Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 357
A Time to Dance by Maeve Binchy with Photographs by Ann Henrick
Hardback; 20 Euro / 25 USD / 14 UK; unpaged
A Time to Dance celebrates those who choose to grow old disgracefully!!! This book is an uplifting celebration of life and living amongst Ireland's elderly. It carries a positive message, which is both affirming for those already in advanced years and, more importantly, inspiring for those who are heading that way. Annie Henrick's photos cover the energy, beauty, and creativity that life can hold for an elderly person today. These beautiful images are enhanced by the words of best-seling author, Maeve Binchy, which express the positive message of what it means to become older, and the joys that await us as we enter the troisième âge. There is much fear associated with becoming old; fear of being caught on A&E trolley for days on end or living in isolation and solitude. Much in our society reminds us of the negative side of growing old. And yet, this is not the truth, as this A Time to Dance will reveal.
Irish Wild Plants: Myths, Legends and Folklore by Niall Mac Coitir
Hardback; 25 Euro / 32 USD / 18 UK; 376 pages, with black-and-white line drawings throughout [Add To Basket]
The wild plants of Ireland have been bound up in our culture and folklore from the earliest times. They appear in the ancient Irish brehon laws and early nature poetry for which Ireland is famous. Herbal medicine was also important. In ancient Ireland, it was believed there were 365 different parts to the body, and a different plant existed to cure the ailments of each part. So, it is no surprise to find there are many myths and legends and much folklore associated with many wild plants and flowers in Ireland. A person who carries a four-leaved shamrock will have great luck in gambling, while a girl who puts nine ivy-leaves under her pillow will dream of her future husband. Plants are described in seasonal order instead of botanically, a fresh perspective that in many ways brings us back to the viewpoint of our ancestors. After describing the history of herbs in Ireland and traditional herbal medicine, different aspects of plant folklore are examined. Included are their roles in magical protection, their use in charms and spells (especially for love!), plants as emblems in children's games, in Irish place names and folklore cures. As with its companion "Irish Trees - Myths, Legends and Folklore", this book is beautifully illustrated with specially commissioned watercolours by Grania Langrishe.
The Anthropology of Ireland by Thomas M. Wilson and Hastings Donan
Trade Paperback; 30 Euro / 39 USD / 20 UK; 241 pages
Where and what is Ireland? What are the identities of the people of Ireland? How has European Union membership shaped Irish people's lives and interests? And how global is local Ireland? This book argues that such questions can be answered only by understanding everyday aspects of Irish culture and identity. Such understanding is achieved by paying close attention to what people in Ireland themselves say about the radical changes in their lives in the context of wider global transformation. As notions of sex, religion, and politics are radically reworked in an Ireland being re-imagined in ways inconceivable just a generation ago, anthropologists have been at the forefront of recording the results. The first comprehensive book-length introduction to anthropological research on the island as a whole, "The Anthropology of Ireland" considers the changing place in a changing Ireland of religion, sex, sport, race, dance, young people, the Travellers, St Patrick's Day and much more.
Cinema and Northern Ireland by John Hill
Trade Paperback; 25 Euro / 30 USD / 17 UK; 262 pages [Add To Basket]
John Hill's groundbreaking study is the first book to focus solely on the cinema from and about Northern Ireland. Based on detailed archival research, Hill's comprehensive account traces the history of film production in Northern Ireland from the beginnings of a local film industry in the 1920s and 1930s, when the first Northern Irish 'quota quickies' were made, through the propaganda films of the 1940s and 1950s and on to the cinema of the Troubles. Hill carefully examines the relationship between films and the political tensions within Northern Ireland, identifying the ways in which films have both reinforced and challenged social divisions. He considers the moral and religious controversies that have surrounded cinema in the North and describes the political censorship of films held to be seditious such as Ourselves Alone and The Plough and the Stars. He assesses the role of filmmaking in Northern Ireland during and after the Second World War and considers how Northern Ireland's relationship with Britain and the rest of Ireland figured in feature films such as Odd Man Out as well as in government propaganda films and informational shorts. He also traces the controversies surrounding the history of government policy in Northern Ireland and assesses the cultural and industrial impact this has had on local film. He then turns his attention to how the cinema has represented the Troubles. Tracing the history of Troubles cinema as it proceeds through the height of the conflict and into the 'peace process', Hill provide a fresh perspective on a variety of films, ranging from Resurrection Man and The Boxer to Divorcing Jack and Mad about Mambo. Both original and authoritative, Cinema and Northern Ireland is destined to become the standard work on the subject.
