Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 264
Snow Water by Michael Longley
Paperback with flaps; 13.00 Euro / 16.50 USD / 9.00 UK; 70 pages
Michael Longley is one of Ireland's preeminent poets. The poems collected here find their gravity and centre in his adopted home in west Mayo, but range widely in their attention - from ancient Greece to Paris and Pisa, from Central Park to the trenches of the Somme. In these meditations on nature and mortality, there is a depth and delicacy, a state of lucid wonder, that allow for the easy companionship of love poem and elegy, hymns to marriage and friendship and lyric exploration of loss.
The Legend of Spud Murphy by Eoin Colfer
Hardback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 9.00 UK; 90 pages [Add To Basket]
From the author of the Artemis Fowl series comes this new children's novel featuring Will and his brother Marty who are doomed to spend their holidays in the library. Doesn't their mum know that the library is not fun? Worse, it is the home of the legendary librarian, Mrs. Murphy. If you put a foot wrong, she will use here dreaded gas-powered 'Spud Gun' - and you don't want that. Just ask Ugly Frank how he got his nickname! But in Will and Marty, has 'Spud' Murphy met her match
A Hymn of the Dawn by Padraic Fallon
Hardback; 20.00 Euro / 24.00 USD / 14.00 UK; 368 pages
This book tells of the life of the Irish poet Padraic Fallon (1905-1974), his wife Don and their six sons during an idyllic summer in the southeast of Ireland in the 1950s. At Prospect, a Georgian house with a small farm, the poet writes his poems, newspaper columns, radio plays, ' a cigarette smoldering in the ashtray at his elbow, pounding the keys of his typewriter as his eyes stare beyond the words.' His sons, when not working on house or farm, exploit the solitude and the open space: fishing, soldiering, sailing, poaching, and finally embarking on an expedition in an old herring cot to discover the secrets of the inland waterways.
The poet has written his own adventures. He collects ballads and sea shanties for his radio programme, meeting sailors and fisherman, jaunting along the coast in his old car. He takes to the open harbour in a tiny punt. His sons go with him on a fishing boat to visit a lighthouse.
Brilliantly fusing fiction and fact, this book is an exquisitively realized evocation of childhood in Ireland in the 1950s.
The Celts: Origins, Myths, Inventions by John Collis
Trade Paperback; 30.00 Euro / 36.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 256 pages, with maps and black-and-white photos throughout [Add To Basket]
We use the word 'Celtic' fast and loose - it evokes something mythical and romantic about our past - but what exactly does it mean? Furthermore, why do people believe that there were Celts in Britain and what relationship do they have to the ancient Celts? This fascinating book focuses on the legacy of mistaken interpretations still affects the way we understand the ancient sources and archaeological evidence.
Forgotten Protest: Ireland and the Anglo-Boer War by Donal McCracken
Trade Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 206 pages
This book is the extraordinary saga of how events in South Africa helped revitalize politics in Ireland in the heady days of Parnell and especially during the great Anglo-Boer war. During the Boer War (1899-1902), 'Pro Boer-fever' swept nationalist Ireland: riots in central Dublin created a no-go area for British troops; posters applauding Generals De Wet and Botha were plastered on walls and lamp-posts and the flags of the Transvaal Republic flew defiantly in many Irish villages. The great intellectuals of the day - Yeats, O'Casey, Moore, Lady Gregory - as well as socialist James Connolly and socialite Maud Gonne espoused the Boer cause, as did Arthur Griffith, recently returned from working in the Transvaal gold mines; all, however, were oblivious to the plight of the black population of South Africa.
On the battlefield, the Dublin Fusiliers found themselves pitted against two hard-fighting Irish commandos. And behind the scenes the Boers poured thousands of pounds into Irish republican coffers, stirring up the most violent and most influential of the European pro-Boer movements. Dwarfed by 1916 and the War of Independence, the Irish support for another colonially beleaguered people was to become a forgotten protest, remembered only in folk ballads and in fireside stories. Its thrilling tale is resurrected here to mark the centenary of this extraordinary struggle.
