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Saturday, July 22, 2006

Read Ireland

Advert: Out of Order The political imprisonment of women in Northern Ireland 1972-1998 Mary Corcoran (Keele University) This book provides a comprehensive account of the imprisonment of women for politically motivated offences in Northern Ireland between 1972 and 1999. Women political prisoners were engaged in a campaign to obtain formal recognition as political prisoners, and then to retain this status after it was revoked. Their lengthy involvement in a prison conflict of international significance was notable as much because of its longevity as the radical aspects of their prison protects, which included hunger strikes, dirty-protests and campaigns against institutional abuses. Out of Order brings out the qualitatively distinctive character and punitive ethos of regimes of political imprisonment for women, exploring the dynamics of their internal organisation, the ways in which they subverted order and security in prison, and their strategies of resistance and exploitation. Drawing upon a wide range or first hand accounts and interviews this book brings together perspectives from the areas of political imprisonment, the penal punishment of women and the question of agency and resistance in prison to create a unique, highly readable study of a neglected subject. (paperback) €30.00 /£19.99 / US$34.95 (hardback) €60.00 / £40.00 / US$64.95 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Read Ireland Book News – Issue 346 Field Day Review 2006 edited by Seamus Deane and Breandan Mac Suibhne 0946755272 – Large Format Paperback with Endflaps – 35.00 Euro / 42.00 USD / 28.00 UK; 350 pages FIELD DAY REVIEW is an annual publication primarily concerned with Irish political and literary culture; it includes richly illustrated articles and essays and reviews of recent books in history, literature and cultural studies. Contents: ~ Siobhán Kilfeather, Alice Maher’s Materials ~ James Chandler, A Discipline in Shifting Perspective: Why We Need Irish Studies ~ Emer Nolan, Irish Melodies and Discordant Politics: Thomas Moore’s Memoirs of Captain Rock (1824) ~ Marjorie Howes, Postcolonial Yeats: Culture, Enlightenment, and the Public Sphere ~ Maud Ellmann, Ulysses: Changing into an Animal ~ Peter McQuillan, Suairceas in the Seventeenth Century ~ Michael Griffin and Breandán Mac Suibhne, Da’s Boat; or, Can the Submarine Speak? A Voyage to O’Brazeel (1752) and other Glimpses of the Irish Atlantis ~ Sara Smyth, Shooting for the State? Photos from the National Photographic Archive ~ Susan McKay, ‘You can make your wee film. But no cameras’: Unionism in 2005 ~ Richard Bourke, Antigone and After: ‘Ethnic’ Conflict in Historical Perspective ~ Joe Cleary, The World Literary System: Atlas and Epitaph ~ Katie Trumpener, ‘The Stasi is My Eckermann’ ~ Joseph P. Buttigieg, Empire of Liberty: A Futile and Bloody Aspiration ~ Terry Eagleton, Fascists ~ John Gibney, Reading, Writing and Print in Early Modern Ireland ~ T. H. Breen, An Irish Revolution in Eighteenth-Century America? ~ Enda Leaney, Vested Interests: Science and Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Ireland ~ Gavin Foster, In the Shadow of the Split: Writing the Irish Civil War ~ Tony Crowley, Monolingual Ireland’s Dead and Gone … ~ Willy Maley, Letter from Glasgow: Where the Streets have No Shame Reviews by Peter Gray, Nicholas Allen, Liam Harte, Máirín Nic Eoin, Bill Kissane, D. Alan Orr Reading Michael Longley by Fran Brearton 1852246839 – Trade Paperback; 19 Euro / 25 USD / 12 UK; 280 pages Michael Longley has been called 'one of the finest lyric poets of our century' (John Burnside). This ground-breaking study is the first full-length assessment of his work, and looks in turn at all the major collections he has published over the past 40 years, and at the extraordinary growth of his reputation and influence. Fran Brearton's reading of Longley's work relates the development of his poetry to the recent literary and political history of Northern Ireland, and to the Irish poetic tradition from Yeats to the present day. In placing Longley's poetry in a network of cultural influences, and evaluating its critical reception, her study also engages with key debates in the criticism of modern poetry in English. She offers a broadly chronological reading of Longley's work from the 1960s to the present day, tracing thematic continuities across his collections. Longley's long silence between "The Echo Gate" (1979) and "Gorse Fires" (1991), she argues, helped him to re-shape and strengthen his poetry, so that his later work is in some ways a re-reading of his earlier poetry, but taken in new and unexpected directions. In this highly readable book, Fran Brearton draws on letters, manuscripts, published and personal interviews with Michael Longley, as well as on his memoir, "Tuppenny Stung", and his recent researches into his father's military career. She shows how his poetry is shaped by the dislocations and tensions of his English parentage and Irish upbringing, making him one of the most imaginatively various and formally inventive poets writing today. The Fertile Rock: Seasons in the Burren