Books – Page 9 – Slugger O'Toole

First the Independent and now the i withdraws from Ireland, north and south

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on July 26, 2013, 9:14 pm

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Exactly thirteen months after The Independent withdrew from the island it will be the turn of its baby sister, the i. The Guardian’s Roy Greenslade reported this afternoon what the Irish News reported earlier: Independent Print has decided to stop distributing copies of The Independent’s little sister, i, in Ireland. Newsagents have been told that the issues of the i on 2 August will be the final ones available for sale in both the north of Ireland and the Republic. …

Permanent revolution by facebook is replacing ideology

Brian Walker on June 22, 2013, 5:42 pm

| Readers 57

Why are demos and riots breaking out all over? It’s the economy stupid. But Newsnight’s Paul Mason has a contemporary twist, writing in the Independent to give a taster for his book Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions’ Velocity of information matters as much as action itself. It is striking how badly the incumbent elites in each case totally lose the information war. Whether it’s Greece, Turkey, Egypt or Brazil the unspoken truth is it is hard …

“His beauty was his ability for silence. He sat there and waited them out…”

Mick Fealty on June 2, 2013, 9:32 am

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Best review of transplanted Dubliner Colum McCann’s new novel Transatlantic, in which, amongst other things, he channels George Mitchell: There’s a moment in the book when the Good Friday Agreement has just been signed in Belfast, and Mitchell, who earlier compared himself to a terrorist willing to wait in a wet ditch all night (“It’s the tenacity of the fanatic that he wants to pitch himself against. There is, he knows, something akin to his own form of violence in …

The Second Coming of Paisley by Richard Lawrence Jordan: Book Review

Gladys Ganiel on May 29, 2013, 11:46 am

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In The Second Coming of Paisley: Militant Fundamentalism and Ulster Politics (Syracuse University Press, 2013), American historian Richard Lawrence Jordan provides us with some insights that are relevant for today – both for understanding the Rev Ian Paisley, and for coming to grips with unionist perspectives on religion and politics. With a title like The Second Coming of Paisley, readers might assume this refers to Paisley’s seeming about-face in 2007, when he became First Minister of Northern Ireland after compelling …

It’s Derry again – with London and Liverpool, commemorating the Battle of the Atlantic

Brian Walker on May 8, 2013, 9:51 pm

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From the Dalai Lama to a “ VVIP” at the weekend, Londonderry is proving quite a venue, one of three for commemorating the Battle of the Atlantic this weekend. Good to see the UK City of Culture grafting this on to the programme and the recognition given to its role as a major port for the destroyer escorts of the convoys in and out of Liverpool and the Clyde. I recommend the absorbing selection of memoir writing on Derry in …

Manchán Magan’s ‘Oddballs: A Novel of Affections’: Book Review

John L. Murphy on May 4, 2013, 9:26 pm

| Readers 65

A skilled chronicler in travel narratives and documentaries of those who wander the fringes, Manchán Magan’s debut novel follows four characters on the fringe. Two of them, teenaged Rachel and her quasi-aunt Charlotte, collide after a long estrangement in New Hampshire, and take off on Charlotte’s Wiccan pilgrimage to ye olde England of, as a bemused or bitter Rachel puts it, ‘Merlin and Voldemort’. After a few detours, they wind up on a quasi-borrowed yacht that lands them off Co …

Well meaning though it may be, I’m against teaching history to promote a shared identity

Brian Walker on March 7, 2013, 5:21 pm

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The historian Tristram Hunt has given a cautious welcome in the Times to Michael Gove’s controversial plans for the history curriculum in England, (£) a topic I raised last month. This is interesting because Hunt is also a Labour MP and pro-Labour reaction to the Gove proposals was generally hostile. Hunt writes: At the heart of the controversy is the question of Britishness. Critics suggest that in a modern, globalised world, dominated by China and India, it is backward and …

Ex- Combatants, Religion and Peace in Northern Ireland: Book Review

Gladys Ganiel on March 7, 2013, 12:44 pm

| Readers 112

It’s probably safe to assume that most people in Northern Ireland would not associate religion either with ‘peace’, or with ‘ex-combatants.’ But a new book by John Brewer, David Mitchell and Gerard Leavey, Ex-Combatants, Religion and Peace in Northern Ireland: The Role of Religion in Transitional Justice (Palgrave, 2013) fruitfully brings the three together and left me wondering why it hadn’t been done before. For me, two of the research’s findings are of particular significance: Religion was not a significant …

What is history for again?

Brian Walker on February 17, 2013, 11:26 am

| Readers 43

A growing row over Michael Gove’s proposed new history curriculum for England may well spark a bout of Brit bashing in Slugger and other places. Anything that seems to encourage the “great man theory “( History p 165 et seq)” of British history will be dumped on, but not only on this side of the water. One person’s theory of responsible British citizenship is another’s indulgence of imperial nostalgia and whitewash. On the row itself, the Observer report claims that even up …

Patrick McGinley’s ‘That Unearthly Valley: A Donegal Childhood’: Book Review

John L. Murphy on February 17, 2013, 4:14 am

| Readers 148

In Bogmail and Foggage, Patrick McGinley sent up the Irish (could he or it be otherwise?) murder mystery genre. He scooped dollops of encyclopaedic wit and mordant satire into these entertainments. A later saga proved more somber and meditative, the Black and Tan War ending as The Lost Soldier’s Song, while The Trick of the Ga Bolga updated a mythic showdown around his native village of Glencolmcille, on the blustery coast of Donegal. This novelist left the Glen for boarding …

