Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 349
The Bog Body from Tumbeagh by Nora Bermingham and Maire Delaney
Hardback; 40 Euro / 50 USD / 32 UK; 230 pages, with black-and-white photos and illustrations throughout
This book relates the story of the Tumbeagh body’s discovery and ensuing archaeological and related investigations. It explores a range of possibilities as to why and how this late medieval body came to rest in a relatively quiet corner of north west Offaly. The book contains a forensic examination of the remains and is unique in that details of the excavation of bog bodies are not numerous despite the numbers in which they have been found.
The Museums of Ireland: A Celebration compiled and edited by the Liffey Press
Large Paperback; 20 Euro / 26 USD / 14 UK; 240 pages, with full colour photos throughout [Add To Basket]
This guidebook will provide detailed information on nearly 100 museums and galleries in Ireland, North and South. Each listing will include information on the museum's history and background, its most important features and collections, any highlights for 2006, a list of special programmes or educational courses, and details on its location, opening hours, costs and other practical information. The book will also include four to six colour photos of key exhibits and the museum itself to accompany the listing. "The Museums of Ireland" will include all the major museums - the National Gallery of Ireland, The Hugh Lane Gallery, the National Museums of Ireland, the Chester Beatty Library, the Hunt Museum, and so on - as well as very interesting smaller museums like the Sheelin Irish Lace Museum in Fermanagh, the Foynes Flying Boat Museum in Co Limerick, the Derryglad Folk Museum in Co Roscommon, and the Irish Agricultural Museum in Co Wexford. In each case, the reader will get a thorough understanding of the highlights of the museum and be able to view specific exhibits in full colour. "The Museums of Ireland" will be an invaluable guide to visitors interested in Ireland's cultural heritage as well as museum goers of all kinds.
Ireland and the Ryder Cup by Paul Kelly
Large Format Hardback; 25 Euro / 30 USD / 20 UK; 240 pages with full colour photos throughout
Beginning with Fred Daly, Ireland's first competitor who played in 1947, and progressing to our most recent participants, Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley, "Ireland and the Ryder Cup" covers two generations of proud sporting achievement by Irish professional golfers. The players recall historic achievements and famous moments. Paul McGinley and Philip Walton describe the experience of holing the winning putts in the Ryder Cup. Christy O'Connor Jnr relives his famous two-iron approach to the 18th green at the Belfry in 1989, while his uncle, the great Christy O'Connor, remembers the good and the bad of playing in ten successive Ryder Cups. This beautifully illustrated book revisits these and other great Irish golfing achievements in this unique competition.
Stories from a Sacred Landscape: Croghan Hill to Clonmacnoise by Caimin O’Brien
Large Format Hardback; 40 Euro / 48 USD / 32 UK; 230 pages, with full colour illustrations throughout [Add To Basket]
Using each sacred place as a springboard, this book traces the history of Christianity in Offaly. It begins with the stories of the men and women who became the first saints of Ireland and tells a story not only of a county, but of a nation. Offaly was the place where the boundaries of four of Ireland's five ancient provinces came together. Monasteries founded here expanded into some of the largest foundations in Ireland, such as Clonmacnoise. This region became known as the 'Flowering Garden of Monasteries' because of their central location, the monasteries in Offaly played a crucial political and economic role in Irish society. Over time, the great economic success of Offaly's monasteries brought them into conflict with their spiritual mission. Conflicts between wealth and piety, patrons and priests became part of the stories of these religious foundations.
Diarmait: King of Leinster by Nicholas Furlong
Paperback; 15 Euro / 18 USD / 11 UK; 191 pages
Diarmaid Mac Murchada was a king through misadventure. Owing to a series of fatal family mishaps, he was elected to power in 1126 at sixteen. He ruled through a turbulent period and became one of the most dominant figures in Irish history. Furlong presents a thorough account of Diarmaid's life, and examines his actions and decisions not only in the context of his questionable personal traits and character, but also expanding the analysis to reflect on his effect on the political turbulence of the time. At one stage of his influential life, ousted as King of Leinster, he invited King Henry II of England to assist him in regaining the throne. The subsequent invasion marked the beginning of eight centuries of English dominance. After his death, he was damned as a traitor and a blackguard. He is recorded as having two wives at the same time, raping an abbess, the abduction of Dervorgilla, the wife of his bitter rival, and the mutilation and killing of rivals. Furlong's "Diarmaid King of Leinster" is a subtle, compassionate yet realistic examination of the man behind the myth.
