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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.
Sunday, February 13, 2005
02/13/05 - Read Ireland
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Read Ireland Book News - Issue 296
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Brewer's Dictionary of Irish Phrase and Fable by Sean McMahon
and Jo O'Donoghue with a foreword by Maeve Binchy
(Hardback; 40.00 Euro / 50.00 USD / 30.00 UK; 1140 pages)
Brewer\'s Dictionary of Irish Phrase and Fable is devoted
exclusively to the history, culture, mythology and language of
the island of Ireland. Like its parent volume (Brewer\'s
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable), the \'Irish Brewer\' covers a
huge range of different subjects, and will be particularly
generous in its account of legend, superstition and folklore. It
will be generous also in its insights into the origins and
history of words and phrases, and will contain an remarkable
array of expressions and allusions that the user might struggle
to find in an \'ordinary\' dictionary or encyclopedia of
Ireland. Its 5000 A to Z entries entries include Celtic gods and
goddesses, bards, beasts, literary allusions, proverbial
sayings, idiomatic phrases and expressions, characters from
Irish literature ancient and modern, resonant place-names, and
individuals and events of \'iconic\' stature in Irish history. A
significant number of entries will relate to contemporary Irish
life and culture. As is de rigueur with all Brewer\'s-branded
titles, there will be material in abundance here to delight
lovers of the odd, the obscure and the arcane.
-------------------------------------
Cavan: Essays on the History of an Irish County edited by
Raymond Gillespie
(Trade Paperback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 240 pages)
This book is a collection of essays, originally published in
1995, with a new preface from its editor, that highlights some
of the more significant contributions to Cavan history over the
last decade. Introduction: People, Place and Time by Raymond
Gillespie. Perspectives on the Making of the Cavan Landscape by
P.J. Duffy. Cavan: A Medieval Border Area by Ciaran Parker.
The Anglicisation of East Breifne: The O'Reilly's and the
Emergence of County Cavan by Bernadette Cunningham. The
Reformation of Kilmore Before 1641 by Alan Ford. Faith, Family
and Fortune: The Structures of Everyday Life in Early Modern
Cavan by Raymond Gillespie. The Formation of the Modern
Catholic Church in the Diocese of Kilmore, 1580-1880 by James
Kelly. Poverty and the Famine in County Cavan by Margaret
Crawford. The Emergence and Consolidation of the Home Rule
Movement in County Cavan, 1870-86 by Gerard Moran. Cavan in the
Era of the Great Way, 1914-18 by Eileen Reilly.
--------------------------------
Irish Women and Nationalism: Soldiers, New Women and Wicked Hags
edited by Louise Ryan and Margaret Ward
(Trade Paperback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 240 pages)
Studies of Irish nationalism have been primarily historical in
scope and overwhelmingly male in content. Too often, the
\"shadow of the gunman\" has dominated. Little recognition has
been given to the part women have played, yet over the centuries
they have undertaken a variety of roles - as combatants,
prisoners, writers and politicians. In this title the full range
of women\'s contribution to the Irish nationalist movement is
explored by writers whose interests range from the historical
and sociological to the literary and cultural. From the little
known contribution of women to the earliest nationalist
uprisings of the 1600s and 1700s, to their active participation
in the republican campaigns of the 20th century, different
chapters consider the changing contexts of female militancy and
the challenge this has posed to masculine images and structures.
Using a wide range of sources, including textual analysis,
archives and documents, newspapers and autobiographies,
interviews and action research, individual writers examine
sensitive and highly complex debates around women\'s role in
situations of conflict. This book represents a contribution to
wider feminist debates about the gendering of nationalism,
raising questions about the extent to which women\'s rights,
demands and concerns can ever be fully accommodated within
nationalist movements.
---------------------------------------
Irish Secrets: German Espionage in Wartime Ireland, 1939-1945 by
Mark Hull
(Trade Paperback; 28.00 Euro / 34.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 383 pages)
This book explores why German intelligence ultimately failed,
and proposes that the German effort represented a genuine menace
to the Irish State and the Allies alike, which seriously
threatened the official position of Irish neutrality. The book
is a gripping account of the intelligence war and highlights the
brilliant, creative success of Irish Military Intelligence in
waging a counter-espionage campaign that effectively neutralized
the German threat. Drawing from newly released intelligence
files in several countries, in-depth interviews conducted with
the participants, and other previously unpublished primary
sources, this book conclusively rewrites what is presently known
about a singularly fascinating aspect of the Second World War.
----------------------------------------
The Irish Experience During the Second World Way: An Oral
History by Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon
(Trade Paperback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 292 pages)
This book is an oral history of the Irish experience during the
Second World War. It brings together all aspects of this
experience, from the young banker working on Grafton Street,
through the IRA volunteer interned in the Curragh, to the
soldier fighting in North Africa with the British Army. Through
vivid accounts and recollections, this book shows how the
Emergency period in Irish history was a triumph of peaceful
methods over the tradition of physical force.
