The Olympics are upon us, and Bookworm was recently made aware of a fascinating testimony by Ireland’s first successful Olympian: Heiner Gillmeister (ed.), From Bonn to Athens, single and return: the diary of John Pius Boland, Olympic champion, Athens 1896 (Academia Verlag, 2008, 322pp, no price given, ISBN 9783896654557). Boland may or may not have … Read more
The murder of Major Mahon, Strokestown, County Roscommon, 1847 Padraig Vesey (Four Courts Press, Maynooth Studies in Local History, €9.95) ISBN 9781846821196 In opening, the author briefly surveys some previous accounts of the Mahon murder, including Robert Scally’s The end of hidden Ireland, of which he says: ‘The introduction to Scally’s book reflects an anti-Unionist … Read more
‘Terrible queer creatures’: a history of homosexuality in Ireland Brian Lacey (Wordwell Books, €25) ISBN 9781905569236 With a title referencing James Joyce, this book takes one down a hundred avenues of Irish gay history and a greater number of characters. Whether their homosexuality is documented or the subject of reasoned speculation, Brian Lacey, a noted … Read more
‘The glory of being Britons’: civic unionism in nineteenth-century Belfast John Bew (Irish Academic Press, €39.95) ISBN 9780716529743 This book challenges much received wisdom. Most accounts of nineteenth-century Ulster unionism emphasise the role of Orangeism and Evangelicalism in sustaining a pan-Protestant alliance and argue that its alleged cultural hegemony stifled alternative political currents within Ulster … Read more
Coolacrease. The true story of the Pearson executions—an incident in the Irish War of Independence Philip O’Connor (ed.) (Aubane Historical Society, €20) ISBN 9781903497487 On a superficial level this book is about an incident in County Offaly during the Irish War of Independence in which two brothers were executed by the IRA. Richard and Abraham … Read more