VALERIE JONES Ashfield Press €25 ISBN 9780995672208 Reviewed by: Sinéad McCoole This book gives the reader much more than the subtitle suggests—the breadth of references span over 400 years, from a description of the alphabet and catechism in the Irish language in 1571 to references to the Irish Guild of the Church (Cumann Gaelach na … Read more
VINCENT MORLEY Cork University Press €39 ISBN 9781782052081 Reviewed by: Jim Smyth This book is arranged in an unconventional way: eight thematic chapters, in proximate chronological sequence, on ‘kingdom’, ‘faith’, ‘memory’, ‘war’, ‘patriots’, ‘land’, ‘rebellion’ and ‘union’, are each prefaced by Irish-language poems, ranging from three to eight pages in length, with facing translations into … Read more
PETER CROOKS and SEÁN DUFFY (eds) Four Courts Press €26.95 ISBN 97801846825712 Reviewed by: Eamon Darcy By the nineteenth century the Geraldines, despite being among the original ‘conquistadors’ of Ireland in the twelfth century, represented ‘the essence of all things Gaelic … and the struggle for freedom from English rule’. This enduring perception is a … Read more
RUADHÁN MAC CORMAIC Penguin Ireland €27.99 ISBN 9781844883400 Reviewed by: Vincent Browne In this superb history of the Supreme Court, author Ruadhán Mac Cormaic describes the casual transference of the English legal system and ethos—the common law tradition—into the ethos of the new state, with a few minor and insignificant changes that occurred right at … Read more
By Joe Culley Barbara Hussey and Anna Kealy (eds), Nothing is written in stone: the notebooks of Justin Keating (Lilliput Press, €20 pb, 280pp, ISBN 9781843516774). Nell Regan, Helena Molony: a radical life, 1883–1967 (Arlen House, €27 pb, 275pp, ISBN 9781851321650). Tina O’Toole, Gillian McIntosh and Muireann Ó Cinnéide (eds), Women writing war: Ireland 1880–1922 … Read more