Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 290
Anything Can Happen: A Poem and Essay by Seamus Heaney
Paperback; 13.00 Euro / 16.00 USD / 9.50 UK; 50 pages, with endflaps
‘Anything can happen’ is the title of Seamus Heaney’s translation of an ode by Horace. Based on a Latin original written in Rome in the first century BC, Heaney’s version was composed in the aftermath of September 11 and lets the reader hear ‘the voice of an individual in shock at what can happen in the world.’ In an accompanying essay, the poet reflects on the staying power of art in the new geo-political contexts of the twenty-first century.
Irish Folk, Trad & Blues: A Secret History by Colin Harper and Trevor Hodgett
Hardback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 420 pages, with illustrations throughout [Add To Basket]
Irish Folk, Trad & Blues: A Secret History is a substantial work by two Belfast authors and music journalists of long experience and authority within their fields of interest. Aimed at filling a gap in the literature on both the early years and the more recent ‘ethnic fringes’ of Irish musical history since the beginning of the ‘rock era’ in the fifties, the book is designed to, hopefully, both entertain and intrigue the casually interested and delight the more serious music buff - with 420 pages, 180,000 words of text and over 130 rarely seen photographs of the famed and the forgotten.
Scrupulously avoiding the use of footnotes and other trappings of authorial solemnity, the book is nevertheless the result of many years of insanely dedicated, rigorous and often painstaking work. With much of the content adapted and expanded into a loosely chronological ‘patchwork narrative’ from pieces originally commissioned from the authors by a wide range of newspapers and magazines (spanning 1975-2004) it is at once an anthology of the modern music writer at work and a treasury or tales which reveal the frustrations and celebrate the triumphs of those whose trails were blazed at a time before the Irish music industry, in any meaningful sense, even existed.
Forgotten heroes and the first steps of latterday legends intertwine with illustrious visitors, like Arlo Guthrie, who took something of Ireland away with them. Homegrown pioneers from Ottilie Patterson in the fifties through Sweeney’s Men in the sixties and on to the likes of Horslips, Mellow Candle, Skid Row, Clannad, Rory Gallagher, Paddy Keenan, Shaun Davey and Martin Hayes are all given their place in the sun. And, rescued at last from the shadow of Van, the further and long-lingering adventures of Them are finally told. Somewhere in between, the shadowy yet seminal influences of near-mythical figures like Anne Briggs and Davy Graham, from England, are revealed alongside – 30 years apart – first hand descriptions of the first and last Irish visits (to Belfast) of Muddy Waters, the godfather of Chicago blues, and John Fahey, the singular creator of the fingerstyle guitar industry. Appreciations of Cara Dillon and Colin Reid, Northern folk heroes of the present day, and Trevor Hodgett's Python-esque attempts to gain access to a 'secret' Bob Dylan club show in Dublin bring things whimsically, and affectionately, up to date.
Something Beginning with P: New Poems from Irish Poets edited by Seamus Cashman and Illustrated by Corrina Askin and Alan Clarke
Hardback in Gift Slipcase; 30.00 Euro / 36.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 160 pages
This fabulous anthology, a carnival of poems, is filled with laughter, magic, excitement and energy from over 100 Irish poets, including Seamus Heaney, Rita Ann Higgins, Brendan Kennelly, Thomas Kinsella, Michael Longley, Medbh McGuckian, John Montague, Paul Muldoon, Julie O’Callagha, Cathal O Searcaigh, Moya Cannon, Dennis O’Driscoll, Mary O’Malley, Frank Ormsby, Michael Smith and Matthew Sweeney.
The New Irish Poets edited by Selina Guinness
Trade Paperback; 18.00 Euro / 23.00 USD / 11.00 UK; 336 pages [Add To Basket]
Selina Guinness's lively selection covers over 30 poets of all ages from all parts of Ireland who have established themselves over the last ten years. It offers rare insights into how the freshest writing talents have responded to a period of profound social, cultural and political change in the Republic and in Northern Ireland. Dynamic and confident in their diverse voices - whether conversational, caustic or solemn in tone - these poets open up the world to unexpected horizons, unsuspected pleasures and surprising conclusions. The book supplies a new measure for Ireland in the coming times. The New Irish Poets features all of the prominent new poets who have received major awards and international critical recognition as well as giving a platform to less well known writers published by small presses. Illustrated with photographs and helpful editorial commentaries, the book includes a parallel-text selection of poems by three new Irish language poets. Nearly half the poets are women, and there's a broad mix of young and old, ranging from Fergus Allen, now in his 80s - to the youngest, Leanne O'Sullivan. With its wide-ranging, up-to-the-minute selections, The New Irish Poets bears witness to the flourishing of contemporary Irish poetry over the past decade.
