Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 341
The Provisional IRA in England: The Bombing Campaign 1973-1997 by Gary McGladdery
Large Paperback; 30.00 Euro / 36.00 USD / 24.00 UK; 272 pages
In this revealing and fascinating account, the impact of the Provisional IRA's bombing campaign in Britain on both British government policy towards Northern Ireland and the internal politics of the republican movement, are examined in detail. The book highlights the early thinking of the British government and draws on recently released public records from 1939, 1973 and 1974. It makes extensive use of television documentary footage to offer a broader analysis. The book also examines republican rationale behind the campaign, the reasoning behind the use of particular tactics and the thinking behind atrocities, such as the Birmingham bombings. Using a range of new evidence, the book highlights the bankruptcy of republican strategic thinking and challenges the notion that successive British governments appeased republicans because of the threat of bombs in London. The analysis of the campaign is placed within the wider context of the ongoing violence in Northern Ireland as well as the history of republican violence in England dating back to the nineteenth century.
The Northern IRA and the Early Years of Partition 1920-1922 by Robert Lynch
Large Paperback; 30.00 Euro / 36.00 USD / 24.00 UK; 246 pages [Add To Basket]
The years 1920-22 constituted a period of unprecedented conflict and political change in Ireland. It began with the onset of the most brutal phase of the War of Independence and culminated in the effective military defeat of the Republican IRA in the Civil War. Occurring alongside these dramatic changes in the south and west of Ireland was a far more fundamental conflict in the north-east, a period of brutal sectarian violence which marked the early years of partition and the establishment of Northern Ireland. Almost uniquely, the IRA in the six counties were involved in every one of these conflicts and yet, it can be argued, was on the fringe of all of them. The period 1920-22 saw the evolution of the organisation from peripheral curiosity during the War of independence to an idealistic symbol for those wishing to resolve the fundamental divisions within the Sinn Fein movement, which developed in the first six months of 1922. The story of the Northern IRA's collapse in the autumn of that year demonstrated dramatically the true nature of the organisation and how it was their relationship to the various protagonists in these conflicts, rather than their unceasing, but fruitless war against partition, that defined its contribution to the Irish revolution.
Myths and Memories of the Easter Rising: Cultural and Political Nationalism in Ireland by Jonathan Githens-Mazer
Large Paperback; 30.00 Euro / 36.00 USD / 24.00 UK; 238 pages
This book examines the political transformation and radicalisation of Ireland between the outbreak of the First World War, August, 1914, and Sinn Fein's landslide electoral victory in December, 1918. It argues, through a novel application of theories of ethno-symbolism and social movement theory, that the myths, memories and symbols of the Irish nation formed the basis for interpretation of the events of the Easter Rising, and that this interpretation stimulated members of the Irish nation to support radical nationalism. The book calls this phenomenon the Cultural Trigger Point. Through an examination of a variety of sources, the book traces, in particular, the impact of the Great War on cultural and religious nationalism, and its role in the rise of radical Irish nationalism.
The GPO and the Easter Rising by Kieth Jeffery
Large Paperback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 222 pages [Add To Basket]
All existing accounts of the GPO in 1916 concentrate on the Volunteers who occupied the building on Easter Monday. But what of those Dubliners and others who were working in the Post Office that morning? Their experiences have been largely ignored in all subsequent historiography. While not neglecting the rebels, this book tells their story too, using hitherto unpublished material drawn from the treasure-trove of documents relating to the Rising held in the British Post Office Archives, which has remained unexplored for ninety years and never before exploited by historians. This material complemented with further important unpublished material from the British National Archives, as well as other vivid eyewitness accounts first published shortly after the Rising. This book brings a strikingly fresh perspective to the history of the Rising.
A Destiny That Shapes Our Ends: Florence and Josephine O’Donoghue’s War of Independence edited by John Borgonovo
Large Paperback; 30.00 Euro / 36.00 USD / 24.00 UK; 252 pages, with an 8-page black-and-white photo insert
Historian and IRA leader Florence O'Donoghue describes his experiences as head of intelligence in Cork city during the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921). He candidly assesses the leaders of this period, including Tomas MacCurtain, Sean O'Hegarty, Terence MacSwiney and Michael Collins, and critically examines the evolution of the Irish Volunteer citizen-soldiers. He also details his wife, Josephine's role as the top IRA spy in Cork's British Army headquarters, working for the rebels in exchange for the return of her eldest son, lost in a bitter custody battle with her in-laws. After O'Donoghue kidnapped the child and reunited him with his mother, the two collaborators eventually fell in love and were secretly married in the spring of 1921. Forty years later, the couple presented their story to their children in order to explain the family secret that had haunted their domestic lives. The first part of the book is O'Donoghue's and his wife's account of their activities in the Anglo-Irish War, written in 1961; the second part is composed of 47 letters in diary form, written by O'Donoghue to his wife, while he was 'on the run' during the last ten weeks of the Anglo-Irish War, from May to July 1921. They provide a rare snapshot of the daily life of fugitive IRA guerrillas.