by Carsten Krieger 1905172028 – Hardback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 162 pages, with full colour photos throughout The Burren in County Clare on Ireland's west coast is a most enigmatic landscape - a unique mixture of fertile and barren, wild and domestic, visible and invisible. Stunningly beautiful but threatened, it captivates and perplexes and is of inordinate cultural significance. As poet Michael Longley wrote: 'we owe the place respect, courtesy, reverence'. This book takes you on a visual journey through and around the Burren during the four seasons. Conveying the serene beauty and unique aura of this ancient landscape the pictures, images of stunning natural beauty, tell their own story: the changing face of the Burren from season to season, the rich flora and diverse fauna, important heritage sites, small details of stone, and wider panoramic views of the landscape. While photos play a key role expressing the visual impact of the Burren, this is more than another photo book, it is a celebration of the place. For almost three years Carsten Krieger spent an average of 3 days per week on this project. It became a central part of his life: waiting for the perfect light, for the wind to die down, for the creatures of the Burren to come into the open, discovering the most beautiful and magical places, drinking tea with the people of the Burren. The result: he delivers the essence of his subject in a manner sympathetic to the everchanging panorama of weather, tone and light found in that rich landscape. Day Tours from Dublin by Michael Fewer 0717138208 – Paperback; 13.00 Euro / 16.00 USD / 9.50 UK; 188 pages "Day Tours from Dublin" takes the reader on twenty itineraries, all accessible in a single day by car from anywhere in the city. It includes such destinations as Avondale, Courtown Harbour, Ballitore and Moone, Birr Castle, Clonmacnoise, Tullynally, Newgrange and Slieve Gullion. Each route is described in detail in Michael Fewer's inimitable, lucid and compelling prose. He writes knowledgeably of history, folklore and, in particular, the built environment. In the Ballitore and the Moone tour, for instance, you learn that the Dublin Gliding Club, whose gates you pass, welcomes visitors; that Ballymore Eustace was the first Norman town on the Liffey protecting a river crossing; and that in Killeen Cormac you can find the grave of King Cormac of Munster. "Day Tours from Dublin" is the perfect family guide and will appeal to the growing market for offbeat leisure activity in the greater Dublin region. The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett edited by C.J. Ackerley and S.E. Gontarski 0571227384 – Large Paperback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 686 pages "The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett" is the most comprehensive reference to the ideas, characters, and life of Samuel Beckett. Alphabetically ordered and cross-referenced, it provides a wealth of information for all serious readers of Beckett. "The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett" is published to coincide with the centenary of his birth. It is a must-have reference book for Beckett fans, drama students, and theatre-lovers. Appletree Pocket Guides: Animals of Ireland by Gordon D’Arcy 086281992X – Small Format Paperback with Endflaps; 7.00 Euro / 9.00 USD / 5.00 UK; 128 pages, full colour illustrations and photos throughout Ireland possesses a fascinating variety of wildlife: bats and voles, shrews and hedgehogs, badgers and stoats are just a few of the animals sharing the country with man. This pocket guide is intended not only as a guide to their identification but also as a source of information about their lifestyles and survival needs. Each animal is beautifully illustrated in full color and the accompanying descriptive text draws attention to its main features and habits. This book will alert readers to the range of Ireland's wild animals and will help them detect their presence from the tell-tale signs. Irish Castles by Terence Reeves-Smyth 0862819911 - Small Format Paperback with Endflaps; 7.00 Euro / 9.00 USD / 5.00 UK; 128 pages, full colour illustrations and photos throughout While the number and variety of castles scattered throughout Ireland testify to a turbulent past, visiting them today is frequently a fascinating and tranquil experience. This guide lists all the Irish castles that are both accessible and worth visiting. They range from early fortifications and medieval towers to the great Norman fortresses such as those at Trim and Carrickfergus and the Renaissance castles of Kanturk and Burncourt. Each has its own particular character and story to tell. Together they represent an astonishingly rich contribution to Ireland's heritage. Irish Family Names by Ida Grehan 086281989X - Small Format Paperback with Endflaps; 7.00 Euro / 9.00 USD / 5.00 UK; 128 pages, full colour illustrations and photos throughout This handy, pocket-sized guide lists and describes eighty well-known Irish family names and explains the history of associations of each. Eighty families have been chosen from thousands, not merely because they are historically important