Rebel City: Larkin, Connolly and the Dublin labour movement John Newsinger (Merlin Press, £14.95) ISBN 085036518X Early twentieth-century Ireland witnessed massive labour unrest. John Newsinger’s book is a sympathetic account of the first wave of Irish syndicalism that saw the rise of James Larkin’s ITGWU and its eventual defeat in the Great Lockout of … Read more
A New History of Ireland VII, Ireland 1921–1984 J.R. HILL (ed.) (Oxford University Press, £125) ISBN 0198217528 In 1962 the New History of Ireland (NHI) was first conceived. Seán Lemass was taoiseach, and Harold Macmillan occupied 10 Downing Street. Like Pandit Nehru, Chairman Mao and T.W. Moody, they are gone now: only Fidel Castro, … Read more
Not since Karl Marx planned to write a short pamphlet on the nature of capital, which eventually became his multi-volume opus, has a publication project expanded so spectacularly. Billy Colfer’s The Hook Peninsula (Cork University Press, pp260, €40 hb, ISBN 1859183786) started life in 1997 as one of six short case-studies in CUP’s The atlas … Read more
The Irish Jewish Museum and Heritage Centre 3–4 Walworth Road, South Circular Road, Dublin 8 Oct.–April, Sunday, 10.30am–2.30pm May–Sept., Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, 11am–3.30pm by Tony Canavan The Jewish minority has long been established in Ireland and there has been a recognisable Jewish community in Dublin since the eighteenth century. Its numbers were never great, … Read more
Improbable Frequency Dublin Theatre Festival, 27 Sept.–9 Oct. 2004 Rough Magic Theatre Company by Eamon O’Flaherty History-related TV over the last quarter has been a bit disappointing. RTÉ’s main contribution was a pair of half-hour programmes in the ‘Townlands’ series that, while informative and entertaining, hardly stretched the medium: ‘Not Fade Away’, a mildly … Read more