Marching under the Tricolour

The Irish Defence Forces 1922-2022 by Eoin Kinsella (Four Courts Press/€30.00/£27.50) Defending Ireland over the past 100 years of independence has been the task of the Irish Defence Forces but their main struggle has often been to survive the neglect and parsimony of their political masters. For a new state that came out of a brief…

Politics and religion as they now affect us

The Politics of God: The Rise and Rise of Political Religion by T. P. O’Mahony, foreword by Dr Mary McAleese (Veritas, €19.00) T.P. O’Mahony was for many years the excellent Religious Affairs Correspondent for The Irish Press. After its demise, he has continued to comment on religious topics worldwide for many other publications as well as…

Journalism can be a dangerous calling

Line of Fire: Journeys Through A Media Minefield, by David O’Donoghue (Orpen Press, €17.00/£15.00) The “media minefield” that the author negotiates had its dangers like being thrown on the breadline at short notice but mainly it is a humorous telling of a blooding on provincial newspapers, a stint in RTÉ and then into the world…

To save those in danger at sea

Search and Rescue. True Stories of Irish Air-Sea Rescues and the Loss of R116 Lorna Siggins (Merrion Press, Price €16.95) Lorna Siggins’s update of her book Mayday, Mayday, covers the huge expansion of Ireland’s air-sea rescue services since 2004. The time when mariners in distress off our coasts were almost entirely dependent on the Royal Air Force when a…

Explaining the Irish to the English…at long, long last?

The Irish Difference: A Tumultuous History of Ireland’s Breakup With Britain by Fergal Tobin (Atlantic Books, £18.99/€22.99) This book grew out of the author’s exasperation at how ignorance of Ireland was an important factor in the pro-Brexit vote, especially in England as distinct from the other parts of the United Kingdom. The “fabled British elite…should…

What the files reveal about Ulster’s defenders

UDR Declassified, by Micheal Smith (Merrion Press, €18.95/£14.50) The Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was set up in late 1969 as the Ulster Special Constabulary (B Specials) was being disbanded as a result of its role in the sectarian violence which broke out in Derry and Belfast the previous August. Inevitably, large numbers of the B…

Fake nun barred from Clonard Monastery

A woman dressed as a nun has been banned by a court from going within 150 yards of Clonard Monastery. Rachel Mulcahy was served with an interim injunction following complaints from some priests at Clonard about her disruptive behaviour, and an application for a full injunction is to be heard at Laganside court later this…

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Shaping up the Men in Blue

Changing of the Guard: Jack Marrinan’s battle to modernise An Garda Síochána by Tim Doyle (Currach Books, €20.00 / £17.99) In the 1950s a revolt was stirring in the lower ranks of An Garda. Although a much sought after permanent job, especially in rural Ireland, working conditions were tough, especially for the younger members who…