NIAMH HOWLIN, Four Courts Press, €55, ISBN 9781846826214 By Dean Jobb Dean Jobb teaches journalism and non-fiction writing at the University of King’s College in Nova Scotia. ‘In a case on which religious animosities prevailed,’ a member of parliament declared in 1824, he ‘would infinitely rather trust the life of a man to one of … Read more
FINTAN O’TOOLE Royal Irish Academy €30 ISBN 9781908997159 By Peter Gahan It’s about time that Ireland took Bernard Shaw seriously, and Fintan O’Toole in his convincingly argued and highly readable Judging Shaw makes a powerful case for so doing. Like Shaw a political commentator and drama critic (although Shaw was many other things, not least … Read more
By Joe Culley Breandán Mac Suibhne, Subjects lacking words? The gray zone of the Great Famine (Cork University Press, €11.95 pb, 48pp, ISBN 9780997837476). Niamh Ann Kelly, Ultimate witnesses: the visual culture of death, burial and mourning in Famine Ireland (Cork University Press, €11.95 pb, 48pp, ISBN 9780997837469). Richard Kearney and Sheila Gallagher, Twinsome minds: … Read more
MARGARET WARD (ed.) UCD Press €35/£30 ISBN 9781910820148 Reviewed by Patrick Maum This valuable book is a picture of an activist in her own words. Hanna Sheehy Skeffington was essentially a rationalist (she loved books and disliked music), a believer in the ability of reason to bring about social improvement, whose personality had been shaped … Read more
TREVOR WHITE Penguin Ireland €17.99 ISBN 9781844884247 Reviewed by Frank MacGabhann Frank MacGabhann is a lawyer and commentator working in Dublin and Barcelona. In 1911 Alfred Byrne (otherwise known to Dubliners as ‘Alfie’), a diminutive publican and former bicycle mechanic with little education, was elected to Dublin Corporation (not Dublin City Council, as the author … Read more