Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 442
7/8 March 2009
A Divided Peace: An Irishman in the Holy Land by David Lynch
Large Format Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 13 UK; 374 pages
"A Paradise Divided: An Irishman in the Holy Land" is a product of David Lynch's time in the Holy Land, and comprises interviews, discussions and articles. While focusing on the contemporary life of ordinary Palestinians and Israelis, the book also delves into the contested history of the region, providing accessible background to the conflict. It is an exciting, readable description of ordinary life in one of the most contested, newsworthy and interesting regions on the globe. Including chapters focusing on internal Israeli existence, David Lynch brings to life stories from both sides of the divide. David Lynch's book includes historical and political background, but it is ordinary Israelis and Palestinians who take centre stage. Palestinian feminists, Jewish settlers, young people, dispirited Israelis, angry Palestinians, struggling West Bank restaurant owners, Tel Aviv taxi drivers and Palestinian Christian Marxists are just some of those included in the cast of interesting, intriguing individuals who populate the pages of this fascinating book.
What Happened to Sin? By Sean Fagan
Large Format Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 13 UK; 222 pages [Add To Basket]
Over forty years ago Pope Paul VI published his encyclical Humanae Vitae, which thousands of conscientious married Catholics experienced as a crucifying experience, an agony of conscience for which clergy could do nothing to help them. But from the sufferings of those forty years they learned to question church teaching and to trust their personal experience and their God-given intelligence to discover that there is no convincing reason to justify the ban on contraception. The central chapter of Sean Fagan's book What Happened to Sin?, explains how this has come about. It is a masterly analysis of this major problem under the heading How Sinful is Sex?, that not only discusses in detail the specific question of contraception and responsible parenthood, but outlines an attractive and convincing theology of sex to counterbalance the church's appalling treatment of it down through the centuries. The book is basically a summary of fundamental moral theology, explaining the meaning of morality, the role of the Bible, the importance of conscience, the function of law, forms of guilt, God's forgiveness, the after-life, and person-centred responsibility.
Theatres of the Troubles: Theatre, Resistance and Liberation in Ireland by Bill McDonnell
Large Format Paperback; 24 Euro / 30 USD / 21 UK; 254 pages
This is the first book to document grass roots popular theatres that developed from within the working class Republican and Loyalist communities of Belfast and Derry during the latest phase of the four hundred year conflict between Ireland and Britain. "Theatres of the Troubles" explores the history of one of the most important periods of political theatre activity in post-war Europe. This significant study seeks to convey how the moment to moment unfolding of the conflict determined organisation, 'texts', performance contexts and reception, and how the theatres operated within Republican and Loyalist communities. All chapters draw upon previously unpublished primary sources, including texts, interviews and letters, shared workshops and witnessed performance. In examining not only how these theatres related to each other, but also their relationship to European traditions of radical theatre and to the liberation models which were developing in neo- and post-colonial contexts in the South, "Theatres of the Troubles" represents a key addition to our understanding of the critical relationship between historical conditions and the development of radical theatre forms. This is the first academic study of the Troubles' Republican and Loyalist working class theatres. It provides the unique perspective of an author who has worked as a grass roots practitioner/activist. Based on new research and previously unseen material, it includes texts and performances from cultural activists, Republican prisoners of war, Loyalist paramilitaries, priests and nuns.
Grabbing the Oyster: Anecdotes and Advice from Icons of Irish Business by Pearce Flannery
Hardback; 25 Euro / 32 USD / 22 UK; 250 pages [Add To Basket]
These entrepreneurs - and many more like them - are the economic saviours of Ireland. They are the people who influence our employment figures, our GDP, our Government's fiscal policy and, ultimately, the living standards of our citizens. They have created great wealth for themselves and have contributed handsomely to the society from whence they came. From his experiences with his own business, Pragmatica, Pearce Flannery has evaluated and extrapolated what he believes to be the common denominators for success among all of these entrepreneurs. The aim of the book is that, when you have read it, you will have achieved two goals: you will have got to know these 12 entrepreneurs a little better and understand that background, educational achievement or institutional influences have little influence in the success of a determined entrepreneur and you will understand a little more of the requirements for success and, hopefully, will be better prepared to establish for yourself a more conducive personal space to enable you to succeed in your chosen field.
