Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 458
29/30 August 2009
Conor Cruise O’Brien: Violent Notions by Diarmuid Whelan
Hardback; 35 Euro / 45 USD / 28 UK; 200 pages
This is the first comprehensive study of the life, mind and writings of Conor Cruise O Brien. It is first and foremost a study of the main currents of thought in his writings, such as the centrality of religion to his conception of politics and his understanding of nationalism. In O Brien s case, however, the contradictions of his upbringing - a secular, cosmopolitan legacy entwined with the more mainstream religious nationalist tradition from his mother s political clan - combine to form his original and distinctive contribution to Irish intellectual life. In writing this book, the unique transaction between O Brien and the individuals whose ideas have shaped his mind is fleshed out in parallel with the events of the life of this intellectual engagé. The book is enhanced by the author s access to his private papers, as well as a year long immersion in his family s papers in the National Library of Ireland. Some of the previously unseen material includes a nationalist history of Ireland which he wrote in 1950 for the then government policy of anti-partition. Other tracts include a full screenplay for a projected film of Michael Collins life (from the late 60s) and a sympathetic radio history of Roger Casement s trial. In addition, there is a wealth of personal correspondence with his family and other political figures of note. What emerges is a picture of an immensely gifted young man who was reared on history and politics and who lived out his years under the shadow of a conflicting intellectual inheritance, which is the source of all his talents and compromises. These previously unttapped sources enabled the author to merge successfully the political O Brien with the private O Brien.
Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everday Living by Declan Kiberd
Large Format Paperback; 16 Euro / 22 USD / 12 UK; 395 pages [Add To Basket]
Ulysses continues to be one of the central books of the twentieth century and this is an audacious new take on it. It was never meant to be an abstruse a book for the elite, argues Declan Kiberd. It is a book for the common people, and offers a humane vision of a more tolerant and decent life under the dreadful pressures of the modern world. Leopold Bloom, the half-Jewish Irishman who is the book's hero, teaches the young Stephen Dedalus (modelled on Joyce himself) how he can grow and mature as an artist and an adult human being. Bloom has learned to live with contradictions, with anxiety and sexual jealousy, and with the rudeness and racism of the people he encounters in the city streets, and in his apparently banal way sees deeper than any of them. He embodies an intensely ordinary kind of wisdom, Kiberd argues, and in this way offers us a model for living well, in the tradition of Homer, Dante and the Bible (on all of which Joyce drew in the writing of his book).
Wicked Little Joe by Joseph Hone
Large Format Paperback; 20 Euro / 28 USD / 15 UK; 260 pages
'In the summer of 1939, as a two-year-old in London, I was given away by my parents to a Chelsea friend and taken on the Irish Mail to Dublin.'Thus begins this extraordinary memoir by travel writer and novelist Joseph Hone, one of eight children farmed out by impecunious and inebriate parents, who was raised at Maidenhall in County Kilkenny by the historian and essayist Hubert Butler and his wife Peggy, sister of Tyrone Guthrie of Annaghmakerrig in County Monaghan. The story is told through a cache of letters discovered on Hubert Butler's death between him and his friend 'Old Joe', Little Joe's grandfather and biographer of Yeats and George Moore, upon whom fell the financial responsibility for his grandson's upbringing. This account of his childhood and youth during the 1940s and 50s in rural Ireland among the privileged and artistic elite of his generation living down-at-heel if comfortable lives in a newly emergent state, is an enthralling reminder of the happenstance and precariousness of all our lives.Like William Trevor, Joe was boarded out at Sandford Park in Dublin and then at St Columba's, both of which he documents in loving and comic detail, gaining as much stimulation from his home environment as from the excesses and disappointments of these single-sex establishments. He writes with feeling and insight of the lives of those in his circle and beyond - his teachers and foster parents and friends - working as an assistant for John Ford during the making of "The Quiet Man", and finding himself as the writer he was to become.This luminous work of autobiography and self-interrogation bears comparison with Nabokov's "Speak Memory" or Frank O'Connor's "An Only Child". It will take its place as a classic of the genre while illuminating unknown corners of Ireland's cultural landscape.