Heroes of Jadotville: The Soldiers’ Story by Rose Doyle
Large Format Paperback; 20 Euro / 26 USD / 14 UK; 384 pages
In 1961, during the United Nations intervention in the Katanga conflict in the Congo, central Africa, a company of Irish UN troops was forced to surrender to troops loyal to the Katangese Prime Minister Moise Tshombe. The contingent of Irish UN troops sent to protect the Belgian colonists and local population in Jadotville (now called Likasi) were shamefully attacked by those they were sent to protect. This book is their story. Using interviews and eye witness accounts, as well as previously hushed up factual evidence, journalist and author Rose Doyle, here, exposes how in the burial of The Jadotville Affair there lies the wider question of how, as well as why, these Irish peacekeeping soldiers became pawns in the international politics for control of Katanga and its vast mineral wealth.
This is Charlie Bird by Charlie Bird
Hardback; 25 Euro / 30 USD / 20 UK; 300 pages
Charlie Bird has made his name as a front-of-camera reporter covering the news as it happens, from wherever it happens. During his career as a news journalist he reported on the upheavals of the Haughey/FitzGerald years: Charlie Haughey even once said jokingly that he was his favourite reporter. He also covered the formation of the PDs; Labour's Spring tide in 1992; and the governments of Albert Reynolds, John Bruton and Bertie Ahern. Charlie Bird was RTE's contact with the IRA and now for the first time he reveals the background to his meetings with leading republicans in the lead-up to the 1994 and 1997 ceasefire declarations. He also recalls the investigation which exposed wrong-doing at National Irish Bank and the resulting stress of being involved in Ireland's longest libel case. Other major stories during his RTE career have included the Stardust tragedy, Mary's Robinson's term as Irish President and the Colombia Three. He also gives an insight into his foreign travels including the trial of Father Niall O'Brien in the Philippines, the release of Brian Keenan, meeting Nelson Mandela when he voted in the first post-apartheid elections in South Africa, and the Asian tsunami in 2004. Today, Charlie is one of the best-known faces on Irish TV. In telling his story, however, he goes beyond the news agenda to tell his own personal story, his family background and Dublin childhood as well as the difficulties that have arisen when he became part of the media story himself.
A Road on the Long Ridge: In Search of the Ancient Highway on the Esker Riada by Hermann Geissel
Large Square Paperback; 18 Euro / 24 USD / 13 UK; 140 pages with full colour and black-and-white illustrations throughout [Add To Basket]
Hermann Geissel gives an absorbing account of his attempt to trace and map out the Slí Mhór on the Esker Riada. This ancient routeway, extending from the Ath Cliath Cualann hurdle ford (drop the comma) that gave Dublin its Irish name, to the Ath Cliath Maree at the mouth of the Clarin River on Galway Bay, formerly linked East and West while dividing the island into two similar halves. The results of this research were first presented as An tSlí Mhór, a six-part television documentary on TG4, and since then the investigation has been revised and expanded into the present account. The outcome is a fascinating story of a personal odyssey undertaken by the author, together with historian Seamus Cullen, lavishly illustrated with striking photographs and equipped with helpful maps and informative appendices. Anecdotal humour and scholarly references sit together easily in the text, providing an enthralling and enlightening story of a little-known aspect of our medieval heritage. Packed full of information with stunning photographs from numerous locations all over Ireland, this site covers Hermann's varied interests which range from geology to archaeology, local history, flora and fauna. And, of course, road research.
Dublin v. Kerry: The Story of the Epic Rivalry that Changed Irish Sport by Tom Humphries
Hardback; 22 Euro / 27 USD / 17 UK; 291 pages [Add To Basket]
Dublin and Kerry. They were the aristocrats of Gaelic football, with over fifty All-Ireland titles between them, but as the 1974 season dawned the fans of these two great counties could not have guessed what lay ahead. For the first time, Tom Humphries tells the full story of Dublin and Kerry, on and off the field, over the decade that followed - a decade defined by a rivalry that lifted the sport to heights of drama and popularity that it had never known before. With his unmatched knowledge of the men involved and his characteristic stylishness, Tom Humphries is the only writer who could have told this great story.
