Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 328
The Landed Gentry and Aristocracy of Meath by Art Kavanagh
Hardback; 50.00 Euro / 60.00 USD / 40.00 UK; 240 pages, with black-and-white photos throughout
This book about the Gentry & Aristocracy of Meath is the 6th in the series and explores the background and history of 19 families. The book is packed with detail and anecdotes and sets the family histories against the larger canvas that is the history of Ireland from the 12th century to modern times. The many illustrations are aptly chosen and many have been printed in book form for the first time. Only 1000 copies of this book have been printed and so it is a limited first edition. It is a ‘must’ for anyone interested in Meath history. Families feautured in this Publication:
Aylmer of Balrath
Barnewall of Crickstown
Barnewall of Trimlestown
Bligh of Clifton Lodge (Earls of Darnley)
Bolton of Bective Abbey
Briscoe of Bellinter
Conyngham of Slane (Marquesses Conyngham)
Corballis of Ratoath Manor
Everard of Randlestown
Fowler of Rahinston
Hamilton of Hamwood
Langford of Summerhill (Barons Langford)
Plunkett of Dunsany (Barons of Dunsany)
Plunkett of Killeen
Preston of Ardsallagh & Bellinter
Preston of Gormanston (Viscounts Gormanston)
Taylour of Headfort (Marquesses of Headfort)
Tisdall of Charlesfort
Watson of Bective
Easter 1916 by Charles Townsend
Hardback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 440 pages with 8-page black-and-white photo insert [Add To Basket]
Before Easter 1916 Dublin had been a city much like any other British city, comparable to Bristol or Liverpool and part of a complex, deep-rooted British world. Many of Dublin's inhabitants wanted to weaken or terminate London's rule but there remained a vast and conflicting range of visions of that future: far more immediate was the unfolding disaster of the First World War that had put home rule' issues on ice for the duration. The devastating events of that Easter changed everything. Both the rising itself and - even more significantly - the ferocious British response ended any sense at all that Dublin could be anything other than the capital of an independent country, as an entire nation turned away in revulsion from the British artillery and executions. As we approach the 90th anniversary of the rebellion it is time for a new account of what really happened over those fateful few days. What did the rebels actually hope to achieve? What did the British think they were doing? And how were the events really interpreted by ordinary people across Ireland? Vivid, authoritative and gripping, Easter 1916 is a major work.
Northern Ireland: The Origins of the Troubles by Thomas Hennessey
Hardback; 30.00 Euro / 36.00 USD / 24.00 UK; 450 pages
Northern Ireland's Troubles are the tragedy of modern Irish history. Thomas Hennessey's study traces the long course of events that led to the climactic events of October 1968 and ends with the decision of the Provisional IRA to go to war with the British state in 1970. Many of Hennessey's conclusions are controversial. The Troubles were the product of a long inter-communal dispute between Unionist and Nationalist. From the start, Nationalists in Northern Ireland never accepted the legitimacy of the state while Unionists regarded Nationalists as a disloyal fifth column. But by the early 1960s it seemed that this old pattern of distrust was being replaced by a growing rapprochement between the two communities. A new generation of political leaders in Belfast and Dublin opened a dialogue that held out great promise. But the liberal temper of the times proved to be an illusion. The old antagonisms were too enduring. By 1969, when British troops were deployed to prevent civil war, the sectarian genie was out of the bottle. Soon the Troubles mutated into an insurgency against British rule in Northern Ireland. The result was tragedy.
British Voices: From the Irish War of Independence 1918-1921 by William Sheehan
Hardback; 23.00 Euro / 27.00 USD / 18.00 UK; 250 pages, with black-and-white photographs throughout [Add To Basket]
The Irish War of Independence has generated a wealth of published material but very little from a British perspective. Many British soldiers, sailors and airmen who served in Ireland from 1918-1921 left accounts of their service. Most describe military operations, views on the IRA, the Irish, the actions of their own forces, morale and relationships with local communities. Secret contacts between the British and the IRA and the use and abuse of intelligence are described. The author has gone deep into British military archives to unearth never before published accounts.
