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This site includes the postings from the Irish Aires email list. This includes a listing of Irish/Celtic events in the Houston area and other information that the Irish Aires radio program posts.
Saturday, January 29, 2005
01/29/05 - Read Ireland
Back to Irish Aires Table of Contents
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Read Ireland Book News - Issue 294
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Something in the Head: The Life and Work of John Broderick by
Madeline Kingston
(aperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 UK / 10.00 UK; 175 pages)
This sympathetic study is the first full biography of
Athlone-born writer John Broderick (1927-89) whose powerful
Balzacian novels of life in the Irish midlands, from The
Pilgrimage (1961) to An Apology for Roses (1973) and The Trials
of Father Dillingham (1975) evoke the satiric spirit of Brinsley
MacNamara. They depict Irish sexuality and Catholicism in a
series of pungent tableaux and portraits drawn from vivid but
entrapped lives. His own bourgeois roots (his father was a
prosperous baker), solitary childhood (compounded by
boarding-school), enveloping mother, homosexuality and
alcoholism fuelled his fictions, which were in turn enlarged by
his love of France and its literature, especially Mauriac and
Julien Green. Self-exiled to Bath in England with his
housekeeper during the 1970s, he became an embittered if
astringent commentator on rapidly shifting Irish mores,
retaining his contacts with Ireland through criticism and travel
writing. A neglected but powerful writer, his work complemented
that of his colleague and rival Edna O\'Brien and held up a
mirror to an Ireland of the mid-twentieth century like no other
novelist of his day This work shows us that he is an artist of
increasing relevance and interest, now celebrated in annual John
Broderick Weekends first instituted by the Athlone Rotary Club
in 1999.
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The Waking of Willie Ryan by John Broderick
(aperback; 12.50 Euro / 15.00 USD / 9.00 UK; 240 pages)
Willie Ryan is an old man who arrives back in his home town in
\'the great central plain of Ireland\', having escaped from the
insane asylum where he was wrongfully incarcerated, and
unvisited, by his devout Catholic family for twenty-five years.
The given reason for his commitment was an attack on his
sister-in-law, Mary Ryan, wife of his brother Michael. The true
reason: a homosexual affair with a hedonistic young man who
introduced him to art, literature and music. When he returns to
his family, Mary continues to insist on Willie\'s insanity.
After all, didn\'t he refuse to go to Confession or to attend
Mass during all his years in the asylum? Together with Father
Mannix - who was complicit in \'putting away\' Willie - she
conspires to bring about Willie\'s reconciliation with the
church. For Willie\'s enemies, nothing evil has happened as long
as it is not seen to have happened. But through Willie\'s
piercing vision, we see the truth - his brother Michael\'s grief
and remorse; his nephew Chris\'s fear of freedom; and the
perceptiveness of asylum nurse Halloran. When Willie knows he is
about to die, he agrees to a private family Mass, setting the
stage for a confrontation with Father Mannix - one which will
pitch moral integrity against the \'petty bourgeois
snobbishness, hypocrisies and pretensions\' of the \'little
grocer\'s republic\' of 1950s Ireland.
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The Pilgrimmage by John Broderick
(aperback; 12.50 Euro / 15.00 USD / 9.00 UK; 190 pages)
Julia Glynn is the very model of a \'prim and well-conducted\'
bourgeois Catholic wife, a regular Mass-goer and president of
her local charitable society. Her crippled husband Michael is
the richest man in town, held in awe by bankers and bishops
alike. In his illness he is dutifully tended to by the household
manservant Stephen Lydon and by his handsome young nephew Doctor
Jim. As Michael\'s condition worsens, their friend Father Victor
proposes a pilgrimage to Lourdes. When Julia begins receiving a
series of obscene anonymous letters detailing her sexual
infidelities with Jim, her suspicions fall on the \'sinister\'
Stephen. And what connection do Stephen and Michael have with
the suicide of local boy Tommy Baggot, a well-known figure
within Dublin\'s secretive homosexual community? Why does she
find herself both attracted to and repelled by Stephen? As the
day of departure to Lourdes approaches, John Broderick probes
into the heart of an Irish small town that is \'as watchful as
the jungle\', stripping his characters of their \'respectable
clothes\' to reveal their true selves in all their selfishness
and \'elemental sensuality\'. The Pilgrimage\'s depiction of
sexual need and the \'petty vices\' of 1950s Ireland led to its
banning by the Irish Censorship Board on its original
publication in 1961. Under the title The Chameleons it sold over
100,000 copies in America. This re-issue restores Broderick to
his rightful place alongside John McGahern and Brinsley
MacNamara, taking a new generation of readers on a unique
\'pilgrimage of the body\'
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Donegal in Old Photographs by Sean Beattie
(Trade Paperback; 18.00 Euro / 22.00 USD / 13.00 UK; 144 pages,
with photos throughout)
Sean Beattie has brought together nearly 200 pictures from the
last 150 years, many never published before, to create a
photographic portrait of the county of Donegal. From the streets
of Donegal town itself to the county\'s beautiful islands, from
schools to farms, from golf courses to bustling markets, from
holidays on the beach to poignant images of emigrants aboard
ship waiting to leave Ireland for a \'new life\', this
collection of pictures reveals all aspects of Donegal\'s life
over the last century and a half. It includes images of Eamonn
de Valera at Glencolmcille, a rare stereoscopic photograph of
the children at Terryone National School in Inishowen and many
other fascinating slices of the county\'s life.