Irish Times: Temporalities of Modernity by David Lloyd
Large Paperback with Endflaps; 25 Euro / 32 USD / 22 UK; 180 pages
This book sketches an alternative conception of historical time. It argues that ways of living that are recalcitrant to capitalist logic, and therefore targeted for destruction, are not backward remainders of outmoded traditions, but are themselves adaptations of older formations that responded to earlier waves of modernization. Modernity does not replace tradition, nor does tradition lag behind modernity, but each emerges always in differential relation to its counterpart. Irish culture has been deeply informed by this sense of layered time, in the ways it is haunted by un-worked-through pasts and in the self-conscious theory and practice of Irish political and aesthetic modernism. In essays on the memory and commemoration of the Famine, on James Connolly s and James Joyce s parallel explorations of history and temporality, and on the figure of the ruin in Irish culture and visual art, The author analyses the persistence of the non-modern in Irish culture, showing it to be a resource for cultural invention rather than a drag on progress and modernization. The living on of supposedly exhausted cultural practices offers, he argues, still viable utopian possibilities, even at a moment when capitalist modernity seems to have become universally sovereign.
Anne’s Song by Anne Nolan
Paperback; 8 Euro / 10 USD / 7 UK; 290 pages [Add To Basket]
As the eldest of The Nolan Sisters, Anne Nolan's life appeared from the outside to be one of boundless excitement and glamour - a dream come true for any young and aspiring singer. At the height of their fame, The Nolan Sisters were one of the biggest acts around, touring with Frank Sinatra, performing at the Royal Variety Performance and travelling around the world to play for their adoring fans. Surrounded by a bevy of loving sisters, two protective brothers and parents who wanted to see their children succeed, how could Anne Nolan's childhood have been anything but idyllic? And yet behind the fairytale script - the fame and glitz lay hidden a dark family secret that has, until now, never been told. Anne's story - which starts in her birthplace Dublin and moves to the Northern club scene of Blackpool - tells of this other life - one that had to remain hidden, one of fear and pain that has cast a terrible shadow over her entire life. After so many years of silence, she has decided the time has come to speak of the brutal truth behind the carefully cultivated image, that was The Nolans.
Gunsmoke and Mirrors by Henry McDonald
Hardback; 23 Euro / 29 USD / 20 UK; 206 pages [Add To Basket]
31 August 1994. The IRA ceasefire is announced in Belfast. Gerry Adams takes to the podium built close to Sinn Féin headquarters. All around him are placed helium balloons, flowers, teddy bears, good luck cards, etc. It’s more like a kid’s birthday party than the end of a war. What Adams had to say was even more instructive. He talked about the community once being on its knees — an appeal to those scarred in memory by the loyalist pogroms of 1969. His speech was full of references to nationalist equality and parity of esteem. In short, he was re-packaging the so-called armed struggle as somehow the outworking of the old civil rights struggle. Gunsmoke and Mirrors challenges this epic piece of myth-making.
Henry McDonald, himself from the republican Markets area of Belfast, talks to ex-IRA men about their real motivations for starting their war. It had nothing to do with civil rights. The settlement that Sinn Fein/IRA finally secured in 2007 is almost identical with one that had been on the table thirty years earlier. McDonald exposes the memorialist culture that continues to rewrite history to justify the unjustifiable. McDonald gets past the cheap hagiography of terrorists and the wasted lives of a generation to focus on one essential truth: none of the IRA's principal war aims was achieved. The whole sorry business was a waste of time. The people who died, died in vain.
The Tipperary War Dead: A History of the Casualties of the First World War by Tom & Ruth Burnell
Large Format Paperback; 20 Euro / 25 USD / 18 UK; 350 pages [Add To Basket]
This book is a comprehensive list of those from Co. Tipperary who died during the First World War. Inspired by the many soldier’s graves in their hometown Tom and Ruth Burnell set about a task of honouring the men who passed away defending their country. Combined with intricate data and never-before-seen correspondence it is the first of its kind.
