Read Ireland Book Review
Issue 325
Beautiful Day: Forty Years of Irish Rock Music by Sean Campbell and Gerry Smyth
Large format paperback with endflaps; 25.00 Euro / 35.00 USD / 19.00 UK; 200 pages, with photos throughout
Music has played an important role throughout the island of Ireland since ancient times, and it continues to represent one of the principal cultural avenues for the expression and exploration of contemporary Irish identities. Beautiful Day: Forty Years of Irish Rock tells the story of modern Ireland from the perspective of the music produced across the island during a period of rapid, decisive change. The volume is made up of an introductory essay (4,000 words) followed by short essays (ca. 1,200 words) on forty-one songs (one from each year between 1964 and 2004) interspersed with photographic images relating to individual performers, songs and / or cultural context.
This book will place representative material by a variety of artists - including U2, Enya, The Corrs, Thin Lizzy, Van Morrison, and Sinéad O’Connor - in their musical, cultural and historical contexts, while also introducing a range of less well known, but no less interesting, Irish popular musicians from the 1960s down to the present. Although the style is accessible, the research is thorough, and is intended to challenge many received ideas relating to the development of Ireland during this key stage of its political and cultural history. The overall intention is to combine written text with photographs to produce an attractive book that is evocative, informative, and controversial, and that has widespread, cross-demographic appeal.
Beautiful Day introduces representative songs from 1964 to the present by a range of Irish popular musicians. The book combines written text with photographs to produce an attractive volume that is evocative, informative, and controversial, and that has widespread, cross-demographic appeal. Music has played an important role throughout the island of Ireland since ancient times, and it continues to represent one of the principal cultural avenues for the expression and exploration of contemporary Irish identities. Beautiful Day: Forty Years of Irish Rock tells the story of modern Ireland from the perspective of the music produced across the island during a period of rapid, decisive change. The volume is made up of an introductory essay (4,000 words) followed by short essays (ca. 1,200 words) on forty-one songs (one from each year between 1964 and 2004) interspersed with photographic images relating to individual performers, songs and / or cultural context.
Green Suede Shoes: An Irish Odyssey by Larry Kirwan
Trade Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 11.00 UK; 370 pages [Add To Basket]
This memoir by Black 47 front man Larry Kirwan begins in Wexford and traces the impact on a young Kirwan of his Irish Republican grandfather, his mysterious and often absent deep-sea sailing father and his first bandleader Elvis Murphy. These influences propelled him to the Dublin of the early 70s and later Kirwan emigrated to New York, where he eventually formed the political rock band Black 47. He gives a dry-eyed and unsparing account of the tumultuous trajectory of Black 47 and of the band's ongoing political commitment and opposition to the war in Iraq.
Moments That Changed Us by Colum Kenny
Paperback with endflaps; 17.00 Euro / 21.00 USD / 11.00 UK; 320 pages
Ireland has changed enormously since the 1960s. The old country is barely recognisable today. Crucial moments in that process of transformation are the subject of Colum Kenny's new book. He recalls a series of linked events which, taken together, fired the engines of social, economic and cultural change in modern Ireland. He gathers his material by themes: Mother and Child (including education, school beatings, working mums); Violence (including the vanished, random attacks and atrocities); and Rituals (including drugs, sport, religion). The other themes are Sexual Relations, Scandals, Politics, Society, Lifestyle and Culture. This fascinating necklace of moments and events gives a unique insight into the evolution of contemporary Ireland. Colum Kenny's cool, analytical intelligence interprets Ireland to the Irish for the twenty-first century.
The Fighting Irish: Inside the Ring with Boxing’s Celtic Warriors by Roger Anderson
Paperback; 12.00 Euro / 15.00 USD / 8.00 UK; 336 pages [Add To Basket]
The Fighting Irish tells the remarkable story of how the Irish and their descendants took the boxing world by storm. Irishmen have enjoyed a unique place in the sport, punching way above their weight and exerting a truly global influence. From the brutal bare-knuckle era to the present day, they've also played their part in many of the most famous - and infamous - moments in ring history. The French have their flamboyance, the Germans efficiency, but no one likes a scrap quite like the Irish. It's hardly surprising, then, that the boxer should become a source of national pride, not least for those people forced through famine to seek a new life in the new world. John Morrissey, Yankee Sullivan, John C. Heenan and Paddy Ryan paved the way for the sport's first superstar, John L. Sullivan. His boast that he could 'lick any son-of-a-bitch in the house' tapped into the mood of a people fighting for their place in America's melting pot of immigrants. From the brazen Boston Strong Boy to Gentleman Jim Corbett, legend of the 'Roaring '20s' Jack Dempsey through to James J. Braddock, who fought his way from the welfare queue to the heavyweight championship of the world, satisfaction was guaranteed. The Fighting Irish also looks at that glorious era of ethnic match-ups when Irishman and Jew traded blows; at racism and the search for the Great White Hope; fighters who united the most divided of communities; and the ultimate price paid by some in the pursuit of ring glory. It's a roller-coaster ride of pride and passion, raw courage and sublime skill. McLarnin, McGuigan, McAuliffe, McCullough, Corbett, Cooney, Conn, Monaghan and Micky Ward - each distinctive, yet linked by the Celtic warrior culture. The Fighting Irish is the ultimate tale of trial and tribulation, tragedy and triumph.
