Quirky rite-of-passage in mid-century Ireland
344015
I don't usually enjoy rite-of-passage novels, but this one was extremely well grounded in the details of its era (mid-century Ireland), had a quirky, down-to-earth sense of humor, and finally, included a wonderful list of larger-than-life characters: a Protestant grandmother who sneaks into pubs and Catholic services with equal glee; a dentist whose chief pleasures are aiding the Free Welsh Army and administering nitrous oxide to his rebel nephew; and a grandfather whose legacy is exploding himself and the family shed with an ill-fated fertilizer experiment. Far from being cartoonish though, the protagonist Geoffrey Doyle was drawn with sensitivity and depth, as were his relationships with an ambitious kid brother, Kevin; his rollicking cousin and first love, Maggie; and his oafish but free-spirited friend, Moocher. Finally, it is Geoffrey's quietly empathetic relationship with his uncles wife that turns into a reckless but passionate romance. A good read for those with an appreciation for period details, rich childhood vignettes, and familial intrigues of the heart-warming and dark varieties.
4626284
A closeness to Ireland and everyday events as well as myths of old are brought to life. Excellent read and perhaps aloud.
3351331
Anyone Irish will enjoy this book  Christina McKenna has captured the peculiar language of the country folk in N Ireland
Her book will arouse empathy from all readers who meet the 2 main characters James and Lydia
I also enjoyed her memoir:  My mother wore a yellow dress
4533273
This book begins on an interesting, somewhat neutral note.  Most of the story takes place in the late nineteenth and very early twentieth centuries. There are amusing and interesting scenes with occasional, very dark incidents sprinkled in.  The POV shifts.  The descriptions of the exhibits (displays?  attractions?) of the Night Circus reminded me of Italo Calvino or, perhaps, Jorge Luis Borges, but the dialog and action sequences felt modern.  In any case, I thought the writing was very polished, with unusual turns of phrase employed to deliberate (and effective) effect.
4445683
Here at last in a great English version is the Irish tale of Sweeney, the medieval Buile Suibhne.  Sweeney is a local king who runs afoul of a cleric, Ronan Finn; he destroys Ronans psalter, kills one of his novices, and falls prey to Ronans curse, one of those utterances of dark rending energy of the legendary Irish temper.  (Cleric, yes; mild-mannered, no.)  Sweeney goes through a strange, avian transformation:  He was revolted by thought of known places / and dreamed of strange migrations. / he levitated in a frantic and cumbersome motion / like a bird of the air.  From there Sweeney lives herded from place to place by his panics, hiding in trees and shrubs, living on watercress, bird-brain among branchesand gives utterance to poems, as Seamus Heaney says, piercingly exposed to the beauties and severities of the natural world.  And as they accumulate the names of the actual Ireland Sweeney traversesFrom Galtee to Liffey / I was swept along and driven / through bitter twilight / to the slopes of Benn Bulbenwhat happens is almost the opposite of the effect of Brendans voyages from a known Ireland to strange isles:  Sweeneys poems set a layer of strangeness and fantasy over the familiar map of Ireland.  And while the Navigatio is a thorough Christian work, the Buile Suibhne is in the grip of a tension between the newly dominant Christian ethos and the older, recalcitrant Celtic temperament.  However you want to read iteven, as Heaney says, as a quarrel between free creative imagination and the constraints of religious, political and domestic obligationits a story that burrows down in and stays in your mindroaring, pathetic and wind-chilled.  Seamus Heaneys great translation is called SWEENEY ASTRAY (Faber, 1984) and it ranks with the best work of this gifted and prolific poet.

Glenn Shea, from Glenn's Book Notes, at www.bookbarnniantic.com
4311162
Sarah Lark tells a story in the tradition of an Irish seanchie. She incorporates pertinent ancient pre-history to establish credibility to the tale she is telling.
84550
"Cycling around Ireland in search of traditional music, David Wilson follows the coastline from Presbyterian Islandmagee to Gaelic Cape Clear and back up north from Dublin to Belfast. Ireland, a Bicycle, and a Tin Whistle takes us on a journey across wild open spaces and through crowded pubs and festivals that pulse with energy and life. This is the Ireland of... More fiddles, harps, and flutes, butterflies on bog roads, Country-and-Irish songs, Ulster Fries, storytelling, yarnspinning, and jigs and reels to the crack of dawn. As he travels through the North, Wilson gets beneath the surface to portray both the tragedy and comedy of everyday life inside the Protestant and Catholic communities. Aware of the polarized image that each side has of the other, he emphasizes the importance of finding common ground and asserting the middle against the extremes. Just as traditional Irish music is characterized by ornamentations and elaborations on a melodic theme, Ireland, a Bicycle, and a Tin Whistle is full of variations and wanderings on the theme of the trip itself. And just as traditional Irish musicians will follow a sad slow air with a lively foot-tapping reel, Wilson's mood ranges from the nostalgic and reflective to the irreverent and mischievous. If there is a lament in one ear, there is always a song in the other."  (review from MSN Shopping site)

