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…

Going to the Mountain: Life Lessons from my Grandfather, Nelson Mandela by Ndaba Mandela (Hutchinson, £14.99) Peter 
Hegarty   With clear-eyed affection Ndaba Mandela recalls the man who brought him up. He first met his grandfather in Victor Verster prison shortly before his release in 1990. Mandela – Madiba, as he was popularly known – expected to spend his…

“Mise an Mac San”: ag cuimhneamh ar an Athair Peadar Ó Laoghaire / “I am that Son”: Remembering an tAthair Peadar Ó Laoghaire by Eilis and Pat O’Brien (Eilis O’Brien, Ballard, Castlelyons, Co. Cork, Tel: O87-1235203; €15.00 + €8 p&p) Of the few Irish priests who have achieved important literary fame, Fr Peadar O’Leary alone…

Roderic O’Connor and the Moderns: Between Paris and Pont-Aven exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland curated by Jonathan Benington with Brendan Rooney, 18 July-28 October. Catalogue price €19.95. Today the small town of Pont-Aven in Brittany is a busy tourist centre, a place living off its artistic past. Here in the last decade of…

The Quiet Revolution of Pope Francis: A Synodal Catholic Church in Ireland? by Gerry O’Hanlon SJ (Messenger Publications,  €12.95) Peter
 Hegarty   “It is through the clash of ideas in public debate that truth emerges,” Gerry O’Hanlon observes in a favourable overview of the reforms undertaken and envisaged by Pope Francis. He writes of the slow emergence of…