Last of the Celts by Marcus Tanner
Large Paperback; 20.00 Euro / 25.00 USD / 14.00 UK; 300 pages, with 16 page black-and-white photo insert
A cultural tour spanning the Celtic world from the Outer Hebrides of Scotland to Brittany, and from Cape Breton to Patagonia, this book sets out to find out what has happened to the Celtic peoples in a world where pressure to conform to Anglo-American culture has grown ever stronger.
Taking the form of a journey that starts in the wilds of north-west Scotland, before proceeding through western Wales, the Isle of Man, troubled Northern Ireland, the western seaboard of the Irish Republic and The French region of Brittany, the author weaves solid historical research into the language, religion, music and customs of the peoples concerned with first-hand encounters with a host of priests, ministers, government officials, cultural activists, musicians and writers.
The author finds talk of a Celtic revival much misplaced, for while the term "Celtic" is banded around as never more, largely to suit the needs of commerce and tourism, the fragile cultures the word actually refers to in the north-west of Britain, Ireland and France are closer than ever before to extinction.
As the author discovers on his journey, the tide is going out at different speeds in different places. While Welsh culture and language are (relatively) robust, the rich culture of the Bretons is heading for almost certain oblivion in a decade or two at most, as relentless, centuries-long pressure to "be French" reaches its climax.
Nor are the prospects much brighter for the small Celtic communities in the New World. As the author travels from Cape Breton in Canada to Patagonia in Argentina, he finds the once sturdy communities of Gaelic and Welsh speakers facing exactly the same threats of assimilation and ultimate disappearance. It is a development that impoverishes us all.
Dublin’s Lost Heroines: Mammies and Grannies in a Vanished City by Kevin C. Kearns
Large Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 330 pages [Add To Basket]
Kevin C. Kearns, the acclaimed author of "Dublin Tenement Life" and other oral histories, has now prepared a masterly work of reminiscence, celebration and dignity. Based on interviews he has conducted during annual visits to Dublin extending over thirty years, he has drawn together a unique picture of women's lives in the old Dublin slums. The slums of Dublin were among the worst in Europe, rivalled only by Glasgow. Tall town houses, originally built as elegant homes for the rich in the eighteenth century, fell into the hands of avaricious and pitiless landlords who filled them to bursting point with the desperate and impoverished urban poor. Conditions were often unspeakably vile, with massive over-crowding and utterly inadequate sanitation. Yet out of these dreadful tenements, families were reared, households kept together and human dignity maintained. As with most impoverished societies, this was overwhelmingly the work of women, the mammies and grannies of the Dublin slums whose voices course through this remarkable book. They tell of how they lived, of the difficulties they faced, of the grinding poverty, the unemployment, the fecklessness of their men folk and always of their heroic struggle to maintain the basic decencies of human life in inhuman conditions.
Dublin Tenement Life: An Oral History by Kevin C. Kearns
Large Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 237 pages [Add To Basket]
This book is based on the original oral histories of the survivors of the old Dublin tenements. For nearly 150 years, the wretched, squalid, tenements of Dublin were widely judged to be the worst slums in all of Europe. By the 1930s, 6300 tenements were occupied by almost 112,000 tenants. Some districts had 800 people to the acre, up to 100 occupants in one building and 20 family members crammed into a single tiny room. It was a hard world of hunger, disease, high mortality, unemployment, heavy drinking, prostitution and gang warfare. But despite their hardships, the tenants poor enjoyed an incredibly close-knit community life in which they found great security and, indeed, happiness. As one policeman recalls from 50 years ago, they were "extraordinarily happy for people who were so savagely poor". This book captures their social life, their wit, their rousing wakes and their incredible sense of community solidarity. In their own words, the last of the tenement dwellers bear testimony to the rich human mosaic of a bygone world. Their accounts are sometimes tragic and emotionally wrenching but equally they are an inspiring chronicle of struggle and survival.
Tracing Your Irish Ancestors 3rd edition by John Grenham
Large Paperback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 525 pages [Add To Basket]
This third edition of "Tracing Your Irish Ancestors" retains the three-part structure of earlier editions, but updates and improves the material already included while adding new sources which have emerged since publication of the second edition in 1998. The bibliographies - an important element of the book - are more comprehensive than ever before. With the growing use of Internet searches, the number of sources has grown dramatically since the last edition. John Grenham has a specific chapter on the Internet, with detailed references to online transcripts in the source lists. In addition, the invaluable index has been completely revised and updated to take account of the 35 per cent increase in the extent of this new edition over the previous one. 'A book which has already established itself as the standard reference book for genealogical researchers, professional or amateur, who are dealing with Irish sources' - "Ireland of the Welcomes". ' The most authoritative book on the subject' - Cara. 'Books on how to trace your Irish ancestors pour from the presses. Here is a really worthwhile one, comprehensive, clearly laid out and interesting to read.' - "Books Ireland".
Gregory Carr, Bookseller
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