Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig (Canongate, £12.99 ) Peter Hegarty The author of Reasons to Stay Alive describes himself as having once been a ‘terrified young man ‘who was ‘suicidally ill’. His struggles with depression and anxiety inform his writing and journalism: ‘The fact that I have had mental illness, though a nightmare in reality, has…
The Great Cover-Up: The Truth About the Death of Michael Collins by Gerard Murphy (The Collins Press, €19.99) The death of Michael Collins at Bealnablath, Co. Cork, on August 22, 1922 has prompted much comment and writing. No fewer than five books have been published on the subject, as well as numerous articles and countless columns…
The World of Books by the Books Editor These days papal visits, such as Pope Francis will make to Ireland next week, are taken for granted. They have become commonplace, but in the perspective of the two thousand years of history they are a very recent development. Indeed, there is a great need for…
What Are We Doing Here? by Marilynne Robinson (Virago, £18.99) Patrick Claffey Born in 1943, Marilynne Robinson is a celebrated American novelist and essayist, a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005, a National Humanities Medal and the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction in 2016 – the year she was also named…
Commemoration by Heather Laird (Cork University Press, €9.95) Felix M. Larkin In Evelyn Conlon’s novel Not the Same Sky, one of the characters questions the purpose of memorials – and, by extension, the purpose of historical commemorations generally. She asks: “Are they to let us know? To make us accept? Or are they to make us weep?” In…
The Cruelty Men by Emer Martin (Lilliput Press, €16.00) This book is about an extended family in the decades following the establishment of the Irish Free State. The family originated in the barony of Iveragh, Co. Kerry, one of the poorest areas in the country. Under a scheme developed by the Land Commission, Irish-speaking families from…
Mind on Fire: A memoir of madness and recovery by Arnold Thomas Fanning (Dublin: Penguin, £14.99) Frank Litton Mental illness is a cruel affliction. There is hardly anybody who has not been touched by it; as a sufferer, or as family, friend or colleague of a sufferer. Mental illness differs from physical illness; the problems it poses…
The Irish Regional Press, 1892-2018: Revival, Revolution and Republic by Ian Kenneally & James T. O’Donnell (Four Courts Press, €50) Felix M. Larkin This volume, which originated in a conference held in Dublin City University in 2014, is a valuable addition to the growing body of work on Irish media. It comprises 14 essays with a substantial…
Powering The Nation. Images of the Shannon Scheme and Electricity in Ireland by Sorcha O’Brien (Irish Academic Press, €29.99) Joe Carroll Today the Shannon hydroelectric scheme at Ardnacrusha produces about one-eighth of our electricity requirements and is mainly used at peak demand. But when it was switched on in 1929 it was designed to electrify the…
The World of Books by the books editor A writer’s words often come back upon him in surprising ways. It is one of the problems of writing anything at all. I learnt this the other day in relation to my own words. The British Newspaper Archive website has recently added a further tranche of Irish…
Peter Costello