Irish lives in America Edited by Liz Evers and Niav Gallagher (Royal Irish Academy, €19.95/£18/$25) On this day every year Irish thoughts turn without fail to our relatives and friends in the United States. In reciprocation, President Joe Biden has this year issued a special proclamation from the White House declaring March 2022 as Irish-American…

Young Gainsborough: Rediscovered Landscape Drawings Curated by Ann Hodge Runs to 12 June 2022; Print Gallery, National Gallery of Ireland | free admission (This exhibition has been organised in collaboration with the Royal Collection Trust, the York Museums Trust, the National Gallery of Ireland and Nottingham Castle.) Thomas Gainsborough was hugely productive of drawings, so…

Seán Ryan ‘And Finally…’: A Journalist’s Life in 250 Stories  Paddy Murray (Liffey Press, €14.95) The late Paddy Murray (who died last month) spent 46 years at the coalface of Dublin journalism, producing from a rich vein of Irish life the golden ore of stories which earned him the ‘Young Journalist of the Year’ award in 1975…

Anthony Redmond Vincent van Gogh and the Good Samaritan: The Wounded Painter’s Journey by Henry Martin (Darton, Longman & Todd, £12.99/€15.50) One of the greatest of the post-impressionists painters Vincent van Gogh led a troubled, somewhat unhappy life searching for love and recognition as an artist. He wrote countless letters to his devoted brother, Theo,…

Under fire in Ballymacandy: How ‘the Troubles’ came to an Irish village Ballymacandy: The Story of a Kerry Ambush by Owen O’Shea (Irish Academic Press, €14.95/£12.99) In his latest book Kerry Historian Owen O’Shea provides a dispassionate account of the details surrounding the deadly ambush at Ballymacandy on June 1, 1921 dealing even-handedly with all…

The ongoing war in Ukraine seems to many in the West to defy reason. But that is very much the view from Strasbourg or Washington. From Moscow the prospect looks quite different. In the weeks leading up to the deployment of his forces, President Vladimir Putin spoke of Ukraine being part of “the historic Russia”,…

The Crosbies of Cork, Kerry, Laois and Leinster by Michael Christopher Keane (Beechgrove, Ovens; ISBN: 9781527297418; €20.00/£18.00) The author, Michael Christopher Keane, is a practised hand at research and writing, having already written extensively about the Crosbie family. In From Laois to Kerry (2016) he recorded the life and times of Patrick Crosbie (c. 1550-1610) and…

The World of Books Sarah Cecilia Harrison: Artist, Social Campaigner, and City Councillor edited by Margarita Cappock (Four Courts Press for Dublin City Council, €27.95/£25.00; paperback €22.95/£20.00) Years ago when I was researching the interaction of the Irish cultural revival with other Irish national movements, the name of Miss S.C. Harrison was one I came…

Starchaser by Jacintha Mullins (Veritas, €12.99/£10.99) This is a book very much of the moment, but with a long life before it. Jacinta teaches in a primary school, the Midwest School for the Deaf in Limerick. This book arose out of the experience of the school losing two pupils. Her moving and effective pages were…

Davnet and Dympna: A Single Cult by Seosamh Ó Dufaigh (Clogher Historical Society, €30.00; website: www.clogherhistory.ie) The tradition about St Dympna of Oriel (the ancient territory now covered by the Dioceses of Armagh and Clogher) was that she was the beautiful daughter of the local king in the 7th Century. His wife died early and…