Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 238
Shackleton: The Polar Journeys by Ernest Shackleton
Hardback; 35.00 Euro / 42.50 USD / 26.50 UK; 660 pages, with photos and maps [Add To Basket]
This book combines Heart of the Antarctic and South, Ernest Shackleton's personal accounts of his polar expeditions.
Heart of the Antarctic is the story of his polar expedition of 1907-1909, part of his never-ending quest to reach the South Pole. On this, his first expedition in sole charge, he came agonisingly close to achieving his dream. Appalling weather conditions, however, together with the necessity of reaching his shop before it had to flee the advancing pack-ice, forced him to abandon his goal in a breathtaking race against time. With photographs taken on the expedition by Douglas Mawson, and numerous maps and diagrams, this is a fascinating record of all time. The is the only complete edition available.
South is Shackleton's account of a journey that began in August 1914 with high hopes of a first exploration and ended two years later in a desperate struggle for survival, after the expedition's ship, the Endurance, was first trapped in sea-ice, then crushed. Shackleton, with a handful of his party, braved the fury of the South Atlantic as they made their desperate 800-mile journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia aboard the James Caird. This small boat - just over 20 feet long - was pitted against the fury of the southern ocean. The survival of the entire expedition was hinged on this last gamble.
Sir Ernest Shackleton was one of the greatest and most colourful explorers of his time. Born in County Kildare in 1874, he was educated in London and apprenticed in the Merchant Navy before becoming a junior officer under Captain Robert Scott, on Discovery, between 1901 and 1904. From this point on, his life was devoted to polar exploration, and raising funds for his projects. He died in South Georgia in 1922 while on his fourth Antarctic expedition
An Irish Navvy: The Diary of an Exile by Donall MacAmlaigh
Trade Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 16.50 USD / 10.50 UK; 182 pages [Add To Basket]
Backbreaking, blister-making work, followed by pints of the black stuff in the Admiral Rodney, the Shamrock, the Cattle Market Tavern and many others, well-told stories, fine songs, characters like Connemara lads, Cockney Woods, Pigfoot Paddy and occasional punch-ups. These are the people and events that make this book an extraordinarily vivid picture of an Irish navvy's life in the England of the 1950s. Workless and foodless days, the hardships of work camps, lonesome partings after trips home, periods of intense isolation and occasional bitterness were also part of the picture. This book is an honest account of how the average Irish labourer worked, lived in and contributed to the country of the ancient enemy. Originally published in Irish as 'Dialann Deorai' too wide acclaim, this translation was first published in 1964 and has been unavailable in English for many years.
The Hard Road to Klondike by Michael MacGowan
Trade Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 16.50 USD / 10.50 UK; 150 pages [Add To Basket]
Michael MacGowan was born in 1865 in the parish of Cloghaneely in the Donegal gaeltacht. He was the eldest of twelve children in a poverty-stricken family owning one cow, living in a three-roomed thatched cottage and speaking no English. He ended his days in a large slate-roofed house in the same place. First published in Irish as 'Rotha Mor an tSaoi', this is his account of the fate dealt to him by 'the Wheel of Life'. From the age of nine he was hired out for six consecutive years from May to September at a hiring fee of 30 shillings. After emigration to Scotland and the drudgery of farmwork, he left for America and worked his way across the USA in steelmills and mines to Montana. He then took part in the Klondike gold-rush and vividly recounts the adventures of himself and his 'sourdough' companions, their privations and hardships in the primitive harsh icy wastes of the Yukon. Home on holiday in 1901, he fell in love and stayed, using the money from the gold to buy some land and the house. Told with the certainty and authority of someone who has 'lived' what he described, this book reflects the author's indomitable spirit and loyalty to his native place and culture. This translation was originally published in 1962 and has been long out of print.
My Life on the Road by Nan Joyce
Paperback; 10.00 Euro / 12.50 USD / 7.00 UK; 120 pages [Add To Basket]
Irish travellers have been on the road for hundreds of years, earning a living as tinsmiths, musicians, carpenters, and horse and scrap dealers. In this moving story of her life, Nan Joyce tells of idyllic days camped in the countryside, of fireside storytelling, happy days at school in England, horse fairs and marriage customs. But Nan's family, like so many other travellers, were often treated as outcasts without rights. She remembers evictions from traditional campsites in the middle of winter and having to beg to survive. After her father died her mother was imprisoned for a year for stealing scrap to provide for the family. Nan and her brothers and sisters were left to fend for themselves. This vivid memoir is laced with humour, charity and love of life. In an afterword, the author tells of her life since this classic autobiography was first published in 1985.
