Nick Maxwell Shipwreck Inventory of Ireland: Louth, Meath, Dublin and Wicklow Compiled by Karl Brady (Government Publications, €35) ISBN 9780755776160 From the highest point in old Holmpatrick graveyard, up by the ruined church tower where little more than a murder of crows mourns the many worn headstones, you have a pretty good view of the islands off … Read more
It looks like my headline for last issue’s article on Olympic boxing—‘Punching above our weight?’—was vindicated by the impressive haul of four medals by our boxers in London (gold, silver and two bronze). Strange, then, that what set the blogosphere buzzing during the recent games was RTÉ presenter Bill O’Herlihy’s observation, in the course of … Read more
Enforcing the English reformation in Ireland: clerical resistance and political conflict in the diocese of Dublin, 1534–1590 James Murray (Cambridge University Press, £60, $120) ISBN 9780521770385 Lacking the requisite documentation for an English-style study of the Reformation in Dublin (p. 15), James Murray presents an over-arching hypothesis: that Dublin’s clerical élites were committed to a … Read more
Inishmurray: monks and pilgrims in an Atlantic landscape Volume 1: Archaeological survey and excavations 1997–2000. Jerry O’Sullivan and Tomás Ó Carragáin (Collins Press, €49.95) ISBN 9781905172474 The remains on Inishmurray, described by Lord Dunraven as ‘the most characteristic example now in existence of the earliest monastic establishments in Ireland’, consist of a central cashel containing … Read more
Sir Richard Musgrave, 1746–1818: ultra-Protestant ideologue James Kelly (Four Courts Press, €55) ISBN 9781846821486 The subject of this biography was also the subject of one of Irish history’s more memorable pen-portraits: ‘Sir Richard Musgrave, who (except on the abstract topics of politics, religion, martial law, his wife, the Pope, the Pretender, the Jesuits, Napper Tandy, … Read more