Search results for ""university college dublin press""

Book SynopsisPublished to honour the retirement of Professor PatrickGallagher from the Chair of Spanish at University College Dublin, this collection includes eleven essays in English, four in Spanish, one poem in Spanish and ten of the chapters on 20th century literature.Trade Review"the excellence of their articles speaks eloquently of Gallagher's powers of selection ... this is much more than just an assemblage of occasional pieces. Each of the articles is excellent in its own way, and most genuinely advance the subject with which they are concerned." Author Terry, University if Essex Bulletin of Hispanic Studies LXXXVI, 1999 "a fine tribute to Pat Gallagher, a polyglot and poet, who was Professor of Spanish for over thirty years at University College Dublin." Times Literary Supplement, July 1999 "the volume makes a significant and wide-ranging contribution to various aspects of Hispanic Studies." Donaire, Dec 1999 "What is most striking about this collection is the diversity of genre, era and approach represented within its pages ... experiencing the unexpected is part of the charm of this collection, which truly does represent 'a lifetime's reading'." Modern Language Review 96 (1) 2001Table of ContentsYo amaba aquellos ojos tan azules, Antonio Gonzalez-Guerrero; Clongowes Wood College, M. Angeles Conde-Parrilla; on the stage, on the page - some developments in Spanish drama 1681-1833, Don W. Cruickshank; "discantando la pasion" - Garcia Sanchez de Badajoz and the art of renaissance song, Martin G. Cunningham; el parrafo final del "Lazarillo" y unas interpolactiones que no lo son, Manuel Ferrer-Chivite; Garcilaso de la Vega - exile and nostalgia, Christopher Fitzpatrick; "La gaznapira", novela total, Medardo Fraile; past and present in Cela's "Nuevo viaje a la Alcarria" David Henn; aprender a aprender a traves de la lectura en Espanol como lengua extranjera, Charo Hernandez; from palimpsest to print, the shaping of a sonnet (Machado's "Esta luz de Sevilla"), Philip G. Johnston; Juan Goytisolo, Miguel de Unamuno and Spanish literary history, Alison Kennedy; the subversive presence of Ausias March, Dominic Keown; spatial and deictic reference in three Borges stories, Bill Richardson; Ramon Gomez de la Serna's "El Incongruente" and Rafael Sanchez Ferlioso's "Industrias y andanzas de Alfanhui" - an example of literary influence?, Jeremy S. Squires; the kingdom of Navarre in early peninsular historiography, Aengus Ward; co-operative contests - dialogue mode in the late novels and plays of Ramon del Valle-Inclan, Robin Warner; list of publications of Patrick Gallagher.

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Book Synopsis"Military Aviation in Ireland" charts the history of the Air Corps from its early days as the Military Air Service established by Michael Collins in 1922 to the ineffective air operations conducted during the Second World War period. The Air Service came about when the Civil War caused the postponement of Michael Collins' plans for a civil air service. After participation in the war of 1922-3 a small Air Corps was confirmed as the token air element of a substantially infantry army. The Army Air Corps survived the 1920s and 1930s, despite the absence of government defence policy and the Army leadership's great indifference to military aviation. In the Second World War period, two squadrons of the Air Corps were given air force tasks for which they had little aptitude and for which they were totally unprepared in terms of personnel, airmanship, aircraft and training, failures which led directly to the demoralization of the Corps. During most of this period the Air Corps, on secretive government orders, carried out tasks aimed at assisting the war effort of the Royal Air Force. Using extensive archival research, Michael C. O'Malley throws new light on the people and operations of Ireland's early aviation history.Trade Review'Military aviation is a subject that has been ignored or only mentioned in passing by most Irish historians of the 20th century. Yet, as O'Malley illustrates, it was of some significance and worthy of an in-depth study. - This is a detailed, insightful and well written account of an important wing of the Irish defence forces.' Books Ireland Sept. 2010 'Meticulously researched by a man with first-hand knowledge of flying, the book records the struggles and adventures of the Irish Air Force from the stirring 1920s to the end of the Second World War - O'Malley's book is an entertaining and rewarding read for the general bookworm as well as a comprehensive one for the historically inclined. The book is a fitting tribute to the pioneer conquerors of the Irish skies.' The Irish Catholic, 7 July 2011 'In this groundbreaking organisational history, retired Irish Air Corps pilot O'Malley treats the problems affecting his service from the Free State's founding through 'the Emergency' of 1939 - 45. The usual symbiotic relationship between interwar civilian and military aviations noted by Robin Higham and others was glaringly absent in Ireland, where both Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera favoured the former. Budgetary constraints, politicised selection of pilot cadets, haphazard aircraft procurement, and undue influence of infantry officers who little understood or cared about air operations further undermined professionalisation and morale. By 1939, the Air Corps still lacked an operational purpose distinct from that of the ground forces, and the Irish government's decision to subordinate its defensive strategy to that of the British - despite its own neutrality - removed any sense of direction at the strategic level. Not until the adoption of an air-sea rescue mission in 1963 would the Air Corps have a valid raison d'etre.' Choice, 48 (10) 2011 'the coverage is impressive, covering policy and planning, economics, organisation, administration, equipment, operation, recruitment and training - any serious student of military aviation should have this volume to hand.' Aeroplane, August 2011 'At last we have a book that looks at the personnel and the operations. - This is an excellent book. It is an important addition to the growing historiography of the Irish Defence Forces. Its analysis of the infighting that blighted the Corps during the 1930s could only be written by someone with an insider's feel and access to sources. For any student of the Irish Defence Forces, and for anybody interested in Irish military history or the history of Irish aviation, it is highly recommended.' The Irish Sword 2012Table of ContentsIntroduction; ONE: Early aviation in Ireland; TWO: Civil aviation developments in Saorstat Eireann; THREE: Michael Collins, the Military Air Service and the Civil War; FOUR: From Civil War to Army mutiny; FIVE: Organisation, policy and command, 1924-36; SIX: Pilot intake, 1922-45; SEVEN: Aviation policy and planning, 1935-40; EIGHT: Support services; NINE: The Air Corps' Emergency; TEN: Services rendered; ELEVEN: The Air Corps investigation of 1941; TWELVE: Re-equipping, reorganisation and demobilisation; Appendix I: Summary of expenses - Capt. C. F. Russell; Appendix II: Telegram received in the Irish Office; Appendix III: Statement of expenditure - Maj. Gen. McSweeney; Appendix IV: Department of Civil Aviation - 20 July 1922; Appendix V: Department of Military Aviation - 22 July 1922; Appendix VI: Aviation department of the Army - 18 October 1922; Appendix VII: Col. P. A. Mulcahy' pre-invasion address - 4 July 1940; Appendix VIII: Col. P. A. Mulcahy - Flying training; Appendix IX: Damage to army aircraft; Appendix X: Majority report on Col. P. A. Mulcahy; Appendix XI: Minority report on Col. P.A. Mulcahy; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisCharles Stewart Parnell has proved a compelling figure in his own time and to ours. A Protestant landlord who possessed few of the gifts that inspire mass adoration, he was the unlikely object of popular veneration. His long liaison with a married woman, Katharine O'Shea, exposed him to the fury of the Catholic Church. Other Protestants secured niches in the pantheon of national heroes but nearly all earned their places as victims of British rule; Parnell's destruction came at Irish hands. Since initial publication in 1998, new evidence and fresh interpretations allow for a fuller and yet more complex portrait for this revised account of Parnell's life. This revision considers Parnell's career within the context of his times, Anglo-Irish affairs, and theoretical perspectives. It makes extensive use of Parnell's public and parliamentary speeches, arguing that he was an exemplar of new forms of political communication and expressed a coherent ideology rooted in the liberal radicalism of the age. In the end he was a victim of his own successes and of a virulent nationalism that squeezed out the immediate possibility of an inclusive nation. Parnell's vision, though, was never wholly submerged and would reappear in the more cosmopolitan atmosphere of contemporary Ireland.Trade Review'Bookworm [History Ireland] is always on the lookout for publications that appeal to a particular type of reader: Leaving Cert and A-level student, languid undergrad, or general readers whose enthusiasm for history is not matched by the necessary leisure time to plough through academic monographs - A case in point was the 'Life and Times' series published by the Historical Association of Ireland in the 1990s, which aimed 'to place the lives of leading figures in Irish history against the background of new research'. The good news is that the series is back, with the same mission statement, this time published by UCD Press.' History Ireland March/April 2009 'Also welcome is the new series of the Historical Association of Ireland's Life and Times concise biographies, which started out some years ago under the Dundalgan Press imprint. It has now been taken over by the excellent UCD Press and given a makeover and smart new livery, keeping the bright blue colour scheme of the originals. The aim of the series is to provide scholarly and accessibly brief biographies of major figures in Irish history by experts in the field, suitable for Leaving Certificate, A level and undergraduate students but also for the general reader.' Irish Democrat November 2009Table of ContentsChronology of Parnell's Life and Times; The Makings of a Nationalist; Political Apprentice, 1874-6; Obstruction, 1877; Activism and the Dawn of the Land Question, 13 January 1878-7 June 1879; The Land War, 8 June 1879-2 May 1882; Parliamentary Politics, 2 May 1882-22 October 1884; Home Rule, 23 October 1884-8 June 1886; The Plan of Campaign and the Conservatives, 9 June 1886-17 November 1890; The Split, November 1890-October 1891Notes; Select Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisIn this first comprehensive and accessible history of Travellers in twentieth-century Ireland, Aoife Bhreatnach describes the people who travelled Irish roads, showing how and why they were distinguishable from settled people. She demonstrates that the alienation and increasing unpopularity of this cultural minority were a consequence of developments in state and society from 1922. The widening social gulf was often precipitated by government intervention at local and national level which led to conflict over the distribution of resources, particularly of land and welfare. Becoming Conspicuous examines the circumstances that have shaped expressions of anti-Traveller prejudice, thus demonstrating some of the social implications of the evolution of urban and rural landscapes in twentieth-century Ireland. An epilogue describes developments in Traveller-settled relations since 1970, a period distinguished by settlement housing policies and the emergence of Traveller representative groups. The book also contains a useful appendix describing nineteenth- and twentieth-century legislation relevant to Travellers in Ireland and Northern Ireland.Trade Review"a thorough-going academic study" Books Ireland Oct 2006 "I would recommend Bhreatnach's Becoming Conspicuous without reservation to any Irish Studies class, for it is an excellent analysis of both the societal changes in the Republic since Independence and the situation of Travellers in this new climate." Journal of British Studies 2007 "Serious historical study of Traveller/non-Traveller relations in Ireland is long overdue and this book is a welcome pioneer ... offers much to the close reader and will be a key resource and guide for future researchers." Irish Studies Review 15 (4) 2007Table of ContentsIntroduction; 'Gipsies' and 'tinkers': identifying nomadic groups in Ireland; Intimate strangers: the people of the roads; Travellers in urban areas: landscape and community; Welfare and entitlement: assessing 'impatient and promiscuous charity'; Some practical suggestions: the government response, 1949-63; Assimilation and absorption: the settlement programme, 1963-70. Conclusion; Epilogue: Resettlement and resistance since 1970; Appendix: Legal glossary; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

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Book Synopsis2016 marks the centenary of the Easter Rising, known as "the poets' rebellion", for among their leaders were university scholars of English, history and Irish. The ill-fated revolt lasted six days and ended ignominiously with the rebels rounded up and their leaders sentenced to death. The signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic must have known that the Rising would be crushed, must have dreaded the carnage and death, must have foreseen that, if caught alive, they would themselves be executed. Between 3 and 12 May 1916, the seven signatories were among those executed by firing squad in Kilmainham Gaol. Now 100 years later, eight of Ireland's finest writers remember these revolutionaries in a unique theatre performance. The forgotten figure of Elizabeth O'Farrell - the nurse who delivered the rebels' surrender to the British - is also given a voice. Signatories comprises the artistic responses of Emma Donoghue, Thomas Kilroy, Hugo Hamilton, Frank McGuinness, Rachel Fehily, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Marina Carr and Joseph O'Connor to the seven signatories and Nurse O'Farrell.They portray the emotional struggle in this ground-breaking theatrical and literary commemoration of Ireland's turbulent past. A performance introduction on the staging of the play is given by Director Patrick Mason, and an introduction by Lucy Collins, School of English, Drama and Film, UCD, sets the historical context of the play.Trade Review'The reader is brought right into these gloomy cells lit by guttering candles as the doomed men question their decisive role in what now can seem like a suicidal folly ... Each of the writers provides a striking picture of these last hours ... Signatories was a gamble. Letting modern writers do voyeur in Kilmainham's condemned cells could have been an embarrassment. But these are good writers and it worked.' The Irish Catholic, 7 July 2016 '... we are in the guiding hands of some of Ireland's greatest writers, who take us back to the living, breathing, bloody streets of Dublin at Easter 1916 ... As a series of monologues, Signatories allows for a tightly-focussed re-imagining of the revolutionary - even fanatic - mind, as well as its doubts and dedication to a cause.' Evening Echo, 22 July 2016 'Signatories is a beautifully designed book to treasure and pass on ... [it] is a unique theatrical and literary commemoration of a pivotal moment in Ireland's turbulent past.' The Irish Voice, April 2017Table of ContentsContents: Introduction (Lucy Collins); Director's Notes (Patrick Mason); Nurse Elizabeth O'Farrell (Emma Donoghue); Padraig Pearse (Thomas Kilroy); James Connolly (Hugo Hamilton); Eamonn Ceannt (Frank McGuinness); Thomas Clarke (Rachel Fehily); Sean MacDiarmada (Eilis Ni Dhuibhne); Thomas MacDonagh (Marina Carr); and Joseph Mary Plunkett (Joseph O'Connor).