"Ireland, a Bicycle and a Tin Whistle is part travelogue, part social commentary, with a bit of history, a lot of Irish character and a strong thread of music running throughout. Wilson's colorful, descriptive prose at times approaches poetry in its style. Read this book for a real slice of Irish culture; it will sharpen your desire to see Ireland and its people for yourself, or it will bring your own memories of Ireland into distinct and vivid focus.
Whether or not you've been to Ireland, whether or not you ever plan to go, you could do much worse for yourself than to see it through Wilson's eyes."  (review from Rambles - A Cultural Arts Magazine)
2964989
This judiciously-edited collection of diary entries, letters and papers brings to life in dramatic fashion the political state of Irish-English relations in 1914, the personalities and involvements of numerous colorful characters, and a suspenseful tale of real-life derring-do on land and at sea.  Although a novel based on this story would be redundant, a movie here waits to be made.

In response to the Liberal government in London seriously proposing Home Rule for Ireland, Protestant Orangemen in Ulster began importing weapons, with the intent of resisting the imposition of any such regime.  So Southerners began to organize, drilling with broomsticks, until a clandestine committee of English and Anglo-Irish Liberals (mostly Protestants themselves) hatched and carried out a plan to purchase 1500 old Mauser rifles in Germany, sail them to Ireland on two private yachts, and unload and distribute them at a public pier in the broad daylight of a Sunday noontime.

Of special fascination in this collection are Bulmer Hobsons account (pp. 128-138) of how the landing at Howth and march back to Dublin were planned and carried out, and Mary Spring Rices diary (pp. 68-97) of her days as crew-member of the Asgard, a 49-foot ketch that made the run from Ireland to the North Sea and back.  The latter is a fine sea-story, of violent storms, a hazardous rendezvous and transshipment of cargo at sea, and a scary passage through the tall ships of the British naval fleet on night-time maneuvers.  Two of the crew of the Asgard were women.

Eamon de Valera, later President of Ireland, was on the pier at Howth on July 26, 1914 as a captain of the Irish Volunteers.  His brief 1961 speech on the occasion of the Irish government accepting the aged Asgard as a naval training vessel stands as the Forward to this book.
601793
Very  interesting book tying in the history and culture of Ireland, as well as religion ,nursing, and medical ethics.
833436
A slice of time in an Irish village. Folklore, celtic and Catholic beliefs are wound into their lives and deaths
2360831
This sprawling chronicle of an Irish family from the 1970's to the present day has something for everyone.  Romance and intrigue, of course, along with lavish descriptions of interiors, if that is your thing (it IS mine).  The intra-family dynamics can be tricky to follow at times, but it all comes out in the end.  A fun read.
4432493
Pete McCarthy and his aging Volvo, known as the Tank, spend a picaresque summer pottering around Ireland, flittering from pub to bed-and-breakfast to pub and back to another pub again.  McCarthy's mother was Irish (although he himself was raised in England), and this fact has generated in him an Irish lilt to his prose, if not to his actual voice.

McCarthy's tone exactly captures an Irish skill for simultaneous disdain and affection for everyone he runs across.  All tourists, including himself, are faintly (or more than faintly) ridiculous.  McCarthy gets chased by cows while out looking for prehistoric Irish monoliths.  He gets admonished by priests with spitshined brogans while on a barefoot 3-day fasting pilgrimage.  He drinks a lot (a LOT), and for some odd reason, he seems to stop at every Chinese restaurant in Ireland.

If you can overlook McCarthy's paradoxically happy good-humored dislike of almost everything (and you should), you'll find the book funny, appealing, even charming.  McCarthy would be a very entertaining fellow to run into at the pub.  A perfect read in anticipation or in memory of your own vacation to Ireland.
286716
I really enjoyed this book, and recommend it without hesitation, despite its heft.  How much of that is because I love tales of old Ireland, and Irish mythology (which plays a bit of a role in the very beginning) I don't know.  But Rutherford took me through 1100 years of Irish history (okay, Dublin's history) using tales of people (real or imagined) in ways that made them all seem real and live and interesting.

