The Murder of Dr Muldoon by Ken Boyle & Tim Desmond (Mercier Press, €12.99) Dr Patrick Muldoon was a GP in Mohill, Co Leitrim. On March 18, 1923 he attended his weekly Sunday-night card game at the parochial house with his friends Canon Michael Masterson and Edward Geelan, clerk of the District Council. On his…
A History of the Irish Red Cross by Shane Lehane (Four Courts Press, €45.00) Following the estab-lishment of the Red Cross in Geneva in 1863, the British branch was founded in 1870 as the ‘British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War’ and reconstituted as the British Red Cross in…
Nights in Armour by Samuel Thompson (Mercier Press, €14.99) With the question of Ulster back in the fore of European politics, this new novel reminds us of just what the condition were in the grim past of that province that wise leaders in the Republic and the EU, Northern Ireland and Britain should seek to…
The Brigidine Sisters in Ireland, America, Australia and New Zealand, 1807 – 1922 by Ann Power (Four Courts Press, €60.00) In this comprehensive study Dr Ann Power discusses all aspects of the lives and ministry of the Brigidine nuns and in doing so tells us a great deal about the making of modern Ireland. Bishop Daniel…
Cad Fúinne, Mar Sin?/ What of us, then? by Colm Ó Tórna (Foilsithe ag Teangscéal/ Áisínteacht Dáilúcháin Leabhar, €10.00/€13.50 post paid; from An Siopa Leabhar, 6 Sráid Fhearchair, Dublin 2; email: siopa@cnag.ie) At the outset the author provides a depressing, albeit accurate, description of the prevailing culture. He states that its true nature was revealed in…
A Doctor’s War by Aidan MacCarthy (Gill Books ex Collins Press, €11.19) This is a fascinating war memoir by a remarkable survivor, who attributed his safe-keeping to divine intervention. Aidan MacCarthy was born in Castletownbeare, Co. Cork in 1914. He was educated at Clongowes Wood College, which for his English readers he describes as “the Eton…
Dom Eugene Boylan: Trappist Monk, Scientist & Writer by Thomas J. Morrissey SJn (Messenger Publications, €19.95) This is an important biography of Dom Eugene Boylan, the well-known abbot of Mount St Joseph, the Cistercian Abbey at Roscrea. He was the author of two once widely read books, This Tremendous Lover and Difficulties in Mental Prayer, which…
The Great Famine in Kinsale by Catherine Flanagan (Four Courts Press, €9.95) Catherine Flanagan gives us an account of the Great Famine in Kinsale and its hinterland. At the outset she describes the social and economic conditions in the area before the famine. The lower classes – cottiers and labourers – made up 80% of the…
Walking Backwards to Heaven? Hope and the Catholics of Cloyne Diocese, 1700 – 1830 by Martin Millerick (Diocese of Cloyne, €10.00 + 3.40 Postage Eire, €5.70 UK; Cathedral Bookshop, Cobh, Cloyne Diocesan Office & bookshops) Martin Millerick’s new book is a scholarly history of the Catholic diocese of Cloyne in the 17th and 18th Centuries.…
Under the Bed by Robert Pierse (A Little Platoon, €15.00; copies from bookshops, or jm.murphy@outlook.ie / 087 1844378, for €20 inc. post and packaging) This is a collection of interesting stories, drawn from the lawyer author’s experience of many different places and people, many, however, close to home on the Munster Circuit by a solicitor…