Killarney: History and Heritage edited by Jim Larner
Hardback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 320 pages, with full-colour and black-and-white photos throughout
Despite the popular perception of a crowded, commercialised tourist destination, Killarney and the beautiful landscape around it have a rich and varied history and heritage. To mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of Killarney town, a team of experts was commissioned to contribute to this first book detailing its history and heritage.
Medieval Ireland by Michael Richter
Paperback; 18.00 Euro / 23.00 USD / 12.00 UK; 217 pages
Medieval Ireland: The Enduring Tradition is an overview of Irish society from the coming of Christianity in the fourth century to the Reformation in the sixteenth. Such a broad survey reveals features otherwise not easily detected. For all the complexity of political developments, Irish society remained basically stable and managed to withstand the onslaught of both the Vikings and the English. The inherent strength of Ireland consisted in the cultural heritage from pre-historic times, which remained influential throughout the centuries discussed here.
Irish history has traditionally been described either in isolation or in the manner in which it was influenced by outside forces, especially by England. This book strikes a different balance. First, the time span covered is longer than usual, and more attention is paid to the early medieval centuries than to the later period. Secondly, less emphasis is placed in this book on the political or military history of Ireland than on general social and cultural aspects. As a result, a more mature interpretation of medieval Ireland emerges, one in which social and cultural norms inherited from pre-historic times are seen to survive right through the Middle Ages. They gave Irish society a stability and inherent strength unparalleled in Europe. Christianity came in as an additional, enriching factor.
Sixteenth Century Ireland by Colm Lennon
Paperback; 18.00 Euro / 23.00 USD / 12.00 UK; 400 pages [Add To Basket]
In 1500, most of Ireland lay outside the ambit of English royal power. Only a small area around Dublin was directly administered by the crown. The rest of the island was run in more or less autonomous fashion by Anglo-Norman magnates or Gaelic chieftains.
By 1600, there had been a huge extension of English royal power. First, the influence of the semi-independent magnates was broken; second, in the 1590s crown forces successfully fought a war against the last of the old Gaelic strongholds in Ulster.
The secular conquest of Ireland was, therefore, accomplished in the course of the century. But the Reformation made little headway. The Anglo-Norman community remained stubbornly Catholic, as did the Gaelic nation. Their loss of political influence did not result in the expropriation of their lands. Most property still remained in Catholic hands. England's failure to effect a revolution in church as well as in state meant that the conquest of Ireland was incomplete.The seventeenth century, with its wars of religion, was the consequence.
Nineteenth Century Ireland by D. George Boyce
Paperback; 18.00 Euro / 23.00 USD / 12.00 UK; 425 pages [Add To Basket]
Nineteenth century Ireland began and ended in armed revolt. The blood insurrections of 1798 were the proximate reasons for the passing of the Act of Union two years later. The ‘long nineteenth century’ lasted until 1922, by which time the institutions of modern Ireland were in place against a background of the Great War, the Ulster rebellion and the armed uprising of nationalist Ireland. The years between 1800 and 1922 were an attempt to make the union work. The hope was that, in an imperial structure, the ethnic, religious and national differences of the inhabitants of Ireland could be reconciled and eliminated.
The search for stability proved elusive. Nationalist Ireland mobilized a mass democratic movement under O’Connell to secure Catholic Emancipation, before seeing its world transformed by the social cataclysm of the Great Famine. At the same time, the Protestant north-east of Ulster was feeling the first benefits of the Industrial Revolution. Although post-Famine Ireland modernized rapidly, only the north-east had a modern economy. The mixture of Protestantism and manufacturing industry integrated into the greater United Kingdom and gave a new twist to the traditional Irish Protestant hostility to Catholic political demands. In the home rule period from the 1880s to 1914, the prospect of partition moved from being almost unthinkable to being almost inevitable.
