Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 273
No Ordinary Women: Irish Female Activists in the Revolutionary Years 1900-1923 by Sinead McCoole
Large Paperback; 20.00 Euro / 25.00 USD / 15.00 UK; 288 pages
This book tells the story of the Irish revolutionary period 1900-1923, from the perspective of female activists. The focus of the book is on the period when vast numbers of Irish women were politicised and sent to jail for their beliefs, with a special emphasis on their imprisonment in the aftermath of the 1916 Rising, and during the War of Independence and the Civil War. The seventy-three biographies included provided information on what the lives of these courageous women were like before and after they took part in the pivotal historical events that helped shape the Ireland of today.
The author, an historian and curator, uncovered in her research that the women who were politically active in this period were not confined to a particular social grouping, but represented a cross-section of Irish life. They were shop assistants, doctors, housewives, laundry workers, artists, teachers and even mere schoolchildren. They were married women, mothers, single and widowed women. A number were titled women. Some had not even been born in Ireland, and not all were Catholic: there were Protestants, Quakers, Jews and atheists. The vast majority became involved because of familial links to the nationalist movement, and their commitment to the cause and sacrifices they made were in no way inferior to the male members of their households. They were willing to give their lives for their ideal, and while imprisoned, endured the full rigours of hunger strike and separation from family and friends for their beliefs. This book reasserts their rightful place in Irish history.
The Joyce We Knew: Memoirs of James Joyce edited by Ulick O'Connor
Paperback; 12.50 Euro / 15.00 USD / 8.00 UK; 126 pages [Add To Basket]
These fascinating reminiscences by some of James Joyce's friends and contemporaries give an insight in James Joyce the man and bring to light many less well-known characteristics. Readers may be surprised to find out how much of an extrovert Joyce was. He is the practical joker in the school drama society and in the gymnasium. He is the star when they play charades at genteel Dublin musical evenings, and later he will entertain the company with songs, serious and comic. He had ambitions to be a first-class swimmer. He is the perfect Edwardian 'cad'. How different from the withdrawn Stephen Dedalus.
No Global: The People of Ireland vs. the Multinationals by Robert Allen
Trade Paperback; 24.00 Euro / 29.00 USD / 16.00 UK; 280 pages
Ireland's economy has seen phenomenal growth since the 1990s, as a result of an earlier decision by the state to chase foreign investment, largely from US corporates. As a consequence, manufacturers of raw chemical, pharmaceuticals and highly dangerous substances came to Ireland, where they could make toxic products free from the strict control imposed by other nations. This book reveals the consequences to human health and the environment of the Irish state's love affair with the multinational chemical industry. The cost to Irish society was a series of ecological and social outrages, staring in the 1970s and continuing into the 2000s. This book is a lesson for countries that seek to encourage multinationals at the expense of the health of their population and the delicate nature of their ecosystems. It is also a heart-warming record of the successful campaigns fought by local people to protect themselves and their environment from polluting industry.
A Place Near Heaven: A Year in West Cork by Damien Enright
Trade Paperback with Endflaps; 20.00 Euro / 24.00 USD / 15.00 UK; 240 pages [Add To Basket]
This book is the story of a calendar year in West Cork, told in month-to-month observations of the natural world. Beautifully written, it is a book in the finest tradition of writing on rural life and nature, inspiring and suffused with a sense of place. In tracing the course of a year, the author captures the special atmosphere of the world in which he has chosen to live and which he loves with such obvious passion.
Who Fears to Speak of '98? By Peter Collins
Paperback; 12.00 Euro / 15.00 USD / 8.00 UK; 196 pages
The Rebellion of 1798 was one of the most crucial events in modern Irish history, and the bicentenary commemorations throughout Ireland in 1998 provided much new understanding of an issue that has, down the years, been as divisive as it has been formative. In this book the author provides an absorbing and sensitively handled account of the changing nature of how the rebellion has been commemorated over the last 200 years. A particularly helpful feature of this book is the detailed almanac it provides of the commemorative bicentary events held throughout the island of Ireland in 1998. They were notable not only for the quality of their output but also, encouragingly, for their inclusivity.
Home Rule: An Irish History 1800-2000 by Alvin Jackson
Paperback; 12.00 Euro / 15.00 USD / 8.00 UK; 468 pages [Add To Basket]
Decimated by famine and emigration and divided by British rule, the people of Ireland sought unity in Home Rule. Home Rule bound together the varieties of Irish nationalism. It has united British and Irish politicians in the quest for an agreed settlement in Ireland: it has linked Ulster Unionists and Irish Nationalists. The story of Home Rule is central to the political experience of both modern Ireland and Britain.
In this book, the author examines the development of Home Rule and devolution in Ireland from the nineteenth century to the present. It traces some of the main themes in Irish peace-making from their late Victorian roots to the beginnings of the millennium: it explores the origins of the Good Friday Agreement, and many of the interconnections between Irish political history and contemporary affairs. The book offers an incisive reappraisal of different political leaders through the period. Drawing on new archival material, the book illuminates a crucial aspect of Irish and British history over a two-hundred-year span. (Book of the Month - NonFiction - June 2003)
Irish War of Independence by Michael Hopkinson
Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 19.00 USD / 9.50 UK; 270 pages [Add To Basket]
Within months of its first publication in hardback in 2002, this study of the Irish War of Independence established itself as by far the best account we have of this seminal event in the making of modern Ireland.
Green Against Green by Michael Hopkinson
Paperback; 20.00 Euro / 25.00 USD / 15.00 UK; 332 pages [Add To Basket]
This book has long been established as the definitive study of the Irish civil war. Widely praised and frequently cited as the most authoritative work on the subject, it continues to hold its place as one of the finest works in modern Irish history.
The Armed Peace: Life and Death After the Ceasefires by Brian Rowan
Paperback; 16.00 Euro / 20.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 270 pages [Add To Basket]
In this book the author looks at life and death after the recent ceasefires and the ongoing peace process. He examines the transition from war to peace, the struggle between guns and government and the intelligence battle during with the IRA is said to have ventured behind enemy lines. Long after 1994, a seminal point in the Irish peace process when both the IRA and the Combined Loyalist Military Command announced ceasefires, the spooks, spies and the IRA's director of intelligence were still at play. The author writes on his contacts with the IRA's 'P. O'Neill' and uses his republican, loyalist and security sources to tell the inside story of the ceasefires and Northern Ireland's long journey from war towards peace.
Ireland Photographic Memories by Helen Livingtson
Trade paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 124 pages, with black-and-white photos throughout [Add To Basket]
This book derives from the Francis Frith archive and contain numerous wonderful photos.
Dublin Photographic Memories by Helen Livingston
Trade paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 124 pages, with black-and-white photos throughout [Add To Basket]
This book derives from the Francis Frith archive and contain numerous wonderful photos.
Belfast Photographic Memories by Helen Livingston
Trade paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 124 pages, with black-and-white photos throughout [Add To Basket]
This book derives from the Francis Frith archive and contain numerous wonderful photos.
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