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Book SynopsisThis international collection of critical and creative work offers compelling responses to the specifics of 'tradition' and 'place' in the face of the formal and thematic challenges of the modern at particular moments in the aesthetic development of American literature. Maintaining a Place operates also as a way of thinking about the legacy of key figures within Irish cultural debates about America in honouring an esteemed colleague, Ron Callan, for his unique contribution to the field of American Studies in Ireland. Pointing to the ongoing transatlantic influence exerted by the American poetic tradition on contemporary writers, and responding to current developments in literary studies by meshing the field's critical and creative strains the collection includes new poetry by established poets working in Ireland and the US. This volume will appeal to all readers with an interest in modern American literature and its continuing influence on transatlantic thinking and creative practices.Trade Review'For native work in verse, fiction or criticism... we mean to maintain a place, insisting on that which we have not found insisted upon before, the essential contact between words and the locality that breeds them, in this case America' (William Carlos Williams);'Rich in content, Maintaining a Place is a wonderful exploration for students of English or just fans of American literature. Well crafted, the volume brings the reader on a journey that responds to current developments in literary studies.' UCD Today, Spring 2015Table of ContentsContributors; Maria Stuart, Fionnghuala Sweeney, Fionnuala Dillane, and John Brannigan: Introduction; Adam Kelly: To Reconcile the People and the Stones: Ron Callan, William Carlos Williams, and Rudy Wiebe's The Temptations of Big Bear; Maria Stuart: The Poetics of Disfluency: Emerson and Dickinson; Harry Clifton: The Dry-Souled Man (Yvor Winters 1900-68); J. C. C. Mays: Making it New: Coleridge, Pound, and Some 'New' Irish Poets; Stephen Wilson: The Burden of Records: Ezra Pound's Problematic Legacy; Peggy O'Brien: Permission to Burn (from 'Neighbors'); Lee M. Jenkins: 'the difference between Pluto and Plato': D. H. Lawrence, William Carlos Williams, and American Modernism; Stephen Matterson: Three beginnings: William Carlos Williams and In the American Grain; Michael Hinds: Anachronistic?: Sappho and William Carlos Williams Against the Clock; Nerys Wiliams: In Which; Philip McGowan: Reading Elizabeth Bishop's 'Artifact of [Words]'; Philip Coleman: 'Seeking quiddity': Seeing Things in the Poetry of Carl Rakosi; Ana Nunes: Ellen Gallagher's Portraits of the Black Atlantic; Frank McGuinness: The Mask and The Martyr: Lorraine Hansberry and Sean O'Casey; Declan Kiberd: Afterword; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisFor almost 800 years, from their arrival with the first wave of Anglo-Normans in 1169, the FitzGeralds - Earls of Kildare and, from 1766, Dukes of Leinster - were the pre-eminent noble family living in Ireland, dominating the social, political, economic and cultural landscapes. This collection of essays, by established and emerging scholars, draws together some of the most recent and specialised research on the family, providing original perspectives on various aspects of their aristocratic history. Individual contributions inform on how the family first settled in Kildare and rose to ascendancy and how they maintained political status through court connections in England and beyond. Thematically, the essays cover such topics as the architecture and material culture of the Big House, the creation of the great eighteenth-century aristocratic demesne and landscape at Carton, the final break-up of the family's estates and its subsequent economic decline in the twentieth century.They examine the contributions made by individual members of the family to the social and cultural spheres in Ireland and further afield; their interest in local as well as international concerns; their enthusiasm for the arts, music and dancing; the relationship between employers and servants, dukes and the Catholic Church, younger sons and radicalism, the latter exemplified in the life of one of the more famous members of the family, Lord Edward FitzGerald, a leader of the Society of United Irishmen and the 1798 Rebellion.Trade Review'There is much of interest in this well-presented book that will hopefully encourage further research. It is a tribute to the authors, all of whom, with the help of their editors, have combined their scholarship to create a narrative that unfolds fairly seamlessly.' Patricia McCarthy Irish Arts Review, summer 2014 'The most interesting essay on Carton is on the rules governing servants at the house in the mid-18th Century. The source for this information is a 'household book' which covers the period from the early 1760s to 1773. In the Preface the Hon. Desmond Guinness expresses his disappointment at the neglect of the history of Irish landlords and their 'Great Houses'. With this book, blessed as it is with an excellent index, this neglect is somewhat redressed.' Irish Catholic, 10 April 2014 '[This book] presents a remarkable reservoir of research, which will prove especially valuable to those seeking an introduction to the Geraldine legacy ... Perhaps the most attractive aspect of this collection, however, is that while it covers a vast historical period, it also offers a strikingly intimate window into life at the Carton Demesne ... this delightful collection, with its 27 beautiful colour prints, is a pleasurable and informative read, which is sure to provide a valuable resource for both novices and those already acquainted with the illustrious Geraldine tradition.' Etudes Irlandaises, June 2015 'This is a valuable collection of essays from a conference held at Carton House in 2010 ... A number of dominant themes emerge from the wide range of essays: the eminence of the FitzGeralds in the governance and representation of Ireland; the fluctuating political fortunes which successively sustained and undermined the family's status; wealth, magnificence and conspicuous artistic display; astute matrimonial strategy and the role of women in cementing and sustaining the dynasty; the life of the estate, its tenants and employees, and in particular the relationship between Carton and Maynooth.' Christine Casey, TCD, Irish Economic and Social History, Volume XLII, 2015 'This is a useful collection. It provides a reminder of the enduring capacity of the story of the lives and properties of the "big house" and their owners to illuminate the flow of Ireland's history across a millennium.' Irish Literary Supplement, Spring 2017Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgements, Foreword: Hon. Desmond Guinness; List of Illustrations; Notes on Contributors; Terence Dooley: The FitzGeralds: A Survey History, 1169-2013; Raymond Gillespie: The FitzGeralds and the Making of the Manor of Maynooth; Mary Ann Lyons: The Kildare Ascendancy; Carol O'Connor: Mabel Browne, Countess of Kildare, and the Restoration of the House of Kildare, 1552-1610; Colm Lennon: The Making of the Geraldines: The Kildare FitzGeralds and their Early Historians; Arnold Horner: Creating a Landscape: Carton and its Setting; Karol Mullaney-Dignam: 'French Horns Playing at Every Meal': Musical Activity at Carton, 1747-1895; Terence Dooley: 'Till my Further Orders': Rules Governing Servants at Carton in the mid-Eighteenth Century; Alison FitzGerald: Desiring to 'Look Sprucish': Objects in Context at Carton; William Laffan and Brendan Rooney: Painting Carton: The 2nd Duke of Leinster, Thomas Roberts and William Ashford; Cormac Begadon: The 2nd Duke of Leinster and the Establishment of St Patrick's College, Maynooth; Liam Chambers: Family Politics and Revolutionary Convictions: The Career of Edward FitzGerald (1763-98); Arnold Horner: In the Shadow of the FitzGeralds: Maynooth c.1700 to c.1900; Elizabeth Heggs: Whig Politics and the 3rd Duke of Leinster (1791-1874); Ciaran Reilly: A Middleman in the 1840s: Charles Carey and the Leinster Estate; Patrick Cosgrove: 'Sacrificed for Ready Money': The Leinster Estate and the Irish Land Question, 1870-1908; Thomas Nelson: Lord Frederick FitzGerald (1857-1924) and Local Politics in County Kildare; Terence Dooley: 'The Fairy Godfather as Regards the Estate': Henry Mallaby-Deeley and Carton, 1922-37; Christopher Ridgway: The FitzGerald Legacy; Notes; Index

