“A miserable thing to be a woman”: Mary-Anne Tyrrell (1821–94) and her landed estate, by Lesley Whiteside (Four Courts Press, €12.95) I approached this book with a great sense of anticipation having known of the Tyrrells of the Carbury area, from spending many happy weeks of my childhood right beside Grange Castle Edenderry, where…
James Ryan and the development of independent Ireland, by Michael Loughman (Four Courts Press, €24.99 / £22.50) By any standards, this is a remarkable biography of a truly remarkable man. James Ryan was born into a large, comfortably off farming family in Wexford on December 6, 1892. A much more low-key figure than either…