Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 214
Wars of the Irish Kings by David Willis McCullough
Large Trade Paperback; 27.00 Euro / 32.00 USD / 22.00 UK; Three Rivers Press; 348 pages, with 2 8-page full-color inserts [Add To Basket]
For the first thousand years of its history, Ireland was shaped by its wars. Beginning with the legends of ancient battles and warriors, this book moves through a time when history and storytelling were equally prized, into the age when history was as much propaganda as fact. The book tells of tribal battles, foreign invasions, Viking raids, family feuds, wars between rival Irish kingdoms, and wars of rebellion against the English. While the battles formed the legends of the land, it was the people fighting the battles - Cuchulain, Finn MacCool, Brian Boru, Robert the Bruce, Elizabeth I, and Hugh O'Donnell - who shaped the destiny and identity of the Irish nation. This is the real story of how Ireland came to be, told through eyewitness accounts from a thousand years of struggle, brought together for the first time in one volume. It is also a surprisingly immediate and stunning portrait of an all-but-forgotten time that forged the Ireland of today.
Hopkins in Ireland by Norman White
Large Trade Paperback; 22.00 Euro / 25.00 USD / 19.00 UK; UCD Press; 220 pages [Add To Basket]
Gerard Manley Hopkins spent five unhappy years in Ireland before his death in 1889, during which time he wrote perhaps the most interesting group of all his poems. Although he is one of the most well known and liked poets, he is still one of the least understood. This is the first full-length study of Hopkins's time in Ireland, when he was Professor of Classics at University College Dublin, and it is both a biography and a critical account of his poetry. The author uses his unrivalled knowledge of Hopkins's work to examine the poet's personality and shows him as a sick and self-lacerating human being. This is not a conventional biography and it does not aim to be an account of Hopkins's doings in Ireland: the important things that happened to Hopkins in Ireland were mental, and so the book is an exploration of the poems written in Ireland largely as a form of psychological biography, working outwards from Hopkins's most intimate creations. This book greatly adds to our understanding of the personality and work of Hopkins.
Dancing with the Angel by Terri Prone
Paperback; 12.50 Euro / 13.50 USD / 10.50 UK; Flame, 420 pages [Add To Basket]
Flannery should have been called Daugher Of. Her father was the most famous, most popular poet of his time. He may have been a professor, but he also managed to reach millions of 'ordinary' readers with his poetry. He was popular on television and a Nobel Prize winner in the talent-spotting department. And he raised a daughter who adored him. When Flannery's father is found dead in suspicious circumstances, it turns her world on its end. Not lease because she suspects one of the talents he had spotted and fostered - a young electronics genius - had a hand in his death. Spun free of the moorings of her life by the tragedy, she launches a non-career as a temp, living a fast (and funny) life just this side of slapper-dom, never stops trying to unravel the mystery of her father's death - and falls in love with the living definition of the wrong man.
London Irish by Zane Radcliffe
Paperback; 11.50 Euro / 13.00 USD / 10.00 UK; Black Swan; 350 pages [Add To Basket]
There are 750,000 Irish living in London. One of them has to get out. For good. Summer 1999. Only 157 shopping days until the new millennium and for Bic (half-Irish, half-Scots and half-cut), who ekes out a living selling crepes to the hordes descending on Greenwich market, the year 2000 can't come quick enough. One severed ear, two bizarre deaths and the arrest of his dog for civil disobedience - so far Bic's annus has been pretty horribiles. A glorious comic thriller bursting with outrageous shenanigans, shot-to-pieces with black humour while retaining a heart of gold, the book introduces a singular and entertaining new Irish literary voice.
Missing by Mary Stanley
Trade Paperback; 17.00 Euro / 20.00 USD / 14.50 UK; Review, 314 pages [Add To Basket]
John and Elizabeth Dunville believe they have the ideal family. Their three daughters - beautiful, vivacious Baby, clever, industrious Becky, and lively, if mischievous Brona - attend Dublin's most prestigious convent school, and all have bright futures. But denial and deception go hand in hand, and one night, one of the girls slips out into the December fog, and doesn't come home … Perceptive and humorous, yet often poignant, this is a compelling novel and engrossing read.
Perfectly Impossible by Joan O'Neill
Trade Paperback; 16.50 Euro / 19.50 USD / 14.00 UK; Hodder, 376 pages [Add To Basket]
Cara Thompson's marriage has never been perfect. When husband Andy loses his job, things quickly become a whole lot worse. In order to give him some space to find himself, Cara throws herself heart and soul into her own career. Yet life is plainly far from ideal and although friends Vanessa and Suzanne try to be supportive, both have man problems of their own. Then Guy McIntosh strolls into Cara's life … he could be the best thing that has ever happened to her, or he would be the one complication too many. Will Cara give Andy another chance in the hope that his soul-searching has turned up something useful? Or should she grab the opportunity of happiness with a handsome stranger?
An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean: Antarctic Survivor by Michael Smith
Large Trade Paperback; 27.00 Euro / 32.00 USD / 22.00 UK; Headline; 340 pages [Add To Basket]
Tom Crean ran away from home as a youth and become one of the most indestructible heroes in Antarctic exploration. He played a central role in the dramatic events on three out of four British expeditions in the Heroic Age of Polar exploration. He served Scott and Shackleton - both bitter rivals - and outlived them both.
This book reveals how he volunteered for Polar exploration, was one of the last to see Scott alive before his ill-fated expedition reached the South Pole, and how he returned to bury him in the snow a month later. Tom Crean played a leading role in Shackleton's legendary 'Endurance' expedition, sailing the small open James Caird across the violent Southern Ocean, and in the historic crossing of South George's glaciers.
Tom Crean is the unsung and inspirational hero of Antarctic exploration. His astonishing life of adventure, heroism and survival against all the odds is told for the first time in this remarkable book. It is an extraordinary and unforgettable story.
The book is illustrated with photographs.
Hurling's Top 20 by Colm Keane
Trade Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 16.50 USD / 13.50 UK; Mainstream; 207 pages, with 8 page photo insert [Add To Basket]
This book contains profiles of 20 of the greatest hurling legends to grace the game: from Christy Ring, Mick Mackey, Jack Lynch and Tony Reddin to more recent heroes such as Nicky English, Joe Cooney, Brian Whelahan and DJ Carey. Tipperary's John Doyle and Jimmy Doyle, Kilkenny's Eddie Keher and Noel Skehan, along with Cork's Ray Cummins and Jimmy Barry-Murphy recall their glory years. Offaly's Joe Dooley, together with Wexford's Billy Rackard and Tony Doran, describe how their counties beat the odds, turning the tables on the traditional hurling powers, while Waterford's glory years in the 1940s and 50s are recalled through career profiles of John Keane and Tom Cheasty. Jimmy Smyth describes Clare's fallow years. This book chronicles over half a century of hurling history, as seen through the eyes of those who have played at the highest level of the game.
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