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Jan 16, 2025 | 
booksirelandmagazine.com | John Kirkaldy
by John KirkaldyIan d’Alton’s Southern Irish Protestants: Histories, Lives and Literatures is an attempt to define and explain the status of Protestants within an independent Irish state. He sees a largely ‘confident minority’ and quotes approvingly a doggerel verse, written in 1907 by a Unionist in County Clare:I am only a poor West BritonAnd not of the Irish best;But I love the land of ErinAs much as all the rest.
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Oct 2, 2024 | 
thetablet.co.uk | John Kirkaldy
Peace and reconciliationDuring the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Corrymeela Community offered a rare space for dialogue and common worship; today, its work includes embracing other religious traditions. Get Instant AccessRegister for free to read this article in fullSubscribe for unlimited accessFrom just £30 quarterly Complete access to all Tablet website content including all premium content. The full weekly edition in print and digital including our 179 years archive.
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Aug 2, 2024 | 
booksirelandmagazine.com | John Kirkaldy
by John KirkaldyAnthony Canavan’s Our Troubles is a gem. It consists of seventeen short stories that illustrate life for working-class Catholics in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. It is history, written from the heart, looking upwards from the doorways. It does not pretend to be an objective account; this is what it felt like on the streets.
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Jun 4, 2024 | 
booksirelandmagazine.com | John Kirkaldy
by John KirkaldyIt is virtually impossible to write about Spike Island, the 103 acres island off Cork Harbour, without mentioning Alcatraz. It is easy to see why John Crotty does not even really try. He was for six years the island’s CEO, as it became a major tourist attraction after a long history, for which the term ‘chequered’ is totally inadequate. The first three chapters of the book are a breathtaking jaunt through the Island’s history.
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May 3, 2024 | 
booksirelandmagazine.com | John Kirkaldy
by John KirkaldyThe postman was spot on, as he handed me a large, thin parcel. ‘This looks really exciting and very interesting,’ he commented. Only superlatives will do for this outstanding production. This is the kind of publication that makes a bookaholic purr. The new historic atlas of Cork traces the City from a monastic settlement to the present day with maps, pictures and photographs.
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Jan 24, 2024 | 
booksirelandmagazine.com | John Kirkaldy
by John KirkaldyOne of the biggest changes in studying history in recent decades is the increasing importance of oral evidence. The sight of a tape recorder in the past would too often produce a dismissive academic sniff. Now, thanks to massive technological changes and a big emphasis on the experiences of everyday people, oral history is often an important element in our understanding of the past.
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Dec 12, 2023 | 
booksirelandmagazine.com | John Kirkaldy
by John KirkaldyThis book is very definitely not a coffee table book, despite its appearance. It is a wonderful depiction of a wonderful place, Inis Oírr (Inisheer), the smallest of the three Aran Islands. It deserves a place of pride in any ancestral dining room. Michael O’Flanagan has assembled 256 pages, mainly of photos (colour and black and white) with a brief introduction, illustrating numerous aspects of island life. Most photos are contemporary but others go back several decades.
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Nov 27, 2023 | 
booksirelandmagazine.com | John Kirkaldy
by John KirkaldyThis is the kind of book that gives academic anthologies a good name. Unlike some of the species: it has a clear focus; a very worthwhile variety of articles that complement each other; and it is mercifully free of contributors straining for effect through obscure concepts and jargon-laced vocabulary. The 1923 Free State General Election marks the beginning of modern Irish democracy. It was held on 27th August, only a few months after the ending of the Civil War in May.
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Sep 28, 2023 | 
booksirelandmagazine.com | John Kirkaldy
by John KirkaldyFew people in Ireland will need to be told the identity of the face on the front of this book. Dr. Tony Holohan was Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for fourteen years. During the Covid epidemic, he was on the nation’s television screens and in other media on a very regular basis. Fergal Bowers described him as being ‘as familiar as Dr Anthony Fauci in the US and arguably as influential.’This is largely a record of a battle on two fronts.
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Aug 14, 2023 | 
booksirelandmagazine.com | John Kirkaldy
by John KirkaldyThe events launched a new word in the Irish political lexicon – GUBU. Their inspiration was an elegant murderer, whose bow tie was usually on public display. In July 1982, Malcolm Macarthur, the wealthy heir to a small estate, battered nurse Bridie Gargan with a sledge hammer, while she was sunbathing in Phoenix Park. A few days later, he shot farmer Donal Dunne at close range, in Edenderry, County Offaly.
