Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 317
Noisy Island: A Short History of Irish Popular Music by Gerry Smyth
Hardback; 20.00 Euro / 26.00 USD / 14.00 UK; 178 pages
Irish contemporary popular music has had remarkable international success, but relatively little scholarly attention. Analysis of cultural identity has been dominated by the literary canon, yet music has been crucial in constructions and definitions of Irishness since the late eighteenth century. This trail-blazing book is the first cultural history of Irish rock music from the 1960s to the present. Using theoretical perspectives drawn from cultural criticism and music studies, Gerry Smyth shows how Irish rock music has engaged with issues of national identity at every level, from music to performance to distribution and publicity. The big names, such as Rory Gallagher, Van Morrison, U2, Thin Lizzy, emerge in a new light, as they, together with less well-known artists, like Northern Ireland bands, Ash and the Undertones, are examined in terms of the economic, sociological and political factors which conditioned their music. The book also looks at the roots of Irish rock in the Show-band era, the influence of folk and traditional music, and the legacy of punk. It looks at the opportunities and challenges facing Irish Rock at a time of increasing commercialisation and globalisation. It includes a substantial discography.
A Memoir by Terry De Valera
Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 19.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 361 pages [Add To Basket]
My mother told me that when I was but a few weeks old she said to my father "I think that there is going to be a wave in Terry's hair" and when he showed no interest, she rebuked him. She again tried to attract his attention and as she did he replied "How can I mind about the wave in Terry's hair when they are fighting in the Four Courts?" Into a very volatile Ireland, Terry de Valera was born in June 1922. In this memoir he recounts events in his life and that of his family against the ongoing changing political landscape of the Civil War, the threat of World War II, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1916 Rising, the ultimate demise of his very famous parents, Eamon and Sinead de Valera, and the growth of his own family, including of course his daughter Sile, who is also a TD and minister. Terry draws too on his mother's memories, which he asked her to commit to paper, to provide a fascinating pen picture of Ireland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In addition to matters political, there is also much which will appeal to those interested in music and the arts. A recognised expert on Chopin and John Field, Terry de Valera's enthusiasm in describing these men and their work is infectious. So too, his reminiscences on various Irish artists. This is at once a very personal memoir, but is guaranteed to be of interest to anyone keen to learn more about one of Ireland's foremost political families, from the inside.
The Lifeboat Service in Ireland by Nicholas Leach
Trade Paperback; 30.00 Euro / 36.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 250 pages, with black-and-white photos throughout and a colour-photo insert
After almost fifty hours at sea, in the worst conditions imaginable, the Ballycotton lifeboat Mary Stanford brought the survivors from the Daunt Rock lightvessel to safety and conclude one of the most dramatic and outstanding rescues in the history of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. The Gold Medal was awarded to Coxswain Patrick Sliney with Silver and Bronze medals going to the rest of the crew for their courage, valour and gallantry in performing a rescue against all odds. This exceptional service is just one of the many award-winning rescues performed by Ireland's lifeboat men and women, whose courage, dedication and willingness to help others in distress has characterised the service since the first lifeboats were operated in the country in the early years of the nineteenth century. Today the lifeboat service in Ireland is the responsibility of the RNLI, which currently operates more than forty lifeboat stations. This volume contains details of every one, providing information about each station's current lifeboat to an historical overview of each as well as descriptions of the most noteworthy rescues. Nicholas Leach has included a wealth of information, past and present, about the lifeboat service in Ireland. A large number of modern photographs showing lifeboats in service today accompany a great many nostalgic images of lifeboats in nineteenth and early twentieth century Ireland. The author has visited very one of Ireland's lifeboat stations, old and new, to provide a complete photographic record of all aspects of the RNLI's work in Ireland. The result is the definitive work on lifeboats, lifeboat stations and maritime rescue services in Ireland.
