Peter Costello
Selected by the book’s editor
The Granite Coast: Dún Laoghaire, Sandycove and Dalkey by Peter Pearson (The O’Brien Press, €35.00)
Explore Dún Laoghaire and its coastal surroundings as Peter Pearson reveals the story behind its transformation from rocky granite shoreline to grand Victorian ‘watering place’, to the bustling town it is now. With over 250 illustrations, this is a fascinating journey through the history and heritage of Dún Laoghaire, Sandycove and Dalkey, in fact South Dublin generally, written by a leading heritage expert.
The Translations of Seamus Heaney edited by Dr Marco Songozi (Faber and Faber, €34.99)
The first ever collected volume of Seamus Heaney’s translations from languages including Old and Middle Irish and English, Medieval Italian, Classical Greek and Latin and Modern Italian, Spanish, French, Romanian, German and Greek.
As editor, Marco Sonzogni frames the translations with the poet’s own writings on his works, drawing from various introductions, interviews and commentaries. Collectively we are brought closer to an understanding of the remarkable extent of Heaney’s talent, a genius for interpretation and transformation that distinguishes him as one of the great poet-translators of all time.
Surrender, Forty Songs, One Story by Bono (Hutchinson Heinemann, €24.99)
This is the singer’s own story of his life, partially recounted perhaps, but which nevertheless will be of immense interest to those who have been affected not only by his music but by his activism in the matters of AIDS and world-wide poverty. But Dubliners will wonder at the use of his fortune to promote property developments in Dublin, a matter which has caused much trepidation.
An Emotional Dictionary: Real Words for How You Feel, from Angst to Zwodder by Susie Dent (John Murray, €18.99 )
Susie Dent is a familiar face on TV and in magazines as a word expert. This book, she says is the one she has always wanted to write, and her one million followers on Twitter will doubtless devour it. A book that will fill many an adult stocking this Christmas.
Message from the Ukraine: the speeches of Voldomyr Zelenskyy (Hutchinson Heinemann, €11.99)
The daily evening talks and more formal speeches of the president of Ukraine have formed an important aspect in his nation’s resistance to the invasion and Russian efforts to simply eliminate the very idea of Ukrainian culture.
Putin seems to have forgotten Prussian general von Clausewitz’s axiom that all war is the continuation of diplomacy by other means. But all wars have to end in a diplomatic response: the United States found this in Vietnam. Its neglect in other areas has led to a constant state of warfare in parts of the world. These words of Voldomyr Zelenskyy will be read in the future in a way the great speeches of that past are today.
More Midweek Meals by Neven Maguire (Gill Books, €22.99)
Once cooking was seen as a practical domestic art, the preserve of girls, only it has more recently become a skill now taught to boys as well. And rightly so. But the celebrity world of some cooks sees it differently.
All too many cookery books, however, are still aimed at presenting flash food for entertaining, when what so many people really need are skills that enable them to present family meals three time a day, and avoid the horrendous cost and poor quality of on-call catering. Unlike some of his rivals Neven Maguire keeps in mind the basic needs of family life. These midweek meals are aimed at feeding the kids and wider family.
Ireland’s Islands photographed and written by Carsten Krieger and Richard Creagh (The O’Brien Press, €24.99)
Take a photographic journey around Ireland’s coast and explore the landscape, history, heritage and wildlife of the offshore islands. From rugged cliffs thronged with seabirds to tranquil bays, and from quiet strands to bustling villages, Carsten and Richard’s words and images bring to life the uniqueness of these small, sea-locked worlds.
The locus classicus of Irish island books is Thomas Mason’s The Island of Ireland, published by Batsford back in the 1930s. The remarkable contrasts of the two books shows just how far we have changed over that time.
An Irish Folklore Treasury by John Creedon (Gill Books, €19.99)
Broadcaster John Creedon has brought together a selection of extracts from the Schools Collection in the Folklore Department of UCD, the successor agency to the Government bureau charged with the collection of folklore, legends and practises.