Nineteenth-century Ireland collapsed in the various wars and rebellions of 1912-22. Like many other parts of Europe then and since, it had proved that an imperial superstructure can contain domestic ethnic rivalries, but cannot always eliminate them.
Twentieth Century Ireland by Dermot Keogh
Paperback; 18.00 Euro / 23.00 USD / 12.00 UK; 598 pages [Add To Basket]
Twentieth-Century Ireland is a revised and extended study of the long twentieth century, surveying politics, administrative history, social and religious history, culture and censorship, politics, literature and art. It explores central but neglected features of modern Irish history, presenting an inclusive narrative.
This is a book about the establishment and consolidation of the new Irish state. Dermot Keogh highlights the long tragedy of emigration and its effect on the Irish psyche and on the under-performance of the Irish economy. He emphasises the loss of the new-found opportunities for reform of the 1960s and early 70s. Membership of the EEC, now EU, had a diminished impact due to short-term and sectionally motivated political thinking and an antiquated government structure.
The despair of the 1950s revisited the country in the 1980s as almost an entire generation felt compelled to emigrate, very often as undocumented workers in the United States.
Dermot Keogh also argues that the violence in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s had a major hidden impact on the government of the Irish state. He presents the crisis as an Anglo-Irish failure which was turned around only when the British government acknowledged that the Irish government had a vital role to play in the resolution of the problem.
Dermot Keogh extends his analysis to include a wide-ranging survey of the most contentious events - financial corruption, child sexual abuse, scandals in the Catholic Church - between 1994 and 2005.
Breaking the Mould: The Progressive Democrats by Stephen Collins
Hardback: 28.00 Euro / 34.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 280 pages [Add To Basket]
Stephen Collins' authoratitive history is based on his many years as one of Ireland's most distinguished political journalists; on interviews with leading figures in the Progressive Democrats over its twenty years; and on a close observation of the party in power.
1916: The Easter Rising by Tim Pat Coogan
Hardback; 20.00 Euro / 25.00 USD / 15.00 UK; 190 pages, with photos throughout [Add To Basket]
Tim Pat Coogan writes an account of the Rising by introducing the major players, themes and outcomes of a drama that would profoundly affect 20th-century Irish history. The day-to-day events of the Rising are detailed in this remarkable story and enhanced by photographs, maps and historical documents of Dublin during those bloody six days. The result is not only an important history of a turning point in Ireland's struggle for freedom, but also a testament to the men and women of courage and conviction who were prepared to give their lives for what they believed was right. An illustrated account of the events, personalities and repercussions of the Irish rebellion.
Irish Civil War by Tim Pat Coogan and George Morrison
Large Hardback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 290 pages with photos throughout [Add To Basket]
It began in June, 1922, with the ratification of a treaty between Great Britain and the fledgling Irish state that called for an oath of allegiance to the king, a governor general appointed by the crown, and the partition of six counties in Northern Ireland. And during the eleven months the conflict lasted, brother fought against brother, sundering families for generations, and opening a divide in the country's politics that only now is beginning to fade. This unrivaled pictorial record and remarkable history of the war's passage pays poignant testimony to the courageous men and women prepared to fight to the death for what they believed morally right. It also serves as a sober reminder of the excesses of political zeal and how they came to haunt future generations.
The Big House in Ireland by Valerie Pakenham
Hardback; 20.00 Euro / 25.00 USD / 15.00 UK; 192 with colour photos throughout [Add To Basket]
The idiosyncratic splendour and tragic decline of the Irish country house and its colourful denizens over 400 years. The big Irish House has haunted the Irish landscape and Irish imagination for nearly four hundred years. Gaelic poets cursed or celebrated its power. Irish historians have debated its role for good or ill in the countryside. And generations of Irish novelists have made it a central presence in their books. In this anthology the idiosyncratic life in the Big House is portrayed in a chronological structure creating a documentary history full of splendour and tragedy. This fascinating book is illustrated with contemporary drawings, engravings, maps and paintings and by Thomas Pakenham s evocative photographs.
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