Billy Colfer (Cork University Press, €49) ISBN 9781859184936 Few counties in Ireland have been better served by their scholars and writers than Wexford—and, of these, no one has better honoured his county’s landscapes and people than Billy Colfer. Wexford castles is not only a worthy successor to his monographs The Hook Peninsula (2004) and Wexford: … Read more
James Kelly and Mary Ann Lyons (eds) (Irish Academic Press, Dublin, €27.95) ISBN 9780716531913 This publication presents the essays from the 30th biennial Irish Conference of Historians, which was held at NUI Maynooth in 2011 with death and dying as its theme. It provides fourteen essays by expert historians and archaeologists and makes a welcome … Read more
Kevin O’Sullivan (Manchester University Press, £65) ISBN 9780719086021 Historic ties between Ireland and Africa run deep. The earliest mission stations along the Congo River were founded by the Grattan Guinness family back in the 1870s. They provided King Leopold II with the stepping-stones for building his Congo Free State. In 1900 the Kells-born historian Alice … Read more
Ian Cobain (Portobello Books, £18.99) ISBN 9781846273339 Many years ago, when the UK prime minister of the day, Margaret Thatcher, was eager to proclaim the British authenticity of the North of Ireland, she pronounced it to be ‘as British as Finchley’, her own constituency in England. She could as easily have said the same of … Read more
Mary Cullen (Arlen House, €25) ISBN 9780905223872 This book is a journey of discovery for both author and reader. Beginning with Maria Luddy’s dutiful summary of Cullen’s articles, we are introduced to Jane Austen’s views regarding history, which apparently consisted of ‘the quarrels of popes and kings . . . and hardly any women at … Read more