Something Rotten: Irish Banking Scandals by Simon Carswell
Trade Paperback; 15 Euro / 19 USD / 11 UK; 258 pages [Add To Basket]
"Something Rotten" examines the major scandals that have rocked Irish banking over the last 30 years. Ireland has tolerated a culture of poor standards and weak regulation in its financial services sector. It took sensational revelations at the tribunals and ground-breaking investigative journalism to uncover some of the scandals. Others remained a secret, known only to informed insiders. A tradition of silence and evasion prevailed. Driven by an insatiable hunger for profits, some bankers had taken huge risks. But whistleblowers were unwilling to remain silent, and they revealed the murky details, exposing sinister banking practices. Simon Carswell opens with one of the most colourful rogues in the history of Irish banking, Ken Bates - the same Ken Bates who sold Chelsea FC to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. Back in the mid-1970s he was the owner of the Irish Trust Bank which went bust owing IR Punt4 million, leaving more than 1,200 depositors with the loss of their savings. "Something Rotten" also charts the collapse of Patrick Gallagher's Merchant Banking and the state's bail-out of AIB's Insurance Corporation of Ireland in the mid-1980s; the ousting of Edmund Farrell as managing director of the Irish Permanent Building Society, as well as scandals involving the country's major banks - not to mention DIRT, Ansbacher, AIB's rogue trader in the US and the recent overcharging revelations that have tarnished the reputation of the Irish banking sector. All the scams were either encouraged or tolerated by a banking system that was seriously compromised. "Something Rotten" takes a hard look at that culture and at the controversies it generated.
A Criminal and an Irishman: The Inside Story of the Boston Mob and the IRA by Patrick Nee
Paperback; 13 Euro / 18 USD / 9 UK; 264 pages [Add To Basket]
Boston mobster and convicted IRA gun-smuggler, Patrick 'Kneecaps' Nee was born in Rosmuc, Co. Galway before his family emigrated to the tough streets of South Boston. By 14 he was a seasoned criminal, and after a stint in the US Marines, went on to form an uneasy alliance with the infamous Whitey Bulger, for control of Southie's criminal underworld. In "A Criminal and An Irishman" Nee immerses you in his life as a career criminal. From armed robbery and extortion to revenge killings and a murderous gang war Nee tells all. But it was his other obsession - with the struggle for Irish freedom and the IRA - that led to a grand jury hearing and ultimately his downfall. 'If my recollections don't match those in some other book by some other criminal, I don't care. My memory is not perfect. This is my life as I remember it. And I'm comfortable with that'.
Irish Family Feuds: Battles Over Money, Sex and Power by Liam Collins
Paperback; 15 Euro / 19 USD / 11 UK; 265 pages [Add To Basket]
When families fall out, the bitterness that emerges is matched only by the ferocity of their attacks on each other. Family feuds are far more vicious than disputes between strangers. This work features cases that include many famous Irish families.
James Connolly by Donal Nevin
Paperback; 17 Euro / 22 USD / 12 UK; 840 pages [Add To Basket]
'Hasn't it been a full life, Lillie, and isn't this a good end?', were James Connolly's last words to his wife in Dublin Castle in the early hours of May 12, 1916 shortly before his execution in Kilmainham Jail. The first fourteen years of Connolly's life were spent in Edinburgh and the next seven years in the King's Liverpool Regiment in Ireland. In 1889, he returned to Edinburgh where he was a socialist activist and organiser for seven years. In 1896, at the age of 28, he was invited to Dublin as socialist organiser, founding the Irish Republican Socialist Party and editing The Workers' Republic. During seven years in America between 1903 and 1910, Connolly was in turn active with the Socialist Labor Party, organiser for the IWW ('Wobblies') and a national organiser for the Socialist Party of America. Returning to Ireland in 1910 as organiser of the Socialist Party of Ireland, Connolly was appointed Ulster Organiser of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union by James Larkin, succeeding him as acting general secretary in October 1914. As Commander of the Irish Citizen Army, Connolly joined with leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in the Easter Rising in 1916, becoming Commandant-General of the Dublin Division of the Army of the Republic and Vice-President of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic.
Don’t Ever Tell by Kathy O’Beirne
Paperback; 10 Euro / 13 USD / 7 UK; 304 pages [Add To Basket]
'I feel my story had to be told. So much evil was done there was a voice inside me shouting, "Justice".' With no one to confide in, Kathy suffered in silence as she was battered by her father and molested by local boys. At the age of eight, she was torn from her family and incarcerated in a series of Catholic homes. When she was sent to a psychiatric unit, she suffered terrifying electric- shock therapy and further cruelty at the hands of her supposed carers. After ending up in a Magdalen laundry, she fell victim to sexual abuse and gave birth to baby Annie just weeks before her fourteenth birthday. "Don't Ever Tell" is Kathy's harrowing account of her ruined childhood and of her subsequent fight for justice.
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