DIARMUID Ó GRÁDA University College Cork Press €39 ISBN 9781782051473 Reviewed by: Sylvie Kleinman This book is a ‘gorgeous mask’ of sorts. Both front and back covers foretell that it will be (and is) abundantly and beautifully illustrated. They harmoniously convey that well-ingrained feel-good effect of eighteenth-century Dublin as an august Enlightenment metropolis; nothing offends. … Read more
JONATHAN BARDON Gill & Macmillan €24.99 ISBN 9780717163540 Reviewed by: David Dickson Amidst all the enormous amount of literature, past and present, devoted to the composer Handel and his works, his extended stay in Dublin in 1741/2 has received modest enough attention, and it is usually treated as a slightly quixotic incident in his long … Read more
PATRICK F. WALLACE Irish Academic Press €60 ISBN 9780716533146 Reviewed by: Franc Myles Despite the enduring popularity of archaeology on television and in the media, few people realise what’s actually involved in the process of archaeological excavation. This is especially true on urban sites, where the stratification of cultural deposits can reach as much as … Read more
John Gibney, A history of the Easter Rising in 50 objects (Mercier Press, €19.99 hb, 224pp, ISBN 9781781173817). Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc, Truce: murder, myth and the last days of the Irish war of independence (Mercier Press, €19.99 pb, 384pp, ISBN 9781781173855). Niamh O’Sullivan, In the lion’s den: Daniel Macdonald, Ireland and empire (Cork University … Read more
KEN McGOOGAN HarperCollins $29.99 ISBN 9781443425506 Reviewed by Dean Jobb Celtic lightning ends with a beginning. Author Ken McGoogan describes how, in 1863, two political opponents joined forces with a common goal—to unite four of Britain’s North American colonies and form a new country, Canada. John A. Macdonald was a Glasgow-born political dynamo, a master … Read more