BRIAN BARTON Ulster Historical Foundation £19.99 ISBN 9781909556324 Reviewed by: Geoffrey Roberts At the core of this book is a compelling account of the Luftwaffe’s blitz on Belfast in April–May 1941. When war broke out in 1939 the city did not expect to be attacked by German bombers: it was geographically remote and deemed a … Read more
GEARÓID Ó TUATHAIGH (ed.) Collins Press €29.99 ISBN 9781848892545 Reviewed by: Liam Alex Heffron Growing up in a county where the perennial question revolved around whether Mayo footballers would ‘do it’ this year, the GAA was so interwoven into the tapestry of parish life that to question it was akin to questioning my parents’ marriage. … Read more
LUCY McDIARMID Royal Irish Academy €25 ISBN 9731908996749 Reviewed by: Mary McAuliffe In this beautifully produced book Lucy McDiarmid, using memories, letters, diaries, archival sources and personal accounts, writes, with clarity and rigour, on the thoughts, ideals and actions of women during the 1916 Rising. She begins with the wonderful story of young Cumann na … Read more
DIARMUID Ó GRÁDA University College Cork Press €39 ISBN 9781782051473 Reviewed by: Sylvie Kleinman This book is a ‘gorgeous mask’ of sorts. Both front and back covers foretell that it will be (and is) abundantly and beautifully illustrated. They harmoniously convey that well-ingrained feel-good effect of eighteenth-century Dublin as an august Enlightenment metropolis; nothing offends. … Read more
JONATHAN BARDON Gill & Macmillan €24.99 ISBN 9780717163540 Reviewed by: David Dickson Amidst all the enormous amount of literature, past and present, devoted to the composer Handel and his works, his extended stay in Dublin in 1741/2 has received modest enough attention, and it is usually treated as a slightly quixotic incident in his long … Read more