Read Ireland Book Reviews
Issue 468
30/31 January 2010
Gold, Silver and Green: The Irish Olympic Journey 1896-1924 by Kevin McCarthy
Hardback; 39 Euro / 56 USD / 32 UK; 420 pages
The book focuses on the Irish and Irish diasporal involvement in the Olympic Games. It discusses in detail the sporting involvement but, even more so, the political and national battles which accompanied the Irish Olympic journey prior to independence. It challenges traditional perceptions of sporting nationalism and places the Irish story in a quite unique international context, showing how decisions made in London, Lausanne and New York had a profound impact on the Irish sporting, and national, destiny.
This book is the product of six years of research across Ireland, London, New York and Switzerland. The research has unearthed a huge amount of information, most of it previously unpublished. Few people will have known that hurling and Gaelic football formed part of an Olympic Games, or that Ireland competed as a separate nation in events like bicycle polo and hockey long before independence.
The author traces the story of Irish and Irish-American Olympic involvement from its accidental beginnings in 1896 through to the very significant political issues which dominated Irish sports. He has traced the role played by the Olympic Games in the evolution of a national identity in Ireland, and in the emergence of Irish America as a major sporting and political force in the USA. Political figures from Arthur Griffith, Roger Casement and John Devoy are all entwined in the Irish Olympic story.
The work highlights the divisions and complexities within Irish sport, as well as the significant influence of the British Olympic Association as a barrier to Irish recognition at the Games. It charts the political intrigue behind the scenes in London and Lausanne as Ireland sought Olympic recognition after the 1921 Treaty. Most of all, this work highlights the magnificent achievements of the sportsmen, and one woman, who originated in the main from rural Ireland and won substantial Olympic success in throwing and jumping events, the Marathon, tennis, and other events.
Unlikely Radicals: Irish Post-Primary Teachers and the ASTI, 1909-2009 by John Cunningham
Hardback; 39 Euro / 47 USD / 32 UK; 380 pages, with two 8-page photo inserts [Add To Basket]
In 2009, the ASTI celebrates the 100th Anniversary of its foundation. Founding members included such national figures as Eamon de Valera and Thomas MacDonagh, both of who served as second-level teachers. The ASTI has rich history in representing the teaching profession and in promoting second-level education and has been a dynamic force in the education sector in Ireland. The ASTI is the largest second-level teachers' union in Ireland with 17,500 members teaching in over 75 per cent of second-level schools. "Unlikely Radicals" provides a social and historical account of the ASTI's role in the development of second-level education and the teaching profession in Ireland. It demonstrates the remarkable contribution which second-level education has made to the lives of millions of young people and to social, political and economic progress in Ireland. It details the development of a trade union which has had a significant impact on social and education policy and which has continued to represent the values of Irish teachers and their aspirations for those they teach.
Precarious Childhood in Post-Independence Ireland by Moira J. Maguire
Hardback; 80 Euro / 100 USD / 60 UK; 246 pages
This fascinating study reveals the desperate plight of the poor, neglected, illegitimate, and abused children in an Irish society that claimed to 'cherish' and hold them sacred, but in fact marginalized and ignored them. This is the first book to examine the history of childhood in post-independence Ireland, and it breaks new ground in examining the role of the state in caring for its most vulnerable citizens. This book will be important for those interested in the history of family and childhood, and twentieth century Irish social history. In foregrounding policy and practise as it related to poor, illegitimate, and abused children, this book gives voice to historical actors who formed a significant proportion of the Irish population but who have been ignored and marginalized in the historical record. More importantly, this book uses the experiences of those children as lenses through which to re-evaluate Catholic influence in post-independence Irish society. The historiography on church and state in modern Ireland tends to emphasise the formal means through which the church sought to ensure that Irish social policy was infused with Catholic principles. While it is almost cliche to suggest that the Catholic Church exerted influence over many aspects of Irish life, there have been few attempts to examine what this meant in practical terms. This book is an essential and timely work, offering a different interpretation of the relationship between and among the Catholic Church, the political establishment, and Irish people.
Ireland, India and Empire: Indo-Irish Radical Connections, 1919-64 by Kate O’Malley
Large Format Paperback; 20 Euro / 30 USD / 16 UK; 216 pages [Add To Basket]
Offering a fresh new perspective on the history of the end of Empire, with the Irish and Indian independence movements as its focus, this book details how each country's nationalist agitators engaged with each other and exchanged ideas. Using previously unpublished sources from the Indian Political Intelligence collection, it chronicles the rise and fall of movements such as the Indian-Irish Independence League and the League Against Imperialism, whose histories have, until now, remained deeply hidden in the archives. O'Malley also highlights opaque aspects of the careers of popular figures from both Irish and Indian history including Subhas Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, Eamon de Valera and Maud Gonne McBride at points when their paths crossed. This book encompasses aspects of Irish, Indian, British, Imperial and intelligence history and will be of interest to students, teachers and general history enthusiasts alike.
