Susan Flavin and Evan T. Jones (eds) (Four Courts Press, E65) ISBN 9781846821820 This 1,094-page tome reproduces the details of the cargoes of ships plying between Ireland and the Continent in and out of Bristol for 100 years. Two factors make the work remarkable: the first is that the records survive and the second … Read more
Brian Hanley and Scott Millar (Penguin Ireland, €20) ISBN 9781844881208 The front page of the September 1971 Official Republican paper The United Irishman displayed a photograph of a gunman crouched under a Starry Plough flag and silhouetted against a blazing truck. (See ‘Second glance’ on pp 46–7.) The headline read ‘Army of the People’, … Read more
According to the foreword by Kevin Myers to The Wexford war dead: a history of the casualties of the World Wars (Nonsuch Publishing, 336pp, Ä20, ISBN 9781845889647), compiled by Tom Burnell (who co-edited two similar works on Wicklow and Tipperary) and Margaret Gilbert, ‘the only axe being ground in the pages that follow is that … Read more
Manx Museum/Thie Tashtee Vannin Kingswood Grove, Douglas, Isle of Man www.storyofmann.com, enquiries@mnh.gov.im, +44 (0)1624 648000 Mon.–Sat. 10am–5pm by Tony Canavan Even the first-time Irish visitor to the Isle of Man will find it a familiar place. The landscape looks a lot like parts of Ireland, as do the farmhouses, some of which are thatched. … Read more
Rapairí Scun Scan Productions Six-part series, Nov.–Dec. 2009, TG4 by John Gibney Rapairí set itself the task of examining the lives of six ‘outlaws’ active in Ireland from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth. From a government persective the Irish seemed a rebellious people, and the focus on the lives of individuals who cared … Read more