Sailing for Home: A Voyage from Antigua to Kinsale, Ireland by Theo Dorgan
Hardback; 24.00 Euro / 29.00 USD / 18.00 UK; 282 pages
What happens when four people three old sea hands and a novice (the author) cross the Atlantic aboard a 70-foot schooner? Theo Dorgan's logbook of the voyage of the Spirit of Oysterhaven from the Caribbean to the coast of Co. Cork is meditative, philosophical, and utterly absorbing. Dorgan captures the quotidian realities of a trans-Atlantic passage the importance of innumerable small rituals, the challenge of cooking in rough seas, the unspoken understandings that develop between crew members but he also attends to the numinous possibilities of life at sea: the rare vividness of dreams, visits from the ghosts of dead friends. By turns richly comic and deeply moving, Sailing for Home is the story of a mental and spiritual adventure as much as a physical one, a chronicle of an ordinary encounter between man and sea.
Barleycorn Blues by Lee Dunne
Paperback; 10.00 Euro / 12.00 USD / 7.50 UK; 358 pages [Add To Basket]
This novel explodes into life when Irish-writer Joe Collins, a successful writer ruled by alcoholism, collides with hopeless drunk photographer Telly Sampras outside an AA meeting in New York. The two men decide to join forces to beat their addiction, but their willpower is severely tested when the encounter two captivating women with weaknesses of their own. In no time Joe and Telly find themselves entangled with political corruption, hit men, and a ménage a trios and start breaking their own rules.
New Sinn Fein: Irish Republicanism in the 21st Century by Agnes Maillot
Trade Paperback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 210 pages [Add To Basket]
Sinn Fein is a unique political party, not only within Irish politics, but also within the wider European context. It boasts a long revolutionary tradition, an historical affiliation with an armed group, a social radicalism and a vision of society that has inspired other parties and movements throughout the world. As a consequence of Sinn Fein's connection with the IRA, the military side of the republican movement has tended to overshadow the political, both in terms of its internal operation and strategic choices and in terms of the attention that it has attracted from scholars, writers and journalists. However, since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Fein has experienced substantial growth, in terms of electoral results and party support, both in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland. This book assesses the importance and relevance of Sinn F?in within the changing configurations of Irish politics, studying it as a political party on both sides of the Irish border. It investigates whether Sinn Fein can sustain the progress made over the last decade, retain its identity as the voice of radical republicanism, and ultimately, whether its vision of a united Ireland can pr Containing interviews with key figures, such as Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, New Sinn Fein is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Irish politics, and the republican movement in particular.
Deceptions by June Considine
Trade Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 360 pages [Add To Basket]
What will a woman do when all she has left is her past? When a torrid love affair shakes the very foundations of Lorraine Cheevers’ world, she flees to Trabawn, a seaside idyll of innocent childhood summers. Meanwhile a teenage boy lies in a coma in his hospital bed. Michael Carmody is desperately searching for the people who put him there and justice for his son. His search leads him to Trabawn and to a powerful, unexpected attraction. As time stands still for the young Killian, it threatens to run out for a man and woman trying to put right their shattered pasts … unless the truth is exposed, once and for all. This book is a gripping and heart-wrenching novel about truth and illusion and the passionate shadows that lurk beneath the quietest of lives.
Pursuit by Brian Gallagher
Paperback; 9.00 Euro / 11.00 USD / 7.00 UK; 593 pages [Add To Basket]
When journalist Laura Kennedy hears of a deathbed confession her investigative instincts kick into action. Which is bad news for Daniel Trenet, former mercenary, and now a successful industrialist. But Trenet hasn’t built up a profitable business empire in international arms-dealing only to allow it to be threatened – and with it his luxurious lifestyle. When Steve Johnson – millionaire, former kidnap victim, and one of the new American owners of the Sunday Clarion – decides to accompany Laura on her mission, neither of them realizes the dangers they’ll face when Trenet unleashes the ruthless Ricardo Perez onto their trail. Another edge-of-the-seat thriller from Ireland’s leading thriller writer.