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Book SynopsisJustin McCarthy (1830-1912) is the forgotten leader of the Irish Home Rule Movement. Overshadowed by Parnell before him and the 1916 leaders shortly after his death, McCarthy's considerable contribution to the national cause has been largely overlooked. Without his conciliatory chairmanship (1890-6), the Irish Party would have subdivided further after the Parnell split; the critical Liberal alliance would have ended; and the House of Commons would not have passed Gladstone's second Home Rule Bill in 1893. Born in Cork but living in London, McCarthy was not a career politician, but rather a respected and financially successful writer, who championed many liberal causes long before becoming actively involved in politics. He was elected a Home Rule Party MP in 1879, and the party's vice-chairman the following year. His subsequent time as chairman, beginning with the 1890 split, spanned a period of intense struggle over the second Home Rule Bill. During these demanding years he sacrificed his health and income for the national cause - 'the religion of my life'. This biography restores its subject to his rightful place in the front rank of Irish leaders - Parnell, McCarthy, Redmond - who led the Irish Party into parliamentary battle in pursuit of Home Rule.Trade Review'Bookworm [History Ireland] is always on the lookout for publications that appeal to a particular type of reader: Leaving Cert and A-level student, languid undergrad, or general readers whose enthusiasm for history is not matched by the necessary leisure time to plough through academic monographs - A case in point was the 'Life and Times' series published by the Historical Association of Ireland in the 1990s, which aimed 'to place the lives of leading figures in Irish history against the background of new research'. The good news is that the series is back, with the same mission statement, this time published by UCD Press.' History Ireland March/April 2009 'Also welcome is the new series of the Historical Association of Ireland's Life and Times concise biographies, which started out some years ago under the Dundalgan Press imprint. It has now been taken over by the excellent UCD Press and given a makeover and smart new livery, keeping the bright blue colour scheme of the originals. The aim of the series is to provide scholarly and accessibly brief biographies of major figures in Irish history by experts in the field, suitable for Leaving Certificate, A level and undergraduate students but also for the general reader.' Irish Democrat November 2009Table of ContentsChronology of McCarthy's Life and Times; Introduction; The Making of an Irish Nationalist, 1830-53; The Development of a Liberal Propagandist, 1853-79; Vice-Chairman, 1880-90; Reluctant Chairman, 1890-6; Conclusion; Notes; Select Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisBorn in Waterford in 1888 Rosamond Jacob, of Quaker background, was in many cases a crowd member rather than a leader in the campaigns in which she participated - the turn of the century language revival, the suffrage campaign, the campaigns of the revolutionary period. She adopted an anti-Treaty stance in the 1920s, moving towards a fringe involvement in the activities of socialist republicanism in the early 1930s while continuing to vote Fianna Fail. Her commitment to feminist concerns was life long but at no point did she take or was capable of a leadership role. However, it was Jacob's failure to carve out a strong place in history as an activist which makes her interesting as a subject for biography. Her 'ordinariness' offers an alternative lens on the biographical project. By failing to marry, by her inability to find meaningful paid work, by her countless refusals from publishers, by the limited sales of what work was published, Jacob offers a key into lives more ordinary within the urban middle classes of her time, and suggests a new perspective on female lives. Jacob's life, galvanised at all times by political and feminist debate, offers a means of exploring how the central issues which shaped Irish politics and society in the first half of the twentieth century were experienced and digested by those outside the leadership cadre.Trade Review'This is a wonderfully polychromatic canvas painted in pointillist technique, as absorbing a read as a meticulous Seurat. The detail brings the subject to life.' The Friendly Word Winter 2011 'Jacob was atypical in practically every sphere in which she was active - her milieu and her political journey are interesting, and if Jacob was not successful she was certainly not ordinary, as this ambitious biography well shows.' Irish Times Saturday Jan. 2011 'an informative, engaging and enlightening read.' Irish Literary Supplement, Spring 2012 'The interweaving of public and private concerns is well handled by Lane, and her analysis does, as she suggests, offer 'an important alternative angle on what it meant to be a woman, a republican supporter and a human being in Ireland in the period'. While her 'ordinariness' is open to question, this study of Jacob's life is a timely reminder of the need to 'think outside the box' when considering those who peopled the past.' Irish Studies Review 19 (4) 2011 'Leeann Lane's sensitive reading of the diaries forms the backbone of this biographical study, but she largely avoids simply plundering them for information about other, better known individuals. Jacob herself remains admirably at the centre of this book, Lane's insightful reading of her novels adding to the sense of a life unfolding with the turn of each page. - One of the strengths of this biography, in fact, is the way in which Lane chronicles the life of a woman who recorded what it felt like to live in her particular circumstances at different times of her long life, how she moved in and out of ordinariness and how ordinariness itself changed in meaning over the course of the twentieth century. - The biography is richly textured and informative and should be the essential starting-point for anyone interested in the extraordinary life of Rosamond Jacob.' English Historical Review cxxvii: 525 (April 2012) 'Rosamond Jacob, the Irish Republican activist, feminist, and novelist, is the subject of this meticulously researched and thoughtful new biography by Leeann Lane. Jacob was ignored and undervalued during her lifetime, living a solitary life along the fringes of the great political and social movements that shaped the newly postcolonial Irish state in the first half of the twentieth century. Never a leader within these movements but always an active worker on their behalf, Jacob's life is a fascinating portrait of what Lane calls 'a life more ordinary.' - Lane's work in shaping the complex narrative of Jacob's life is feminist historiography at its finest; she interweaves the intimate details of Jacob's struggles to find her place in a patriarchal culture with a thorough assessment of the political realities of life in the years of war and nation building that result in a postcolonial Irish state. The necessary conflation of the personal and the political in Lane's portrait of Jacob offers readers new insight into the frustrating diminishment of women's political participation in Irish governance during the first decades after independence. - It is thanks to the rich archive offered by her private diaries, housed in the National Library, that Lane is able to gain such intimate access into this remarkable woman's insights into her own life and culture. Rosamond Jacob: Third Person Singular is necessary reading for anyone interested in the history of Irish feminism and female political activism during the first half of the twentieth century' Journal of British Studies Here is a copy of Catriona Crowe's speech from the launch on 13 December 2010: I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, Deferential, glad to be of use, Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous- Almost, at times, the Fool. The Love-song of J Alfred Prufrock, TS Eliot's first great poem, contains these lines, where the narrator proclaims his place in the world as ancillary, mildly useful, slightly pompous, slightly stupid, virtuous, timid; in all, an ordinary life with no pretensions to greatness, but saved in some measure by the narrator's self-conscious and accurate version of himself. Leeann Lane's superb biography of Rosamond Jacob presents us with a female life more ordinary than those we have encountered to date for the crucial years leading up to and away from the foundation of the Irish state. As of now, it is fairly inconceivable that a male life of this kind would be considered worthy of extensive biographical study. I suggest that this is an area where women's history is ahead of the game. Rosamond Jacob was born into a Quaker family in Waterford in 1888, moved to Dublin in 1919, and died there, killed while crossing the road, in 1960. She didn't marry, had no children, was not gay. She had an unsatisfactory affair in her forties which meant a great deal to her. She never owned a house, living in rented accommodation all her life. She was involved in various ways in the cultural revival and the nationalist and feminist movements from early adulthood on, never in prominent positions.Her friends included Mrs.Pearse and Hannah Sheehy Skeffington, two of the most iconic women of the revolutionary period; she shared lodgings with Dorothy Macardle and Lucy Kingston, two interesting activists in the spheres of feminism and nationalism. She wrote three novels, two of which were published, a children's book, a history of the United Irishmen, and a fictional biography of Matilda Tone, wife of Theobald. So much for the bald facts. However, what makes Jacob extraordinary is the fact that she kept an almost daily diary from 1897, when she was 9 years old, to 1960, when she died. It comprises 170 'ordinary' volumes, and a final secret volume in which she is more frank about life events such as her affair with Frank Ryan. She also, usefully, sums up each year at the end of its entries. The diary has been used by a great many historians to illuminate various aspects of feminism and nationalism in the nascent independent Ireland, and as a crucial source for biographers of those she knew, like Sheehy Skeffington, Ryan and Macardle. Now, for the first time, this extraordinary document is used to illuminate the personality who created it, tracking her life from late Victorian Waterford to the era of Sean Lemass. Leeann quotes Robert Fothergill on how diaries turn the substance of history inside out: 'In the foreground is the individual consciousness, absolutely resisting the insistence of future historians that that it should experience itself as peripheral.' In the case of Jacob as described and analysed in this biography, the personal voice of the diarist matters as much as the major events she is describing, and her interior life becomes the main event. And what a voice it is. Rosamond Jacob is a mixture of scorn and uncertainty, radical opinions and unsatisfied longings, excluded outsider and acute observer, pacifist and supporter of violent revolution, her own worst enemy and a good friend to others. She comes at us from all kinds of angles, some of them very uncomfortable. Because we are privileged to know her innermost thoughts, we understand how isolated and lonely she sometimes felt, as well as sharing in her moments of triumph or satisfaction. We can observe her trajectory from a sheltered Quaker childhood to the loss of her faith, her deeply instinctive feminism, and her admiration for and commitment to the nationalist cause, as well as her misgivings about some of its methods. Leeann uses her fiction as well as her diary to demonstrate her intellectual, political and emotional development, giving us a wonderfully rounded picture of a woman who lived through and participated in momentous events, but who never felt herself to be at the centre of any of them. Like all good biographies, this one contextualises its subject, giving us the background to Quaker Waterford, Irish Parliamentary Party Waterford, and the development of the Gaelic League, Sinn Fein and suffrage groups in the city. Jacob was involved in the last three, but never assumed a leadership role, preferring to restrict herself to fairly menial tasks like leafleting and organising meetings. Her keen eye, however, took in everything; she remarks on the violent tendencies of the Irish Party supporters in Waterford, the stronghold of John Redmond, and the petty squabbles which regularly erupted in the various groups to which she belonged. Her family circumstances were comfortable but constraining; well into her twenties, she obeyed her mother's rules with regard to where she went. Also, she did not get on well with her sister-in-law, Dorothea, married to her brother Tom, to whom she was close. Her family regarded her with a mixture of alarm and exasperation, fearing that her outspoken radical opinions would prevent her getting married. She was Anglophobic from an early age, remarking on the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, which occurred on the same night as the demise of the household cat, Pansy, that 'we would all much rather go into mourning for her than for that hideous old woman.' (She was a cat lover, and in one of her novels she names the two featured cats Silken Thomas and Mick, after Michael Collins.) In 1909, she commented on a Quaker meeting in Waterford which included a lecture on notable English Quakers: 'Edith Bell said how noble they were and what a pity there were no Irish Friends fit to be classed with these English worthies, whereupon I was constrained to mention that these English worthies were mostly American, and one of them French; and on that everyone - even the Newtown boys - tittered as if I had said something absurd. I wish I could go somewhere where I wasn't known and believed beforehand to be mad, so that my remarks might for a time at least be taken on their own merits and not discounted at once as the necessarily absurd talk of a lunatic.' Here we see her dissatisfaction with the way both her views and her personality are perceived in public gatherings, and her outspokenness counterbalanced with extreme self-consciousness. She had an instinctive feminism quite at odds with prevailing views in Waterford, and was not shy of expressing it, despite the kind of reception she got, not least from her family. In many ways she was way ahead of her time in her dismay at the lack of female involvement in the Gaelic League and her objections to lack of female representation at the upper echelons of Sinn Fein. She also disliked Catholicism, something which created problems for her later as the new independent state solidified into a largely Catholic polity. In 1921, the diary records her distaste at 'the religious orgies that go on outside Mountjoy during executions'. Much of her distaste was aesthetic; she found the bathetic aspects of martyrdom, mourning and commemoration too much for her. But in fairness, she had renounced her Quaker faith early on, and thus placed herself in the small category of people without a religious faith in a highly-charged atmosphere of religiosity among the revolutionary organisations. When two of her nephews made mixed marriages in the 1940s, she was not pleased. She regarded the Ne Temere decree with horror, and considered the Catholic church to be anti-progressive and anti-woman. Her perception of the 1916 Rising was initially at second-hand, but she visited Dublin shortly after it ended and vividly describes the smoking ruins of O'Connell St. Her move to Dublin allowed her to involve herself more closely in the 1918 election and in Cumann na mBan, again in lesser roles, but she enjoyed the camaraderie of working with others for a cause, and while sceptical of what she saw as the predominant enjoyment of violent conflict, was not immune from such excitement herself. She describes hearing from Maighread Trench about Cumann na mBan members praying outside Mountjoy on the morning of Kevin Barry's execution, and 'by her way of telling it and by her expression, it was clear to me that she at least had got some enjoyment out of it. Min Ryan came in and told me all about McSwiney's funeral in Cork, and it was plainer still that she had enjoyed that. Hanna and I agreed that such things are a kind of emotional orgy. I know I am capable of such enjoyment myself and it is revolting to think of.' Such candour on these subjects is highly unusual, then and now. Her commitment to feminism never wavered, and she remained involved in key feminist organisations all her life. The diary records her constant sense of affront at inequality, and she judged politicians on their commitment to female emancipation. She describes a meeting with Arthur Griffith in 1922, when a deputation from various women's organisations attempted to get him to extend the franchise to women over 21 before the Treaty election: 'Griffith started by saying the Dail had no power to alter the franchise, and it would take 8 months to make a new register, and after a good deal of discussion ended by defying us to do our worst, and saying we, or nearly all of us, were really not out for votes but out to wreck the Treaty. He looked worried and was quite cross. He started every sentence with 'To be perfectly frank - which always heralds something nasty.' Jacob was on to spinspeak long before 'going forward' or 'we are where we are'. In the case of De Valera, she had something of a crush on him in the twenties, describing him as 'delicious' in 1926, probably the only time that adjective was applied to him, and believing that he might support female emancipation in power, but by 1937 he had become 'a man who badly needs to be taught a lesson, if only there were enough women with the guts to do it.' She admired people like Peadar O'Donnell and George Gilmore because of their proclaimed commitment to women's rights, but found the maternalistic and child-centred concerns of the Irish Housewives' Association and the Irish Women's Citizens and Local Government Association difficult to relate to as a childless single woman, although she fully endorsed their more general feminist demands. Her affair with Frank Ryan, poster boy of left-wing republicanism in the late twenties and early thirties, was an extremely important event in her life. She was ahead of her time in her sexual frankness, her complete lack of guilt at a non-marital sexual relationship, and her unconcealed admiration for good-looking men, whom she frequently describes in the diary. Ryan turned out to be a bit of a sleeveen, willing enough to show up at her flat at midnight for sex, but sloping off afterwards full of Catholic guilt. He also regularly ignored her at social gatherings, a humiliating experience which she was prepared to endure for the pleasure of his intermittent visits. Her descriptions of his morose silences in the mornings make you want to slap him. Incidentally, we learn that he didn't like sardines or cheese, but loved cake. The time she spent with him may have prevented her from forming a more secure permanent relationship; we'll never know. Like everyone, she wanted to be loved, and she drew a short straw due to her attraction to Ryan, and his inability to commit to her in any meaningful way. At least he didn't marry anyone else. During the affair, she sought help through psychoanalysis, albeit by correspondence with a therapist in London, who unfortunately died just as things were starting to work. She realised that the loss of her father when she was 19 had affected her gravely, as he was a bulwark of support to her, and she had, perhaps, been frozen in a kind of adolescence since that event. Again, we have a woman ahead of her time, reading Freud, trying to find out why she is attracted to a man who can do her no permanent good, and willing to accept fairly serious judgments on her personality and development. The book takes us through the ferment of cultural, revolutionary and feminist activity occurring in Ireland in the two decades leading up to independence, and then through the tangled webs of intertwined left-wing and women's organisations in the twenties and thirties, when the state was solidifying under the two main civil war parties, and there was not much room for anyone else. Jacob expanded her political and feminist interests during this period, joining the Friends of Soviet Russia, and representing the Irish branch on a trip to the Soviet Union in 1931, where she was impressed by the Soviet commitment to equal rights for women. She became involved in the International Alliance of Women, which gave her a chance to be active in the international peace movement and express her natural pacifism. She was not a successful novelist; Callaghan, her first novel, published in 1920, received quite favourable reviews, but was a commercial failure. The Troubled House, her second, while finished in the 1920s, was not published until 1938. Third Person Singular, the novel which provides the subtitle of this biography, has not been published. It is to be hoped that it will be in the near future. I have not read the novels, but Leeann quotes effectively and liberally from them, and some of the writing, and the way in which Jacob uses her characters to express complex emotional and political feelings, is really striking. Here is Maggie Cullen, wife and mother of three sons, in The Troubled House, which is set in the period 1916-21: "It came to my mind what a queer thing it was that my life should spend itself thus, almost entirely in love and care and fear and thought and anxiety over three men and a boy. Was I nothing but a being relative to them, without real existence of my own? Each one of them led his own life, had his centre in his own soul, as a human creature should, but I had no purpose or driving force in myself, nothing that was independent of them. It seemed absurd, futile, unworthy." The Feminine Mystique couldn't have put it better. Her final years were dogged by increasing ill-health - rheumatism, anaemia, shingles, neuralgia, sciatica - the whole dreary catalogue of what lies in store for us all. She seems to have borne these ailments uncomplainingly. She became involved in the anti-nuclear movement, attending meetings to protest against the hydrogen bomb, and joining a new anti-nuclear organisation established the year before she died. (Two women on Charleville Rd. to whom she distributed anti-nuclear leaflets told her "they wouldn't live long and didn't care what happened to the world".) She remained involved in the Irish Housewives' Association, which was enduring accusations of communism in the 1950s, and the Women's Social and Political League, in decline at this stage. A passionate advocate of animal welfare, she was secretary of the Anti-Vivisection League in the '50s. She spent a lot of her time visiting the old and the sick, and in particular in looking after the welfare of widows and mothers of republicans who had fallen on hard times, like Liam Mellows' mother, who drank a lot, and was, in Jacob's inimitable phrase 'as incontinent as blazes.' Rosamond Jacob adopted a number of causes early in her life, at a time when there were plenty of causes available. She remained a feminist, a nationalist, an Irish language revivalist, an animal rights activist, a civil and humanitarian rights proponent, and an opponent of censorship, sectarianism and militarism all her life. She was in many ways a model citizen, taking her responsibilities to participate in and change her society very seriously. She tried very hard to understand herself and to figure out what her unconscious motivations and deepest feelings were. She engaged in an honest (on her side) sexual relationship in early middle age which could have caused her social ruin. The sadnesses in her life, the lack of a close partner or friend being the main one, she bore stoically, knowing she was not the only woman in this situation in twentieth century Ireland. Her great gift to us, the diary in which she confided regularly over a period of 63 years, has now been used to its fullest capacity by Leeann Lane to give us an interior study, beautifully contextualised, of an interesting and brave woman who was well aware of her imperfections, but who never wavered in her conviction that the world could change, that women could be equal to men, and that she could vividly describe these changes and the messy processes involved in their achievement. She would love the idea that we are celebrating her life tonight in Newman House, finally centre-stage.' Catriona Crowe December 2010Table of ContentsONE: Introduction; TWO: Suffrage and Nationalism, 1904-14; THREE: Revolutionary years: Waterford 1915-19; FOUR: Revolutionary years: a Dublin focus 1916-21; FIVE: Single women, sex and the new State; SIX: Politics1922-36; SEVEN: Conclusion(s): Decline and nostalgia 1937-60; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisIn this comprehensive history of the Irish Boundary Commission, Paul Murray looks at British attempts from 1886 on to satisfy the Irish Nationalist demand for Home Rule, Ulster and British Unionist resistance to this demand, the 1920 partition of Ireland and the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, where the roots of the establishment of the Commission are to be found. The evidence presented at the Commission and the principles on which it based its decisions are analysed against the background of evolving British views on the dangers posed for British and Unionist interests on both islands by a radical redrawing of the 1920 border. New documentary evidence is brought to bear on the motivation of its Chairman Justice Feetham, his susceptibility to external influences, and the significance of his political background as possible factors in his final decisions. The history of the Irish Boundary Commission is shown to also be part of a larger European narrative. This study is, thus, the first large-scale attempt to consider its significance in its wider international context.Trade Review'This extensive study explores a wide range of issues associated with the Boundary Commission that was established during 1924 - 25 as a consequence of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty.' Irish Studies Review, February 2013 'the study in depth of the Commission is original and makes this book a most valuable contribution to our understanding of the Partition' Clogher Record 2011 'Murray unravels the complex story of the Irish Boundary Commission... Highly recommended.' Choice May 2012 'As we embark on a decennium of commemorations, Paul Murray has produced a book that is both timely and relevant - The author has written a constructive and authoritative analysis of events leading up to the establishment of the Commission. His examination of the evidence submitted to the Commission is detailed and comprehensive. He concludes by making comparisons between the Boundary Commission and similar organisations in Europe, thus raising the profile of the Commission from the backwaters of Irish history and placing it in an international context.' Donegal Annual 2012 No. 64 'Taking the story down to its ignominious ending in 1925, Murray offers the fullest account to date of how the Irish Boundary Commission actually worked in practice. Here his examination of the inner-thought world and assumptions of the commission's all-powerful chairman, Richard Feetham ('Feetham-cheat'em!'), to the ever viper-tongued Tim Healy is particularly careful and convincing. - as a contribution to the historiographies of the British state, Northern Ireland, and British-Irish relations Murray's book remains valuable. Indeed, Paul Murray has succeeded in writing what will surely long remain the standard work on the Irish Boundary Commission. In closing a large gap in the literature on Irish partition, he deserves our gratitude.' T. K. Wilson, St. Andrews University, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 51, No. 2 (April 2012)Table of ContentsIntroduction; ONE: The Partition of Ireland: The Forces at Play; TWO The Anglo-Irish Treaty & the Ulster Question; THREE: Anticipating the Boundary Commission; FOUR: The Commission in Session; FIVE: Procedures and Findings; SIX: The Boundary Commission's European Context; SEVEN: The Division of Ireland: Normative Issues; EIGHT: Conclusion; Appendices; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisDoes it still matter which foot you dig with in today's Republic of Ireland? "Outside the Glow" examines the relationship between Protestants and Catholics and the notion that southern Protestants are somehow not really Irish. From extensive interviews with representatives of both confessions, Heather K. Crawford demonstrates that there are still underlying tensions between the confessions based on 'memories' of events long buried in the past. By looking at various aspects of everyday life in today's Republic - education, marriage, segregation, Irish language, social life - she shows how these residues of religious, ethnic and cultural tension suggest that to be truly Irish is to be Catholic, and that consequently Protestants - and other minorities - cannot have an authentic Irish identity.Trade ReviewProfessor R. V. Comerford and author Heather Crawford speaking at the book launch and available on the IQDA webpage: http://www.iqda.ie/content/outside-glow-protestants-and-irishness-independent-ireland 'You'd have thought that in 21st-century Ireland all traces of the historic antipathy shown by Catholics to Protestants would have disappeared. Surely today, it no longer matters 'which foot you dig with'? But it does - The research shows that Protestants are not perceived to have 'Irishness', that certain something that says you belong; instead they are seen as somehow less than authenically Irish. The research also shows, not surprisingly, that this is resented by Protestants born, brought up and educated in the state they call home. 'Stereotypes based on the emotional legacy of the historic emnity surface unconciously,' the author writes, 'reinforcing the notion that Irish national identity is unequivocally Catholic, nationalist and Gaelic.' Irish Independent 6 March 2010 'Outside the Glow: Protestants and Irishness in Independent Ireland - offers an incisive investigation into how the Irish Protestant community sees itself. Irish Protestants consider themselves to be Irish, Crawford argues, but perceive that those around them do not see their claim to be Irish as wholly valid. - Crawford effectively handles the myriad of social divisions and misunderstandings which put Protestants and Catholics on occasionally diverging paths in Irish society: divided education, tensions over mixed marriages, the land question and the impact of cultural nationalism on the national psyche. In developing the theme, the author does not shy away from dealing with the issue of what she terms 'Protestant self-marginalisation' - In essence, there was more than mere dogma or cultural identity at stage here - it was a struggle for survival. Due to the strict requirement for non-Catholic partners of Catholics to raise their children in the Roman Catholic faith, there was a real risk that mixed-religion marriage spelt potential doom for the next generation of Irish Protestantism. Crawford also explores the existence of networks of Protestant advancement: the practice of hiring Protestants to senior positions in companies owned by members of the same community; the advestising of vacant jobs via a notice from the rector on the pulpit, through Protestant youth clubs; or through the much distrusted Freemasons, which were primarily populated by Protestants. The practice was not limited to Protestants and doubtlessly only mirrored what occurred among lay Catholic organisations and other denominational societies which wished to preserve the values and prominence of their cadre to the best of their ability and against what each side saw as external enemies. The employment of anonymous contributions is a standard academic tool used to inform a qualitative study such as this. The opinions are interesting and keenly insightful, albeit weakened by their anonymity.' Read the full article here: Review of Outside the Glow, Sunday Business Post 4 April 2010 John Burke Sunday Business Post 4 April 2010 'The interview material she adduces makes very clear that, at individual level, there has been a frequent sense of Protestant vulnerability, exclusion and marginalisation. Indeed, she chronicles far more 'inter-communal harassment' in both directions than would be assumed by those who think that sectarianism only obtains in the North. Crawford's book calmly deals with education, intermarriage, the Irish language and social class and the resulting account is readable and valuable. The book argues that 'both communities need to acknowledge, rather than deny, that inter-communal tensions remain'. Heather Crawford's suggestion that such tensions will best be managed through 'mutual respect' is made all the more cogent because of the thoughtful research presented by her in this important book.' Professor Richard English Irish Times 10 April 2010 Heather Crawford's study uses a skilful and fascinating blending of the tools of history and social studies to provide an engaging study of how Catholics and Protestants have interacted with each other in Ireland since the foundation of the Irish Free State. In her extensive research and interviews, she asks whether there are still underlying tensions or emotional legacies left over from the events of the past. And she does it with humour and with style, questioning and challenging some of the myths that still persist among some people to this day - that there is no such thing as a poor Protestant, that there is a particular Protestant work ethic, that Protestants have small families, or that many Protestants are the descendants of 'planters'. Canon Patrick Comerford Irish Catholic May 2010 This book seeks to demonstrate that Protestants in the Republic of Ireland cannot have an authentic Irish identity, since real Irishness is, or is perceived to be, a Roman Catholic-Gaelic-nationalist construct. - The reality is that there is no one form of Irishness, but many strands which are not mutually exclusive. Different people express their Irishness by identifying with some strands and not with others. The irony is that means of claiming membership of the Irish nation and the Church of Ireland are much the same - you are because you declare to be.' Raymond Refausse Church of Ireland Gazette June 2010 'Heather Crawford's study uses a skilful and fascinating blending of the tools of history and social studies to provide an engaging study of how Catholics and Protestants have interacted with each other in Ireland since the foundation of the Irish Free State.' Irish Catholic May 2010 '[An] interdisciplinary examination of Protestant Irish identity in the Republic of Ireland based on interviews with one hundred people both Catholic and Protestant communities, and from a variety of regional and socio-economic backgrounds - focusing on subjects such as education, language, inter-marriage and class. Well documented and will appeal to readers interested in Irish sociology and the study of the development of identity.' Book News August 2010 'The real impact of oral history comes from its exploration of lived experience. The testimony gathered by Crawford is at times sad, uplifting, wry and perceptive; it is deeply fascinating and illuminates some of the residual religious, ethnic and cultural tensions lurking beneath the surface in modern Ireland. Outside the Glow should be commended for taking a bold approach to such sensitive and challenging issues as the confessional divide in Ireland and what it means to be Irish.' Irish Archives Anniversary Issue 2010 Vol 17 'This is an interesting and helpful examination of the status of Protestant citizens in the Irish Republic. ... Outside the Glow is well organised and a very interesting read precisely because of the anecdotal nature of many of the contributions. There are occasional glitches, but these are minor matters and the book is a valuable addition to our understanding of the relationships between separated but related religious and ethical disciplines on a small island in Europe.' Search 34 (2) 2011 'A central point in this research is that many prejudices are based on distorted readings of history, which feed into the emotional legacy. - A study like this is valuable in laying bare such attitudes, and thus challenging people to examine them, how they stand up, and how they impact on others. It underlines the importance of historians' efforts to seek out the truth, and at the same time must allow for the fact that not all will have a nuanced reading of history ... 'we can expect an insightful and thought-provoking study, and that is exactly what we get.' Irish Literary Supplement, Spring 2012 'The conclusion to which the research directs us is of great importance.' Irish Studies Review 19 (3) 2011Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1 The Background; 2 Segregation and Education; 3 Education, Irish Language and Identity; 4 Protestants and Society; 5 Inter-Church Marriage; 6 'There's No Such Thing as a Poor Protestant'; 7 Protestants and Irishness; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisThomas Kettle: political activist, journalist, orator, poet, essayist, lawyer, nationalist MP, professor, recruiter, soldier and casualty of war. Born on 9 February 1880, he was killed in the opening minutes of the allied invasion of Ginchy on 9 September 1916, having insisted on leading his men into battle. A leader of the younger generation of constitutional nationalists in his own time, he was all but forgotten as a result of the radicalisation of Irish politics after 1916. His memory was largely kept alive by studies of Ireland's participation in the Great War and by his final poem, written for his daughter Betty, which has appeared in several collections of War poetry. But Thomas Kettle was more than a soldier and recruiter.Although he did not always choose the 'right side', Kettle in fact had a hand in nearly every major political struggle in early twentieth-century Ireland. His struggles with alcoholism and depression overshadowed his great promise, ensuring that his biography is as much a story of wasted potential as it is of great achievement.Trade Review"Bookworm [History Ireland] is always on the lookout for publications that appeal to a particular type of reader: Leaving Cert and A-level student, languid undergrad, or general readers whose enthusiasm for history is not matched by the necessary leisure time to plough through academic monographs - A case in point was the 'Life and Times' series published by the Historical Association of Ireland in the 1990s, which aimed 'to place the lives of leading figures in Irish history against the background of new research'. The good news is that the series is back, with the same mission statement, this time published by UCD Press." History Ireland March/April 2009 "For too long Kettle has been known for the most part only by references to him and quotations from his poetry, writing and recorded witticisms. Thus this comprehensive biography is a welcome addition to the historical literature on the seminal years of Ireland's early twentieth century." J. Anthony Gaughan The Irish Catholic April 9, 2009 "Undeniably gifted and brave he may, consciously or otherwise, have welcomed death as a number do who find war an escape. He was certainly a loss and had he lived a productive life one feels he would have challenged the dreary consensus of Church, Gaelic culture and economic inertia that beset the new state. Or again the destructive side of Kettle might have won. Such are the riddles of truncated promise. Senia Paseta has given us a competent and informative portrait of a figure who, if not exactly dislikable, is not particularly agreeable either." Rory Brennan Books Ireland May 2009 "brief biography of Thomas Kettle, an Irish political activist and professor, concentrates on his importance as a leader of constitutional nationalism up until his death in World War I. The author provides an epilogue demonstrating that modern Ireland now resembles the type of nation Kettle strove to create." Book News Inc August 2009 "Thomas Kettle (1880-1916) has not had a biography to himself since J. B. Lyons published his appropriately named The Enigma of Tom Kettle in 1983 so Senia Paseta's new monograph on this strange and interesting figure is especially welcome. Also welcome is the new series of the Historical Association of Ireland's Life and Times concise biographies, which started out some years ago under the Dundalgan Press imprint. It has now been taken over by the excellent UCD Press and given a makeover and smart new livery, keeping the bright blue colour scheme of the originals. The aim of the series is to provide scholarly and accessibly brief biographies of major figures in Irish history by experts in the field, suitable for Leaving Certificate, A level and undergraduate students but also for the general reader. Paseta sets the 'Life' well within the context of the 'Times' and she has an in-depth knowledge of constitutional politics in Ireland before the Easter Rising. Kettle was never to fulfil his early promise. Dogged by frequent bouts of depression, he succumbed to alcoholism, which hampered his career, and his public exhibitions of drunkenness made him an embarrassment to his friends. Basically, he was yesterday's man. For all his brilliance, he was caught between an outdated constitutional movement that he was too progressive for and a revolutionary republican movement for which he was not progressive enough. The Easter Rising was the work of those who were determined to prevent Home Rule being implemented because it was no longer enough, and he had been left behind. His death on the Western Front in September 1916 was as brave and senseless as any. It's an impressive start to the new series." Click on link for full article: http://www.irishdemocrat.co.uk/book-reviews/thomas-kettle/.print.html Irish Democrat November 2009Table of ContentsChronology; Introduction; Family Life and Early Influences; Political Apprenticeship; Parliamentarian and Professor; Home Rule, Partition and War; Epilogue; Notes; Select Bibliography; Index.