The Road to Avondale: The Memoirs of an Irish Forester by Thomas Briody
Large Format Paperback; 20 Euro / 28 USD / 17 UK; 370 pages, with an 8-page black-and-white photo insert [Add To Basket]
At the age of 96, Thomas (Tosty) Briody is one of the oldest foresters in Ireland. To date he is the only Irish forester to write an extensive account of his career in Forestry. Retiring in 1978, some ten years before Coillte was established, Thomas Briody is not just a witness to a vanished age in Irish Forestry, but also a witness to a number of vanished worlds. In this book, the first volume of his memoirs, he describes the Cavan of his youth and early manhood: the traditional way of life he witnessed passing as well as the harsh years of the Economic War, which he spent at home. He tells of his studies in Ballyhaise Agricultural College and Albert Horticultural College, Glasnevin and how he came to choose Forestry as a career. His subsequent training as a forester both at Avondale Forestry School and at various centres around the country is described in detail as are the initial few years he spent as a forester working on the Emergency Fuel Scheme that sought to keep trains running and hospitals heated during the Second World War. This book finishes in Spring 1943, some months before his marriage, when he was suddenly transferred from Slievenamon to the Slieve Blooms.
Shops of Ireland by Sean Rothery
Large Format Paperback; 16 Euro / 22 USD / 12 UK; [Add To Basket]
In this study of Irish shops, Sean Rothery looks at their development from rural converted houses to city planned shops, considers types of shops (including butchers, pawnbrokers, undertakers, post offices, grocers and pubs), and explains the materials used, the facade lettering, and the color schemes. Throughout, he illustrates his text with numerous exquisitely prepared drawings of the shopfronts themselves and of details often neglected by the passing observer. Originally published in 1978, most of the hardcovers were destroyed in a warehouse fire. Now this rare and expensive title is available as a handsome, affordable paperback.
The World of Guinness by Rory Guinness
Paperback; 9 Euro / 12 USD / 7 UK; [Add To Basket]
With just GBP100 in his pocket, money he had inherited from a previous employer, Arthur Guinness left behind his family's small brewery in Leixlip to seek his fortunes in Dublin. Acquiring the ill-equipped St James' Gate brewery in 1759 in the heart of the city, he began a career that resulted in the production of a porter beer that was to become world famous. This fully illustrated book is published to celebrate the 250th anniversary in 2009 of the signing of the lease on the St James' Gate Brewery, and the start of a brewing legacy. It tells the fascinating story of a family of brewers and how they managed to globalise their unique brew through the quality of the beer itself and the lavish advertising campaigns that have become equally famous. In a lively and accessible style, Rory Guinness tells the story of Guinness beer, from its beginnings to the continuing success it enjoys today.
St. Patrick: The Live and World of Ireland’s Saint by J.B. Bury
Paperback; 16 Euro / 20 USD / 13 UK; 198 pages
Large Format Paperback with 8 page full colour photo insert; 12 Euro / 16 USD / 10 UK; 300 pages [Add To Basket]
St Patrick is perhaps the most venerated saint of the modern age, whose feast day is marked each year by massive celebrations across the world, from Dublin to New York and Sydney to Rio de Janeiro. Yet, in spite of his popularity, very little is known of his life, which is clouded by myth and uncertainty. The facts that are known - that he was born in the late fourth century in Roman Britain, was captured by Irish raiders at the age of 16 and sold into slavery, escaped six years later to Britain where he became a priest and later a bishop before returning to Ireland to proselytise - give only a vague sense of the man behind the legends. J.B. Bury's classic biography, which remains the definitive work on the saint, dispels many of the myths and paints a vivid and exacting portrait of the world around St Patrick, revealing the influences and inspirations that transformed him from a minor fifth century missionary into the patron saint of Ireland and a source of living inspiration for countless people - the Irish above all - some 1,500 years after his death.
Gypsum Mining and the Shirley Estate in South Monaghan, 1800-1936 by Micheal McDermott
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 8 UK; [Add To Basket]
In the nineteenth century, south Monaghan underwent a number of crises both economic and political. From the point of view of the landlords, the Shirley family, the problem was to maintain enough tenants on the land who had the capacity to pay their rent. To that end, the Shirley family tried to develop other sources of income as well as agriculture. In particular, they initiated a search for coal but instead discovered a substantial deposit of gypsum under south Monaghan. From the early nineteenth century they began to develop this resource by leasing it to a number of entrepreneurs, some of who were more effective than others. As the Shirley's fortunes declined in the late nineteenth century and the estate was sold under the land purchase acts the ownership of the gypsum deposit passed into the hands of the local community who managed it in the newly independent Ireland.
