Books of the Month
September 2007
Poetry
The Poet
by Vivienne Baillie
This beautifully written booklet is a modern parable on the value, beauty and solace of words. The book is inspired by the work of Pat Ingoldsby, and by telling a simple tale of a young girl's introduction to the world of words and their magic by a Wandering Minstrel in a modern urban environment, Baillie underlines the importance on the poet in a society where poetry is not seen as a priority. The book is imbued with a singular innocence that is absolutely charming and should be read by everyone at least once while on a bus or train.
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Poetry
Aniar: Voices and verse from the edge of the world
by Tadhg Mac Dhonnagain & Ceara Conway & John Ryan
It is a source of some joy that a book of such beauty and class as this production is can be produced in Spiddal Co. Galway. Published by the emerging publishing house "Futa Fata" edited by Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin, Ceara Conway and John Ryan and sumptuously illustrated with an accompanying CD, it is a collection of traditional and contemporary verse in Irish with English translations. .
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History
The Murders at Wildgoose Lodge
by Terence Dooley
History is dotted with seemingly isolated events which while local in themselves have a much wider impact on a country's political and social agenda than at first thought. The Mammtrasna Murders is one such event in Irish History as is The Murders at Wildgoose Lodge. On the night of 29-30 October 1816 eight people were murdered by burning to death in a house known as Wildgoose Lodge in a remote part of Co. Louth. The perpetrators all belonged to a local agrarian secret society that was avenging the execution of three of their comrades hanged for a raid on the Lodge the prevous April.
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Sport
Rucking and Rolling
by Peter Bills
Subtitled 60 Years of International Rugby, this book compiled by Peter Bills and published by Mercier Press is a panoramic view of International Rugby since 1950. With a foreword by George Hook and featuring contributions by Tony O'Reilly, Colin Meads, Gareth Edwards, Jean-Pierre Rives, David Campese and Martin Johnston, it is sumptuously illustrated with terrific action shots of most features of the game (the legitimate ones at least) and some atmospheric shots of the Stadia. For the Rugby enthusiast it is an unashamed nostalgic journey back over the last fifty years and I have no doubt will be the inspiration of many a joyful (or painful) memory not to mention the thousands of conversations.
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August 2007
Irish Fiction
New Island Open Door Series As Gaeilge
by Various
Some years ago, New Island Press devised a wonderful series to help people with literacy difficulties called the Open Door Series, whereby a number of well known authors wrote a story that was typical to their style of writing in a simple accessible English. The Series was a remarkable success and helped countless people with their English and reading power. It included such established authors as Maeve Binchy, Roddy Doyle, Deirdre Purcell, Julie Parsons, Marian Keyes, John Connolly, Vincent Banville, Patrica Scanlan and many others.
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Irish History
Donegal: The Making of a Northern County
by Jim Mac Laughlin
One of the more frequent requests across a Bookshop counter is for a book that gives a sense of place. Surprisingly, there are few of them around. This is because it is not an easy thing to do. The new book edited by Jim McLaughlin and published by the Four Courts Press called Donegal The Making of a Northern County is, however, a wonderful example of what can be achieved. Obviously collated with love and a great deal of care, it is divided into five chapters each one containing more than a dozen specific reminiscences or commentaries from Donegal people over the years.
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Biography
Jack's World
by Sean Sheehan
Never was a book title so far off the mark. Purportedly a book about farming and the title would suggest, sheep farming on some isolated farm somewhere in the backs of beyond, (somewhere near San José) this book is a Pandora's box of reading and visual pleasure. It is the story of one Jack Sheehan who lived from 1920 to 2003 on the West Cork peninsula of Sheep's Head, and was a farmer, an archeologist, a local historian, a naturalist, and, I would imagine, wonderful company.
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Children
An Prionsa Beag
by Anoine de Saint-Exupéry
There are a few books that reach a universal appeal that allows them to be translated into any language. "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Hounds of the Baskervilles" jump quickly to mind. So does that delightful little children-come-adult's book "Le Petit Prince" by the French writer, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Sometime in the long distant Book Past, there was an Irish language version of this published but it has long been out of print and therefore this bright new shiny edition of Breandán Ó Doiblin's translation published by Read Ireland, the first publication from this Press, is greatly welcomed and does not disappoint.
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July 2007
Poetry
The Ledwidge Treasury - Selected Poems
by Francis Ledwidge
Born in poverty in Slane, Co. Meath, Francis Ledwidge worked as a farm hand, copper miner and road labourer. In his twenties he was to become a rising star on the Irish literary scene, although he lived only to see one collection of his verse in print, receiving his author's copy while freezing and on starvation rations in Serbia. Although a staunch Irish Nationalist, he chose to fight in the First World War, where he dies - just short of his thirtieth birthday - in the nightmare third battle of Ypres.
