Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 287
Ireland and the British Empire edited by Kevin Kenny
Hardback; 70.00 Euro / 95.00 USD / 45.00 UK; 300 pages
Modern Irish history was determined by the rise, expansion and decline of the British Empire. British imperial history was moulded in part by Irish experience. But the nature of Ireland’s position in the British Empire has always been a matter of contentious dispute. This book offers the first comprehensive history of the subject from the early modern era through the contemporary period. The contributors seek to specify the nature of Ireland’s entanglement with empire over time. They also consider the people in the British Empire overseas, as soldiers, administrators, merchants, migrants, and missionaries; the influence of the Irish social, administrative and constitutional precedents in other colonies; and the impact of Irish nationalism and independence on the British Empire at large. The result is a new interpretation of Irish history in its wider imperial context which is also filled with insights on the origins, expansion, and decline of the British Empire.
A History of the Black Death in Ireland by Maira Kelly
Paperback; 20.00 Euro / 25.00 USD / 13.00 UK; 225 pages [Add To Basket]
Between 1347 and 1350 the Black Death swept across Europe, penetrating to the very edge of the continent. Ireland fell victim in the summer of 1348 when the plague broke out in Dublin and Drogheda. It spread quickly and virulently. By land and sea, it reached towards Waterford, Youghal, Cork and Limerick, wiping out whole communities in its path. In this book the author goes in search of this ‘Great Pestilence’, whose consequences are often obscured by the intricate and tumultuous history of the time, and traces how the Irish reacted to this invisible killer.
Choosing the Green?: Second Generation Irish and the Cause of Ireland by Brian Dooley
Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 9.00 UK; 184 pages
In this book the author traces the history of prominent and unsung second/third generation Irish individuals in the founding of the modern Irish state, including the story of the Kimmage garrison. The GPO was full of Scottish and English accents on Easter Monday 1916. Dooley takes the reader through the War of Independence and the Civil War. He discusses the extraordinary career of John Stephenson – Sean MacStiofain – who joined the IRA before even setting foot in Ireland and who became the first Chief of Staff of the Provisional IRA in 1970. The impact of the IRA actions in Britain on victims, on the justice system and on second and third generation activists is considered in detail. The author’s assessment of how the armed conflict helped shape modern second/third generation Irish identity in Britain includes the role of Irish people in the British Army – ‘misfit soldiers’. Finally, the author shows the importance of second generation Irish in the peace process. This is a remarkable book and vital for anyone seeking an understanding of the Ireland of today.
Taxation in Ireland: An Economist’s Perspective by John Bristow
Paperback; 20.00 Euro / 24.00 USD / 15.00 UK; 136 pages [Add To Basket]
Taxation has been the object of lively public interest in Ireland for some years but, since the work of the Commission on Taxation in the early 1980s, there has been very little written on the structure of the Irish tax system. This book fills the gap. It looks at the Irish taxation system from the perspective of an economist but assumes no knowledge of economics. Technical terms, used only where necessary, are explained and an early chapter sets out the criteria that economists use in evaluating tax systems. These criteria provide the basis for the book’s analysis of all major Irish taxes. The author concludes that these taxes are, in general, complex and riddled with discriminatory provisions, which often are inequitable, hinder the efficient working of the economy and add to the costs of administering the system. The book ends by speculating as to future pressures from the EU on the design of Irish taxes.
Housing, Poverty and Wealth in Ireland by Tony Fahy et. al.
Paperback; 8.00 Euro / 10.00 USD / 5.50 UK; 92 pages
Recent years have seen dramatic developments in the Irish housing market. These developments had complex implications for inequalities in incomes, living standards, the risk of poverty and the distribution of wealth in Ireland. This book examines the distributional consequences of the changing housing market in Ireland and the long-term trends within which they might be located and understood by taking account of the results of the dominance of home ownership in Irish housing patterns and in governmental policy concerns. The book considers housing from the macro and comparative perspectives, focusing on housing tenure and on issues of housing poverty and wealth. The results indicate serious causes for concern for policymakers, particularly for private rental sector tenants, who demonstrate the highest risk of poverty by tenure.