This was done by issuing some 400 or so booklets to the National School system and encouraging the teachers to get the students to ask their grandparents about the old days. The children wrote down the replies in their own words and best writing and they were sent into the professional folklorists. The whole collection is available online, a great reading it is.
So the publishers claim that this is their first publication is not quite exact. But this book and the archive are well worth visiting as any real knowledge of our rural past is quickly fading away in the age of the internet. A must have book for any student of Irish life and tradition.
Listen to the Land Speak by Manchán Magan (Gill Books, €22.99)
In this illuminating new book, established writers about Irish nature traditions, Manchán Magan sets out on a journey, through bogs, across rivers and over mountains, to trace our ancestors’ traces. He uncovers the ancient myths that have shaped our national identity and are embedded in the strata of land that have endured through millennia – from ice ages through to famines and floods.
The Guardians: 100 Years of An Garda Síochána 1922-2022 by Stephen Moore (The O’Brien Press, €22.99)
On my first visit to Belfast as a child I was heavily struck by the sight of armed police on the streets of Belfast. Citizens down here never give a thought to how lucky they are to be living in a state with an unarmed police force.
Our police force is a very exceptional organisation and we should all be proud of it. The new state in 1922 wanted to make a clean break with the old Royal Irish Constabulary, the armed rural gendarmes of the past. Here is an excellent history of how this was achieved, despite factors weighing against it.
Abandoned Ireland by Rebecca Brownlie (Irish Academic Press, €27.95)
This illustrated book travels the length and breadth of the island of Ireland discovering and documenting our forgotten buildings, highlighting their social importance, and bringing their stories back to life through the medium of photography.
From Big Houses to humble cottages, schools to prisons, churches to dance halls, these buildings may now be abandoned, but they are far from empty. As a photographer, Brownlie’s instincts are remarkable. In the seemingly ruined and mundane she finds diamonds in the rough; her images of the ordinary ephemera of past lives – dusty love letters, rusting spectacles, photographs yellowed and curled with age – paint the pictures of real people and full lives.
The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes (Bloomsbury, £25.00)
Author Figes has long been one of those few historians whose skills as a writer bring their vast range of scholarship clearly before the public. This book is, at this moment, of exceptional importance.
President Putin is given to making large claims about the glories of the Russian past. Figes, the leading modern scholar on Russia today, places these claims, and an account of what really passed over the centuries, in a realistic perspective. Not perhaps a ‘book for Christmas’, but certainly one for the coming year.
After the Storm by Damian Lawlor (Black and White Publishing, €17.99)
Throughout that dark time, the GAA was at the epicentre of the country’s fight back against Covid-19. Some 20,000 volunteers helped out 35,000 vulnerable neighbours and friends with food and medicine deliveries during lockdown. Croke Park and other major stadia transformed into testing centres, the Association went online to keep people connected and the GAA became a beacon of hope. The life of rural Ireland in some important sense was preserved to continue into the future.
A History of the GAA in 100 Objects by Siobhan Doyle (Irish Academic Press, €24.99)
This fascinating book offers a new perspective on the GAA by assembling a range of objects from every county in Ireland, as well as overseas, to present a chronological history of the GAA that also functions as a social history of the people who have been involved in it. From a 15th Century horsehair sliotar to a tweed camogie dress, Trevor Giles’s sleeveless jersey and Brian Cody’s baseball cap, all corners of the GAA world, personal and official, are explored and celebrated by Siobhan Doyle
Time and Tide by Charlie Bird (HarperCollins Ireland, €16.99)
A poignant and introspective memoir from broadcaster Charlie Bird. In 2021, Charlie Bird was diagnosed with motor neurone disease – a man whose voice was so synonymous with his career faced losing it completely. Yet knowing he had just a short time left with family and friends, what emerged was a great sense of resilience and motivation to take advantage of every moment.
