Richard Lawrence Jordan Syracuse University Press $39.95 ISBN 9780815633136 Reviewed by Brian Kennaway In The second coming of Paisley, the American historian Richard Lawrence Jordan claims to provide us with some theological insights into the nature of Ian Paisley’s politics. The title may cause confusion. Some may think that ‘the second coming’ is a reference … Read more
Aspiring writers are taught that it is always good to start in a way that grabs a reader’s attention, such as: ‘The history of Northern Ireland in the last four hundred years has been the history of a divided society, where an habitual belief in the concept of violence as a first rather than a … Read more
A garrulous, lightning-witted, talent-squandering, hard-drinking ‘character’, Brendan Behan embodied a certain Anglo-American stereotype of an ‘Irish writer’ to the hilt. Dead at the age of 41, his drinking was, as his one-time friend Anthony Cronin would say, no laughing matter, and yet it is sometimes hard not to laugh. From 1956 onwards, when Joan Littlewood’s … Read more
Alvin Jackson (ed.), The Oxford handbook of modern Irish history (Oxford University Press, £95 hb, 800pp, ISBN9780199549344) Maynooth Studies in Local History (Four Courts Press, ?9.95 pb) John R. Thullier, Kinsale Harbour: a history (Collins Press, ?19.99 hb, 280pp, ISBN 9781848892064) Aidan O’Hara, Atlantic Gaels: links between Donegal and the Hebrides (The Islands Book Trust, … Read more
Powerscourt House, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow www.taraspalace.ie By Denis Casey Formerly situated at Malahide Castle and now located in three of the upper rooms of Powerscourt House, Enniskerry, Tara’s Palace and Museum of Childhood is a small attraction dedicated to both children and adults that houses a 25-room miniature doll’s palace and a collection of toys … Read more