St Patrick’s Breastplate by Alf McCreary
Small Hardback; 10 Euro / 13 USD / 7 UK; 80 pages, full colour throughout
St. Patrick's Breastplate with its familiar words 'Christ behind me, Christ before me' has been an expression of Christian faith for many years, but what is the complete prayer, where did it come from, and did St Patrick even write it? Here Alf McCreary examines the history of the prayer and how in Victorian times, Mrs. Alexander, the hymn-writer came to write the definitive version. "St. Patrick's Breastplate" is beautifully illustrated with Celtic script, attractive drawings and the complete words of the prayer. The Celts believed that God was all around them and the prayer was written as a lorica (a piece of ancient armour) asking for God's protection in a harsh landscape. The very closeness of the prayer to the old Celtic beliefs shows how Patrick identified with the people he served. It is a beautiful Celtic gift.
Beat the Goatskin Till the Goat Cries: Notes from a Kerry Village by Gabriel Fitzmaurice
Paperback; 13 Euro / 17 USD / 10 UK; 191 pages [Add To Basket]
In "Beat the Goatskin", Fitzmaurice's skilful storytelling and optimistic spirit give a charming account of Ireland, particularly rural Ireland with its customs, education, sport, literature, music and song. Growing up Irish has something of a fairy tale ring to it, but beware, this is not a gentle stroll through leprechaun land. Fitzmaurice's eye is affectionate and sympathetic, but it can be self-critical when the occasion demands. Ireland, particularly rural Ireland, speaks in this book - its writers and Wrenboys, its musicians and singers, its footballers and teachers, and its corner boys. It gives voice to pubs and parishes, their rogues, poets and playwrights. Fitzmaurice understands the heart of Ireland's culture and appreciates the way in which writers and singers like Bryan MacMahon, John B. Keane, Brendan Kennelly, Michael Hartnett and Con Greaney re-created their communities through their art.
Ripe for the Picking: The Inside Story of the Northern Bank Robbery by Chris Moore
Paperback; 11 Euro / 14 USD / 8 UK; 230 pages [Add To Basket]
Chris Moore shows how the Australian owners of the Northern Bank systematically cut costs at the price of comprising security. Simple but effective security routines, were discontinued. Traditional practices aimed at frustrating thieves and robbers were compromised in the interest of cutting costs. The net effect was to leave the bank uniquely vulnerable to the sort of heist that actually took place. Of course, nobody knew that the pickings were going to be so rich. But the point that the book stresses is that the bank was there for the taking. Chris Moore also summarises the fall-out from, and consequences of, this extraordinary bank raid.
The Men That God Made Mad by Derek Lundy
Large Paperback; 16 Euro / 20 USD / 11 UK; 350 pages [Add To Basket]
Derek Lundy, one of Canada's finest writers of non-fiction, was born in Belfast. In this remarkable book, he uses the lives of three of his ancestors as a prism through which to examine what memory and the selective plundering of history has made of the truth in Northern Ireland. In Ulster the name 'Lundy' is synonymous with 'traitor'. Robert Lundy, the author's first ancestral subject, was the Protestant governor of Londonderry in 1688, just before it came under siege by the Catholic Irish army of James II. For reasons that remain ambiguous, Robert Lundy ordered the city's capitulation. Crying 'No Surrender', hardline Protestants prevented it and drove him away in disgrace, a traitor to the cause. In Derek Lundy's view, however, Robert is more memorable for his peace-seeking moderation than for the treachery the standard history attributes to him. William Steel Dickson's legacy is a little different. A Presbyterian minister born in the mid-eighteenth century, he preached with famous eloquence in favour of using whatever means necessary to resist the tyranny of the English, including joining forces with the Catholics in armed rebellion. Finally there is 'Billy' Lundy, born in 1890, the antithesis of the ecumenical William, and the embodiment of what the Ulster Protestants had become by the beginning of World War I - a tribe united in their hostility to Catholics and to the concept of a united Ireland. The lives of Robert Lundy, William Steel Dickson and Billy Lundy encapsulate many themes in the Ulster past. In telling their stories, Derek Lundy lays bare the harsh and murderous mythologies of Northern Ireland and gives us a revision of its history that seems particularly relevant in today's world.