Here, Charlie reflects on his life and phenomenal broadcast career through the lens of his diagnosis, as he ponders the big questions and takes stock of the small moments that we so often overlook. Written over the course of 2022 as his health deteriorated, with the help of long-time friend and fellow journalist Ray Burke, this is a candid and unforgettable story about the triumph of the human spirit and, ultimately, what it means to be alive.
Never Better by Tommie Gorman (Atlantic Books, €18.99)
From modest beginnings as a local reporter at the Western Journal, where his deadlines were dependent on the bus schedule, Tommie landed at RTÉ, taking up the post of North-West correspondent in 1980. Over the next four decades he became a familiar presence in Irish homes.
In this insightful and generous book, Tommie takes readers behind the scenes and shares some of his memories from Sligo to Stormont, via Brussels and Sweden, as he recounts 40 extraordinary years of Irish history from his front-row seat and looks at what may lie ahead for the island.
Point to Point: The Heart of Irish Racing by Pat Healy and Richard Pugh (The O’Brien Press, €24.99)
The true grassroots of Irish horse racing, point-to-point tracks are transformed from farmland by dedicated volunteers into temporary racetracks. Photographer Pat Healy and writer Richard Pugh introduce the riders, handlers, venues and famous horses that give Irish point-to-pointing such a unique spirit. Here as an Irish sporting tradition from which so much has sprung, that goes back to the 18th Century.
The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance by Mensun Bound (Macmillan, €18.99)
On November 21, 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, finally succumbed to the crushing ice. Its crew watched in silence as the stern rose 20 feet in the air and then, it was gone. The miraculous escape and survival of all 28 men on board have entered legend. The iconic ship that bore them to the brink of the Antarctic was considered forever lost.
A century later, an audacious plan to locate the ship was hatched. The Ship Beneath the Ice gives a stage-by-stage account of the two epic expeditions to find the Endurance. These voyages were filled with intense drama and teamwork under pressure. In March 2022, the Endurance was finally found wonderfully preserved under the icy waters.
The Madness: A Memoir of War, Fear, and PTSD by Fergal Keane (William Collins, €17.99)
In this powerful and intensely personal book, famous Irish war correspondent Keane interrogates what it is that draws him to the wars to which he devoted his career, what keeps him there and offers a reckoning of the damage done.
PTSD affects people from all walks of life. Trauma can be found in many places, not just war. Keane’s book speaks to the struggle of all who are trying to recover from injury, addiction and mental breakdown. It is a survivor’s story drawn from lived experience, told with honesty, courage and an open heart.
A Gift of Joy and Hope by Pope Francis (John Murray Press, €19.99)
In response to the devastating loss the world faced during the pandemic, Pope Francis was inspired to write a book to help people find hope and meaning. God is joyful, he writes. And God’s compassion is no less than the deepest expression of God’s joy, and the heart of all Christian preaching.
The liberating revolution of the Gospel is encapsulated here. We are not supposed to carry burdens heavier than those we already have, but to bear witness to a new, beautiful and surprising horizon: to share a joy that has been prepared for everyone.
From the anxieties of the age to the importance of nature, A Gift of Joy and Hope encourages readers to look outside themselves to embrace authentic beauty, change attitudes that exclude others, overcome life’s challenges with courage and trust that joy and hope are still possible, even in challenging times; for joy has the last word – always.
The Great Lighthouses of Ireland by David Hare (Gill Books, €22.99)
The appealing book is a collection of striking images and fascinating stories about the lighthouses around Ireland’s coast and the extraordinary men and women who lived and worked in them.
The book is topically wide ranging, covering many aspects of the heritage of our shore line, especially the Wild Atlantic Way, including many curious tales such as a raid on the Fastnet by the IRA, Ireland’s nuclear-powered lighthouse, and the heroic rescue of the Daunt Rock lightship.
With more than 300 stunning images and archive documents, this beautiful book brings to life the romance and history of the lighthouses that have provoked fascination for hundreds of years.