Michael Foley, The bloodied field: Croke Park, Sunday 21 November 1920 (O’Brien Press, €16.99 pb, 296pp, ISBN 9781847173188). John O’Callaghan, Con Colbert (O’Brien Press, €12.99 pb, 256pp, ISBN 9781847173348). Róisín Ní Ghairbhí, Willie Pearse (O’Brien Press, €12.99 pb, 256pp, ISBN 9781847172679). Joe Good, Inside the GPO: a first-hand account (O’Brien Press, €11.99 pb, 320pp, ISBN … Read more
MICHAEL KENNEDY & ART MAGENNIS Four Courts Press €40.50 ISBN 9781846825231 Reviewed by Thomas O’Loughlin To appreciate this important book one must note the opening sentences with care: ‘This book originates in a personal memoir by Comdt. Art Magennis of his service with the 35th Irish Battalion in Organisation de Nations Unies au Congo (ONUC) … Read more
LEO KEOHANE Merrion Press €20.25 pb, €49.95 hb ISBN 9781908928931 Reviewed by Angus Mitchell Of the many strands of radical thought to be reckoned with in the ideological crossfire of Ireland’s revolutionary years—nationalism, socialism, feminism, anti-imperialism, modernism, internationalism, pacifism and vegetarianism—the relevance of anarchism is notably understudied. Part of the reason is due to the … Read more
KEVIN MYERS Lilliput Press €20 ISBN 9781843516354 Reviewed by Myles Dungan Sometime back in the 1970s a seventeen-year-old UCD scholarship candidate faced the might of Prof. Kevin B. Nowlan and Prof. F.X. Martin in an oral examination. Early on in the inquisition he was asked by the affable Prof. Nowlan, ‘Can you name any Irishmen … Read more
R. F. FOSTER Allen Lane €29.99 ISBN 9781846144639 Reviewed by Ronan Fanning ‘When did the Irish revolution begin?’ The question is Roy Foster’s point of departure, the pivot around which Vivid faces revolves. The core of the book is the ‘change of mentality, a change in hearts and minds’, that took place in the immediate … Read more