Leisure Cycling Near Dublin by Hugh Halpin
Paperback; 10 Euro / 13 USD / 7 UK; 206 pages [Add To Basket]
This book serves two practical purposes. The first is to encourage you to cycle - a good thing in itself. The second is to introduce you to the marvellous varieties of terrain and cycling routes that can be easily accessed from Dublin. To add spice to the mixture, Hugh Halpin includes snippets of history and folklore in his descriptions and points out fascinating sights worth seeing along the way. The author has chosen forty routes which vary in terms of length and difficulty. The shortest route, at 20 km, would take less than an hour for a fit cyclist and would make an ideal family half-day, taken at leisure. The longest route, at 95 km, is a challenging day's cycling for a fully fit cyclist. Most of the routes are suitable for families and the averagely fit. All are circular, so that you can, if need be, drive to the start and return to your car. Terrain is varied, with the Wicklow mountains to the south and - at the northern extremity - the Cooley Peninsula, offering upland routes. These contrast nicely with the flatlands of Kildare and the low hills of Louth, Meath and Fingal. This is the ideal guide for leisure cyclists in the greater Dublin region.
Better Than Working: A Memoir by Patrick Skene Catling
Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 19 USD / 10 UK; 286 pages [Add To Basket]
If Ian Fleming had made James Bond a journalist and not a spy - he might have looked to Patrick Skene Catling as a template for his hero. English born, educated then in the 'States and Canada, Patrick became a navigator in the Royal Canadian Airforce during World War II and was luckily assigned to ferrying bombers and transports from the Bahamas across the South Atlantic, Africa and the Middle East to India - sometimes with a case or two of West Indian rum to cover the high cost of Cairo night life. One marriage and two years later he became a journalist which his father assured him was 'better than working'. Based at various times in England and the United States, he travelled to Korea, Guatemala, Greenland and Australia covering wars, revolutions and press conferences that could give a man a terrible thirst. At the same time his writing enabled him to plunge himself into cultural milieu that fascinated him. He interviewed Louis Armstrong and James Baldwin. He had a memorable encounter with bombshell Jane Russell, lived with and very nearly married Peggy Lee and was kissed by Billie Holiday. He became a close friend of P.G. Wodehouse. Self-deprecation, charm and a wry sense of humour draw a veil over tremendous achievements, serious discussion and an extraordinary fund of anecdotes. Better Than Working is a hymn to a vanished era in British and American journalism, as well as being an utterly enjoyable book about a remarkable life.
Irish Coast to Coast Walk: Dublin to Bray Head by Paddy Dillon
Paperback; 18 Euro / 23 USD / 12 UK; 215 pages with full colour photos and maps throughout [Add To Basket]
Walking through Ireland, from the Atlantic coast to Dublin, through glorious mountain and river country, offers an opportunity to discover the heart of the Emerald Isle. Linking the Wicklow Way, South Leinster Way, Munster Way, Avondhy Way and the Kerry Way, the Irish coast-to-coast walk joins Dublin in the east with Bray Head in the southwest. Whether you intend to split this route into sections and enjoy the walk over a period of time, or walk it in one go, the alternative high-level routes found along the way enable you to make the adventure as challenging as you like. The guide provides a comprehensive introduction to walking a long-distance route in Ireland and details of accommodation along the way. It divides the 370-mile route into 21 day stages, and the route for each stage is shown on Irish OS maps.
Buying a Home in Ireland by Joe Loredo
Paperback; 15 Euro / 19 USD / 10 UK; 210 pages [Add To Basket]
Essential reading for anyone planning to buy a home in Ireland (2nd edition) - designed to guide you through the jungle and make it a pleasant and enjoyable experience. Most importantly, it is packed with vital information to help you avoid the sort of disasters that can turn your dream home into a nightmare! Written by Joe Laredo, an experienced non-fiction writer, and illustrated by Jim Watson.
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