The Quiet Man … and Beyond: Reflections on a Classic Film, John Ford and Ireland edited by Sean Crosson and Rod Stoneman
Large Format Paperback; 23 Euro / 28 USD / 18 UK; 264 pages [Add To Basket]
In 1996, "The Quiet Man" topped an "Irish Times" poll for the best Irish film of all time. Almost ten years later, in 2005, with many more Irish (and Irish-themed) films made, "The Quiet Man" still occupied number four in a poll of 10,000 people across Ireland. John Ford's greatest commercial success, the film also set a template for Ireland's representation, and promotion, for over half a century. This book, "The Quiet Man...and Beyond", involves both critical analysis of aspects of "The Quiet Man" as myth, commodity and fetish and the celebration of a film that has sustained considerable academic attention and popular appreciation since its release in 1952. Among the topics considered are the complexity of the film's relation to Ireland, Irish literature and to John Ford's other films; its perceived place with regard to indigenous Irish cinema; and the phenomenon of its circulation and reception as a cult film over the years. Contributors to the book include leading international academics such as Professor Luke Gibbons (co-author of "Cinema and Ireland", and author of a study of the film, "The Quiet Man"), Professor John Hill (author of "Cinema and Northern Ireland: Film, Culture and Politics") and Dr. Ruth Barton (author of "Irish National Cinema").
The Banksters: How a Powerful Elite Squandered Ireland’s Wealth by David Murphy and Martina Devlin
Large Format Paperback; 15 Euro / 20 USD / 11 UK; 308 pages [Add To Basket]
1929... On Wall Street, during the worst financial crisis the world had ever seen, the word “Banksters” was coined to describe those ruthless individuals who had gambled away the country’s wealth.
2009... The phrase “Banksters” is resurrected as David Murphy and Martina Devlin describe the shocking story of how the Irish banking system was brought to its knees by a corrupt elite driven by profit and greed.Banksters examines the events which triggered the near collapse of Ireland’s banking system, when it unfolded that a privileged ‘golden circle’, caught up in a frenzy of greed and opportunism, had gambled and lost with the deposits and pensions of the Irish people.It charts how an unprecedented orgy of over-borrowing – fuelled by bankers who threw out the rule book on lending and reckless tax breaks from cavalier politicians –caused a massively over-inflated property bubble. While bank shares climbed to dizzying heights, profits soared and executives earned enormous bonuses, those who cried ‘stop!’ were shouted down. But there was no promised ‘soft landing’ when, in September 2008, bankers overnight went from being pillars of society to pariahs. When the word ‘Ireland’ became synonymous with corruption in the global lending markets. When a generation learned it would pay a high price for the arrogance and greed of its business elite.
Banksters is a hard-hitting read that, were it fiction, might not be believed. In describing the key players, their motivations, personalities and lavish lifestyles it poses the all-important questions: who is answerable – and will all the culprits be called to account?
Metamorphosis: Lessons from the Formative Years of the Celtic Tiger, 1979-1993 by Con Power
Hardback; 45 Euro / 66 USD / 35 UK; 340 pages [Add To Basket]
There are consistent and recurrent themes throughout the CII campaigns from 1979 to 1993 that remain relevant in Ireland today. There is a continuing need for the generation of economic awareness on a broad basis within the community, and for social partnership to unite all stakeholders in the common objective of sustaining growth and ensuring equity in resource distribution. There is a continuing need for vigilance in the management of the public finances, and to guard against community expectations and aspirations outstripping economic reality. Associated with this is the need for vigilance about the level of inflation, especially Government-generated inflation. In relation to promoting an environment for enterprise, there is a need for a balanced approach to business legislation, business taxation, and employee issues, including employee shareholding and participation. Education and training needs to be up-dated constantly in line with, and even ahead of, international best practice. Challenges remain in infrastructure development, balanced regional development, and environmental protection and enhancement. Putting together all of the elements, there is a requirement for a dynamic in identifying national business growth sectors in the light of international developments and of the ongoing international reallocation of product and service specialisations. Much was learned in Ireland in this regard in the decade and a half prior to the Celtic Tiger era. It is vital that these lessons, then learned the hard way, are not forgotten; they remain relevant not only for Ireland, but for the new and aspirant Member States of the EU and for developing economies throughout the world. In this book, Con Power has distilled a lifetime's experience as an influential participant in the development of Ireland's social and economic policy. In the current period of global economic and financial turbulence, we can learn from Ireland's experience in managing change successfully in times of adversity: Con Power's analysis, in effect, constitutes a self-help manual for business inputs to the process of national economic and social policy formulation. 'The emphasis on economic realism has an enduring relevance. So too have the policies involving the incentivisation of human endeavour, of risk-taking, and of capital investment through low taxation, light-touch regulation and open and flexible markets that have been a consistent feature of public policy since 1997 and must remain so' - From the Foreword by Charlie McCreevy, Member of the European Commission.