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Book Synopsis"Mapping Irish Media" offers up-to-date research and analysis of the Irish media by Ireland's leading experts in the field. The book is sponsored by the School of Communications at Dublin City University and is specially intended as a much-needed textbook for the fast growing numbers of media studies students in Ireland. It is highly readable and also suitable for those with a general interest in the subject. The book focuses on a wide range of media including the more traditional broadcast and print media (newspapers, radio, and television and film), and also engages with newer media such as the internet and DVD, and newer media genres such as reality TV. Although the book is traditionally structured in sections on production, texts and audiences, the editors' intention has been to raise issues which cross-cut these different aspects. The contributors present a range of theoretical approaches, provide comparisons with the media in other countries, and consider in particular the effect of globalisation and increasing consumer choice.Trade Review"A new book focusing on Ireland's rapidly-changing media aims to show foreign readers that there is more to Irish culture than James Joyce ... Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole, who launched the book ... said one of the most illuminating sections of the book was a rational, calm analysis of crime reporting." "The appearance of Mapping Irish Media is to be welcomed, if for no other reason than that there is a dearth of good writing on media issues in Ireland ... it's likely to prove useful for students of media for some time to come." Irish Times Sept 2007 "offers a wide-ranging review of scholarly approaches to understanding the Irish mediascape ... these essays broadly deal with the way in which the Irish mediascape is being reconfigured relative to wide-scale changes of a socio-cultural, political, economic, spatio-temporal and technological nature ... the collection is an important ongoing contribution to that larger project of mapping Irish media." Irish Studies Review Winter 2007/8 'Ireland offers a fascinating case study for those interested in mapping out some of the changes in the relationship between media, economy and society in small countries. This collection of essays offers and excellent and succinct snapshot of how a range of media-related issues that stretch across production, representation and media reception are being played out in contemporary Irish society. Although the book is organised into three quite traditional sections od production, representation and reception, the material engages with a range of themes that run through the collection and the sections do not inhibit connections being made across the areas. The themes in the book include the impact of global shifts on media production and reception; the rise of consumerism; the role that digitisation is having in re-shaping the media industries; debates about media regulation; and the changing relationship between the media and national and cultural identity-formation. All these are set in the context of a small peripheral European economy that has enjoyed an almost uninterrupted economic boom since the mid 1990s. The broader context for the chapters is what the editors call the global expansion in media studies, and the particular development of this area within the Irish university and college sector. Yet no theoretical straitjacket is imposed on the book, and differing theories and methods inform the diverse range of material examined.' Media, Culture and Society Vol 30 (5) 2008 SAGETable of ContentsJohn Horgan, Barbara O'Connor, Helena Sheehan, Introduction; Section 1 Production; Farrel Corcoran, Irish Television in a Global Context; John Horgan, Paul McNamara and John O'Sullivan, Irish Print and Broadcast Media: The Political, Economic, Journalistic and Professional Context; Iarfhlaith Watson, Recent and Current Trends in Irish Language Broadcasting; Roddy Flynn, About Adam: Film Policy in Ireland since 1993; Paschal Preston, Ireland's Way to the Information Society: Knowledge(s) and Media Matters; Section 2 Representation; Patrick Kinsella, War and Peace on the Screen: Representations of Conflict in Ireland; Mark O'Brien, Selling Fear? The Changing Face of Crime Reporting in Ireland; Brian Trench, Irish Media Representations of Science; Helena Sheehan, Television Drama as Social History: The Case of Fair City; Pat Brereton, Characteristics of Contempoary Irish Film; Section 3 Reception; Aphra Kerr, Transnational Flows: Media Use by Poles in Ireland; Barbara O'Connor, Big Brother Meets the Celtic Tiger? Reality TV, Cultural Values and Identities; Debbie Ging, New Lads or Protest Masculinities? Exploring the Meanings of Male Marginalisation in Contemporary Irish Film; Miriam Judge, Teachers and the Consumption of ICT: A Sociocultural Analysis of a Technology-Based Change Project in Schools; Rosemary Day, Listen to Yourself! The Audience as Broadcaster in Community Radio; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisWhat can we learn from the folk wisdom of our ancestors? For centuries, Irish proverbs or seanfhocail have provided memorable insights into everyday experiences such as love, marriage, happiness and death. In doing so, they give us a unique insight into human nature as well as an understanding of the lives and outlook of our forebears. But is such "timeless wisdom" still relevant in the modern world - or merely the dying echo of a bygone era? In this fascinating book, Aidan Moran and Michael O'Connell reflect on this question and provide a systematic exploration of the psychology of Irish proverbs. In particular, the authors examine a wealth of Irish wisdom about food, drink, weather, money, markets, land, health, happiness, love, marriage and death - all the essentials of life! Thoroughly researched and written in a lively, accessible style, the book is enriched by a selection of beautiful photographs. Often provocative, sometimes witty but never dull, these proverbs will encourage you to slow down and look at the world in a different way. This book is an essential purchase for students of Irish society, people who share a love of folklore, and anyone who is interested in learning more about the meaning and significance of Irish proverbs.Trade Review"the authors conduct a thorough study of a selection of these old sayings ... a valuable collection of ancient Irish proverbs for anyone who is interested in them or the language." Books Ireland Nov 2006 "It is not often that one fully agrees with a publisher's blurb extolling the virtues of a book. But in this case I wholeheartedly endorse its description on the back cover: 'An insightful and scholarly survey of our oral heritage; the chapter on weather lore nudges our ancestral wisdom on such matters nicely into a comfortable psychological perspective.' Well, I would, wouldn't I? I wrote it." Irish Times March 2007 "This book is an essential tool for students of Irish society, folklore or proverbs." Newsletter of the Irish Fulbright Alumni Association Spring 2007 "All are prejudices are here. They are laid bare and gently teased out. The authors are good company in so far as they allow the proverbs to speak fro themselves while also interjecting easy learned commentary along the way ... a clean, clear production with an excellent index and references." The Irish Book Review Vol 2 No 3 Spring 2007 "'This is a darling book' ... it evokes memories of bygone times and contains enough material to enlighten, irritate and fuel endless debate." The Irish Psychologist July/August 2007 "Professor of Psychology Moran and Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology O'Connell combine their forces to examine the relationship between well-known Irish proverbs and the nature of the Irish national character. Food for many an argument here!" Ireland of the Welcomes July/August 2007 Proverbs provide unique insight into Irish psyche An essential tool for students of Irish society, folklore and proverbs, 'Timeless Wisdom: What Irish Proverbs Tell Us about Ourselves', is a unique exploration of the psychology of Irish proverbs or seanfhocail. Written by Aidan Moran, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Psychology Research Laboratory in the School of Psychology at UCD, and Dr Michael O'Connell, Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology at UCD, this scholarly work took over two years to research. One way we can use Irish proverbs to try and understand our collective psyche better is to compare them with those from other countriesA", says Professor Moran, and there certainly seems to be more about death and fatalism in our stock of proverbs in contrast to the self-help messages in the US, which tend to be very positive.A" Prof Moran says this might be explained by our past as feudal peasants. You worked the lands and paid rent to your landlord, so what was the point of working harder, when that would just mean you paid the landlord even more rent? This anti-self improvement mentality can be found in phrases like 'It's not what you know, it's who you know' - a kind of resignation that, no matter what you do, your destiny is pre-determined.A" Prof Moran and Dr O'Connell admit that they were surprised at the persistently negative attitude to women in Irish proverbs. I looked at proverbs from Italy, Poland, Russia, England and the misogyny definitely seemed to be stronger in Ireland than elsewhereA", says Dr O'Connell. One possible explanation for this is the powerlessness of males in Gaelic society until relatively recently. They rented, rather than owned land, and they had little say in the way society was run. There might have been a bit of 'frustration displacement' in which the anger they felt at their lot in life was taken out on women.A" As regards their relevance today, Dr O'Connell feels that people have less faith now in proverbs, probably because they have less need for them. Proverbs were used as a primary source of information, but this is not the case any more, mainly because there are so many other sources available to usA". Timeless Wisdom: What Irish Proverbs Tell Us About Ourselves is published by UCD Press. Link to UCD reviews here: http://www.ucd.ie/ucdtoday/dec06/dec06/Page%2011.pdf http://www.ucd.ie/expertiseatucd/researchshowcase/proverbs/ http://www.ucd.ie/research/newsevents/newsarchive/newsarchive2007/mainbody,114,en.html UCD Website www.ucd.ie The Irish have a way with words as we all know. The following is a sample of sayings and proverbs that have lasted for generations. They are taken from a book called Timeless Wisdom available at www.ucdpress.ieA" Click on this line for more details: http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/The-Irish-have-a-way-with-words-80757947.html 6 January 2010 IrishCentral.comTable of ContentsForeword by Tina Hickey; Psychology and the study of proverbs; Proverbs and Irish Society; Food and Drink; Weather lore: signs and proverbs; Money markets and land; Between two worlds: Irish proverbs about health, happiness and death; Love and marriage; poking fun and drawing comparisons: Triad proverbs; References; Index.

