Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 286
‘Tis Herself: A Memoir by Maureen O’Hara
Hardback; 25.00 Euro / 20.00 USD / 18.00 UK; 322 pages
Famous for her remarkable beauty and her fiery screen personality, Irish-born Maureen O’Hara left Dublin as a teenager and became one of the greatest and most enduring stars of Hollywood’s ‘Golden Era’. Written with warmth, charm and intelligence that defined her performances in some sixty films, this autobiography is her story as only she could tell it, a tale of a strong-willed Irishwoman who truly held her own in the world.
Rebel City: Larkin, Connolly and the Dublin Labour Movement by John Newsinger
Trade Paperback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 18.00 UK; 182 pages [Add To Basket]
The Dublin Lockout of 1913-14 is the most important industrial conflict in Irish history. For six months, 20,000 workers were locked out by 400 employers and subjected to attack by police, politicians, priests and the press. The Lockout inspired one of the most important solidarity movements in working-class history which led to a battle over the way forward for trade unions. This book examines the great labour revolt in Ireland and its repercussions in Britain and the rest of the world. It focuses on the rise of the Irish Transport Union, on the nature of Larkinism and on relations between James Larkin and the Marxist revolutionary, Jim Connolly. The author considers the reasons for the workers’ defeat in the Lockout, relations between the union and the Volunteers, its anti-war stance in 1914, the Citizen Army’s alliance with the republicans and the politics of the Easter Rising. The book examines the part played by the Irish labour movement in the War of Independence.
With Michael Collins in the Fight for Irish Independence by Batt O’Connor
Paperback; 13.50 Euro / 17.00 USD / 9.50 UK; 142 pages
Batt O’Connor of Brosna, Co. Kerry was one of Michael Collins’ inner circle in the War of Independence. His recollections of the war read more like an adventure story than history. All the more surprising, therefore, that his memoir has been out of print since 1929. Batt O’Connor felt pressed to take the pro-Treaty side in 1922. The introduction by Brendan Clifford takes issue with the view that the divisions among the Volunteers over whether to accept Lloyd George’s Treaty ultimatum really constituted a ‘civil war’ in the true sense of the word. Both sides were pledged to the Republic – the division was merely over whether to make a partial submission to the Crown under the British Prime Minister’s threat of ‘terrible and immediate war’, as it was put to Kevin O’Higgins. This is a fascinating memoir which will be of value to anyone interested in Ireland’s War of Independence and Michael Collins.
Sean Moylan in His Own Words: His Memoir of the Irish War of Independence by Sean Moylan
Paperback; 20.00 Euro / 24.00 USD / 15.00 UK; 248 pages [Add To Basket]
Sean Moylan was the Republican military commander in North Cork during the most intense phase of the War of Independence. Thirty years later he wrote an account of his part in that war and it was placed in the Bureau of Military History along with the accounts of many others. His account is here published for the first time. Sean Moylan was perhaps the public figure who was most representative of the men who ensured that the British state could not peacefully cast aside the electoral mandate on the 1918 election in Ireland, and who compelled it to concede to force at least part of which it denied to the ballot-box. An extraordinarily readable book, it brings alive very clearly the whole War of Independence and beyond, giving the history, reasons, motivations, social conditions for the war.
Glasenvin Cemetery, Dublin, 1832-1900 by Carmel Connell
Paperback; 11 Euro / 13.00 USD / 7.00 UK; 72 pages
Founded in 1832, Prospect Cemetery, Glasnevin rapidly became the largest cemetery in Ireland and a place of national importance. This book demonstrates how the Dublin Cemeteries’ Committee conducted its affairs and managed the various aspects of the operation of the cemetery. In examining the interaction of the committee with its employees, it focuses on the lives of the ordinary people connected with the cemetery and provides a fascinating insight into a particular type of 19th century working environment. The establishment of Prospect Cemetery coincided with burial reform and the rise of the ‘garden cemetery’ movement in Europe. The author examines the cemetery in that context and assesses how it compared with its contemporaries in terms of internment practices, design and layout. This book opens a window onto a broad vista of Victorian beliefs and attitudes, encompassing moral values, class consciousness, work practices, approaches to organization and management, and design theories and movements.