The Stolen Child: A Memoir by Joe Dunne
Paperback; 12.95 Euro / 15.00 USD / 8.00 UK; 220 pages [Add To Basket]
The happiness of Joe Dunne's early life was blights when neighbours complained to the local Sisters of Charity that his young, widowed mother was misbehaving - allowing herself to be courted, and throwing parties in their North Strand home. The response of the Church and state was swift. In 1928, at the age of five, Joe was ordered to be detained in the care of the state until his sixteenth birthday. Separated from his mother and sister, he grew up in industrial schools in Kilkenny and Dublin - a fact that he kept secret from his colleagues in the Post Office for almost fifty years. In this book, he tells his story with honesty, humour, and courage, describing how he suffered the trauma of a lonely, institutionalised upbringing, learning to make the most of the few pleasures that came his way. This book is a moving, brave account of a childhood endured with grace and faith.
Constance Markievicz: The People's Countess edited by Joe McGowan
Paperback; 13.50 Euro / 16.50 USD / 9.50 UK; 130 pages with photos [Add To Basket]
This book traces Constance Markievicz's journey from a pampered childhood in a Sligo landlord's mansion to her participation in Ireland's literary and political Renaissance. The little-known story of her daughter Maeve and her son-in-law Stanislaw, is also recorded. Paintings by Constance, produced while in solitary confinement in Holloway Jail, are reproduced in this book for the first time ever. Her meeting and marriage to the aristocratic Count Dunin Markievicz at art school in Paris is detailed here. It describes how on their return to Dublin she threw her lot in with the poor, running soup kitchens during the workers strikes and Dublin lockout of 1913. Her political awakening led to her championing women's rights and her eventual command of a company of the Irish Citizen Army during the Easter Rebellion. Sentenced to death and incarcerated in a British prison, she became, not just the first woman ever elected to the British Parliament, but as Minister for Labour, the first woman Cabinet Minister in Europe. Her heroic endurance during several prison terms and her correspondence with her sister Eva, is also documented in this fascinating book.
Blake & Bourke and the End of Empires by Kevin O'Connor
Trade Paperback; 21.50 Euro / 27.50 USD / 13.00 UK; 370 pages [Add To Basket]
This book is the first full account of the 'before and after' lives of the conspirators to the Great Spy Escape - a psychological tracing of the politics that formed them, from anti-war protests in England in the 1960s to KGB conspiracies in Moscow. Add the connections to the great events in the boyhoods of George Behar, bombed out of Rotterdam by the Nazis in 1940 and Sean Bourke, banished to Borstal in 1947, from Limerick. How these apparently separate events were to impinge on government in London, Dublin and Moscow is told by the author with the flair of a dramatist and the eye of an historian.
Irish Peacock & Scarlet Marquess: The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde by Merlin Holland
Hardback; 30.00 Euro / 35.00 USD / 22.00 UK; 340 pages [Add To Basket]
One of the most famous love affairs in literary history is that of Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas. When it became public, it cost Wilde everything. Merlin Holland has discovered the original courtroom transcript of this trial that led to his grandfather's tragedy. Here for the first time is the true record, without the distortions of previous accounts.
On 18 February 1895, Bosie's father, the Marquess of Queensbury, delivered a note to the Albemarle Club addressed to 'Oscar Wilde posing as somdomite (sic)'. With Bosie's encouragement, Wilde decided to sue the Marguess for libel. As soon as the trial opened, London's literary darling was at the centre of the greatest scandal of his time. Wilde's fall from grace was swift: his case lost, prosecution by the Crown soon followed, ending in the imprisonment that destroyed his health - even as his art, as Wilde put it - improved through 'suffering'.
In this remarkable book, the reader witnesses Wilde's confidence ebbing under the relentless questioning and see him lose track of the witty lines for which he was famous. Ultimately, it was his wit that betrayed him.
Robert Emmet: A Life by Patrick M. Geoghegan
Hardback; 33.00 Euro / 40.00 USD / 27.00 UK; 350 pages [Add To Basket]
Robert Emmet (1778-1803) was one of the most romantic of all Irish revolutionaries. Born in Dublin, Emmet was the youngest son of the state physician. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he was a leading member of the College Historical Society until his expulsion for radical activity in 1798. Prevented from pursuing a profession, he visited the continent where he discussed plans for liberating Ireland with Napoleon and Tallyrand. He returned to Ireland in 1802 and soon became involved in a conspiracy for a new rebellion.
This book reveals for the first time the complex and ingenious plans that Emmet devised for the rebellion. His youthful idealism and military talent proved insufficient, however, and his attempt to seize Dublin on 23 July, 1803 was a dramatic failure. Captured soon after, he won an unlikely victory with his extraordinary speech from the dock that is considered to be one of the greatest courtroom orations in history. He died bravely on the scaffold the next day.
This book draws on new archival material from Ireland, the United Kingdom, France and the United States and is the first modern study of Robert Emmet in almost fifty years.
Read Ireland Bookstore
392 Clontarf Road
Clontarf, Dublin 3
Ireland
Tel + Fax: +353-18-302-997
Customer Services Comments, Criticism and Questions
Subscribe to Read Ireland Book News - Our Free Weekly Email Newsletter