The Last Ditch: How one GAA Championship gave a Sports Writer back his Life, by Eamonn Sweeney (Hachette Books, €20.00 / £16.99) The author is a sportswriter and in the first two chapters reveals the challenges – phobias – which he has to overcome in plying his trade. In the rest of the book…
Across the Waves, by T. Ryle Dwyer (Mercier Press, €14.50) It is clear who is the heroine in this story. It is Margaret Harrigan, a heroine taken straight from the life of the author’s own family. T. Ryle Dwyer is well known throughout the south-west as a journalist and historian. It is quite a saga.…
New Perspectives on Conflict and Ireland in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Paul Huddie, Cathal Billings and Arlene Crampsie (Liverpool University Press, £105.00 / €121.00) This collection of essays is the product of a conference of historians at Liverpool University. The subject for discussion was “Conflict in Ireland in the Nineteenth Century”. The contributions…
Memorialising Émigré Dignity: The Cultural Heritage of St Anthony’s College, Leuven, Edited by Francis M. O’Donnell (Irish College, Leuven, €20.00) The Franciscan Irish College of St Anthony of Padua was founded by the rulers of the Spanish Netherlands, Archduke Albert and Infante Isabella, in May 1617. From the outset the main aim of the…
Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe, by Bill Bryson (Penguin Random House, €15.40 / £9.99) Anthony Gaughan Bill Bryson is an American humourist. Like other comedians he portrays himself as woebegone, put upon and the butt of those who work in bars, restaurants and hotels. His style is breezy and entertaining. Bill writes travel…
Discovering St Patrick, by Thomas O’Loughlin (Darton, Longman & Todd, €15.00 / £10.95) St Patrick is universally identified with Ireland and the Irish. St Patrick’s Day is one of those few festivals that are celebrated around the world, so much so that it has become more of a carnival than a mere religious feast…
Drawn not Driven: Pilgrim of Life’s Beckonings, by Warren Ford (Red Feather Publishing, 2025). This is a fascinating autobiography, a wide ranging account of an Australian . The author, Warren Ford, was born in Western Australia on 23 January 1942. He attended the elementary convent school of St Aloysius conducted by the Mercy Sisters…
Church, Parish & Education: Interaction Joseph McCann CM (Kingdom Books, €30.00) Joseph McCann was born at Hollis, Queens, New York in 1940. He attended the local Pascal Baylon elementary school taught by the Sisters of St Joseph of Brentwood. After the family re-settled in Dublin he was a student at the secondary school of…
Irish history is at times more influenced by places than by persons. Ask many Irish people of an older or rural background where they are from and they will answer (much like the famous Tailor of Garrynapeaka) with a mention, not of the parish they were born in, but the actual townland, the smallest property…
An Accidental Villain: A Soldier’s Tale of War, Deceit and Exile, by Linden MacIntyre (Random House Canada, £22.00 / €18.99). Ireland connections with Newfoundland are one of those topics readers are aware of, but rarely seem to receive detailed exploration. Here, however, is a book by an eminent Canadian writer and television reporter which will…