and still numerous, but also because of their often outstanding personalities. Illustrations showing the shields of each family are also included, as are additional sections providing the meaning and place of origin or a further eighty popular names and crests for around another family names. Irish Place Names by P.W. Joyce 0862819938 – Small Format Paperback with Endflaps; 7.00 Euro / 9.00 USD / 5.00 UK; 128 pages, full colour illustrations and photos throughout Eighty families have been chosen from thousands, not merely because they are historically important and still numerous, but also because of their often outstanding personalities. Illustrations showing the shields of each family are also included, as are additional sections providing the meaning and place of origin or a further eighty popular names and crests for around another family names. Irish Trees and Shrubs by Peter Wyse-Jackson 0862819881 – Small Format Paperback with Endflaps; 7.00 Euro / 9.00 USD / 5.00 UK; 128 pages, full colour illustrations and photos throughout It describes in detail over sixty of the most common species of the countryside: plants that are found naturally in Ireland and others introduced from other countries which have gone wild. Each variety is illustrated in full color, making this an attractive and indispensable guide which no lover of the Irish countryside will want to be without. A Short History of Ireland by Martin Wallace 086281961X – Small Format Paperback with Endflaps; 7.00 Euro / 9.00 USD / 5.00 UK; 128 pages, full colour illustrations and photos throughout A Short History of Ireland traces the successive invasions of Celts, Vikings and Normans, the Tudor and Stuart settlements and the gradual emergence of the 'Irish Question' in British politics. The failure of the union with Great Britain and the consequent partition of the island is described, and developments in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in modern times discussed. Succinct biographies of prominent figures, descriptions of major historical sites and a list of important dates are included, making this an ideal introduction for anyone with an interest in Ireland. New in Paperback This Week: Maestro of Crystal: The Story of Miroslav Havel and His Role in Waterford Crystal by Brian F. Havel 1856079406 – Paperback; 15.00 Euro / 18.00 USD / 11.00 UK; 270 pages This work talks about how a young man from Czechoslovakia became the genius behind the celebrated designs of Waterford Crystal (including his signature Lismore pattern). Miroslav Havel came to Waterford from his home in Czechoslovakia at the age of 25, intending to stay only three months. He had been trained in glass-making at the prestigious High School of Industrial Design in Prague. Teaming up with an eccentric Czech businessman, Karel Bacik, Havel kept extending his stay in Ireland while the two men revived a crystal glass tradition that crippling British excise taxes had ended nearly two centuries before. The book traces Havel's early years growing up in Czechoslovakia, his father's bizarre business dealings and tempestuous lifestyle, his formation as a glass designer, his experiences during the Nazi occupation of his country, his mentor Bacik's sudden flight to Ireland, and Havel's strange adventures as a naive Czechoslovak joining Bacik in a distant country he mistakenly associated with tropical fruits and sunshine. The book explores how, after Bacik sold his interest to a group of Irish entrepreneurs, Havel remained in Ireland to guide the rise of Waterford Crystal by adapting antique Waterford crystal designs to modern production processes. It explains how his creative genius inspired him not only to design and install the magnificent chandeliers that now adorn Westminster Abbey and the Kennedy Centre in Washington, but to develop the beautiful suites of heavy lead crystal glasses that created a trusted brand identity for millions of consumers throughout the world. Available Again: Pagan Celtic Ireland: The Enigma of the Irish Iron Age by Barry Raftery 0500279837 – Large Paperback; 25.00 Euro / 30.00 USD / 20.00 UK; 240 pages, with black-and-white illustrations throughout Our established impressions of early Celtic Ireland have come down to us through the great Irish myths and sagas, yet how do these images compare with archaeological evidence? The author seeks to present a comprehensive and lucid account of the Irish Iron Age. He discusses advances that took place in travel and transport; the common people; the local metalsmiths; and the religious beliefs exemplified by standing stones and offerings in lakes and rivers. New material is examined on Ireland's contact with the Roman world and the final chapter reviews whether La Tene culture was spread to Ireland through invasion or diffusion. ------------------------------------- Half-Price Sale (Books Listed Below Only) For a Short Time Only – While Supply Lasts – the Following Titles Will Be Reduced to Half-Price or Less! I have only a Small Quantity of Each Title in Stock for Immediate Dispatch. This Offer is Only Good Via This Email. The Prices on the Website remain unchanged. Please return this email with your