Hidden River by Adrian McKinty
Trade Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 280 pages [Add To Basket]
Alexander Lawson is an ex-detective for Northern Ireland's police force. After a disastrous six-month stint in the drug squad, he became addicted to heroin and resigned in disgrace. Now twenty-four, sickly, and on the dole, Alex learns that his high school love, Victoria Patawasti, has been murdered in America. Victoria's wealthy family sends Alex to Colorado to investigate the case, and he seizes the opportunity for a chance at redemption. But things don't go exactly as planned. Struggling to kick his heroin habit, forced to go on the run after the only credible witness to Victoria's murder is accidentally killed, wanted by both the Colorado cops and the Ulster police who believe he has information about a corruption scandal, and with the murderer closing all the time, Alex will have a fight on his hands just to stay alive, never mind solving the case.
Dead I May Well Be by Adrian McKinty
Paperback; 12.00 Euro / 15.00 USD / 8.00 UK; 308 pages
This Irish bad-boy thriller - set in the hardest streets of New York City and brimming with violence, greed and sexual betrayal – brings a gripping new voice to the turf of Michael Connelly, Chuck Palahniuk and Dennis Lehane.
"I didn't want to go to America, I didn't want to work for Darkey White. I had my reasons. But I went." So admits Michael Forsythe, an illegal immigrant escaping the Troubles in Belfast. But young Michael is strong and fearless and clever -- just the fellow to be tapped by Darkey, a crime boss, to join a gang of Irish thugs struggling against the rising Dominican powers in Harlem and the Bronx. The time is pre-Giuliani New York, when crack rules the city and hundreds are murdered each month. Michael and his lads tumble through the streets, shaking down victims, drinking hard, and fighting for turf, block by bloody block. Dodgy and observant, not to mention handy with a pistol, Michael is soon anointed by Darkey as his rising star. Meanwhile Michael has very inadvisably seduced Darkey's girl, the irresistible, but fickle, Bridget. Michael worries that he's being followed, that his affair with Bridget will be revealed. He's right to be anxious; when Darkey discovers the affair, he plans a very hard fall for young Michael, a gambit devilish in its guile, murderous in its intent. But Darkey fails to account for Michael's toughness and ingenuity or the possibility that he might wreak terrible vengeance upon those who would betray him. A natural storyteller with the gift for dialogue, McKinty introduces a stunning new noir voice, dark and stylish, mythic and violent -- complete with an Irish lilt.
My Oedipus Complex and Other Stories by Frank O’Connor
Paperback; 13.00 Euro / 17.50 USD / 9.00 UK; 361 pages
This collection of Frank O’Connor’s short stories displays to the fullest his versatility, humour and insight in tales about childhood and marriage, sex and religion, way and old age. Here, O’Connor depicts young boys convinced of their own genius or locked in hilarious rivalry with their fathers, and IRA soldiers who must make heartbreaking decisions in the midst of a baffling war. In other takes an old woman threatens to haunt her son if he fails to bury her at her old home, while a scandal threatens to ignite when a floral wreath is sent anonymously to a priest’s funeral. In these beautiful evocations of ordinary life – both comic and tragic – O’Connor portrays small moments that take the reader to the psychological truth at the heart of his characters.
An Only Child and My Father’s Son by Frank O’Connor
Paperback; 13.00 Euro / 17.50 USD / 9.00 UK; 347 pages [Add To Basket]
Frank O’Connor’s two volumes of autobiography take him from his impoverished Cork boyhood to his early life as a writer. At the heart of An Only Child is an extraordinary portrait of his mother – strong, loving and resilient. As well, there are splendid descriptions of his melancholy father, their Dickensian neighbours, his inspiring teacher and the ordinary people caught up in the Irish Civil War. My Father’s Son describes O’Connor’s journey from the internment camp in which he was imprisoned as a Republican soldier to the literary circles of Dublin. His friendship with W.B. Yeats, interrupted yet strengthened by their skirmishes about the new Abbey Theatre, forms the centre of this book. Told with deep compassion and a sharp eye for revealing detail, those works form an engaging and lively record of a young Irishman’s artistic and emotional development.
Gregory Carr, Bookseller
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