Docwra's Derry: A Narrative of Events in North-west Ulster, 1600-1604 by William Kelly
Trade Paperback; 12.00 Euro / 15.50 USD / 8.00 UK; 158 pages [Add To Basket]
It is widely accepted that no understanding of modern Irish history is complete without an awareness of the significance of events in the seventeenth century. This is true in particular of the Ulster Plantation. Sir Henry Docwra's military expedition, which arrived in Lough Foyle in May 1600, at the height of the Nine Years War, was instrumental in paving the way for James I's Plantation of Ulster that began only a few years later. The decisive intervention of Docwra's small army brought to an end a conflict whose outcome was crucial in shaping the path of Irish history after 1600. It led also to Docwra bequeathing to us one of the most illuminating journals in what was to become, even by Irish standards, a war-torn country. His 'Narration of the Services done by the Army Ymployed to Lough Foyle vnder the leadings of mee' is not only a fascinating description of Docwra's campaign in the north-west, it can also be claimed to be the best eyewitness account of a military campaign of the period. Docwra's 'Narration' was first edited and transcribed by the great Irish scholar John O'Donovan in 1849. This edition not only includes O'Donovan's comprehensive notes, including translations and descriptions of all the Irish place-names mentioned by Docwra, it also includes insights from more recent scholarship on the Nine Years War. It also includes an introduction, new maps, glossaries of terms, a bibliography, chronology and full index.
Shipwrecks of Ireland by Edward Burke
Trade Paperback; 20.00 Euro / 24.00 USD / 14.00 UK; 128 pages, black-and-white photographs throughout [Add To Basket]
The Irish coast has seen shipwrecks from Celtic times through to the present day. The Romans may have had a small bridgehead at Loughshinny and continental wars were fought offshore. The 1588 Spanish Armada came by and left its tribute of twenty-six ships on the remote west coast. Before 1800 ports like Dublin, Stangford, Waterford, Wexford and Kinsale were very significant. After the Industrial Revolution Liverpool, Glasgow and Cardiff came into prominence. Hazards around Ireland range from the rocky cliffs of the west coast coupled with a transatlantic landfall in fog or snow to the treacherous sandbanks of the east coast. The photographs in this book come from a variety of sources and are representative of all modern stages of shipping from sail, to steam and motor vessels.
Directory of Irish Archives 4th edition edited by Seamus Helferty and Raymond Refausse
Trade Paperback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 19.00 UK; 217 pages [Add To Basket]
This new updated edition has entries for over 250 repositories and organizations - educational, religious, cultural and governmental - which hold records of historical significance. Full addresses, phone and fax numbers, website and email addresses are also included.
Truth, Power and Lies: Irish Society and the Case of the Kerry Babies by Tom Inglis
Trade paperback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 19.00 UK; 288 pages [Add To Basket]
Two dead babies were found in County Kerry with the space of two weeks in 1984. What followed is an extraordinary story that rocked Catholic Ireland. The Kerry babies case remains unresolved, with many unanswered questions. The author, in this detailed analysis of the case, shows how necessary it is to retell the story, because justice may not have been done. But he goes further, explaining how important the case is to understanding Ireland's transition in the second half of the twentieth-century from a traditional, rural, conservative and Catholic society to the modern, urban, liberal and secular one that is emerging today. In particular, the case represents a watershed for the position of women in Irish society; many were motivated to protest for the first time. This thought-provoking and lively book will be invaluable reading for anyone interested in the development of modern Irish society.
The Spire and other Essays in Modern Irish Culture by Bruce Arnold
Trade paperback; 20.00 Euro / 24.00 USD / 14.00 UK; 252 pages [Add To Basket]
Bruce Arnold has become one of the leading journalists and critics in Ireland over the last forty years. In that time, he has witnessed, written about and, at times, participated in, most of the major developments in Irish politics, society and culture. This book collects the best of his recent essays and articles on Irish culture. The book is divided into three sections, with the first section covering broad cultural issues along with essays on leading Irish personalities and some personal reflections on living in and writing about Ireland. The second section focuses on literature, and the third section covers art. Taken together, this collection of writings provides a fascinating look at Ireland's rich cultural heritage.
Changing Landscapes of Dublin by Pat Liddy
Hardback; 40.00 Euro / 47.00 USD / 30.00 UK; 140 pages, full colour throughout [Add To Basket]
This book, based on the author/artist's exhibition held in Dublin's magnificently restored City Hall in September 2003, charts the various eras of Dublin's evolution. A series of pictomaps, paintings and drawings lead the reader through the centuries in transition, through times of expansion and booms as well as periods of stagnation and depression. This beautifully produced books is signed by Pat Liddy, is limited to 2000 copies, and is certain to become a collectors' item!
Gregory Carr, Bookseller
Read Ireland
392 Clontarf Road
Dublin 3
Ireland
Tel + Fax: +353-1-853-2063
Customer Services Comments, Criticism and Questions
Subscribe to Read Ireland Book News - Our Free Weekly Email Newsletter