The Dead of the Irish Revolution by Eunan O’Halpin and Daithí Ó Corráin (Yale University Press, £50.00 /$65.00) Felix M. Larkin The stated objective of this book is to answer “an elementary question: how many people died as a result of Irish-related political violence between 1916 and 1921?” It does that, and much more. It puts…

Thomas MacGreevy and the Rise of the Irish Avant Garde by Francis Hutton-Williams (Cork University Press, €39.00) I have long thought highly of Thomas MacGreevy, who managed to be both a Catholic poet, a Parisian friend of James Joyce, an apostle of modernism in Ireland – indeed in Europe – as well as head of our…

Though people complain about the health regulations due to Covid-19, the response by many of our cultural institutions has been wonderful. The leading art galleries – for instance – all have active sites which have virtual exhibitions of all kinds. The National Library of Ireland (NLI) and many others too are exploiting their collections to…

Miles to go before I sleep: Letters on hope, death and learning to live by Claire Gilbert (Hodder &Stoughton, £16.99) Out this month, Claire Gilbert’s unusual book which might have been a memoir of dying, becomes instead a celebration of living. It is a remarkable book, one which (as Rowan Williams is quoted as saying), is…

An Illustrated History of the Irish Revolution 1916-1923 by Michael B. Barry (Andalus Press, €24.95) This is another illustrated history from the pen and press of Michael B. Barry. He has chosen in this one to colourise the images of the past. This is a process which most historians are sceptical about. As I have said…

Mainly About Books by the Books Editor The other week, while writing about the long neglected topic of the thatched churches of Penal times, it struck me that this was an ideal subject for research, not only for local historians but by local people themselves. I had in the back of my mind the survey…

As Many as the Stars: a story of change for the children of China by Robert Glover with Theodore Brun (Hodder and Stoughton, £16.99) Author Robert Glover had had an adventurous and varied life: being a submariner when that was a dangerous vocation and then a footballer (before there was money in, one imagines). But then…