Place and Non-Place: The Reconfiguration of Ireland edited by Michael Peillon and Mary P. Corcoran
Paperback; 28.00 Euro / 33.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 228 pages [Add To Basket]
In this book, sociologists contemplate developments in Irish society by scrutinizing an event or issue relevant to 2001 and 2002. The book takes the reader on a journey to locations such as Bull Island, Rathdowney, Ratoath, West Cork and Dublin’s O’Connell Street. It revisits such events as the state funeral for the ‘Mountjoy Ten’, the May Day protests by ‘Reclaim the Streets’ and the tour of St. Therese’s relics. It examines such issues as masculinity, consumer spending, immigration, public transport and violent assaults. The book invites the reader to consider Ireland using the twin co-ordinates of place and non-place. A place is often linked to a particular feature that gives it a recognizable I identity and value, for example a natural beauty spot. Other sites remain non-places unless something happens to them to ‘put them on the map’ as places that people know and travel to. Similarly places can become non-places, for example streets that have been given over to traffic or that are deemed dangerous no-go areas. These ongoing configurations throughout Ireland have been captured in this book.
Life Sentence: Murder Victims and Their Families by Catherine Cleary
Paperback; 12.00 Euro / 15.00 USD / 8.50 UK; 240 pages [Add To Basket]
A teenage boy is snatched as he walks up the road, minutes from his own home, and beaten to death with a hammer; on a quiet country road a wife and mother is attacked, raped and murdered; two psychiatric patients are stabbed to death in their sheltered accommodation; a young girl is killed in her own bedroom by a neighbour she hardly knows … death in any circumstance is devastating, but when the cause is murder, grief takes on an extra dimension. Those left behind live under a life sentence, condemned to years of painful memories. Based on personal interviews with victims’ families, this book tells the horrific stories of these murders and how the families have faced the future.
Studies: Matters of Life and Death edited by Fergus O’Donoghue
Paperback; 7.50 Euro / 10.00 USD / 5.00 UK; 130 pages [Add To Basket]
An Irish Quarterly Review: Autumn 2004, Volume 93, Number 371. Includes articles on Cloning and Embryology; Stem Cells and Personhood; Medical Research and Consent; Palliative Care; Disability; State Neglect of Children; Hunger Strikes; Paisleyism; Book Reviews.
The Mob: The History of Irish Gangsters in America by James Durney
Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 298 pages [Add To Basket]
The Irish criminal gangs of America first surfaced in New York in the 1830s and from then until the present day they have been a major force in organized crime. Irish gangsters dominated organized crime long before the Mafia had appeared in the New World. The slums of America’s big cities produced some of the most vicious hoodlums who have left their mark on that country’s criminal history. Legs Diamond, Mad Dog Coll, Bugs Moran and Cockeye Dunn were all the products of the American dream turned sour. This book is their story, beginning with the birth of organized crime through the turbulent Civil War, Prohibition and the founding of the present day Syndicate. It is a fascinating and rich account with dozens of characters and stories. This informal history traces the rise of the street gangs to the present day; from the New York City Draft Riots of 1863 to the ultraviolent Westies of the 1980s. The Irish gangster brought America its first taste of organized crime and heralded the beginning of the country’s ‘second government’.
To Hell of Barbados by Sean O’Callaghan
Paperback; 16.00 Euro / 19.00 USD / 11.50 UK; 240 pages [Add To Basket]
Between 1652 and 1659 over 50,000 Irish men, women and children were transported to Barbados and Virginia. Yet until now there has been no account of what became of them. This author’s search began in the library of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society and its files on Irish slaves. The author for the first time documents the history of these people; their transportation, the conditions in which they lived on plantations as slaves or servants, and their rebellions in Barbados.
Tragedies of Kerry by Dorothy Macardle
Paperback; 5.00 Euro / 6.00 USD / 3.50 UK; 74 pages [Add To Basket]
This book is the classic true story, tense and restrained, of how men and women, boys and girls, fought for freedom and honour of Ireland; and of how, despite almost incredible torture and brutality, they refused to admit defeat.
Gregory Carr, Bookseller
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