Quality Time at St Chinian by Patrick Masterson (Liberties Press, €14.99) Many people have enjoyed Ronald Searle’s The Terror of St Trinians and its sequel of comedy films. With an unmistakable reference to it in the title, Masterson provides a foretaste of this debut novel. Just as Searle described the eccentricities and idiocies of the staff…
Journey of Ten Thousand Smiles by Patricia Keane (Rebuild for Bosnia, Monasterevin, €16.95; for over the phone sales call 045 532 410) In November 1996 I accompanied Fr Kevin Doheny, CSSp, on a journey from Medjugorje to Sarajevo. He had been a missionary in Biafra, where there were thousands of displaced people and refugees after…
Murtaí Óg: Murtaí Óg Ó Súilleabháin (c. 1710-54): a life contextualised by Gerard J. Lyne, (Geography Publications, €25.00) Here once again this author writes with authority about his local area. His The Lansdowne Estate in Kerry under the agency of William Steuart Trench, 1849-72 was a classic account of an Irish landlord’s agent in the…
The Great Famine in Tralee and North Kerry by Bryan MacMahon (Mercier Press , €35) The Great Famine, or ‘Black ‘45’ as it is known in the oral tradition, was a seminal event in the modern history of Ireland. It initiated the great emigration to the ‘New World’. Regrettably it also grafted on to the folk…
Wounds: A Memoir of Love & War by Fergal Keane (William Collins, £18.99) Fergal Keane is well-known as a foreign correspondent, especially for his coverage of Africa and Serbia. His main area of interest is war and its effect on those who have been caught up in it. In his latest book he looks closer to…
A Bloody Night: The Irish at Rorke’s Drift by Dan Harvey (Merrion Press, €14.99) A Bloody Day: The Irish at Waterloo by Dan Harvey (Merrion Press, €14.99) J. Anthony Gaughan These are interesting accounts by the same author of two very different battles, but which had one thing in common – the participation of Irish soldiers. Rorke’s Drift…
Sam Maguire: The Man and The Cup by Kieran Connolly (Mercier Press, €12.99) As last week’s dramatic victory by Dublin over Mayo showed, the Sam Maguire Cup is much better known than the man after whom it was named and honours. This opportune account of Sam Maguire and noteworthy occasions and persons associated with…
I Die in a Good Cause: Thomas Ashe: A Biography Sean Ó Luing (Mercier Press, €14.99) J. Anthony Gaughan In his introduction to this new edition of Seán Ó Lúing’ a biography of the patriot Thomas Ashe, Prof. Joe Lee speculates on the kind of influence Thomas Ashe would have exerted on the independence movement…
The monasteries magdalen asylums and reformatory schools of Our Lady of Charity in Ireland 1853 – 1973 by Jacinta Prunty (Columba Press, €34,99) I found Jacinta Prunty’s account of the institutions of the congregation of Our Lady of Charity both magisterial and immensely satisfying. But here I must declare a personal interest. With other duties…
Terrorism has horrific consequences. Among these consequences, and frequently not adverted to, are lack of respect for the truth, the undermining of the rule of law and the obstruction of justice. In this remarkable study the author, who has specialised in criminal law in England, Wales and Ireland since 1966, details how consequences such as…