Enclosing the Common: Dalkey, The Sugar Loaves and Bray, 1820-1870 by Liam Clare
Paperback; 11 Euro / 13.00 USD / 7.00 UK; 64 pages [Add To Basket]
Enclosing a commonage means more than land clearances and personal traumas; it is a complex processing spanning a millennium. This book examines the origin and concept of commonage and its subsequent enclosure by grasping landlords, desperate squatters and land speculators. Vignettes of events in County Dublin illustrate the process within different contexts as do longer case studies of Dalkey Commons with its squatters and land speculators, the Little Sugar Loaf with individual small encroachments, and Bray where Commissioners organized a rejuvenated environment.
Climbing Brandon: Science and Faith on Ireland’s Holy Mountain by Chet Raymo
Hardback; 20.00 Euro / 24.00 USD / 15.00 UK; 190 pages [Add To Basket]
Mount Brandon is one of several holy mountains in Ireland that have long attracted both belivers and secular visitors. The author has climbed it perhaps 100 times, exploring paths that have been used for centuries by pilgrims in search of spiritual enlightenment. But the history and geography of Mount Brandon are what draw the author to it and offer him a lens through which to view modern conflicts between science and religion.
I Was Bono’s Doppelganger by Neil McCormick
Trade Paperback; 20.00 Euro / 24.00 USD / 13.00 UK; 330 pages [Add To Basket]
Everyone wants to be famous. But as a young punk in Dublin in the 1970s, the author’s ambitions went way beyond mere pop stardom. It was his destiny to be a veritable Rock God. He had it all worked out: the albums, the concerts, the quest for world peace. There was only one thing he hadn’t counted on. The boy sitting on the other side of the classroom had plans of his own. As Bono and his band U2 ascended to global superstardom, his school friend Neil scorched a burning path in quite the opposite direction. Bad drugs, weird sex, bizarre haircuts: Neil experienced it all in his quest for fame. But sometimes it is life’s losers who have the most interesting tales to tell. Featuring guest appearances by The Pope, Bob Dylan and a host of other stars, this book offer an extremely funny, startling candid and strangely moving account of a life lived in the shadows of superstardom.
Karaoke No More: The Real Story of Westlife by Padraig Meehan
Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 17.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 284 pages [Add To Basket]
This is the story of six friends from a small country town in the west of Ireland who set out on an adventure with a group of people who shared their dreams. To the huge public that loves or loathes Westlife, they seemed to arrive overnight, shooting from obscurity to a platform where they were challenging the Beatles’ record of number one hits in Britain. This is their story, a story of the rollercoaster ride to fame and fortune in the pop music world.
Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Art: Geometric Aspects by Derek Hull
Trade Paperback; 40.00 Euro / 48.00 USD / 25.00 UK; 250 pages, with colour and black-and-white illustrations throughout [Add To Basket]
Much of early medieval Celtic and Anglo-Saxon art is based on the display of motifs – keys, interlacing, spiral and zoomorphic – in well-defined panels in simple and complex arrays. A study of the arrangements of the panels and the fine details of the motifs indicates that the artists relied on geometric methods and principles first used by Egyptians and Greeks. Some of the works are incredibly intricate and challenge us to unravel the way they were created. This book reflects the author’s life-long interest in interpreting the exciting and exotic patterns revealed by scientific studies using light and electron microscopes. His interest in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon art started with a casual observation of an interlacing pattern on an early medieval stone cross set in a churchyard. There followed many years of exploration of art in metal, stone and vellum from all parts of Ireland and the British Isles. This book reveals new and intriguing facets of these works that add to our appreciation of the beauty of the art and the skills of the artists.
The Big Book of Irish Songs
Large Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 20.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 192 pages [Add To Basket]
This book contains the words and music for piano, guitar and voice for 75 great Irish folksongs.
The Fateful Split: Catholics and the Royal Ulster Constabulary by Chris Ryder
Paperback; 16.00 Euro / 19.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 360 pages, with an 8 page photo insert [Add To Basket]
Written by one of Northern Ireland’s foremost commentators, this book is a major study of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. It traces the fundamental flaws that have haunted this history of policing in a divided province. The book is the revealing, frequently disturbing story of a uniquely controversial institution. It charts the history of the RUC from its formation during the sectarian turbulence of the early 1920s, to its demise in 2002. Drawing on material archived at the Public Records Offices in London and Belfast and further research in Britain, Ireland and the United States, the author examines how the RUC was dogged by political antagonism and dispute throughout its seventy-nine year history and how it finally reached the point of no return at the crisis of Drumcree.
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