Recent books in brief

Defending Trinity College Dublin, Easter 1916: Anzacs and the Rising

by Rory Sweetman (Four Courts Press, €19.99)

Dr Rory Sweetman is a Kildare-born New Zealander who studied at Trinity College Dublin and Cambridge University, and has has written extensively on aspects of the Irish abroad. He is the author of Bishop in the Dock: the Sedition Trial of James Liston in New Zealand (2007), which won the Sir Keith Sinclair Prize for history.

In his new book he turns to an often overlooked aspect of the Rising, the participation of officers and soldiers from the Antipodes in suppressing the Rising in 1916. He describes how five officers from New Zealand provided vital protection for the college from an attack by the rebels on Easter Monday.

He inquiries into this little discussed aspect of the matter.

TCD virtually was a bastion with only a few entrances. It might have fallen to intensive artillery fire, but the rebels did not have the guns. However, one is appalled at the thought that the great library might have been destroyed – as great a loss to the world as the destruction of Louvain by the Republic’s “gallant allies in Europe”, the Germanic Empires. Dr Sweertman sees this micro conflict in the streets of Dublin as “a neglected episode in an imperial context, with Dublin as theatre of battle in a global war”.

Ireland’s Own: The 2019 Anthology of Winning Irish short stories and memoires

edited by Phil Murphy, foreword by Cathy Kelly (Three Sisters Press, €14,99)

Another collection of 40 stories in the widest sense, including fiction, anecdotes and memories from prize-winners and highly commended entrants in the annual writing competition organised by Ireland’s Own, Ireland’s leading family magazine since 1902.

This year’s anthology contains 40 winners and highly commended entries from almost 500 participants in the magazine’s writing competitions. The stories and memories cover many facets of Irish life, from bereavement, emigration and joyful celebration, to recollections of old time card schools, joyriding in the green Volkswagen Beetle and the delights of annual carnival week.

If you have to send out early presents to folks abroad this is an ideal gift.

Wake up to Advent!

by John Sentamu (SPCK, £9.99)

These days Christmas comes early for everyone, even for the authors of Advent books. But, it could well be argued, that for all Christians every new day, with its new possibilities, is the beginning of Advent. The Anglican Archbishop of York in this book provides insights which are relevant all the year round, for all season, and not just for Christmas tide.

The Archbishop has always been an outspoken man, and in these pages he is not less so. His call is for his readers to wake up, face how things are, and inspired by the Gospels, to persist. The book has already won the admiration of Cardinal Nichols, readers should give it a try.