentation. It includes recipes for soups and starters; salads; snacks; fish, meat and poultry main dishes; cakes and breads; vegetarian favourites; and the ever-popular filled jacket potato.
The Best of Irish Cooking by Alex Barker
Paperback; 10.99 Euro / 9.50 USD / 8.50 UK; Gill & Macmillan; 80 pages [Add To Basket]
This book contains over 100 easy-to-prepare recipes from Ireland, illustrated with mouth-watering, full-colour photographs.
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