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Book SynopsisEdward Hincks (1792-1866), the Irish Assyriologist and decipherer of Mesopotamian cuneiform, was born in Cork and spent forty years of his life at Killyleagh, Co. Down, where he was the Church of Ireland Rector. He was educated at Midleton College, Co. Cork and Trinity College, Dublin, where he was an exceptionally gifted student. With the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs by Jean Francois Champollion in 1822, Hincks became one of that first group of scholars to contribute to the elucidation of the language, chronology and religion of ancient Egypt. But his most notable achievement was the decipherment of Akkadian, the language of Babylonia and Assyria, and its complicated cuneiform writing system. Between 1846 and 1852 Hincks published a series of highly significant papers by which he established for himself a reputation of the first order as a decipherer. Most of the letters in these volumes have not been previously published. Much of the correspondence relates to nineteenth-century archaeological and linguistic discoveries, but there are also letters concerned with ecclesiastical affairs, the Famine and the Hincks family. Volume III 1857-1866: Edward Hincks continued his scholarly activities throughout the final decade of his life. He contributed one of four translations of an inscription of Tiglath Pileser I independently made in a bid to convince sceptical scholars that the decipherment of Akkadian had been accomplished. There was a satisfactory end to the disgraceful treatment of his translations of Akkadian texts which had been prepared for the Trustees of the British Museum in 1854. In 1859 he began his friendly correspondence with the Egyptologist Peter le Page Renouf of the Catholic University in Dublin and in 1863 the Prussian King Wilhelm I conferred on him the Ordre pour merite. During the last two years of his life he wrote "Specimen Chapters of an Assyrian Grammar" which was published just after his death.Trade Review'Man sagt nicht zu viel, wenn man ihn [Hincks] den eigentlichen Entzifferer der dritten Keilschriftgattung nennt.' [translation] 'One is not saying too much, if one calls Hincks the true decipherer of Assyrian-Babylonian cuneiform.' Julius Wellhausen 1876 'Hincks was a scholar of international significance in the nineteenth century. He was an expert on ancient Assyria and deciphered the Mesopotamian cuneiform script ... an assiduous letter writer and in this volume of letters from his youth he corresponded with friends and colleagues on ancient Egypt and his other concerns ... The clean, classical typography is equalled in the overall design and quality of binding.' Books Ireland Nov 2007 'That Edward Hincks was a man of true genius to whom the basic decipherment of Akkadian cuneiform script and language should now be credited, is no longer in doubt. From much of his correspondence, deposited in the Griffith Institute in Oxford by his grandson, together with other letters tracked down in various institutions in London, Dublin, Paris and Berlin, a picture emerges of extraordinary mental energy and dedication in this Irish clergyman, with no lessening of drive and application as he grew older, a man who not only engaged with Egyptian hieroglyphs, Old Persian, Urartian and Akkadian cuneiform scripts and the languages they conveyed, but also found time for his parish duties - It still astonishes Assyriologists that he was able to work out both the polyphonic and the logographic nature of Akkadian cuneiform script as well as making great strides in understanding the language. We must hope that Cathcart's painstaking work, worthy of its admirable subject, will be used by future scholars who look into those exciting days of discovery, the struggles of decipherment, and the race for recognition.' Stephanie Dalley, University of Oxford Journal of Semitic Studies 54 (2) 2009 'This is the third and final volume of the correspondence of the noted Irish Assyriologist Edward Hincks which has been edited by the Emeritus Professor of Near Eastern languages in University College Dublin. - The letters in this volume cover the final decade of Hincks's life. Although hampered at times by illness, he nevertheless persevered with his scholarly activities. He continued with his work on Akkadian texts, he pursued astronomical enquiries and he worked on an Assyrian grammar. Among his principal correspondents were the Reverend Basil Henry Cooper, an English clergyman who was interested in ancient Egypt; Edwin Norris of the Royal Asiatic Society; the German orientalist Julius Oppert; Peter le Page Renouf, an Egyptologist who was professor of ancient history in the Catholic University in Dublin and Henry Fox Talbot, a pioneer in photography. Hincks's achievements were recognised in 1863 with the conferring by the Prussian King Wilhelm I of the Ordre Pour Merite of the Prussian Royal Academy. With appropriate modesty, Hincks responded that 'I feel under very great obligation to his Majesty for having thus recognised my humble merits as an Orientalist. It is indeed a high distinction and my children will be proud of it'. But the letters in this volume dare not devoted solely to scholarly matters. - There is much to be gleaned about members of Hincks's family, both from the letters and from he detailed editorial notes which accompany them. Especially useful are the two appendices which print Hincks's will and correspondence concerning the provision of a pension for his daughters. The letters most of which remain unpublished, are drawn from repositories in Ireland, England, France and Germany. They have been meticulously edited and the provision of editorial notes is most informative. As one would expect in a scholarly publication such as this, there is an excellent bibliography and a helpful index. The high standards of the editor have been replicated by the publisher. The text is generously laid out and set in a stylish and very readable typeface. Both I content and appearance, this is what academic publishing ought to be about - the promotion of intellectual life and the diffusion and extension of knowledge. In short, this is an exemplification of Newman's Idea of a University.' Journal of the Irish Society of Archives 2010 Vol 17Table of ContentsPreface; Introduction; Letters 1857-1866; Appendices: I: Correspondence Concerning the Provision of Pensions for Edward Hincks's Daughters; II: Edward Hincks's Will; III: On the Inscriptions of Van; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisEdward Hincks (1792-1866), the Irish Assyriologist and decipherer of Mesopotamian cuneiform, was born in Cork and spent forty years of his life at Killyleagh, Co. Down, where he was the Church of Ireland Rector. He was educated at Midleton College, Co. Cork and Trinity College, Dublin, where he was an exceptionally gifted student. With the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs by Jean Francois Champollion in 1822, Hincks became one of that first group of scholars to contribute to the elucidation of the language, chronology and religion of ancient Egypt. But his most notable achievement was the decipherment of Akkadian, the language of Babylonia and Assyria, and its complicated cuneiform writing system.Between 1846 and 1852 Hincks published a series of highly significant papers by which he established for himself a reputation of the first order as a decipherer. Most of the letters in these volumes have not been previously published. Much of the correspondence relates to nineteenth-century archaeological and linguistic discoveries, but there are also letters concerned with ecclesiastical affairs, the Famine and the Hincks family.Between 1850 and 1852 Edward Hincks completed the main steps in the decipherment of Akkadian. In 1851 he announced his sensational discovery of the name of the Biblical king Jehu 'son of Omri' on the famous Black Obelisk of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III, which Layard had discovered at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). On other clay tablets he identified the names of the king Menahem of Samaria, the place Yadnan (Cyprus), and people referred to as 'Ionians'. His discoveries prompted Austen Henry Layard, the excavator of Nimrud (he thought it was Nineveh) to invite him to prepare translations of the inscriptions for his bestselling Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon.Layard was also instrumental in persuading the British Museum to employ Hincks for a year to transcribe and translate cuneiform texts. In 1856 Hincks began to correspond with Henry Fox Talbot, pioneer of photography, who was also interested in cuneiform. The variety and richness of the correspondence provides a unique insight into the world of Victorian intellectual and cultural life. Amongst Hincks' correspondents were Samuel Birch, Franz Bopp, Friedrich Georg Grotefend, William Rowan Hamilton, Christian Lassen, Austen Henry Layard, Edwin Norris, George Cecil Renouard, and Peter le Page Renouf. Volume I was published in 2007 and Volume III will be published in 2009.Trade Review"Man sagt nicht zu viel, wenn man ihn [Hincks] den eigentlichen Entzifferer der dritten Keilschriftgattung nennt." [translation] "One is not saying too much, if one calls Hincks the true decipherer of Assyrian-Babylonian cuneiform." Julius Wellhausen 1876 "Hincks was a scholar of international significance in the nineteenth century. He was an expert on ancient Assyria and deciphered the Mesopotamian cuneiform script ... an assiduous letter writer and in this volume of letters from his youth he corresponded with friends and colleagues on ancient Egypt and his other concerns ... The clean, classical typography is equalled in the overall design and quality of binding." Books Ireland Nov 2007 "The correspondence of an Irish Assyriologist and scholar covering the period in which he completed the main steps in the decipherment of Akkadian and discovered the name of the biblical king, Jehu, on the Black Obelisk of the Assyrian king, Shalmeneser III, and then went on to translate inscriptions found at Nimrud, Nineveh and Babylon. Among his correspondents were A. H. Layard, a noted archaeologist, and Henry Fox Talbot, the pioneer of photography. What is remarkable is that Hincks did all this while he was the Church of Ireland rector at Killyleagh, county Down, and that most of his work was done through letters which is why we have this important record of his work today. As usual, UCDP's typography and presswork are superb." Books Ireland Dec 2008 "The letters in this volume date largely from his years in Killyleagh and it was from his rural fastness that Hincks developed his international reputation as an oriental scholar. Letters were sent to and received from scholars in Ireland, England and continental Europe ... The editor of this collection who is Emeritus Professor of Near Eastern Languages in University College Dublin, has gathered these letters from libraries and archives in Belfast, Berlin, Dublin, London, Oxford, Paris and Yale, has carefully edited them and has added interesting illustrations to accompany some of the more unusual texts. Most of the letters are concerned with Hincks's studies of the ancient Egyptian language and his discoveries in the decipherment of Akkadian, the language of Babylonia and Assyria. ... But it is mostly the academic letters which catch the imagination for they emphasis - of such emphasis is needed - that in the 19th century, it was the letter which was the principal mode of communication. In an age when travel was difficult and electronic communication all but unknown, correspondence provided the vehicle for working out ideas among likeminded people and academic journals the medium for subsequently publishing them. It is reassuring in an age when digitisation has reached almost cult status in archives, that there are still scholars who are able and willing to prepare printed editions of manuscript material and publishers who will take on such projects. This book exemplifies all the virtues of a printed edition: text which has been transcribed and is therefore easy to read; a succinct introduction which sets the scene; careful notes which explain and amplify the text; an index which opens up access to the contents and a bibliography to stimulate further reading. What more could anyone want?" Dr Raymond Refausse Department Church Body Library Irish Archives Winter 2008 "That Edward Hincks was a man of true genius to whom the basic decipherment of Akkadian cuneiform script and language should now be credited, is no longer in doubt. From much of his correspondence, deposited in the Griffith Institute in Oxford by his grandson, together with other letters tracked down in various institutions in London, Dublin, Paris and Berlin, a picture emerges of extraordinary mental energy and dedication in this Irish clergyman, with no lessening of drive and application as he grew older, a man who not only engaged with Egyptian hieroglyphs, Old Persian, Urartian and Akkadian cuneiform scripts and the languages they conveyed, but also found time for his parish duties - It still astonishes Assyriologists that he was able to work out both the polyphonic and the logographic nature of Akkadian cuneiform script as well as making great strides in understanding the language. We must hope that Cathcart's painstaking work, worthy of its admirable subject, will be used by future scholars who look into those exciting days of discovery, the struggles of decipherment, and the race for recognition." Stephanie Dalley, University of Oxford Journal of Semitic Studies 54 (2) 2009 "Hincks was a rector of the Church of Ireland for most of his life (1792-1866). His avocation and passion, however, was the decipherment of ancient texts - Cathcart covers Hincks's discoveries in cuneiform and his frustration in not being allowed access to materials, being constantly thwarted by a rival. The letters between Hincks and scholars in England and France detail both the joy of shared enthusiasms and the superficially polite ways in which ambitious scholars could back stab. The fine points of translation will be fascinating for Egyptian and Near Eastern scholars, although the politics will be distressingly familiar." Book News Inc August 2009Table of ContentsPreface; Letters 1850-1856; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisThe first fifty years of the state saw Ireland change dramatically, and the Irish Labour Party changed with it. Using a wealth of new material, Niamh Puirseil traces the party's fortunes through its first fifty years in the Dail, from its perceived role as the 'political wing of the St Vincent de Paul' to its promise that the 1970s would be socialist. As well as examining the competing currents in the party itself, she also looks at Labour's relationship with different organisations and movements, including trade unions, republicans, the far left, the Catholic Church, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, as well as with other Social Democratic parties in Britain and Northern Ireland. "The Irish Labour Party, 1922-1973" is an outstanding contribution to the political history of twentieth-century Ireland. Over the course of the book, Niamh Puirseil charts the ever-depressing fortunes of the Labour party. Her exhaustive research provides a penetrating analysis of the myriad personalities and structures of the Labour Party, and shows a new picture of a party that seemed throughout the period to be hell bent on pressing the self-destruct button. This book offers a fresh and insightful look at a party riven by factions throughout its existence, and one that never reached its potential for a variety of reasons all outlined here. This book marks a major contribution to our understanding, not simply of the Labour Party, but of twentieth-century Ireland itself.Trade Review"Niamh Puirseil has produced an invaluable reference work for anyone interested in her subject. It brims with facts presented in an easy style spiced with a pleasant ironic humour." History Ireland, Sept Oct 2007 "It is dense and extremely detailed. The author is unafraid to make assessments or draw conclusions and there is a fine degree of intelligent analysis on display." Books Ireland Oct 2007 "a seriously researched study which is not afraid to debunk the myths of previous historians, and is written with a sense of humour which is still too rare in labour history." Red Banner 70 2007 "a most important book which contributes to a greater understanding of the history of modern Ireland and the contribution made by Labour to it. As such it embraces what traditional historians have long ignored. To a certain extent Labour has been written out of Irish history and this book goes some way towards redressing this." Irish Studies Review Winter 2007/8 "This is a thought-provoking study peppered with many original observations. A high quality of research is maintained throughout the book, with Puirseil's wide archival and newspaper trawl and an excellent employment of the (still underused) Dail debates reaping dividends in the production of this lively account of the Labour Party's history ... has now raised the bar for such future works..." Irish Political Studies Jan 2008 "an enthralling read that deserves much academic and literary credit ... belongs in every history classroom in this state." The Left Tribune Vol 3 Issue 2 2008 "if Puirseil's intention was to eschew crude paradigms, where evidence is marshalled to 'prove' pre-determined conclusions, then she succeeds admirably in that regard. This is a balanced and fascinating appraisal of the Labour Party, written with wry humour and an eye for the telling detail - The book is particularly strong on Labour's time in government and, as one would expect, the party is treated primarily as an electoral organisation rather than a social movement - Puirseil has engaged with the secondary sources, scoured the archives and conducted interviews with several leading figures, and the depth of research is apparent throughout. It is a confident, authoritative and measured study that will be the starting point for all future research on the Irish Labour Party." Fintan Lane Irish Historical Studies vol. XXXVI No. 141 May 2008 "Niamh Puirseil's study of the Labour Party fills an important gap in both the history of political parties and labour history. - [her] study is based on a wide range of new sources and intelligent use of existing archives. She is to be commended for her mature judgement on many of the key issues that faced the Labour Party and Irish party system during this time. She demonstrates that there was a considerable problem of Communist infiltration of the party in the 1940s - [and] provides a careful and reasonably sympathetic assessment of William Norton, the long-standing leader of the party. But perhaps the most important re-evaluation here is that of Brendan Corish - Purseil highlights Corish's decisive influence when the party moved to the left during the late 1960s [providing] a more nuanced and carefully documented appreciation of this labour politician." English Historical Review CXXIV 506 February 2009 "this book represents an invaluable account of 50 years of largely forgotten Party history, and it's for this reason that the book is so valuable. The author gives detailed accounts of events such as the disaffiliation of the ITGWU from the party, and it's subsequent reaffiliation 20 years later, to the events around the 28-year leadership of the party by William Norton. With the level of detail provided on these events, Puirseil's work represents one of the most significant additions to the public history of our Party. The author may not be overly fond of her subject, but in constructing such a detailed account of this 50 year period, she has done us an enormous service." Neil Ward - Labour News UK March 2009 "Puirseil's book is the first comprehensive history of the party since its formation. It concludes that while the party did not make the most of the opportunities Irish politics presented it with, these opportunities were still limited, and that the conservatism of Irish society fundamentally inhibited the development of a strong Labour presence. Certain themes which recur - the existence of a permanent urban-rural split within the party, the dominance of essentially pragmatic and conservative leaders and the inability of Labour to benefit from the influences of other left wing groups, republican, communist or otherwise - all suggest that the party could not transform itself into a genuine radical alternative, even if at times, the electorate needed one. We are left with the picture of a party that seems to have gone through no major electoral, ideological or organisational renaissance over a fifty-year period, and Puirseil concludes that Labour does not deserve our sympathy for this." Bill Kissane Saothar October 2009 'The striking photograph on the cover of this absorbing and iconoclastic history shows the platform during the 1972 Labour Party annual conference. Addressing delegates is the somewhat disheveled septuagenarian chairman, Roddy Connolly, son of revered party founder, James Connolly. Of the thirteen men on the platform with him, however, only the general secretary, looking quizzically upward, is paying attention. Two of the others appear to be sleeping, while the remainder are either chatting or reading. Behind them all is a backdrop comprising an inexpertly stenciled message -'Let's build The Socialist RepublicA" -and the visage of party leader, Brendan Corish, gazing in the direction of the slogan with eyebrows arched, apparently incredulous. If readers have doubts about the fairness of so prominently featuring such an unflattering portrait of the subject organization, Niamh Puirseil's book will assuage them. This was a party of individualists and drunken feckersA" (222), in the words of one of its own parliamentarians, whose public representatives, trade unionists by and large, regarded with disdain the ideological debates that engrossed its expanding membership during the 1960s. It was a party whose longest-serving leader (Bill Norton, 1932-60) was rarely seen outside his own constituency during election campaigns. For these, and for other reasons discussed by the author, it was relatively insignificant, and almost uniquely in western Europe, independent Ireland did not produce a major labor or social democratic party. There were occasional achievements, undoubtedly, but these were overshadowed by blinkered opportunism, by quarrelsomeness, and by sheer spinelessness. This is the first full length academic studyA" (3) of the Irish Labour Party, but its affairs have received considerable scholarly attention elsewhere, not least in Saothar: Journal of the Irish Labour History Society, published annually since 1975, of which Puirseil is currently a coeditor. She draws confidently on the secondary literature and makes effective use of primary sources - trade union records, periodicals and newspapers, memoirs and interviews - but was unable to refer to any great extent to party records because most of them were destroyed in the course of a minor cultural revolution at the head office in the late 1960s. In a well-organized and engagingly written study, in which colorful quotes and revealing anecdotes are deployed to good effect, the cast of characters includes Billy the QuidA" (140), as party leader, Norton, was caricatured when he won GBP1 in damages in a 1949 libel case, and tin whistle players in the Fianna Fail bandA" (40), as Labour members were teased when they gave parliamentary support to the larger party after 1932. Some will quibble that the study takes 1922 as its starting point rather than 1912, the founding date recognized by the party itself, but Puirseil makes a good case for beginning her history in the year that Irish Labour fought its first general election (also the year that Saorstat Eireann, the Irish Free State, came into existence). Arguably, however, rather more than the four pages of background provided here are required if the reader is to fully understand the developments of the 1920s. - In a work that so forensically and so damningly chronicles a party's failings, it comes as a surprise when the conclusion largely absolves those responsible. Given the social structure of independent Ireland up until the 1970s and the unavoidably sectional nature of the party's appeal, Puirseil contends, Labour was fated to be a minority party. For much the same reason, its election campaigns were underresourced by comparison with others. Any effort to broaden the party's appeal by offering radical or socialist alternatives was doomed to failure, she concludes, both because this would have galvanized powerful religious opposition and because the overwhelmingly conservative electorate was not interested in such alternatives. The prescriptions of internal critics of the leadership, it follows, would have made things worse rather than better. By this very deterministic line of argument, the internal squabbling, the strategic incompetence, the inhospitable attitude toward new members, and the venality were consequences rather than causes of Labour's marginal status. While I may disagree with a portion of the analysis, the work may be recommended without reservation. Puirseil's is a well-researched and well-written study that adds substantially to an understanding of the Irish Labour Party. Read the full review here: Journal of British Studies vol 49, no 1 Mar 2010 review John Cunningham, NUI Galway Journal of British Studies Vol 49, No 1 Mar 2010Table of ContentsIntroduction; A Very Constitutional Party; Could Labour Become Socialist? Labour in the Hungry Thirties; Labour's Rise and Fall, 1938-44; Picking up the Pieces, 1944-8; In Office or Power? Labour and the First Inter-Party Government; Return to the Sidelines, 1951-4; Never Had it so Bad! The Second Inter-Party Government, 1954-7; Labour's Way; The Seventies will be Socialist?; Smoky Misdirection, 1969-73; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

