Inside Rural Ireland: Power and Change since Independence, edited by Tomás Finn & Tony Varley (University College Press, €30.00 / £25.00) It was a maxim in medieval times when a social problem arose to “Wait a bit: lets us ask the country folk” – “Sustine modicum: ruricolae melius hoc norunt.” This was transformed by the…
Hotel Lux: An Intimate History of Communism’s Forgotten Radicals, by Maurice J. Casey (Footnote Press, £20.00 / €24.00) The Communist International, which became widely known as Comintern, was founded in Moscow 1919. In the tangled politics of the left since 1848 there had been two other international movements, which had failed; but this new organisation…
Unladylike: A History of Ladies Gaelic Football by Hayley Kilgallon (New Island, €24.95 / £19.50) Beginning in the final quarter of the twentieth century, despite medical, religious and social objections, there was a remarkable increase in the number of girls and women participating in what were traditionally regarded as men’s sports. This trend was particularly noticeable…
D-Day: The Oral History by Garrett M. Graff (Monoray / Octopus Publishing, £25.00 / €30.00) D-Day was the turning point in World War II. On that day, June 6 1944, 160,000 troops stormed the Normandy beaches. They set up a battle front of more than sixty miles over five different beaches – their code names forever…
The Companion to Irish Traditional Music edited by Fintan Vallely (Cork University Press, €69.00 / £65.00 / $75.00 ) This is a magisterial study of Irish Traditional Music. At the outset the author defines this genre of music. For him it is a body of melody, song and dance and associated activities that comes from the period…
Irish Doctors in the Second World War by PJ Casey, KT Cullen, and JP Duignan (Merrion Press, €29.99/£25.99) This is a comprehensive account of the Irish doctors who served with the Allied forces in World War II. This is for all intents and purposes an untold story, but one that needed to be told for…
Dane Jeross: The Irish Private Eye who Operates Hollywood Noir Style, by Cyril McHale (Available from Amazon Media Eu: kindle edition, £9.99; paperback, £11.00.) Every classic Hollywood film is essentially a story and all of human life is to be found in those stories. They range from stories about the ‘Wild West’ to accounts…
John Moriarty: Grounded in Story, Edited by Amanda Carmody and Mary McGillicuddy (The Lilliput Press, €25.00 / £21.50) The mystic John Moriarty is one of modern Ireland unique writers, but he achieved this position through a life of varied and equally unique experiences. John Moriarty was born in Moyvane, near Listowel, Co. Kerry, on…
This book is a labour of love. At the outset the author reveals how he first became aware of the existence of Gordon Brewster.
Autumn Blooms: A Selection of Stories, Poetry and Parable by Paddy Glavin, Cyril Kelly, John Fitzgerald (Copies are available from Woulfe’s Independent Bookshop, 7 Church Street Listowel, Co. Kerry; email: woulfesbookshop@gmail.com; phone (068) 21021; €12, with a special postage rate of €6.80). Listowel Writers Week, the premier locally led and sustained literary festival in Ireland is…