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History
Hiring Fairs & Market Places
by May Blair
The Fair was an integral part of Irish Life representing for many the only social occasion they could enjoy year in year out. It was also the place where a farmer would know if he was to have a bad year or a good year, where buying and selling were the name of the game, where the farmer's wives could pay off their grocery bills. From five o'clock in the morning, the farmers would arrive in the town where the fair was being held having walked all night so that they might get a good stand and sell early.
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Fiction
Redemption Falls
by Joseph O'Connor
"Redemption Falls" is the eagerly awaited follow up to Joseph O'Connor's bestseller "Star of the Sea", which justifiably attained classical status soon after its release a few years ago. However, this time, the setting is not Ireland, but mid-nineteenth century America in the midst of civil war. We follow Eliza Duane Mooney on her journey through Louisiana and beyond as she struggles to find a lost child. The plot is, like its predecessor, difficult to grasp initially, but unputdownable when it gets moving. O'Connor's writing style has moved on significantly, and he is now far more prosaic and prone to longer sentences.
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Fiction
Running Mates
by Garbhan Downey
Set in Derry and Dublin this is a biting satire on the politics of Ireland, its hypocrisies and false promises. The author Garbhan Downey is well placed to comment on the political ethos of both sides of the border (he cut his journalistic teeth in editing the University College Galway Student Magazine in the 1980s and since then has been working as a journalist in his native Derry) and in this book he has a good cynical look at the Northern attitude towards the South and vice versa. Filled with a motley crew of characters such as Harry the Hurler, King Size Barkley, Rubber John, John Joxer O'Duffy, Bend'em-Back Behan, the story is a roller coaster tale of two erstwhile lovers from Derry running for the Irish Presidency.
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June 2007
Photography
Walls of Aran
by Sean Scully
It is quite bewildering to think that simple photographs of Stone Walls and nothing else could make up a book that would be as varied and intricate as this book of photographs by Sean Scully. It is reminiscent of a habit we had as children to stare into the fire burning in the hearth at home of a winter's evening and watching a story unfold there. The photographs in this book are stark but in their very starkness there is a culture and the more we look at the images the more real the culture becomes to us. I would presume that, for the native and practiced eye, each one of these walls has its own trademark which will tell who made the wall, on whose field it is and when it was made.
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Politics
Micheal Davitt: Freelance Radical and Frondeur
by Laurence Marley
Strange though it may seem no full biography of the man who had such an effect on the life of many thousands of tenants and cottiers in Ireland, and, indeed on the whole social history of Ireland, most especially of the West has ever been written. There have been a small number of books, but none that could be deemed a full biography.This new offering from Laurence Marley and published by Four Courts Press does not claim to be the first one, but it certainly fills in a huge gap relating to the life of the man who was probably the most effective social revolutionary in Irish history.
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Irish History
Comrades : Inside The War Of Independence
by Annie Ryan
In this, the follow up to her most successful "Witnesses", Annie Ryan, through statements given by the participants, treats us to a first hand account of the War of Independence. These accounts were given by the participants to the Irish Government in the 1940s and 1950s and cover the entire country. Sean Broderick, for example, was OC of the 4th Battalion Galway Brigade and gave a list of the posts that were occupied by the British at the time of the Truce. Renmore barracks were occupied by the Sherwood Foresters while on Earls Island, University Road there was a large detachment of Lancers.
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Photography
Framing The West
by Ciara Breathnach
If ever a book was to prove an old adage, this one does. Subtitled "Images of Rural Ireland 1891-1920", it is purportedly a history of photography in Ireland during that period but it is also an extraordinary social document proving the old saying that a picture tells a thousand tales. Based mainly on the photographic albums of James Tuke and Robert J Welch, the images published in the book give a rich and fascinating insight into the world of the rural community of Ireland from 1890 to 1920 and more specifically the communities in the West of Ireland.
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May 2007
Children
Skulduggery Pleasant
by Derek Landy
"Gordon Edgley's sudden death came as a shock to everyone - not least himself. One moment he was in his study, seven words into the twenty fifth sentence of the final chapetr of his new book And The Darkness Rained Upon Him and the next he was dead. A tragic loss, his mind echoed numbly as he slipped away". The opening paragraph of Derek Landy's first novel, "Skulduggery Pleasant" could well be as famous as "Marlow was dead, dead as a doornail" in time to come. It is the first sentence of the first book of author Derek Landy, and it is setting the Irish book world alight.