This book, like his others I believe, follows a few families through generations to tell you the history of the Dublin region.  Though I know this is a work of fiction, I also know that it is based on a lot of historical research, and where he could be truly accurate, Rutherford was.  The action rarely strays far from Dublin, but you hear news, as those who lived in that region would have, of other parts of Ireland, and of England, over the years.  We watch as the people of the area around Dublin (and almost certainly the rest of Ireland) go from "pagan" to Christian, under the gentle guidance of Patrick, to devoutly Catholic (the section in which we meet the book of Kells is delightful - and reminds us that while England and Europe were struggling through their "Dark Ages", Ireland was keeping art, literature and faith alive and well), to having Protestant practices forced upon them when Henry's men start burning relics in bonfires in town, and punish with death those who will not yield their loyalty to the pope in favor of Henry as leader of their church.

I particularly enjoyed learning about the differences between what and Irishman mean by an oath of fealty and what Englishman meant in the 10th and 11th centuries.  In some ways, it makes me wonder whether a whole lot of history would have been different had folks not let that go without saying.  Frankly, I like the Irish meaning better, but then this book was written from the Irish viewpoint.  Perhaps I'll try his book Sarum to get what may well have the English viewpoint (if that one doesn't London surely will.
4198160
Nathaniel Harris is the author of numerous history and art books including The Easter Rising. He returns once again to the subject of Ireland in this lavishly illustrated authoritative text that vividly depicts not only the topography of this Atlantic island of mist and myth, but also its history and culture through the ages.
The Oxford educated Harris lives with his wife and son in Worcester, England.
Harris explains how Ireland's climate and culture have combined to create the distinctive Irish identity. From the island's past which includes Early Stone Age settlements to the coming of Christianity, and through numerous invasions and rebellions one sees the mold that has shaped contemporary Irish life. In the book's 224 pages, Harris examines the Celtic world, the age of monasticism, the Irish at war, the Ascendancy, Home Rule, the Easter Rising and partition, the life of the Traveller, farming, industry, sport and music. Readers will also learn about Irish art, the place of the church in Irish life, Georgian Dublin, the Big House, castles and strongholds, the Literary Revival, and James Joyce.
A chapter devoted to myth and magic explains the life and death of Cuchulainn from the cattle Raid of Cooley, one of the best known stories from the Ulster Cycle. Shown is the bronze statue of the mythic hero which now stands in the General Post Office in Dublin's O'Connell Street.
In Dublin's Fair City, the reader may enjoy a vicarious tour through the Georgian City with stops at Royal Kilmainham, now an art gallery; the library at Trinity College, home of the Book of Kells and which, along with the British library, receives a copy of every book published in the British Isles; and the James Gandon designed Custom House and Four Courts.
Celtic and Christian art in the form of incised stones, beehive huts, high crosses, chalices, torcs, brooches, and illuminated manuscripts fill the pages and provide insight into Ireland's cultural past and the unbroken continuity that extends to the present day.
Heritage of Ireland is skillfully written; Ireland is brought vividly to life on every page of this fascinating volume and is sure to make you want to hop on the next plane to Dublin to see for yourself.
Reviewed by Suzanne Barrett
2037795
This is a strange and fascinating story from the Middle Ages.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.  The translator has included the Latin text at the end of his translation for those wishing to view the original.
2022125
James Joyce's first book, Dubliners, concentrates on Ireland's cultural and historic past.  The book appears to be somewhat autobiographical and ordinary, and includes fifteen short stories set in the the Irish city of Dublin during the turn of the century that has a tinge of influence from Henrik Ibsen, W.B. Yeats, and Oscar Wilde.  However, the collection of stories are much more deeper than they appear.

The premise of Dubliners pertains to Irish as well as individual identity centering on religion, sexuality and gender, and family.  And what stands out is Joyce's meticulous and conversational writing and adept use of language; he captures the secrets and improprieties that the characters experience - discreet about indiscretions.  There are several stories depicting the passing of several priests, which are closely associated to Joyce's disconnect to the Catholic Church.  Although he was reared in a rigid and strict Irish-Catholic family during the Victorian age, several of the stories, such as "Eveline" and "The Sisters" oscillate Joyce's dissatisfaction of growing up in such an environment; the disillusioned characters go against the grain and norms, and they walk away or are plagued with astute corruption that affected their lives for many years.  But the capstone of Dubliners is the concluding story, "The Dead," which is a riveting and powerful testament of the memory of a past love and a past life.

Hence Dubliners is a work of realism during a time when modernism was in vogue.  Although this is one of Joyce's most comprehensible works of fiction, it is the best place to start, and if one should attempt to reach his last two pieces of work, Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake, they may be a challenge or a nightmare.
4840320
Chick has woven ALL his Irish into a rich stew of visuals and intrigue about war times in Ireland after the sinking of the Lusitania. His heroine is an early feminist. The men around her daring and clever evaders of the corrupted powers that be.  Chick is a movie writer.  In that medium he can force us to move slowly through the parts of building suspense.  In the book, I started rushing past the rich descriptive sections, just to find out what happened next. Well written, well researched, full of colorful characters.