Who Killed the Franks Family?: Agrarian Violence in Pre-Famine Cork by Denis A. Cohen
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 8 UK; [Add To Basket]
This study examines the violent world of north Cork during the Rockite disturbances of the early 1820s. Agrarian gangs attempted to regulate rural society, threatening or attacking those who ignored their decrees. Taking the killing of a Protestant family in 1823 as a case study, the author explores the tensions and pressures that led to this agrarian violence and relates how the authorities tried to bring the killers to justice and restore order in the countryside.
The Dublin Liberties, 1600-1850 by Kenneth Milne
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 8 UK; [Add To Basket]
The ‘liberties’ are a familiar feature of Dublin. Indeed the term survives colloquially to denote the heartland of the old city. But what exactly were the liberties? How did these semi-autonomous urban jurisdictions come into being, and to what extent did they retain their prerogatives until well into the nineteenth century? This study attempts to answer these questions. It examines the medieval origins of the manors of St Sepulchre and of Thomas Court and Donore, ruled respectively by the archbishop of Dublin and the earl of Meath, and of the two smaller liberties of St Patrick’s and Christ Church, subject to the deans and chapters of the two cathedrals. Until modern times the lords of the larger liberties exercised legal jurisdictions comparable to those of the lord mayor (even to the extent of appointing constables and administering gaols), and in all four liberties to a greater or lesser degree they controlled the economic life of their territories through their market juries and by administering the assize of bread, the provision of public lighting and fire-engines. Their activities inevitably led to tensions with the municipal authorities, and with each other, and how they tenaciously maintained their privileges until the demands made by increasingly complex urban society became too much for them is considered.
Clonsilla and the Rebellion of 1798 by Ciaran Priestley
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 8 UK; [Add To Basket]
This study examines the response of the inhabitants of Clonsilla to the social disorder, violent attacks and civil unrest that were a feature of their community throughout the 1790’s. As an agricultural community, the local gentry managed and promoted the local economy through the Farmers Society. Security concerns were addressed at meetings of the Association for the Protection of Private Property from 1792 and by the armed Clonsilla Cavalry Yeomanry corps later in the decade. Each organisation also became venue for the practise of parish politics, reputation building and the pursuit of personal vendettas. Detailed minute books, account sheets and parish registers originating from the gentry themselves are exploited to convey this aspect of the community’s experience. The extremities of treachery, violence and deception that visited the parish are reflective of the polarised nature of Irish society at this time. The bitterness of the power struggles fought between the local gentry reflect the social context in which they were played out and are indicative of the serious consequences of failure in this regard. The disenfranchised tenant population of Clonsilla had lived for four hundred years under the proprietorship of the powerful, infamous and nationally loathed Luttrell family. Their actions are the clearest indication of their true sentiments at this time. Both sides of this conflict organised themselves along pragmatic economic, social and geographical lines. As a result, interaction between the parish and the populations of Lucan, Castleknock, Dunboyne, Leixlip and surrounding neighbourhoods are a crucial factor in understanding the events as they are outlined in this study.
Piss-pots, Printers and Public Opinion in 18th Century Dublin: Richard Twiss’s Tour in Ireland by Martyn J. Powell
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 8 UK; [Add To Basket]
This book explores the visit of the English tourist Richard Twiss to Ireland and the resulting controversy - enthusiastically stoked by Dublin's printers - that followed the publication of the account of his travels. A Tour in Ireland in 1775 derided Ireland's cultural achievements and the morals and manners of the inhabitants. Most famously it described the people of Connaught as 'savages' and the legs of Ireland's women-folk as less than svelte. The resulting outcry saw dozens of newspaper articles, squibs, poems and caricatures aimed at the unfortunate tourist. This can be seen as evidence of a newly politicized Irish 'nation' spoiling for a fight. But the episode also sheds important light on publishing and print culture in Dublin. Twiss could see the value of courting controversy, and Dublin's printers and booksellers set him up as a pantomime villain to ensure steady sales. At the locus of the furore surrounding Twiss's tour, and consequently of this study, was an item sold by printers that married the new consumer culture of eighteenth-century Ireland with popular patriotism: a chamber pot at the bottom of which was emblazoned Twiss's image, thus allowing any right-thinking Irish man or woman to urinate on this most hated member of the Royal Society.
Dublin in 1707: A Year in the Life of the City by Brendan Twomey
Paperback; 10 Euro / 14 USD / 8 UK; [Add To Basket]
What happened in Dublin in 1707? At first glance - not much. But initial impressions can be misleading - the legacy of the decisions reached of 1707 persist to this day. The Ballast Office ( Dublin Port ), the Registry of Deeds and Marsh's Library were all founded in that year. This study describes, primarily from a contemporary perspective and using contemporary sources, the events of 1707 - these include the laws enacted and the issues debated by the Irish Parliament and the decisions of Dublin Corporation and the parish vestries of the Church of Ireland - these later two bodies had the most immediate impact on the daily lives of Dubliners. The study also analyses a number of other cultrual, social and economic events that would have constituted the topics of everyday conversation in 1707.
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