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Irish Music
On Rock in the Middle of the Ocean
by Lillis Ó Laoire
Subtitled "Songs and Singers in Tory Island", this incredible study by Lillis Ó Laoire has had a long and chequered life already. First published in the Irish Language and then by an Academic Press in England, for a variety of reasons (language and price), it was out of reach of most punters. The Engllish edition cost about 75.00 Euro. Now Cló Iar-Connachta have made it available at the more palatable price of 35.00 and, if the truth be told, it is a steal at that price. The book is simply a mine of information not just about the tradition of Song on Tory Island, but also about the importance of Song itself within an oral culture.
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Family & Lifestyle
Would you like to be buried with my people?
by Kerstin Mierke & Bridgette Rowland
If, in the euphoria of hearing the magic words "I will", the young swain on one knee were to realise that a new line had been irrevocably drawn in the sand, and that the journey from "I will" to "I do" was to be as full of lists, boutiques, magazines, crises of every hue and kind, as it inevitably is (and then some), perhaps he may have had second thoughts in the first place. In this book, the authors take a laconic look at the modern day wedding and more particularly its heritage. They begin by discussing Matchmaking and Dowries. We are re-introduced to "Walking the Land" to confirm the dowry exists and "Eating the Gander" to celebrate the successful outcome of the negotiations.
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Irish History
The Great O'Neill
by Seán O'Faolain
One of the great enigmas of the Irish Book World is the scarcity of good biographies of our most prominent historic figures. People whose names we take in vain with confidence and familiarity are in fact unknown to us and the farther back into our history you go the truer this becomes. It was only in the last decade or so that any comprehensive biography of Patrick Sarsfield was published and there has never been a full life of Michael Davitt written. One exception to this rule is the biography for Hugh O'Neill written by Seán O'Faolain and first published in 1942 and now reprinted for the umpteenth time by Mercier Press. O'Faolain brings us into Tudor Ireland in a way few other writers have, giving us a deep understanding of the background into which O'Neill was born and educated.
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Irish Business
The Corporate Takeover of Ireland
by Kieran Allen
Has anybody ever taken a step back and looked at all the services we took for granted ten years ago or so as being part of our inheritance as citizens of this country of ours and for which we now pay through the nose. The idea that Ireland is a democracy which serves all its people equally is fast ebbing and being taken over by the fact that if your corner doesn't turn a Euro or two profit, you are totally expendable. In this book Kieran Allen demonstrates how Ireland is fast becoming one Big Business and how the normal decencies of human living are being kicked to one side. He asks such questions as "What if Irish hospitals were a source of illness rather than places of cure?" (ask anybody who has suffered from the MRSA bug), makes such statements as "For hundreds of years universities provided a space where a small minority of people had some freedom to explore ideas"..
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April 2007
Irish Politics
People, Politics and Power
by Stephen Collins
The upcoming election promises to be something else. Personally, I have already had two canvasses to the house (in some previous elections I have had none) and the date has not even been set. For the first time ever, books are being published going through the constituencies one by one with predictions. Chances are, of course, that by the time the date for the election will actually have been, the steam will already be out of the campaign...or will it? Not if the amount of books on current Irish politics being published right now are anything to go by. In this most recent addition to the bunch, author Stephen Collins takes a different approach and looks at some of the leaders from the past.....including Daniel O'Connell.
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Irish Fiction
The Luck Penny
by John Maher
From the very first sentence "It was a morning on which a war might have started", to the last "Then they both made into the house together, for the warmth of the parlour and the soda bread that Bridget Doheny was cutting into thick, doughty slices", this novel, by John Maher, and published by Brandon Press, holds the reader totally enthralled. Set in the Midlands of Ireland in 1849, it is a story of guilt, of mourning on a personal level and on a national level, it is the story of a country recovering from Famine, unsure of itself, nervous, jittery, but still weak. This sense of uncertainty is underlined by a fascination with language and where it might lead us whether it is enshrined in an ancient Babylonian inscription or in the play of words between the planter and the gael.
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Thriller
Cross
by Ken Bruen
In this, sixth Jack Taylor, Bruen is at his blackest best. Starting off with the chilling subtitle "Let Us Prey", we set off on a dark journey into depravity, loss and the horrible fact of revenge as Bruen explores the deepest corner of a sick mind. Opening with the sentence "It took them a time to crucify the kid.", Bruen never lets go right through to the last sentences: " 'The biopsy, its malignant'. Must have been the sunlight coming through the windows. I wiped at my eyes, my cheeks wet.". Each chapter is headed with a legend bound around the title such as "Cross me and I'll kill you", or "Cross-eyed" or "A cross is only agony if you are aware of it", underlying the Bruen love of irony.
