Maria Edgeworth’s Letters from Ireland selected and edited by Valerie Pakenham (Lilliput Press, €40.00hb, €25.00pb) The landed gentry and the great houses of Ireland have not had a great reputation in general. But many of those for whom the traditional nationalist narrative has long sufficed, might well have their minds, if not changed, at least refined…
World of Books We may be about to see major changes in the way the major books shops in Ireland – mostly now the property of British companies – are run. Quite how all of this will work out for readers anxious to stay in touch, not just with Britain, as these companies imagine, but…
Ships of Mercy: The remarkable fleet bringing hope to the world’s poorest people by Don Stephens (Hodder & Stoughton, €9.99) The United States is the wealthiest country in the world. Among its citizens are some of the most charitable and generous persons to be found anywhere. This is clear from this memoir by Don Stephens [pictured],…
The National Gallery now has on display the newly restored Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph (c. 1620) by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, better known as Guercino. This is a baroque masterpiece with an interesting history, for it was the very first painting purchased by Sir Denis Mahon, the connoisseur and scholar in 1934 for £120.…
Win: Proven Strategies for Success in Sport, Life, and Mental Health by Brent Pope and Jason Brennan (Hachette Ireland, €16) Peter Hegarty ‘What’s wrong friend?’ said the Samaritans volunteer at the other end of the line. Brent Pope poured out his sadness, describing how low, helpless and lonely he had been feeling. Since his childhood he…
Judging Redmond and Carson: comparative Irish lives by Alvin Jackson (Royal Irish Academy, €30) Felix M. Larkin This dual biography by one of Ireland’s most distinguished historians, Professor Alvin Jackson of Edinburgh University, is premised on the notion that – to quote its author – “the parallel lives of great rivals or great antagonists (or great friends)…
The Redmonds and Waterford: A Political Dynasty, 1891 – 1952 by Pat McCarthy (Four Courts Press 2018, €29.95 pb) John Redmond inaugurated the Redmond political dynasty when he was returned to the House of Commons for New Ross in December 1881. It would remain in place until 1952. A native of Wexford, he was…
Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (Penguin Ireland, €16) Peter Hegarty In a congenial, fascinating book neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blackmore explores the wondrous malleability of the human brain. The brain is continually changing and adapting. If I took up juggling, the part of my brain that co-ordinates the movement of my…
Churchill & Ireland by Paul Bew (Oxford: Oxford University Press) £9.99pb Ian d’Alton One of the problems that an historian faces is the asymmetric. In the case of Britain and Ireland, that is particularly acute. The Irish see Britain through the telescope the right way round. It looms large in our consciousness. Most Britons, though, look…
The World of Books by the books editor A bout in bed with one of those picked-up bugs that linger on, has allowed me to read some books that I ought to have read, or reread, ages ago. I can leave the rereads for now, for one the reads was extraordinarily interesting and revealing. This…
Peter Costello