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Book Synopsis"A Provisional Dictator" is a political biography of James Stephens, the founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Marta Ramon traces Stephens' political and revolutionary career from his involvement in Young Ireland's insurrection in 1848 until his death in Dublin on 29 March 1901. James Stephens was born in Kilkenny in obscure circumstances in 1825. In 1848, he joined William Smith O'Brien's revolutionary attempt and took part in the skirmish at the Widow McCormack's house near Ballingarry. After the failure he escaped to France, where he worked as a translator and tutor of English. In 1856 he returned to Ireland, and in 1858 he founded the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Irish branch of the Fenian movement. However, Stephens' continued reluctance to order the long-expected rising led to his overthrow in December 1866. After his deposition he exiled himself in France and until the early 1880s made several unsuccessful attempts to regain power. In 1891, he was finally allowed to return to Dublin, where he died on 29 March 1901. James Stephens is one of the most fascinating personalities in Irish nationalist history. Arrogant, dictatorial, manipulative and unscrupulous about the means to attain his ends, but intensely charismatic and mesmerisingly persuasive, he lacked essential qualities as a revolutionary leader, but can be ranked among the best political organisers of the nineteenth century. "A Provisional Dictator" follows Stephens' revolutionary career and the course of the IRB under his leadership, explaining the tactical and political motives behind his most controversial decisions.Trade Review"The author says that she has tried 'to move away from the usual emphasis on his dictatorial ways or his propagandistic manipulation of the task, in order to show him under a different and complimentary light: that of a leader determined to carry out his revolutionary aims in spite of everything and everyone, and the perpetual aspiring intellectual who managed to achieve his one great success as the founder and organiser of the IRB'. She has succeeded admirably in doing this and the A Provisional Dictator is now the definitive account on its subject." Old Kilkenny Review 2007 "The name of Stephens in well known. His book gives us the man." Books Ireland Dec 2007 "Marta Ramon's study is a revision and in many cases a correction of previous approaches to Stephens ... [her] range of vision is wide ... a thoughtful and well-documented book ... the combination of dramatic vigour and authoritative consultation of original documents is to be praised ... a great achievement." Irish Studies in Spain 2007 "Marta Ramon has produced a fine scholarly study that joins the select body of work on the Fenians that can be described as indispensable." Irish Studies Review, Vol 16 No 2 May 2008 "Marta Ramon's biography of James Stephens, the 'provisional dictator' of the Fenian movement from its founding in 1858 until his overthrow in 1866, is a fine addition to the new historiography of Fenianism, Irish republicanism, and 'advanced' nationalism. It is thoroughly researched, notably drawing on unpublished scholarly work, the Davitt Papers (TCD) and the Fenian Briefs (NAI); the writing elegantly combines narrative and analysis; and it clearly supersedes all previous biographical attempts to situate Stephens in Irish history. Finally, the book is beautifully presented by UCD Press, which has produced a pristine text, furnishing further evidence that it is Ireland's finest academic publisher, producing books that adhere to the highest international standards." Irish Historical Studies Vol. XXXVI, No. 141 May 2008 [The book] is balanced and thoughtful throughout, with evidence weighed judiciously and verdicts delivered carefully. Moreover, it is a masterpiece of clarity, particularly where the tangled web of American relationships is concerned. The author has scoured the archives and memoirs, and made good use of the fast-growing body of theses on Fenianism, but the details and analysis have been moulded into a seamless whole, often with real elegance. There are many nicely turned sentences and well-executed set pieces, and the story is kept moving forward at a good pace. Anyone with an interest in Irish history would enjoy reading it, and students in school or university will likely treasure it. UCD Press must also be congratulated for giving it the handsome treatment it deserves, from cover to paper and typeface. James Stephens does emerge from this account as deserving of our interest and empathy. - Does he really deserve to be 'almost universally disliked'? It is to Marta Ramon's credit that one finishes her book thinking that this is a life worthy of further (including fictional) exploration." Peter Hart - Canada Research Chair in Irish Studies Memorial University of Newfoundland History Ireland Nov/Dec 2008 "Exhaustively researched in Ireland and the US, this readable book largely supersedes Desmond Ryan's 1967 study The Fenian Chief and amends the works of such authorities on the IRB and Fenianism as R. V. Comerford, William D'Arcy, and Leon O'Broin. Ramon makes sophisticated use of scattered details in correspondence, memoirs, police reports, and obscure newspapers to reconstruct Stephens' elusive activities in Ireland, Europe, and North America. Highly recommended [to] all Irish studies collections." D. M. Cregier, University of Prince Edward Island CHOICE December 2008 Vol. 46 No. 4Table of ContentsYoung Ireland; The Birth of the IRB; Early Years; 'The Clique'; The Irish People; The 'Year Of Action'; The End of a Dictatorship; Final Years; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisA completely updated and revised edition of this comprehensive review of the range of social policy provision in Ireland - education, income maintenance, employment, housing and health - together with chapters relating to different categories of consumers of services including children, people with disabilities, older people, Travellers, refugees and asylum seekers. Key areas of policy development concerning youth, drugs and the criminal justice system are also examined. Each chapter is complete in itself, providing description and analysis of current policy, an overview of its historical development and discussion of current and future issues in the field. A table of the main policy developments and a list of further reading are given at the end of each chapter. The contributors include academics, researchers and managers of services in the public and voluntary sectors. Intended especially as a textbook for students of social policy, it is also a basic reference book for anyone wishing to gain an understanding of current social policy provision in Ireland. Contemporary Irish Social Policy is a companion volume to Irish Social Policy in Context (1999), which discusses the historical development of social policy in Ireland and analyses the policy-making process. Other titles in UCD Press's series of social policy textbooks are Disability and Social Policy in Ireland (2003), Theorising Irish Social Policy (2004) and Mental Health and Social Policy in Ireland (forthcoming 2005).Trade Review"represents a solid body of knowledge and a comprehensive reference for the student of social policy." Studies 89: 355 2000 "I have no doubt that there will be a demand for a further volume as the current set will be a valuable reference for students of social policy." Sheelagh Broderick, Trinity College Dublin Economic and Social Review 2000Table of ContentsIntroduction: social policy in contemporary Ireland, the editors; Income maintenance, Frank Mills and Padraig Rehill; Health policy, Suzanne Quin; Housing policy, David Silke; Education policy, Patrick Clancy; Employment policy, Eithne Fitzgerald; Disability and social policy, Suzanne Quin and Bairbre Redmond; Children and social policy, Valerie Richardson; Youth policy, Elizabeth Kiely and Patricia Kennedy; Social policy and older people in Ireland, Anne O'Loughlin; Travellers and social policy, Niall Crowley; Refugees and social policy, Joe Moran; The criminal justice system in Ireland, Anthony Cotter; Drugs Policy in Ireland in the new millennium, Hilda Loughran; References; Index