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History
Exploring Newgrange
by Liam MacUistin
One of the most powerful ways to instill a pride of place or nationhood is to stand beside a monument like Newgrange, the ancient Megalithic tomb in County Meath and breathe in the deep sense of history that emanates from it. Even if your personal ancestry has Viking, Norman or indeed any other blood running through the veins, this Monument with all its majesty and mystery draws you into its heritage in a wonderful and satisfying way. There have been many books written about the monument but most of these are either in pamphlet or brochure form or come in the form of an academic book of archeology far beyond the ken of the normal punter.
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March 2007
Customs & Folklore
Mise an Fear Ceoil
by Ríonach Uí Ógáin
Subtitled "Seamus Ennis - Dialann Taistil 1942-46", this is one of those strange animals, a book in the Irish Language that does not require knowledge of the language to enjoy or indeed understand it; yet, nowhere in it is there a word of English nor any apology for the language. For many years now, Cló Iar Connachta have been publishing extremley important books in the Irish language, and each year the quality of their publications have seen a marked improvement. If this production is a sign of things to come, then there is no doubt that the Irish language is far from being dead and buried. The book contains the diary of legendary Clare Piper Seamus Ennis as he travelled the country during the Second World War collecting tunes and folklore.
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Biography
Dublin Nazi No. 1: The Life of Adolf Mahr
by Gerry Mullins
This is the extraordinary story of Adolf Mahr written by Gerry Mullins and published by The Liberties Press. Adolf Mahr was born in Austria in 1887 but by the time he was appointed as a Director of the National Museum of Ireland in 1927 he was a convicted Nazi and became the head of the Nazi party in Ireland. During the thirties he organised Hitler Youth rallies and camps and returned to Germany just before the War broke out. He became head of the Nazi regime's propaganda service which broadcast straight into neutral Ireland and was imprisoned for a while in a British prisoner-of-war camp. He tried to return to Ireland after the war but was not allowed in and remains one of the more controversial figures of twentieth century Irish history.
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Politics
Gerry Fitt - A Political Chameleon
by Michael A. Murphy
Gerry Fitt is one of the most enigmatic of the Ulster politicians over the last forty years or so. First elected MP for West Belfast in 1966, he was seen as the first major chink in the Tories armour and as a breath of fresh air in Westminster. A campaigner for Civil Rights and a founder member of the SDLP he was one of the more outspoken of the Nationalist MPs. His approach was gruff, tough and down to earth. Then, as the campaign developed, he became more and more critical of the IRA. In the early eighties he opposed the Hunger Strike and became the target of Nationalist anger who attacked his home several times before finally burning him out.
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Music
Patrician Musical Society, 1952-2006
by James Casserly
If St Patrick's Day is a time for local nostalgia, then this book is perfect for any Galwegian who has been entertained by any one of the many splendid shows produced by the Patrician Musical Society and is an ideal read for the week-end. For over fifty years now the Society has been one of the Musical Highlights in the Galway year and their shows were always awaited with eager anticiaption. After a short and informative introduction, author James Casserly takes us through each one of these productions giving the names of the cast (Gentlemen and Ladies) and the choruses along with the musicians. Also included are a collection of wonderful photgraphs which will bring back many memories not only for those who took part in all these productions but the thousands of Galwegians who enjoyed them in performance.
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February 2007
Fiction
Rants: A Waiting Room Companion
by Myles Mc Corry
Never was a subtitle so misleading. To read this in a waiting room is to lead to sudden insanity, a vile need to leave all behind you, to run down the street naked, screaming "I am the Apeman, I am the Apeman, I am". Seriously, though, this is a book to pick up and allow the mind wander without hindrance over all the things that occur to you when you are in a negative situation and can do nothing about it. It shows that behind that glazed look of the Number on a Statistic form there is a real human being, an object with a mind of its own that can wander into all sorts of strange and beautiful places and find solace in the poetry of dreams.
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Irish Golf
Ireland's Finest Golf Courses
by John Redmond
Ireland's Finest Golf Courses by John Redmond is a fitting celebration of Ireland's achievements in producing some of the worlds most spectacular golf courses. Traveling the four corners of Ireland, we are presented with the striking contrast between courses of the past and present, each containing enough challenge to ignite a fire in the average golfers heart. What really makes this book special is the breathtaking photography accompanying the narrative of the courses, which really capture the essence of each course. Coupled with the stunning photography is a guide to the most famous holes each course has to offer.