Irish Regiments in the Great War: Discipline and Moral by Timothy Bowman
Trade Paperback; 20.00 Euro / 25.00 USD / 13.00 UK; 237 pages [Add To Basket]
The British army was almost unique among the European armies of the Great War in that it did not suffer from a serious breakdown of discipline or collapse of morale. It did, however, inevitably suffer from disciplinary problems. While attention has hitherto focused on the 312 notorious 'shot at dawn' cases, many thousands of British soldiers were tried by court martial during the Great War.
This book provides the first comprehensive study of discipline and morale in the British army during the Great War by using a case-study of the Irish regiments. It considers the wartime experience of the Irish regular and Special Reserve battalions and the 10th (Irish), 16th (Irish) and 36th (Ulster) Divisions. The book demonstrates that breaches of discipline did occur in the Irish regiments during the period but in most cases these were of a minor nature. Controversially, Timothy Bowman suggests that where executions did take place, they were militarily necessary and served the purpose of restoring discipline in failing units. The author also shows that there was very little support for the emerging Sinn Fein movement within the Irish regiments.
Revolutions by Lory Manrique-Hyland
Paperback; 10.00 Euro / 12.50 USD / 7.00 UK; 208 pages [Add To Basket]
Marysol Castillo is a Cuban-American girl living in Miami. Haunted by the loss of the homeland, her parents and friends imagine their little two-bedroom homes to be Santa Clara cattle ranches, many-acre estates, and Marianao mansions. Marysol sees herself as ‘an American with no pedigree.’ But when she begins to ask her grandmother about the past, Marysol embarks on an emotional journey that will shatter her sense of who she really is. This book won the 2004 Irish Evening Herald Today FM paperback writer competition.
Collected Poems of Anthony Cronin
Paperback; 20.00 Euro / 24.00 USD / 15.00 UK; 330 pages [Add To Basket]
This book brings together the work of a poetic lifetime by this celebrated Irish poet, from his first book published in 1957 to his most recent published in 1999, as well as a number of new poems. This landmark collection displays Cronin’s innate lyrical gift, his honesty to human experience, his range, his always immanent humour and sheer poetic intelligence. This comprehensive and authoritative collection also includes the longer compositions that have been a notable part of his poetic practice – from ‘RMS Titanic’ to ‘The End of the Modern World’.
The Georgics of Virgil by Peter Fallon
Paperback; 14.00 Euro ; 17.00 USD / 9.50 UK; 128 pages [Add To Basket]
To read this great work is to feel earthed as well as engrossed. The poet handles ‘The Georgics’ with the expertise and empathy of a poet conversant with farm life. Each individual line glistens like a newly turned furrow. Both the fact-filled plains and the sublime heights of Virgil’s work are compellingly rendered and the poem flows so freely and lyrically one soon forgets it is a translation. (Also available in Hardback priced at 20 Euro)
No Earthly Estate: God and Patrick Kavanagh an Anthology by Tom Stack
Paperback; 13.00 Euro / 16.00 USD / 9.00 UK; 237 pages [Add To Basket]
In this unusual but immensely rewarding book, the author combines an anthology of Kavanagh’s more religiously inflected poems with a series of informed reflections on the poem’s theological implications.
The Captains and the Kings by Jennifer Johnston
Paperback; 12.00 Euro / 15.00 USD / 8.00 UK; 152 pages [Add To Basket]
An Irish Classic! Old Mr Prendergast lives in the gloomy splendour of a family mansion. He remembers his loveless marriage, his ghost of a father, and, with bitterness, his bejewelled mother, who lavished love on his brother. Then young Diarmid arrives, offering him gifts of curiosity, innocence and friendship.
Dear Maeve by Maeve Binchy
Paperback; 8.00 Euro / 10.00 USD / 5.00 UK; 210 pages [Add To Basket]
How do you tell someone that they’ve tucked their skirts into their knickers? Should you correct your wife when she says ‘Commodium’ instead of ‘condominium’? What should you do if you see your son-in-law nuzzling a woman, not your daughter, at a nearby lunch table? Ireland’s Maeve Binchy takes a subtle glance at the practical problems that confront us all. Behind the apparent ordinariness, the airy grace and fluent style lies genuine wisdom.
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