--------------------------------
Viking Dublin by Ruth Johnson
(Trade Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 96 pages,
with black-and-white and colour photos throughout)
A new addition to the Irish Treasure Series, by Dublin City
Archaeologist Ruth Johnson, Viking Dublin explores the legacy of
one of Dublins oldest and most influential group of settlers.
-------------------------------------
Bertie Ahern: A Political Biography by John Downing
(Trade Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 10.00 UK; 242 pages)
This book charts the rise of this most-determinedly ordinary
Dubliner to become leader of the modern Irish nation and gain
considerable international recognition. Bertie Ahern has now
led Fianna Fail for 10 years and confounded many critics along
the way. He has reunited a fractured party; won power and led a
minority coalition through a full five-year term; and then won
re-election. He is now determined to defy the odds and win a
third term as Taoiseach. Through those years he has coped with
unprecedented allegations of corruption against Fianna Fail in
which his old patron, Charles Haughey, was a central figure.
The affable face Bertie presents to the public conceals a
ruthlessness only rarely seen but deployed on occasion with
clinical efficiency. This biography looks upon an aloof figure
underestimated for a very long time, as friends, colleagues and
foes appraise the growing Ahern political legacy.
--------------------------------------
Prehistoric Music of Ireland by Simon O'Dwyer
(Trade Paperback; 28.00 Euro / 34.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 160 pages,
with photos throughout)
This exploration of the ancient musical instruments of Ireland
is based on the latest findings of archaeology, supplemented by
information contained in some of the Early Medieval manuscripts
and numerous legendary references. Recent research into Bronze
Age wooden pipes, bronze horns, Iron Age Celtic trumps, and
Early Medieval instruments has revealed a musical world of great
richness and diversity. These investigations have uncovered
fascinating evidence of ancient music and the possibility that
it may be the origin of the musical tradition that is so much a
part of Irish life today.
---------------------------------
Ireland Ever: Photographs by Jill Freedman and Text by Frank and
Malachy McCourt
(Large Hardback; 30.00 Euro / 35.00 USD / 24.00 UK; 146 pages,
with black-and-white photos throughout)
A photographic portrait of the Irish landscape and its people
commemorates traditional regional life with a range of duotone
photographs, complemented with texts by best-selling
Irish-American authors including Angela\'s Ashes\'s Frank
McCourt and Singing My Him Song\'s, Malachy McCourt.
--------------------------------
All Changed: 50 Years of Photographing Ireland by Colman Doyle
and text by John Quinn
(Large Hardback; 30.00 Euro / 35.00 USD / 24.00 UK; 170 pages,
with full colour photos throughout)
The past fifty years have been a time of immense change in
Ireland, as the country has moved from a traditional to a modern
society. The introduction of electricity, the \'quiet
revolution\', was accompanied by changes in attitudes to Church,
sex, relationships, property, emigration - to life in general.
In that short time people have absorbed massive change, often
enthusiastically, though perhaps with the occasional pang of
regret for the \'old ways\'. Here we see the faces, the
landscapes and the life of that recently disappeared Ireland -
Jack Lynch, JFK, Grace Kelly, Dev, de Gaulle, the Troubles, folk
traditions - alongside the new faces and the new styles of our
modern society.
---------------------------------
The Quiet Quarter: Anthology of New Irish Writing edited by Eoin
Brady
(Trade Paperback with endflaps; 12.50 Euro / 15.00 USD / 9.00
UK; 310 pages)
This remarkable anthology declares the extraordinary breadth and
quality of writing in Ireland today. Commissioned and broadcast
on RTE Lyric FM's Lyric Notes, here are ninety-two original
prose pieces, be they life-stories or reflections on the natural
world, meditations on faith of musings on music, language or
people, each piece is succinct enough to read and digest in a
single sitting.
-----------------------------------
3 Days in September: When the Pope Came to Ireland compiled by
Peter O'Connell
(Hardback; 30.00 Euro / 35.00 USD / 24.00 UK; 240 pages, with
photos throughout)
The Pope's visit to Ireland in September 1979 attracted more
excitement and interest than any concert or sporting event
before or since. More than a million people turned out to greet
John Paul at Phoenix Park, in the largest gathering in Europe in
modern times. In this book leading figures from the worlds of
Irish politics, religion, journalism and the arts offer their
recollections of - and reflections on - the papal visit.
--------------------------------
Wicklow and Dublin Mountains in 1812 by Arnold Horder
(Map with 36 page Book; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 10.00 UK; )
This carefully-executed map was prepared for the
government-appointed commissioners charged with the task of
assessing the extent and development potential of the bogs of
Ireland. The map, which is reproduced here at a scale of
1:100,000 approximately, shows the Wicklow and Dublin mountains
a few years after the convulsions of 1798, and just after the
famous Military Road through the mountains had been completed.
The map provides an important insight on the Wicklow and Dublin
uplands in the early 19th century. It is reproduced here with a
short commentary, and with the report of the map-maker, Richard
Griffith.
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