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Science & Nature
Island of the Setting Sun
by Anthony Murphy & Richard Moore
Subtitled "In Search of Ireland's Ancient Astronomers" this is a refreshing and fascinating new book on the ancient monuments of Ireland more specifically those of the Boyne Valley. Taking its title from the lines written by the astronomer and poet Amergin "Who but I knows where the sun sets?, Who but I knows the ages of the moon?, What land is better than this land of the setting sun?", the author and artist team of Anthony Murphy and Richard Moore take us on an extraordinary journey back into the aeons of time and the world of the ancient astronomers who used their knowledge of the sun and stars to give us monuments that are still functioning after five thousand years.
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Politics
Show Time or Substance
by Noel Whelan
Sometime over the next twelve months, Ireland will be going to the polls for the first time in five years to elect a new government. It is the one chance the public have to make their point in a telling way as to how they are governed. It was a right that was won by the shedding of blood and at great sacrifice and it is the one right that saves us from anarchy or a police state. For Joe Soap, trying to fulfil his civic duty to the best of his and her ability, it is a time of tremendous confusion. Didn't he say last week that there were absolutely no resources to build that school. All of a sudden, after a count of the possible funds, we'll have a state of the art school before Christmas. In this book subtitled "A Voter's Guide to the 2007 Election", Noel Whelan goes a long way to dispel that confusion.
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January 2007
Irish Myths
The Lore of Ireland
by Dáithi Ó hÓgáin
Our Irish culture is full of the most amazing and fantastic stories. Almost every field in the country has its own tale to tell, every stone a reason for its location. People are generally aware of the major figures of our mythology such as Fionn McCumhaill and Cuchulainn, but there are a host of other marvellous characters whose significance and adventures are generally unknown. Subtitled "An Encyclopaedia of Myth, Legend and Romance", this book brings us down the many byways and pathways of Irish Folklore and Legend. From St. Patrick to Patrick Sarsfield we meet them all. Ó hÓgáin fills us in on the historical background to these figures and then proceeds to regale us with their legendary status.
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Parenting Advice
Practical Parenting
by Pat Rees
One the most curious facts that a first time parent will learn is that everybody elses child never gives any trouble, sleeps all night, feeds like a dream, practically changes its own nappy, is never sick, is the most darling of all angels that ever was and that ever will be. This is all the more distressing because inevitably the first parent's child is none of these things, keeps the parent up all night, is always running temperatures not to mention other unspeakable things, fires the food anywhere except into its mouth and while it is the most darling of all angels, there are times when it can also be the most trying of all angels too and can reduce even the most competent parent to tears. In this most useful of books (with the subtitle "An Irish Survival Guide"), Pat Rees lends a more sympathetic ear to the stressed parent and gives some extremely useful tips.
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Irish Transport
In Time of Civil War: The Conflict on Irish Railways 1922-3
by Bernard Share
The War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War were the only conflicts fought in Ireland in which the Railways played a crucial role. By the time the Truce was called, the Railway System was greatly weakened, at the end of the Civil War it was near bankruptcy. In this fascinating book, Bernard Share focuses on the Civil War and the day-to-day effect the disruption or lack thereof that the Railways had on the people of Ireland. Laid out in Diary form, the book documents the various reports of events as they related to railways all over the country.
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Equestrian
Horse Tales & Hunt Talk
by Noel Mullins
Subtitled "The Life and Times of 31 Equestrians in Ireland, America, France and Australia", this book comes from the pen of Loughrea man Noel Mullins, who has been interested in Horses and Hunting since he was knee high to a grasshopper. Despite other multivarious business interests he has always retained this interest in the Royal Sport being a frequent contributor to "The Irish Field" and "Horse and Hound". Here he treats us to portraits of 31 of the more colourful and famous huntsmen and women that he has known throughout his long career and features such Galway celebrities as the incomparable Lady Molly Cusack-Smith, Willie Leahy, Lady Anne Hemphill, and, of course film director and Master of the Galway Blazers, John Huston.
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Irish Sport
Wild Sports in Ireland
by John Bickerdyke
There is something refreshing about the reprint of this minor classic relating to Wild Sports in Ireland. Perhaps two paragraphs from the publisher's introduction will best describe it: "Having recently returned from visiting him at his Cambridge home, on 22nd October, 1974, my wife Grania and I recieved a letter from a Yeats scholar and friend Tom Rice Henn. In it he says "I left you on loan the book Wild Sports in Ireland ..... I am much concerned just now, in seeing that my favourite books...end up in the right places. And what more right than on the shores of Lough Derg"
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