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Book SynopsisInterest in nineteenth-century studies has never been greater, and contrasts sharply with previous neglect of many aspects of that century's history and culture. These essays by leading scholars assess and interpret developments from 1990 onwards in the field of nineteenth-century Irish studies, and from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. The book covers political, social, religious and women's history and historical geography as well as anthropological and sociological studies of nineteenth-century Ireland. Further chapters cover nineteenth-century music, art history, literature in English, Gaelic culture and language and the Irish diaspora. This will be an invaluable research tool and reference book for many years to come.Trade Review"offers an outstanding starting point (and returning point) to scholars ... this work will remain an invaluable overview of research since the 1990s." Irish Studies Review 14 (2) 2006 "Specialist scholars and general readers alike will profit enormously from this ambitious collection, which covers aspects of the long nineteenth century in Ireland and the United Kingdom ... In bringing this collection to print, Geary and Kelleher have performed a genuine service to those with an interest in nineteenth-century studies. Whether readers scrutinize only those essays that pertain most directly to their own fields or interest or read the work in its entirety, they will surely benefit from the encounter." Victorian Studies Spring 2006 "an extremely valuable addition for the library of any student or scholar of nineteenth-century Ireland. It contains not only a series of excellently written chapters covering a wide range of subject areas; it also includes a comprehensive bibliography. Following in the tradition of Moody and Lee's previous volumes, it represents a welcome addition to the canon of Irish historiographical writing." Studies Vol 94 No 376 2006 "The editors ... are to be congratulated on work well done ... provides insightful discussion and a bibliographical Aladdin's cave..." Irish Economic and Social History 2006Table of ContentsPreface; 1 Political history, Gearoid O Tuathaigh; 2 Social history, Gary Owens; 3 Irish women's history, Maria Luddy; 4 Religious history David W. Miller; 5 Historical geography, Matthew Stout; 6 Anthropological and sociological studies, Joan Vincent and Marilyn Cohen; 7 Literature in English, Sean Ryder 8 Gaelic culture and language shift, Niall O Ciosain; 9 Art history, Fintan Cullen; 10 Musicology, Harry White; 11 The Irish diaspora, Joseph Lee; Notes; Bibliography; Index

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Book SynopsisIn August 1922, at the height of the Civil War, when the Communist Party of Ireland could count on barely 50 activists, two agents of the Communist International held a secret meeting in Dublin with two IRA leaders. The four signed an agreement providing for the transformation of Sinn Fein into a socialist party. In return, Moscow was to assist with the supply of weapons to the IRA. The incident illustrates what made the Comintern a beacon of hope to beleaguered revolutionaries or an object of sometimes hysterical suspicion. From February 1918, when over 10,000 thronged central Dublin to acclaim the Bolshevik revolution, to July 1941, when the Party in Eire was dissolved by the votes of just 20 members, communists were involved with every radical movement, and demonised in every pulpit. Based on former Soviet archives, Reds and the Green shows why Irish Marxists and republicans turned repeatedly to Russia for support and inspiration, what Moscow wanted from Ireland, and how the Comintern was able to direct an Irish political party.Trade Review"O'Connor's book is salutary for republicans to gain an historical perspective on one of the many Marxist groups that have attempted by stealth to influence republican policy." An Phoblacht Nov 2004 "tells how, 80 years ago, the fledgling Soviet Union tried to co-opt the IRA into its goals of world revolution. O'Connor's trawl through the Moscow archives of the Comintern has unearthed documents that speak from the past of hopeless idealism, wasted journeys and ruined dreams." Financial Times August 2005 "Emmet O'Connor has produced a unique history of the relationship between the left in Ireland and the Comintern which has been lacking so far ... essential reading for anyone attempting to understand the story of the Left in Ireland." Irish Democrat Aug/Sept 2005 "certainly worth a read, especially given its use of the Moscow archives. It is also salutary for republicans to gain an historical perspective on one of the many Marxist groups that have attempted to influence republican policy." Economic and Philosophic Science Review 2005 "O'Connor's book is a singular achievement, based as it is on a prodigious mining of the huge communist archives that became available after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and of a wide range of archival material in Ireland and Britain. The consequence of the author's painstaking research is that this study, unlike any previous work on Irish communism, is able to successfully situate, and minutely describe, the handful of Irish activists as part of a Moscow-centred global movement..." Irish Economic and Social History 2005 "These are persuasive judgements, and their implications go well beyond a small country in which an organised communist movement was never more than a marginal presence." English Historical Review XCCCI Feb 2006Table of ContentsIntroduction; Hail Russia: Labour and Bolshevism, 1917-19; The race for Moscow, 1919-21; Civil War communism. 1921-2; A fistful of Marxists: the demise of the CPI, 1922-4; An infernal triangle: Larkin, London and Moscow, 1924-6; The search for a counterbalance, 1926-9; Bolshevising Irish communism, 1929-31; Between the hammer and the anvil, 1931-3; Back to the fronts, 1933-6; Spain, decline and dissolution, 1936-43; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index

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Book SynopsisFor a century and a half, the reputation of the Irish poet, James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849), has been based mainly upon a small number of poems, and a biographical tradition that cast him as a tortured genius. W. B. Yeats and James Joyce were both admirers of his work on these grounds. Yet his achievement as a whole was much more complex and varied, ranging across over 900 poems and a significant amount of creative and critical prose. In this comprehensive single-volume selection of Mangan's poetry and prose, Mangan can be appreciated not only for the poignancy and power of his well-known late poems and autobiographical writings, but also for those talents admired by his original readers: his astonishing metrical skills, his love of wordplay, his surrealist humour, and his sympathetic understanding of Irish and European literatures. He emerges here as a witty and intelligent craftsman as well as a emotionally-charged romantic, and his audacious experiments with translation and parody make him seem remarkably contemporary. In this edition, too, Mangan's fascinating prose commentaries are restored to their original positions surrounding his poems, and readers are for the first time given a generous selection of Mangan's critical writing and letters.Trade Review"For both the Mangan enthusiast and the Mangan innocent [this edition is] to be welcomed ... Sean Ryder has edited the poems afresh and provides full publication details after the texts ... When a prose introduction is appropriate he supplies it. When the music is needed, he prints it. We get as much of a sense of the odd textual appearance of Mangan's poetry from his edition as possible, and we get ample selection from Mangan's prose." Irish Studies Review 13 (2) 2005Table of ContentsSelected poetical works of Mangan; Selected prose; Explanatory notes; Emendations to copy-texts; Index of titles of poems; Index of first lines.

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Book Synopsis"Fatal Influence" challenges and revises many widely held assumptions about a pivotal moment in both British and Irish history and persuasively demonstrates that Ireland's impact on British politics lasted far longer and was far greater than has been realised. Kevin Matthews places the settlement of the Irish Question in the 1920s within the broader context of a revolution then taking place in British politics and shows how each affected the other. In a detailed investigation, he explores the Irish partition and the often conflicting motives that led to this momentous decision. Far from solving the Irish Question, dividing the country into two parts merely created what one politician at the time called its "elements of dynamite". These explosive elements were thrown into an already unstable political situation in Britain, with three political parties - Liberals, Conservatives, and Labour - all vying for a place in that nation's traditional two-party system. The book brings together some of the most colourful characters of 20th-century British and Irish history, from Winston Churchill and Michael Collins to David Lloyd George and Eamon de Valera. Looming behind is Sir James Craig, the rock-like embodiment of Ulster Unionism. But this story of "high politics" also involves men whose careers are not normally associated with the Irish conflict, figures such as Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald, Neville Chamberlain and, even, Oswald Mosley and Anthony Eden.Trade Review"A refreshingly different take on this crucial era with a finely detailed exploration of the Boundary Commission, the resulting partition and its immediate aftermath ... A major thesis by a Kentucky man, now a professor in Washington, who spent years as a journalist." Books Ireland April 2004 "This is an excellent and well-written book which will engage the reader from page one. It is a fresh and original look at an unjustly neglected period in Irish and British history. It manages the unique achievement of addressing events in both countries in a balanced and interrelated way." Books Ireland Summer 2004 "There is much to admire in this book: it is assiduously researched and gives marvellous insights into the private thoughts of some of the political giants of the era." Irish Studies Review 13 (2) 2005 "Matthews has made an important and original contribution to our understanding of post-war British and Irish politics, demonstrating that they were intertwined to an extent not previously recognised." English Historical Review CXX 486 April 2005 "Matthews' sensible, careful, densely researched account of the first half of the 1920s presents a more nuanced and richly textured account of the British attempt to come to terms with the uncertain implications of the Anglo-Irish Treaty than has previously been available." American Historical Review Oct 2006 "provides students of both British and Irish history with a valuable and original analysis of the negotiation and implementation of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Supported by impressive archival research..." H-Net Book Review May 2006Table of ContentsPrime Minister for life; a treaty for Ireland; the Churchill dispensation; the legacy of Bonar Law; Mr Baldwin takes charge; Labour's "troublesome subject"; heading for Irish rocks; the boundary bill and its aftermath; "Not an inch!".

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Book SynopsisSoccer hooliganism has long been regarded as primarily an English - or perhaps British - disease, yet in fact it has long existed as a social problem worldwide. In this volume, experts consider hooliganism in 14 countries - eight soccer-playing countries in Europe (including Ireland), two in South America, Australia, South Africa, Japan, and, in the case of North America, a chapter on general sports-related violence. Why have problems of hooliganism from the outset become more regularly attached to soccer than to other global sports? The social roots and forms of soccer hooliganism are explored in the various countries. Do racial, religious or social class cleavages play a part in developing and fostering football violence? What part do the media play? Is hooliganism related to the degree to which soccer is central to the value-system of a country, and the length of time that it has occupied such a position? Though they themselves adhere to a range of different sociological perspectives, the contributors focus on the important theoretical framework devised by Eric Dunning and the Leicester School, in particular the role of aggressive masculinity and the hypothesis that attending matches is part of a "quest for excitement".Trade Review"This is one of the sadly rare instances of an Irish publisher producing a book not noticeably Irish in target readership or origin but of international importance and appeal." Books Ireland Summer 2002 "It is a must read for sports sociologists and others interested in the root causes of fan deviance ... it demonstrates how sports provide an important laboratory in which to study modern societal issues, such as class conflict and interracial strife." Contemporary Sociology 32 (4) 2003 "the contributors present an illuminating and at times entertaining composite sketch of the complex forces that generate this ubiquitous social ritual. Researchers interested in the diffusion of global sports culture and associated institutions such as fan groups and stadium security apparatus will find this volume a useful resource." CHOICE Sept 2003 "The overall balance of authors provides a timely international contribution to what is a growing worldwide phenomenon." Irish Journal of Sociology 2003Table of ContentsTowards a sociological understanding of football hooliganism as a world phenomenon; "Aguante" and repression - football, politics and violence in Argentina; Australian soccer's "ethnic" tribes; bohemian rhapsody - football supporters in the Czech Republic; another side to French exceptionalism - football without hooligans?; football hooliganism in Germany - a developmental sociological study; subcultures of hardcore fans in West Attica (Greece); the Hungarian case; the dog that didn't bark? Football hooliganism in Ireland; Italian ultras today - change or decline?; Barras Bravas - representation and crowd violence in Peruvian football; violent disturbances in Portuguese football; the "black cat" of South Africa and the chiefs-pirates conflict; soccer spectators and fans in Japan; a walk on the wild side - exposing North American sports crowd disorder; towards a global programme of football hooliganism research.

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Book SynopsisThis is a systematic account of why Ireland remained democratic after independence. Bill Kissane analyzes the Irish case from a comparative international perspective and by discussing it in terms of the classic works of democratic theory. Each chapter tests the explanatory power of a particular approach, and the result is a mixture of political history, sociology, and political science. Taking issue with many conventional assumptions, Kissane questions whether Irish democracy after 1921 was really a surprise, by relating the outcome to the level of socio-economic development, the process of land reform, and the emergence of a strong civil society under the Union. On the other hand, things did not go according to plan in 1922, and two chapters are devoted to the origins and nature of the civil war. The remaining chapters are concerned with analyzing how democracy was rebuilt after the civil war; Kissane questions whether that achievement was entirely the work of the pro-Treatyites. Indeed, by focusing on the continued divisiveness of the Treaty issue, the nature of constitutional republicanism, and the significance of the 1937 constitution, Kissane argues that Irish democracy was not really consolidated until the late 1930s, and that that achievement was largely the work of de Valera.Trade Review"A masterly and reasonably accessible study of the birth and development of the Free State ... His statistics throughout are fascinating." Books Ireland Summer 2002 "This book will...serve a useful purpose in that it will suggest further areas of research, into areas such as the origins of the civil war, and the role of the British in that context." Irish Democrat Oct/Nov 2002 "contains a very good exploration of the development of pre-independence civil society, and suggests plausibly that a combination of British constitutional values, British associational culture and the civil-society-encouraging nature of the British state itself, played key roles in laying strong foundations for Irish democratic consolidations ... this remains a book which makes a very helpful contribution to ongoing debates about the emergence and consolidation of Irish democracy." Irish Political Studies 18 (1) 2003 "This is a welcome and long overdue study of how Irish democracy was successfully stabilised and consolidated." Nations and Nationalism 9 (4) 2003 "an excellent and thought-provoking work which deserves a wide readership among those interested in Irish politics and history, democratic theory, democratization processes and comparative politics in the most general sense." Democratization 2003 "Addressing readers with a basic knowledge of Irish politics, Kissane's arguments are well reasoned, clearly stated and readily accessible to critical appraisal ... provides a solid foundation for a new and promising path of enquiry." Allan Zink, Strasbourg West European Politics 2003 "A fascinating study, theoretically sophisticated and empirically rigorous, this book is essential for anyone interested in democratisation in general and in Irish democratisation in particular ... it demonstrates the utility of adopting the comparative method in the analysis of a particular case and the always potentially creative tension between the general and the particular." Irish Studies Review 12 (3) 2004Table of ContentsDemocratic theory and the Irish Free State; economic development and democracy in Ireland; the Barrington Moore thesis and Irish political development; civil society and democratic practice under the union; voluntarist democratic theory and the origins of the civil war; the Durkheimian interpretation of the Civil War; reshaping the Free State - De Valera and the rise of constitutional republicanism; "Majority rule" and the constitutional development of the Free State 1922-37.

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Book SynopsisWallace Stevens (1879-1955) has been acknowledged by writers as diverse as Harold Bloom, Adrienne Rich and R.S. Thomas as one of the central poets of the 20th century. Justin Quinn offers a fundamental reassessment of Stevens's work and the connections it makes between nature, community and art. He engages fully with the recent wave of historicist criticism, and displays the shortcomings of this approach, not only for a reading of Stevens, but also for literature in general. Quinn asks in his introduction "why shouldn't there be a criticism which attends to the societal contexts of poetry without reneging on responsibilities to poetry as a discourse distinct from politics and ideology, one with its own special rhetorical funds and resources, which can nevertheless allow it to comment on the political aspects of our lives in special ways?" His book responds to that requirement and is a valuable contribution to the critical debate on Wallace Stevens's poetry.Trade Review"the whole thesis is made exciting and suitably concise." Books Ireland March 2002Table of ContentsWild flowers; Stevens and nature poetry; public poetry and "The Auroras of Autumn"; the city, the landscape, the masses; family, nation, race; notes; Works Cited.