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Tom Walsh’s Opera: A History of the Wexford Festival, 1951-2004
by Karina Daly
(Hardback, 40.00 Euro / 47.00 USD / 32.00 UK; 228 pages, with
full color photos throughout)
‘My own favourite festival is Wexford … the town is small, as is
the opera house ... the place is small enough to surround you
with new friends all the time, if you were sociable. Food, drink
and gossip are everywhere on tap at all times. Salzburg in the
early 1920s must have been like this. It is how an opera
festival should be’ William Mann, writing in the London Times.
In 1951, the first ever Wexford Opera Festival (now known as
‘Wexford Festival Opera’) took place in a small town in the
southeast corner of Ireland. What started out as an informal
gathering of friends listening to gramophone music, developed
into one of Europe’s leading classical music events. T.J. Walsh,
a medical doctor by profession and an amateur musician, was the
man whose novel idea it was to start an opera festival from such
humble beginnings. This book traces the history of the Festival,
from its establishment up to the present day.
Contents
The most ambitious venture in years, 1951; An amateurish affair,
1953–1955; The burden of carrying it on, 1956–1959; On the
musical map of the world, 1960–1963; Walsh and Wexford, Anthony
and Cleopatra, bacon and eggs, 1964–1966; The professional
amateurs, 1967–1973; Not so much a festival as a way of life,
1974–1985; Walsh’s final farewell, 1986–1988; We still believe
in miracles at Wexford, 1989–2004
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Carden of Barnane by Arthur Carden
)Large Paperback; 40.00 Euro / 50.00 USD / 30.00 UK; 366 pages,
with photos throughout)
The book has 360 A4 pages and about 250 black-and-white
illustrations. It is paperback with colour illustrations on the
front and back covers. The proof of the front cover which is
reproduced here shows the wonderful 1772 map of the estate which
was found in a lawyer’s office in Dublin in 1995, together with
over 100 important deeds which are listed and summarised in the
book.
A prologue Barnane before the Cardens gives some background
about Cromwell’s savage suppression in 1650 of the Irish
Rebellion, and tells how Barnane was confiscated from the
O’Meagher family which held the land from the earl of Ormond.
Barnane was granted to an ‘adventurer’ and was leased in 1701 to
Jonathan Carden, eldest son of John Carden of Templemore.
The origins of the Cardens of Tipperary are still obscure, but
DNA evidence proves that without a doubt they are descended from
the Carden/Cawarden family of Cheshire which existed in the
thirteenth century. The Tipperary Cardens may have come via
Lincolnshire, and appear to have lived for a while in County
Carlow.
A biography is given of each of the seven Cardens who held
Barnane in succession until the last died in 1932. Perhaps the
most famous (or notorious) of these was John Rutter Carden
(1811-1866), who evicted many of his tenants from the estate and
was shot at on several occasions, earning the nickname
“woodcock” because the bullets always missed him (though one of
his stewards was murdered). Though he was a prominent and
wealthy landlord and a Deputy Lieutenant of the county, he was
convicted in 1854 of attempting to abduct a certain Miss Eleanor
Arbuthnot, and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. Of great
interest are the 80 or more letters he wrote from gaol to his
friend Lord Donoughmore, published here for the first time.
Other fascinating paragraphs cover the successive houses at
Barnane, the family graveyard, the model farm, events which took
place on the slopes of the Devil’s Bit which is a famous
mountain forming part of the estate, the impact of the Fenians,
United Irish League and other groups who challenged the Cardens,
and much else besides.
The book also contains relevant extracts from the Tithe
Applotments, Griffith’s, the 1901 census and other sources, and
much else besides.
There is a comprehensive series of indexes, of places, tenants
and servants, Cardens, people with other surnames, etc.
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In Green and Red: The Lives of Frank Ryan by Adrian Hoar
(Hardback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 18.00 UK 300 pages)
Socialist And republican Frank Ryan is best remembered for his
leadership of Irishmen in the Spanish Civil War and his
collusion with Nazi Germany against Britain. But his earlier
life is equally revealing of the man and his times, thanks to
his highly active role in both political agitation and the
ideological debates that divided Ireland and shaped Europe
between the wars. Born in County Limerick in 1902, he joined the
Irish Republican Army (IRA) at the age of sixteen during the War
of Independence and fought against the Treaty in 1922 until he
was wounded and interned. He became a prominent member of the
republican left, a fiery and inspirational orator, and editor of
Art Phoblacht. A founder member of the Republican Congress,
Ryan, a committed socialist, was a leading opponent of Eoin
O\'Duffy and the Blue Shirts. On the outbreak of the Spanish
Civil War he led the first contingent of Irish volunteers to
support the Popular Front government. A brave and inspirational
leader, he served with Italian and German Republican divisions,
as well as with the Irish and Americans. He was badly wounded at
Jarama in February 1937 and returned to Ireland to recuperate.