selection. -------------------------------------- The Story of the Irish Pub by Cian Molloy (Normal Price 22.50 Euro, Sale Price 10 Euro) The pub occupies a very special place in Irish history yet surprisingly little has been written about it. This book tells the story of licensed premises in Ireland from ancient times to the present day in an informative and highly entertaining way. The author describes all the major developments in the history of the pub and unearths many amusing facts and figures about the licensed trade in the context of Irish history in general. As well as being the first published social history of the trade in intoxicating liquors in Ireland, this book features the individual stories of over 100 Irish pubs that have been in the same family for over a century. The author, Cian Molloy, a journalist specialising in social affairs, has unearthed a treasure trove of facts, figures and folklore relating to the major developments in the history of the pub from the Iron Age to the present day. -------------------------------- A Sense of Place: Irish Lives, Irish Landscapes by Roslyn Dee & Gerry Sandford (Hardback) (Normal Price 25 Euro, Sale Price 12 Euro) In this captivating collection of words and images, thirty-five Irish men and women share personal impressions of one place, on the island of Ireland, of special symbolic relevance to their lives. Delving into that peculiar and highly individual relationship between person and place, these revealing interviews offer an array of perspectives on what makes somewhere special, and why. And through this insight into the particular, broader reflections often arise, on Irish society at large, both past and present, and on what lies ahead as we move forward into a new century. -------------------------------- The Arctic Fox: Francis Leopold McClintock: Discoverer of the Franklin by David Murphy (hardback) (Normal Price 30 Euro, Sale Price 10 Euro) The Shackleton of his day, Leopold McClintock was one of the best-known Artic explorers of the Victorian era. He successfully undertook four major voyages of discovery as well as epic sledge journeys and was the first explorer to bring back definitive information on the lost Franklin party. --------------------------------- The Great Dying: The Black Death in Dublin by Maria Kelly (Normal Price 22.50 Euro, Sale Price 10 Euro) Maria Kelly looks at the black death in Dublin and examines the fear, panic and superstition surrounding the outbreak that many believed was a punishment from God for their sins. -------------------------------- The Women of 1798 edited by Daire Keogh and Nicholas Furlong (Normal Price 15 Euro, Sale Price 7.50 Euro) This volume, a companion to The Mighty Wave published in 1996, examines the role of the women in the Irish rebellion of 1798. ' ------------------------------ The Old English in Ireland, 1625-42 by Aidan Clarke (Normal Price 25 Euro, Sale Price 12 Euro) The "Old English" of the title were descendants of the first English settlers in Ireland, and owners of one-third of Irish land, who were both loyal to the English king as well as being Catholics. When the civil war against England began, the "old English" joined the Irish side, allying themselves with their religion rather than the Crown. ------------------------------ Retrospections of Dorothea Herbert 1770-1806 (Normal Price 15 Euro, Sale Price 7.50 Euro) Retropections of Dorothea Herbert tells the extraordinary, true story of the life of a clergyman's daughter in polite, 18th century Irish society. Following the collapse of her love affair with the handsome John Roe, Dorothea Herbert poured her heart out onto the pages of her diaries. She described her family life, background and education, and gave lively accounts of social events, grand balls and sparkling parties. But in doing so, she also created a priceless historical record, detailing the life, expectations and social conditions of an educated young woman of the time. Retrospections of Dorothea Herbert was first published in 1929 ------------------------------ Rossa’s Recollections 1838-1989: Memoirs of an Irish Revolutionary by O’Donovan Rossa (Normal Price 20 Euro, Sale Price 9 Euro) In this detailed account, nineteenth-century Irish patriot and revolutionary Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa describes his life's experiences, tracing his early boyhood growing up on his grandfather's farm in Renascreena, his thirteen-year imprisonment for his involvement in the Fenian movement, and finally his exile to America, where he continued his activities in support of Irish independence. In this epic memoir he tells of learning the Irish language as a child, of sitting around turf fires and hearing tales of fairies and battles, of landlords seizing the wheat crop for rent when the potato crop failed, and of his family being evicted from their home. Through it a portrait emerges of Ireland in the mid- to late 1800s, revealing what life was truly like for the Irish people. Rossa's rambling style makes the narrative read like a fireside conversation between friends. He tells his story with frankness and honesty but without bitterness. Although he died six years before his beloved Ireland won