At the current rate of progress, gender equality of MLAs at Stormont will only take another 65 years

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 25, 2013, 12:00 pm

| Readers 181

Bronagh Hinds’ chapter of Everyday Life After the Irish Conflict: The Impact of Devolution and Cross-Border Cooperation [reviewed yesterday] examines women’s political participation points to limited progress in addressing the gender balance of political institutions. The proportion of councillors who are female rose to 24 per cent in 2011 from 14 per cent in 2000. Sounds good. But of the 14 opportunities for co-option in the NI Assembly between 2007 and 2012 2010 “to replace MLAs who had resigned or …

Book launches: Everyday Life After the Irish Conflict and Belfast 400

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 24, 2013, 9:00 pm

| Readers 54

Two books were launched tonight in Belfast. A reception was held at the City Hall to mark the book commissioned to mark the four hundredth anniversary of the city’s charter. I reviewed Belfast 400: People, Place and History (edited by Sean Connolly) back in December. It tells the story of the city that “emerged as the capital of Irish Unionism” yet was also “the birthplace of a United Irish movement committed to the establishment of an independent Irish republic”. Industrialisation, …

Death of Dolours Price – opens up possibility that her taped oral history will be published (or not)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 24, 2013, 2:34 pm

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Dolours Price – sister, mother, bomber, prisoner and a thorn in Gerry Adams’ side – died in her Malahide home on Wednesday night. The Guardian’s Ireland correspondent Henry McDonald writes: Price was involved in a car bombing at the Old Bailey in 1973, which injured more than 200 people and may have led to one person’s death of heart failure. The ex-IRA prisoner, who went on hunger strike with her sister Marian in the 1970s and was subjected to forcefeeding …

Robert Kee, hero of journalism and the television history of Irish nationalism

Brian Walker on January 14, 2013, 12:13 pm

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Slugger should note the passing of Robert Kee, historian, TV and print journalist and RAF bomber pilot, who has died aged 93. In this age of revisionist debate, his TV history series first shown in 1981 and The Green Flag, the written history of Irish nationalism which accompanied it, were well timed and still stand up today. It was a stellar achievement to produce such a magisterial work on a hot topic at the time, when so many critics were waiting to pounce …

The First Shades of God (Jamie Bryson): unremarkable theology, but an insight into the mind of the protest-organiser

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 7, 2013, 10:42 pm

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Jamie Bryson has come to prominence recently as one of the leaders of the flag protests across Northern Ireland. As Chris Donnelly pointed out in his post (and was echoed later in the Belfast Telegraph), Jamie Bryson is a well known loyalist in North Down where he unsuccessfully stood at the council elections under the banner of the new party Community Partnership Northern Ireland Vice chair of the North Down Somme Association, he was not welcome to take part in …

Belfast 400: People, Place and History (Sean Connolly, editor)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on December 10, 2012, 9:00 am

| Readers 144

Ten days ago I finished reading Belfast 400: People, Place and History, a book published to mark the four hundredth anniversary of the city’s charter. In the light of last week’s reawakened community tensions and violence, it is interesting to look back at the roots of the city and its journey into the twenty first century. Belfast 400’s chapters are written by a series of experts and edited by Prof Sean Connolly from QUB School of History and Anthropology. The …

A rolling First World War reviews thread.

John Ó Néill on November 11, 2012, 11:11 am

| Readers 59

Given the day that is in it, and since there are only whatever number of shopping days until Christmas, this post is a rolling review of First World War literature, in its broadest sense to include personal accounts, historical fiction (and everything in between), histories, cinema, documentary, drama, theatre and the endless poetry. Next year, with the centenary of the outbreak of war looming, there will probably be a glut of reflections and new readings of the war, it’s course …

Roddy Doyle’s Two Pints: An epic tale of modern Ireland in less than 90 pages..

Mick Fealty on October 29, 2012, 11:50 am

| Readers 176

Less than 90 pages long, Roddy Doyle’s latest book sounds like a must have… I must admit I have never heard three reviewers so obviously break down in laughter over just one book as on Saturday Review (12.02 in) this weekend. This extract from the Irish Times Review section is all I have to say on the matter, till I have a copy in my hand: – Have yeh made your mind up yet? – A pint – same as …

Ringtone and the drum: Africa’s underclass’s clash with technology

Mick Fealty on October 26, 2012, 3:53 pm

| Readers 62

My old friend from River Path has a book out today (his first, hooray!). I’d be lying if I told I’d read the whole thing right through, yet (I’m waiting for a free copy, rather than reams of white paper!!). But I have been talking with Mark on and off about the project for much of the last two years. If you want to get to grips with what’s happening in rapid development of Africa, Mark’s work is generally both …

Book Review: The McGurk’s Bar Bombing

John Ó Néill on October 11, 2012, 3:23 pm

| Readers 145

The McGurk’s Bar Bombing: Collusion, Cover-Up and a Campaign for Truth with a foreword by Colin Wallace, just published by Frontline Noir, is the first book by Ciarán MacAirt, grandson of one of those killed in the bombing and the most visible campaigner on behalf of the victims and their families. The book pulls together the results of Ciarán’s searches in various archives, responses to FOI requests and dealings with the Chief Constable of the PSNI and the Policing Ombudsman on behalf of …