Old Bones and Shallow Graves: The Untold Story of the Irish-American Gangster by T.J. English
Trade Paperback; 16.00 Euro / 19.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 465 pages, with an eight-page black-and-white photo insert
Here is the shocking, true saga of the Irish-American mob, from the mid-nineteenth century all the way to the present day. History shows that the heritage of the Irish-American gangster was established in America long before that of the more widely portrayed Italian American Mafioso and has held strong through the modern age. In fact, the highest-ranking organised crime figure on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List - alongside Osama bin Laden - is an old-style Irish-American mob boss from South Boston. In Paddy Whacked, bestselling author and organised crime expert T.J. English brings to life nearly two centuries of Irish-American gangsterism, which spawned such unforgettable characters as Mike 'King Mike' McDonald, Chicago's subterranean godfather; Big Bill Dwyer, New York's most notorious rumrunner during Prohibition; Mickey Featherstone, troubled Vietnam vet turned Westies gang leader from Hell's Kitchen; and James 'Whitey' Bulger, the ruthless and untouchable Southie legend. This is an epic story of corrupt politics, wanton murders, gambling empires, notorious brothels, tough women and hard-drinking pugilists from the underbelly of America's most dangerous cities. Combining storytelling verve with thorough research and a slew of never-before-published material, English presents a riveting, seamless cultural history of the Irish-American underworld. He offers a brilliant portrait of a people who fought tooth and nail for a better life from the moment they arrived in America, whether it meant taking charge within the realms of law enforcement and politics or capitalising on what opportunities they could in the darker world beyond the law. Paddy Whacked is an irresistible tour of the undercarriage of American history - a ride that stretches from the earliest New York and New Orleans street wars through decades of bootlegging scams, union strikes, gang wars and FBI investigations... and along the way deepens our understanding of the American experience.
Contacted: Testimonies of People Who Say the Dead Are Alive by Audrey Healy and Don Mullan
Paperback; 13.00 Euro / 16.50 USD / 10.00 UK; 190 pages
Contacted! is a compilation of stories of people who have been contacted by the dead. Healy and Mullan's approach is similar to that of the authors of the highly successful Chicken Soup for the Soul in that people are allowed to tell their own stories without editorial filtering. Such first-hand accounts are both compelling to those who already believe and challenging to those who are sceptics. As with Chicken Soup for the Soul, Healy and Mullan's book presents each story on its own, without commentary, thus allowing readers to make up their own minds. Such an approach gives breathing space to the reader who might wish to sit and ponder or reflect on a particular story.
The Hollow Heart: The True Story of One Woman's Desire to Give Life and How It Almost Destroyed Her Own by Martina Devlin
Paperback; 14.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 10.00 UK [Add To Basket]
In three attempts at in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) Martina Devlin lost nine embryos. But she also lost her marriage and her dreams of becoming a mother. The Hollow Heart describes Devlin's bewilderment at being diagnosed as infertile, the physical and emotional demands of going through IVF and the shattering fall-out when it failed. She also describes how her despair eventually faded, and how she learned to take pleasure in her extended family of nieces and nephews and, as her mother always advised, to count her blessings. "And in enumerating them I am struck by this. Their quantity."
Moleskin Joe by Patrick MacGill
Paperback; 11.00 Euro / 13.50 USD / 8.50 UK; 190 pages [Add To Basket]
Moleskin Joe is one of the most memorable characters to appear in Patrick MacGill's first two books, Children of the Dead End and The Rat Pit (both also available in paperback at the same price). This sequel, first published in 1923, recalls the tramps and navvies MacGill encountered during his time on the road in Scotland and north of England in the early years of the twentieth century. Centred around the adventures of Moleskin Joe, with his philosophy of 'there's a good time comin', although we may never live to see it', this intriguing book sees Joe fall in love with a young Irish woman he meets on his travels. Filled with superb characterisation, humour, poignancy and eloquence, Moleskin Joe is a vivid portrayal of the hardships of the immigrant experience, which MacGill not only experienced himself, but also successfully exposed to a huge audience through his writing.
Folkmusic and Dances of Ireland by Breandan Breathnach
Paperback; 11.00 Euro / 13.50 USD / 9.00 UK; 150 pages [Add To Basket]
Breandan Breathnach's classic study of the history and development of Irish traditional music, song and dance. The techniques and styles of traditional playing are fully and expertly treated with special reference to the fiddle, the Irish Uilleann pipes and the whistle. The late Breandan Breathnach was acknowledged as one of the foremost authorities on traditional music of Ireland and as such contributed the main article on Irish folkmusic to Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. An expert piper himself, he was chairman of the Association of Uilleann Pipers. He was editor and publisher of Ceol, a highly regarded magazine of Irish traditional music.
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