Ireland’s Economic Crash: A Radical Agenda for Change by Kieran Allen
Large Format Paperback; 17 Euro / 23 USD / 12 UK; 216 pages [Add To Basket]
"Ireland's Economic Crash: A Radical Agenda for Change" recounts how a miracle economy turned into an economic disaster zone. While its ordinary people suffer, the government bails out banks and imposes wage cuts, levies and reductions in basic public services. The result is a downward spiral of economic gloom and doom. In this damming critique, Kieran Allen advocates a withdrawal of state support to the private banks and the creation of a 'good' public bank. He calls for a scheme of public works to give jobs to the unemployed and to stimulate the moribund economy. He argues that those who made vast fortunes during the boom years should carry the cost of cleaning up the mess they largely created. Shifting from the local to global dimensions, Allen examines the reckless growth of a 'casino economy' where valuable resources were squandered by hedge funds and other financial speculators. He suggests that our current 'for profit' system is facing a deep, long-term crisis. Written in a clear and accessible style, "Ireland's Economic Crash" backs up its claim with carefully marshalled evidence and argument. Along the way Allen punctures five myths about the Irish crash - including that we all must share the pain - and proposes specific solutions to get us out of the crisis. Above all, "Ireland's Economic Crash" is a passionate call for new thinking about economic alternatives and the future for Ireland.
Celtic Meltdown: Why Ireland is Broke and How We Can Fix It by Cearbhall O Dalaigh
Large Format Paperback; 13 Euro / 18 USD / 10 UK; 210 pages
Large Format Paperback with 8 page full colour photo insert; 12 Euro / 16 USD / 10 UK; 300 pages [Add To Basket]
With the Irish government s bank guarantee in September 2008, the death knell sounded for Celtic Tiger Ireland. We watched in disbelief as the bubble burst: tax revenues collapsed, unemployment soared and the Irish people were made liable for huge gambles lost by bankrupt banks. Was the party over? Many factors are blamed for the financial crisis, but who is really responsible? And perhaps more importantly, why was everyone taken by surprise? What happened? How did it happen? How can we prevent similar crises from happening again? Where do we go from here? There is a way out of this mess, based on high standards, appropriate levels of pay and conditions, fair and efficient taxation, strict regulation in the public sector and in financial markets. Those in positions of power must share the pain. Routes to recovery are charted here, with radical ideas such as abandoning the euro, allowing banks to fail and embracing nuclear power. People in Ireland are angry and want to know the truth. This book will change your mind on many aspects of modern Ireland. Celtic Meltdown goes behind the headlines to tell the inside stories the spin doctors have covered-up.
60 Years, 30 Perspectives: Ireland and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights edited by Donncha O’Connell
Large Format Paperback; 20 Euro / 28 USD / 15 UK; 230 pages [Add To Basket]
Amnesty International Irish Section is publishing a book to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Thirty leading social policy commentators in Ireland have been invited to write on a specific article reflecting from his or her point of view the relevance of this article to Ireland in 2008. The book will offer a unique insight into how the values set out in the Declaration are protected and respected in Ireland 60 years on from its adoption. Contributors include: Colm O'Gorman, Niall Crowley, Diarmuid Martin, Sean Healy, Jack O'Connor, Justin Kilcullen and Emily O'Reilly.
Upfront & Personal: The Autobiography by Coleen Nolan
Large Format Paperback; 14 Euro / 19 USD / 11 UK; 360 pages, with two 8-page full colour photo inserts [Add To Basket]
This is a revealing and touching memoir by the queen of daytime television. Writing with the warmth and humour that have made her so popular, Coleen describes her eventful life, from joining her sisters' band The Nolans when she was only nine to growing up in the spotlight as they went on to chart-topping success around the world.Coleen also reveals how she coped with her tumultuous marriage to television star Shane Richie and how, after they split she was left a single parent struggling to get through each day. She landed the job of presenter on "This Morning" and was just finding her feet when she was sacked, plunging her into depression as she lost all confidence. A way out finally came in the form of chat show "Loose Women", where Coleen reclaimed her place in the nation's hearts. Today she is happily married and an inspiration to women everywhere who believed their 'best days' were behind them. Entertaining, funny and shockingly honest, this book is sure to appeal to her many fans old and new.
Ag Bun Na Cruaiche: Folklore and Folklife from the Foot of Croagh Patrick by Caitriona Hastings
Large Format Paperback with Photographs throughout; 20 Euro / 28 USD / 16 UK; 172 pages [Add To Basket]
The Schools' Scheme of 1937-38, a collaboration between the Folklore Commission and the National Teachers' Organisation, used students to gather a body of traditional knowledge. In this book, the author navigates us through the masses of material, to help uncover this past. A lecturer in the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Caitriona Hastings is a regular guest on RTE radio and won the Eilis Dillon award in 1999 for her Irish language work, Dea-Sceala.
Please note: Prices were correct at time of original posting but are subject to subsequent change without notice.
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