its independence, his words no doubt influenced the next generation of revolutionaries. --------------------------------- William Smith O’Brien and the Young Ireland Rebellion of 1848 by Robert Sloan (Normal Price 30 Euro, Sale Price 12 Euro) Ireland's revolution of 1848 has no proud place in the history of Irish nationalism, and the leader of the doomed enterprise, William Smith O'Brien, is not a celebrated hero of his country's struggle for independence. Nevertheless, the O'Brien story is an important one. During most of his political career, O'Brien believed in the British Parliament's capacity to give good government in Ireland. His attempts to sccure liberal reform were largely unsuccessful, however, and he entered the 1840s with a growing conviction that the Irish Members were wasting their time at Westminster. In 1843, his extraordinary Commons campaign for "justice" for Ireland prefigured the tactics of Parnell, but the effort ended in disappointment and O'Brien joined the Repeal Association in October 1843. For the next five years he was a major political figure, first as O'Connell's loyal deputy, then as his critic and rival, and finally, in 1848, as the leader of a rebellion. O'Brien was an exceptionally brave politician whose sense of honour and duty sent him into the lion's den time and time again. However, his ignominious failure in 1848 meant that he could be despised by men who were not his betters- by British leaders who failed to govern well, and by Irish politicians, including many who called themselves nationalists, who did not share his attachment to the idea that they should govern themselves. ---------------------------------- Yeats’ Ireland: An Illustrated Anthology by John Gregory (Hardback) (Normal Price 40 Euro, Sale Price 15 Euro) Author John Gregory brings to life the subtle, almost mystical interaction between land and poetry, tracing Yeats' development from his early childhood days in Sligo through his romantic yearnings and literary battles in Dublin, where he founded the Abbey Theatre, to his days of retreat and contemplation within The Tower in County Galway. Yeats' own writings, both poems and prose work, feature prominently; and the Ireland he lived in, the landscapes that inspired him, are captured in historic prints and contemporary photographs, making Yeats' Ireland an essential literary companion. ------------------------------------- Sunday Miscellany edited by Marie Heaney (Normal Price 15 Euro, Sale Price 7 Euro) For thousands of listeners to RTE 1, Sunday morning means Sunday Miscellany. The programme's mix of 'music and musings' has evoked memories and provoked responses in its listeners for over thirty years. It is the mingling of the professional and the amateur that gives the radio programme its unique appeal and in Sunday Miscellany: A selection from the programme, this pattern is maintained. Here you will find familiar and unfamiliar names writing on topics that range from the anecdotal to the factual, from the personal to the historical, from the humorous to the poignant. Sunday Miscellany: A selection from the programme will give listeners-turned-readers a chance to revisit the places, to recapture the memories, to relive the stories, to hear again those Sunday morning voices that came across the airways so fleetingly and memorably. --------------------------------- Crucifixion in Irish Art by Peter Harbison (Hardback) (Normal Price 25 Euro, Sale Price 12 Euro) “The Crucifixion…is the only religious event or scene that has been represented in Irish art in virtually every century from the year 800 down to the present day. Crucifixes and crucifixion scenes thus provide an ideal and consistent yardstick against which we can measure the achievements of Irish artists and craftsmen during the last dozen centuries or so. They can reflect not only the changes in art styles throughout this period, but also—through individual characteristics and the accompanying figures and objects—the changing theology down the years.” - From the Introduction Throughout Irish history artists have captured the Crucifixion using a variety of mediums: on crosses, in stained glass, on tombstones, sculptures, and paintings. Photographs of fifty such depictions of the Crucifixion (46 in black-and-white and 4 in color) ranging from the year 800CE to the present, along with interpretive commentary, show the development of this image and the theology surrounding it in Ireland -------------------------------- Dublin Metropolitan Police: A Short History and Genealogical Guide by Jim Herlihy (Normal Price 25 Euro, Sale Price 12 Euro) In the period 1836 to 1925 some 12,500 men served in the DMP. This book collects information on all these policemen, constituting a quarry for their hundreds of thousands of descendants in Ireland, the United States and elsewhere. ------------------------------------------ Orders to: Gregory Carr, Bookseller Read Ireland 392 Clontarf Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3, Ireland Tel & Fax: +353-1-853-2063 email: gregcarr@readireland.ie or gcbookseller@eircom.net Please visit our website: www.readireland.com
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