Cailleach: The Hag of Beara by Leanne O’Sullivan
Paperback; 11 Euro / 14 USD / 10 UK; [Add To Basket]
An Cailleach Bhearra, or the Hag of Beara, is a wise woman figure embedded in the physical and mental landscape of western Ireland and Scotland, particularly in the Beara Peninsula in West Cork where Leanne O'Sullivan comes from. The Cailleach's roots lie in pre-Christian Ireland, and stories of her relationship with that rugged landscape and culture still abound. Central to these narratives is the story of her love affair with a sea god. A large stone rests on the ridge overlooking Ballycrovane Harbour, and it is said to be the petrified body of the Cailleach; she has had several lives, beginning each life with a birth from her stony form - and returning to stone at the end. The supernatural and superhuman feature strongly in traditional stories of the Cailleach (pronounced Ca-lockor Cay-luck) - feats such as her creating mountains or leaping vast distances that place the tales firmly into the world of myth. While still recognising the Cailleach as a figure of extraordinary power and influence, Leanne O'Sullivan's poems explore the human origins from which the legend grew. She still forms the landscape, yet at the same time is intrinsically part of it, close to it, rather than gigantically above it; and her husband is not the sea god of legend, but a fisherman. And for all her strength, she is vulnerable.
Gardening the Soul by Sister Stan
Paperback; 10 Euro / 13 USD / 9 UK; [Add To Basket]
Sister Stan, as she is affectionately known, was brought up on a farm in Dingle, County Kerry, one of the most beautiful parts of Ireland. It was there that she learnt to appreciate the earth, its stillness and its energy, its beauty and its bounty. In this hugely powerful and evocative book, Sister Stan looks to the earth that is so precious to our existence for inspiration throughout the year. Reflecting the garden's changing rhythms through the seasons, "Gardening the Soul" offers us a daily thought to keep us going as we face the challenges of modern life. All our moods are covered here...in January, when there is silence in the garden, she looks at Solitude in our soul...in March, with emergence in the garden, she offers Hope...in August, when there is fullness and abundance everywhere, there is Blessing, and in October, the time of harvest, there is Harmony. Comforting and insightful, "Gardening the Soul" is an inspirational daybook of lessons gleaned from the wisdom of nature.
Seasons of the Day by Sister Stan
Paperback; 10 Euro / 13 USD / 9 UK; [Add To Basket]
Based on the traditional "Book of Hours" - psalms said daily, at set times, by religious communities throughout the world - "Seasons of the Day" reveals the enduring relevance of this ancient practice to contemporary living. In "Seasons of the Day", Sister Stan, knowing that our modern-day understanding of time pushes us to our stressed-out limits, passes on the monastic ritual to the layperson. Here, as she slows us down, she reveals the psalms through her own words, her own prayers. Using them, she also guides us tenderly through a four-week period, from the silence and mystery of pre-dawn (matins) through to the reflective conclusion of the day (compline). In a world that can often seem hostile and unfriendly, her gentle reflections help the reader find inner peace and confidence. It is a prayer book for today.
Now is the Time: Spiritual Reflections by Sister Stan
Paperback; 10 Euro / 13 USD / 9 UK; [Add To Basket]
"Now is the Time" became an instant bestseller when it was first published, and it has continued to sell to an increasing and eager audience who admire and understand Stan's way. In this expanded edition, which includes five new entries, Stan's message remains the same: we have the time, if we make the choice to take time ..."Now is the Time" is a book for everyone; young or old, male or female, for the converted or those who are irreligious or plain disaffected. Even people for whom a spiritual view of the world is a closed book should try opening this one. "Now is the Time" looks beyond the boundaries of any one faith or church and draws on the great spiritual and philosophical traditions of east and west. As Sister Stan focuses on a line of poetry from one of the world's great authors, an idea from a psychotherapist or philosopher, or a proverb from oriental wisdom, she weaves her own thoughts around them in a way that presents them afresh, and allows us to see them from a new perspective. Widely loved as a committed social activist and tireless worker on behalf of people in need, Sister Stan reveals an entirely different side of her nature - the reflective, contemplative and the spiritual - and offers us an inspiring and thought-provoking work of vision.
Please note: Prices were correct at time of original posting but are subject to subsequent change without notice.
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