Boyhood’s Fire: Na Fianna Éireann at War, 1916-1986, by James Durney, (Merrion Press, €18.99 / £17.99) The whole idea of “scouting” derives from the work of an arch-imperialist, Robert Baden Powell during the Boer War, who initiated the first groups. But others, very much anti-imperialist in Ireland, saw in the notion of boys and…
My Greatest Race, by Ciara Mageean, with Cliona Foley (Gill Books, €22.99 / £24.99) This book, telling the personal story of Ciara Mageean, is a sure-fire best seller to be read by all who are engaged with Irish sport in any ways, and especially the toll on mind, spirit and body that it can…
Faith and Football: Played for the Glory, by Marc Lyden-Smith, foreword by Cardinal Vincent Nichols (McCrimmon Publishing, £7.95 / €9.50; available on Amazon, or search mccrimmons.com/shop/books/faith) This is a delightful little book which will be greatly appreciated by sport lovers and especially football fans. It provides a comprehensive account of Sunderland Football Club in the North East…
The Men and Women of the Anglo-Irish Treaty Delegations 1921, edited by Fiona Murray and Eda Sagarra (Laurelmount Press, €16.99 / £14.99) The Anglo-Irish Treaty 1921 is the name given to the “Articles of Agreement for a Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland 6 December 1921”. This book provides a detailed account of the two…
From Memory to Understanding: A Study of the Christian Brothers in Ireland 1922-1970, by Tom O’Donoghue (Gracewing, UK, 2026) This is an important book on the long history of the Christian Brothers. It attempts to tell the whole story about their creation, spread and effects here in Ireland and indeed abroad, from their foundation…
Freedom of Speech in the Press in Times of Conflict: Historical Perspectives from Ireland and Europe, ed. by Richard C. Allen, Felix M. Larkin, Oliver O’Hanlon and Aoife Whelan; Studies in Franco-Irish Relations, volume 26 (Peter Lang AG, £40.00 / €49. 40) This is a collection of essays about a most important subject; the freedom of…
Letter from America 1946-2004, by Alistair Cooke (Allen Lane / Penguin Books, €14.99pb / £25.00 hb) Here is a most enthralling book that echoes the great days of radio, when a human voice, albeit of a great journalist, could engage people with current affairs in a way that our snippy-snappy media does not in our…
Here is a book which will interest and delight those many viewers who have followed the career of one of the country’s leading broadcasters. Miriam O’Callaghan was born on January 6 at Cornelscourt, Co. Dublin. Her father was a civil servant, her mother was a teacher. Miriam attended St Brigid’s, the local national school in which…
There are two parts in this book. The first part is a history of the Newell family. The second is a collection of short stories written by Máirtín Ó Tnúthail, one of the most distinguished members of that family, under the nomme de plume ‘Dermot L. Martyn’. These were written in the decades after World…
Our history is full of untold and almost unknown lives. Twenty-five years ago, while researching a book on the Royal Irish Constabulary, I first got to know something about Tom Hughes (b. February 1, 1891). He was one of the constables in Listowel barracks in June 1920 when the British government declared Munster to be…