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…
Death in Derry: Martin McGuinness & the Derry IRA’s War against the British by Jonathan Trigg (Merrion Press, €18.99 / £17.99) This is a detailed account of the conflict between the members of the Derry Brigade of the Provisional IRA and the Crown Forces from 1971 onwards. The author is a military historian. Before putting…
Seven Prophets and the Culture War: Undoing the Philosophies of a World in Crisis, by Alexandre Havard (Scepter Publishers, $17.95; available online through Amazon) This is a study which should be in the hands of every thinking person, university graduate and those who influence public opinion. At the outset the author describes the culture war which…
The Sorrow and the Loss: The Tragic Shadow Cast by the Troubles on the Lives of Women, by Martin Dillon (Merrion Press, €19.99 / £15.50). This book provides an account of the grief, sorrow, hurt and tragedy visited on women by the so-called ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. Reading it brought to mind those scenes…
Mike Cronin and Mark Duncan, Revolutionary Times: Ireland 1913-23: Forging of a Nation, (Merrion Press 2024) This book will be a delightful read for professional historians, amateur historians and members of the reading public who are interested in our recent history. At the outset the authors explain how it came to be published. It has…