On his return to Spain he was appointed adjutant to General Jose
Miaja. He was captured during the Aragon offensive on 1 April
1938 and was held at the Miranda del Ebro detention camp. He was
sentenced to death but after representations from Eamon de
Valera his sentence was commuted to thirty years. In August 1940
Ryan was transferred to Nazi Germany, where he was reunited with
IRA maverick Sean Russell. The two were sent to Ireland in a
U-boat, but Russell died on the journey and Ryan returned to
Germany where, as unofficial IRA ambassador, he acted in an
advisory capacity for German intelligence. He died in a
sanatorium near Dresden in July 1944.
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The Lighthouses of Ireland: A Personal History by Richard
Taylor
(Hardback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 18.00 UK; 180 pages, with
colour illustrations throughout)
Lighthouses are associated with the Romantic, the mystical and
the tragic. There are 86 lighthouses on or off the coast of
Ireland, many barely accessible. Richard Taylor takes the reader
on a tour around the Irish coast examining the lighthouses and
their histories.
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Inishmurray Island Voices by Joe McGowan
(Trade Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 200 pages)
The men and women of Inishmurry, Co. Sligo left their island
home in 1948. The Great Blasket was evacuated five years later.
The Blaskets had Tomas O Crohan and Maurice O’Sullivan to beat
witness to a lost way of life. Here, Joe McGowan sets down the
life and times of another ancient people. Inishmurray’s
presence looms large beyond his native fields and in the tales
told him by the last of the island residents. This book is the
perfect companion for an understanding of its early Christian
monuments, rivalled only by those on Sceilg Michael. Bit it is
more than that. The book is a family ramble through a cherished
place bringing life to an ancient monastery and a disappearing
era.
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Highlights from Read Ireland Book News - Issue 293 – Cambridge
University Press Special Issue
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The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth Century Irish Drama edited
by Shaun Richards
(Trade Paperback; 27.50 Euro / 32.50 USD / 16.00 UK; 290 pages)
The essays in this collection cover the whole range of Irish
drama fro the late nineteenth-century melodramas which
anticipated the rise of the Abbey Theatre to the contemporary
Dublin of theatre festivals.
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The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce 2ed edited by Derek
Attridge
(Trade Paperback; 27.50 Euro / 32.50 USD / 16.00 UK; 290 pages)
The second edition of this guide contains several new and
revised essays, reflecting increasing emphasis on Joyce’s
politics, a fresh sense of the importance of his engagement with
Ireland, and the changes wrought by gender studies on criticism
of his work.
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A History of Irish Theatre 1601-2000 by Christopher Morash
(Trade Paperback; 27.50 Euro / 32.50 USD / 16.00 UK; 322 pages)
This widely-praised account of Irish theatre traces an often
forgotten history leading up to the Irish Literary Revival.
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Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’: A Student Guide by Lawrence
Graver
(Paperback; 16.50 Euro / 22.50 USD / 10.00 UK; 108 pages)
This book offers a comprehensive critical study of Beckett’s
most renowned dramatic work which has become one of the most
frequently discussed and influential plays in the history of the
theatre.
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Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’: A Student Guide by Vincent Sherry
(Paperback; 16.50 Euro / 22.50 USD / 10.00 UK; 108 pages)
In this engaging introduction, the author combines a close
reading of Joyce’s most famous novel with new critical
arguments.
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Images of Beckett by John Haynes and James Knowlson
(Hardback; 30.00 Euro / 35.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 156 pages, with
photos throughout)
This book sets John Haynes’ unique repertoire of photographs of
Beckett’s dramatic opus alongside three newly written essays
byBeckett’s biographer and friend, James Knowlson.
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Beckett & Aestheitcs by Daniel Albright
(Hardback; 60.00 Euro / 72.00 USD / 40.00 UK; 180 pages)
This book examines Beckett’s struggle with the recalcitrance of
artistic media, their refusal to yield to his artistic purposes.
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James Joyce and the Problems of Psychoanalysis by Luke Thurston
(Hardback; 68.50 Euro / 80.00 USD / 45.00 UK; 232 pages)
From its very beginning, psychoanalysis sought to incorporate
the aesthetic into its domain, translating it as vagrant symptom
or sublimated desire.
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Proust, Beckett and Narration by James H. Reid
(Hardback; 60.00 Euro / 72.00 USD / 40.00 UK; 192 pages)
This is the first book-length comparison of the narrative
techniques of two of the twentieth century’s most important
prose writers.
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