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Book SynopsisLetters written between 1950 and 1975 by Thornton Wilder and Adaline Glasheen discussing their reading of Finnegan's Wake.Trade Review"The fourteen appendices by both critics will further enthral Joyce scholars as they un-pick the master's verbal gymnastics, allusions, references and puns ... This is an exciting feast of Joyceana." Books Ireland Summer 2001 "it is unusually easy for the scholar to use because of its extensive index, line by line, th the scattered annotations ... this book joins the small group of commentaries indispensable to the committed scholar." CHOICE Feb 2002 "an important resource for anyone interested in Finnegan's Wake, and the observations collected here will remain for a good number of years an important stimulus for continued examination of Joyce's masterpiece." Irish Literary Supplement Spring 2002Table of ContentsList of illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction by Adaline Glashcen Editor's Introduction Editorial Statement Abbreviations The Finnegans Wake Letters of Thornton Wilder and Adaline Glasheen, 1950-1975 APPENDICES I Of the Four Old Men in Finnegans Wake Thornton Wilder II Memorandum: re Frank Budgen's "Joyce's Chapters of Going Forth By Day" Thornton Wilder III "Finnegans Wake: The Polyglot Everyman" [Draft A] Thornton Wilder IV "Finnegans Wake: The Polyglot Everyman" [Draft B] Thornton Wilder V Letters to Dounia Bunis Christiani, Scarsdale, New York Thornton Wilder VI A Puzzle Thornton Wilder VII Twins Thornton Wilder VIII "The Strange Cold Fowl in Finnegans Wake" Adaline Glasheen IX Helen Joyce 1962 Adaline Glasheen X Helen Joyce 1963 Adaline Glasheen XI Another Painful Case Adaline Glasheen XII City Adaline Glasheen XIII Historical and Literary Figures in Joyce's Work Adaline Glasheen XIV George Reavey to Thornton Wilder BIBLIOGRAPHIES General Bibliography Bibliography of the Printed Works of Thornton Wilder on James Joyce Bibliography of the Unpublished Works of Thornton Wilder on James Joyce Bibliography of the Printed Works of Adaline Glasheen on James Joyce Bibliography of the Unpublished Works of Adaline Glasheen on James Joyce INDICES Index of names Index to Page/Line References to Finnegans Wake

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Book SynopsisEssays in English by French, Irish and German academics, which explore the relevance and interest of the tragic theatre today of the French dramatist, Jean Racine (1639-99).Trade Review"Caldicott and Conroy are to be congratulated on a volume which, powerfully, offers its readers the pleasure of further exploration in the universe of Racine." PFSCL XXIX, 57 2002 "Exceptional!" Today's Books Jan 2002Table of ContentsThe Racinian hero and the classical theory of characterization, Georges Forestier; Racine's use of maxims, Jean-Louis Backes; women and power in "Britannicus" and "Berenice": the battle of blood and tears, Christian Biet; gender, power and authority in "Alexandre le Grand" and "Athalie", Derval Conroy; constructions of identity: mirrors of the "Other" in Racine's theatre, Jane Conroy; Racine's "Jacobite" plays: the politics of the Bible, Edric Caldicott; les freres ennemis: Racine, Moliere, and "la querelle du theatre", Robert McBride; Voltaire, women and reception: Racine in the 18th century, Marc Serge Riviere; pleasure in Racine, Louis van Delft; the magic and pleasure of "Berenice" today, Jean-Michel Delacomptee; Esther: prototype of an oratorio? The collaboration of Racine and Jean-Baptiste Moreau, Susanne Hartwig and Berthold Warnecke; Moreau as teacher: the impact of his vocation on the composition of "Esther", Grainne Gormley; Racine and the three vanities, Alain Viala.

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Book SynopsisEssays on the church and religion in contemporary Europe.Table of ContentsUnderstanding religion and politics; patterns of change in European religion; the Church and democracy in modern Europe; civil society - from church to media domination; Protestants in a Catholic state - a silent minority in Ireland; State, Church and social response - the fall and rise of a Greek-Catholic parish in Poland; the Roman Catholic Church in Poland and the dynamics of social identity in Polish society; the mainline churches as a counterbalance to the state; religion in modern Britain.

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Book SynopsisThis is a study of one of the most important poets of the mid 20th-century. At the time of his death, Denis Devlin was Irish ambassador to Italy. This book looks at Devlin's work within the aftermath of the Irish literary revival and Anglo-American and French modernism and then relates it to the work of Devlin's contemporaries (such as Thomas McGreevy, Brian Coffey and Samuel Beckett) and to modernism poets since his death.Trade Review"Alex Davis [has] written a groundbreaking and exciting study in which the general reader and student alike can recognise the true range of Irish poetry and the quite different backgrounds and artistic ambition of poets who happen to come from this country." Gerald Dawe Irish Times August 2000 "It's encouraging to see an academic in these islands tackling living writers of little official reputation - a brave engagement." Shearman 43 2000 "crisp, well-informed and well-judged, and ... badly needed to restore the reputation of and interest in the 'moderns'. UCD Press are to be congratulated: they are setting themselves high standards." Books Ireland Summer 2000 "The core of this book is a dense discussion of Devlin's poetry in relation to European and Anglo-American modernism ... Davis [also] provides a scholarly, theoretically informed reading of the poets who were left unconsumed during 'the critical feeding frenzy' that swarmed Northern Ireland poetry during the 1970s and 1980s" D. R. McCarthy, Huron College CHOICE Feb 2001 "contribute[s] greatly to our understanding not only of the individual poet's work but ... how Devlin took from and contributed to the wider poetic scene, both in Ireland and abroad. Davis [is] to be congratulated for [this] splendid stud[y] which provides many keys to unlocking the work of [this] neglected, but central, mid-century Irish poet." Irish Studies Review 10 (1) 2002 "an alternative narrative to the dominant Yeats to Heaney line. If certain voices prevail, another few years and 'Brian Coffey to Trevor Joyce' might be the better sales pitch." The Year's Work in English Studies 2002Table of Contents"A Broken Line" - Irish poetic modernisms; communications from the Eiffel Tower - "Intercessions"; "with mullioned Europe shattered" - "Lough Derg" and Other Poems"; "heart-affairs diplomat" - later poems; Devlin "the thirties generation" and new writers; CODA "no narrative easy in the mind" - the Irish neo-avant garde.

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Book SynopsisThis volume presents a detailed account of the political outlook and activities of the Roman Catholic clergy, nationally and in the localities, during the 15 years after the Treaty. The author discusses the clerical response to the Treaty, the involvement of bishops and priests in pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty politics, their dealings with Fianna Fail, and the fundamentalist Republicans of the left and right, and the Northern state.Trade Review"Patrick Murray has given us a fascinating account of the theological and political hoops through which Logue and the Irish church as a whole had to jump as the new partitioned Irish state came into being in 1922." Eoghan Corry Sunday Business Post Feb 2000 "Dr Murray has spent years working in ecclesiastical archives both in Ireland and abroad. The result is an outstanding piece of scholarship which, despite the awkwardness of structure in places, must be required reading for all interested in the history of 20th-century Ireland." Dr Dermot Keogh, University College Cork Irish Times March 2000 "A substantial and well-equipped book, this has a telling cover picture: Lavery's 'Blessing of the Colours', with a Free State soldier kneeling with the tricolour before the Bishop on the alter steps, supposedly Mannix." Books Ireland May 2000 "Murray presents a fascinating study of a complex period which no student of Irish Church-State relations can afford to ignore." Fr Oliver Rafferty, Prof. of Ecclesiastical History, St Patrick's College, Maynooth The Irish Catholic May 2000 "breaks entirely new ground in chronicling the range of political opinion among Irish churchmen as an independent Irish state was established. Murray's quarrying in ecclesiastical archives shows industry and judgement: an outstanding book and, incidentally, a credit to a comparative newcomer in the publishing field, UCD Press." John Bowman Sunday Tribune Dec 2000 "Murray draws on a wide range of diocesan archives than was available to earlier researchers. Keeping his focus on the political, he succeeds in expanding our understanding of the serious divisions of opinion within the church, and highlights the rationales presented." Mary Harris, National University of Ireland Irish Studies Review 9 (1) 2001Table of ContentsThe forces displayed; sustaining the state; affirming the republic; constitutional republicanism; Fianna Fail; republicans, left and right; the North. Appendices: versions of the Pastoral Letter of October 1922; political allegiance of the Roman Catholic clergy, 1922-1037.

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Book SynopsisThis volume presents a detailed account of the political outlook and activities of the Roman Catholic clergy, nationally and in the localities, during the 15 years after the Treaty. The author discusses the clerical response to the Treaty, the involvement of bishops and priests in pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty politics, their dealings with Fianna Fail, and the fundamentalist Republicans of the left and right, and the Northern state.Trade Review"Patrick Murray has given us a fascinating account of the theological and political hoops through which Logue and the Irish church as a whole had to jump as the new partitioned Irish state came into being in 1922." Eoghan Corry Sunday Business Post Feb 2000 "Dr Murray has spent years working in ecclesiastical archives both in Ireland and abroad. The result is an outstanding piece of scholarship which, despite the awkwardness of structure in places, must be required reading for all interested in the history of 20th-century Ireland." Dr Dermot Keogh, University College Cork Irish Times March 2000 "A substantial and well-equipped book, this has a telling cover picture: Lavery's 'Blessing of the Colours', with a Free State soldier kneeling with the tricolour before the Bishop on the alter steps, supposedly Mannix." Books Ireland May 2000 "Murray presents a fascinating study of a complex period which no student of Irish Church-State relations can afford to ignore." Fr Oliver Rafferty, Prof. of Ecclesiastical History, St Patrick's College, Maynooth The Irish Catholic May 2000 "breaks entirely new ground in chronicling the range of political opinion among Irish churchmen as an independent Irish state was established. Murray's quarrying in ecclesiastical archives shows industry and judgement: an outstanding book and, incidentally, a credit to a comparative newcomer in the publishing field, UCD Press." John Bowman Sunday Tribune Dec 2000 "Murray draws on a wide range of diocesan archives than was available to earlier researchers. Keeping his focus on the political, he succeeds in expanding our understanding of the serious divisions of opinion within the church, and highlights the rationales presented." Mary Harris, National University of Ireland Irish Studies Review 9 (1) 2001Table of ContentsThe forces displayed; sustaining the state; affirming the republic; constitutional republicanism; Fianna Fail; republicans, left and right; the North. Appendices: versions of the Pastoral Letter of October 1922; political allegiance of the Roman Catholic clergy, 1922-1037.

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Book SynopsisContemporary Approaches to Second Language Acquisition in Social Context contains new research in the area of social context and second language acquisition. In the past twenty years, an explosion of research is resulting in a better understanding of the total process of acquisition from multiple perspectives: cognitive, linguistic and social. Recently, the important implications of social factors in acquisition are being recognized. The book contains work by leading researchers in the field. It deals with an unusually wide variety of target and source languages, including English-speaking children acquiring Irish, Chinese adults acquiring Hungarian, Moroccan children acquiring Dutch and Dutch learners acquiring French.Trade Review"this collection gives a fascinating overview of the relationship between social context and second language acquisition which promises valuable insights for language teachers on the one hand and those interested in language and language acquisition on the other." Rachel Hoare, Trinity College Dublin The Irish Yearbook of Applied Linguistics 1999 "The variety of methodologies, correctly and imaginatively used, and the interest of the conclusions, both from the more empirical and the more reflective chapters of this book make it extremely useful for every scholar interested in second language acquisition." Richard Towell, University of Salford French Studies, LIV (1) 2000 "a well organized and well edited volume... For its range of topics and methods involved in the studies included in the volume, this book is to be recommended for graduate classes in SLA, providing good case studies for discussion." Daniel Veronique Universite de Paris VIIITable of ContentsThe development of L2 acquisition of Moroccan children in the Netherlands, Petra Bos; speech rate variation in two oral styles of advanced French interlanguage, Jean-Marc Dewaele; language and identity in immigrant acquisition and use - a framework for integrating sociological, psychological and linguistic data, Norbert Dittmar, Bernard Spolsky and Joel Walters; what makes us think that students who study abroad become fluent? Barbara F. Freed; early immersion in Ireland, the Naionra experience, Tina Hickey; temporal reference in story retellings, comparison between French and American native speakers and French advanced learners of English, Monique Lambert; "aha" as a communication strategy - Chinese speakers of Hungarian, Juliet Langman; second language learning through interaction - multiple perspectives, Teresa Pica; the visible loanword - processes of integration seen in bare English-origin nouns in Ukrainian, Shana Poplack and Svitlana Budzhak-Jones.

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Book SynopsisThe Unappeasable Host: Studies in Irish Identities explores some of the tensions created when Anglo-Irish writers - Protestant in religion, of non-Irish ancestryreflected upon their preferred subject matter, Ireland and their unhyphenated Catholic contemporaries. These tensions involve the writers' sense of anxiety about their own membership in the Irish community, and at the same time their anxiety about losing their distinctive identity. Anglo-Irish writers founded modern Irish literature in English, identifying themselves with their native country and its people. Yet they often felt themselves surrounded and watched by an 'Unappeasable Host', a population that resented them. Robert Tracy discusses Irish writers who in England were considered Irish, in Ireland English - including Maria Edgeworth and Lady Morgan, the Banim brothers, Roger O'Connor, Sheridan Le Fanu, W. B. Yeats, J. M. Synge, Elizabeth Bowen - together with James Joyce, who, although neither of English ancestry nor Protestant, similarly focuses on individuals separated or excluded from the Irish life around them.Trade Review"The Unappeasable Host is a treasure trove of scholarship, a series of 16 essays, each and all marked by a vast knowledge of Ireland and its writers, by penetrating insights, and perceptive analysis" The Boston Irish Reporter, Feb 1999 "What is immediately enthralling about the critic Robert Tracy is that he is not peddling the well trammelled list of references purveyed by various cliques." Books Ireland April 1999 "With its abundant references to just about everything Irish, this scholarly yet eminently readable volume encourages and advances Irish studies. Tracy includes much for everyone, and readers are in his debt for sharing 30 years of study in this book." F. L. Ryan, Stonehill College Choice March 1999 "Tracy is making the even more urgent contemporary claim for shared imaginative possessions between the hyphenated and the unhyphenated Irish, the hybrid and the so-called native. For, while concentrating on the writers of the Protestant minority, Tracy's analysis takes its direction from those crisis points where the two cultures draw near and confront one another. This book studies that process, with imaginative sympathy and scholarly detachment; it is a work to challenge prejudice and enlarge understanding." Dr Anthony Roche, UCD Irish Times Sept 1998 "the pieces in this book are well-grounded, widely read, astutely comparative and intellectually stimulating ... determinedly addressing continuity and context before theory and hypertext." Times Literary Supplement Nov 1998 "a useful contribution to Anglo-Irish scholarship, positing many new ideas, laying old ghosts and challenging the reader to engage with contemporary criticism and theory." Irish Literary Supplement Fall 1999 "This volume is a fitting summation to nearly four decades of work on Irish literature and culture." Matthew Campbell, University of Sheffield Irish Studies Review 7 (3) 1999Table of ContentsThe cracked looking-glass of a servant - inventing the colonial novel; Maria Edgeworth and Lady Morgan - legality versus legitimacy; fiery shorthand - the Banim brothers at work; self-fashioning as pseudo-history - Roger O'Connor's "Chronicles of Eri"; Sheridan Le Fanu and the Unmentionable; that rooted man - Yeats, "John Sherman" and "Dhoya"; long division in the long schoolroom - among school children; intelligible on the Blasket Islands - Yeats's "King Oedipus", 1926; merging into art - "The Death of Cuchulain" and the death of Yeats; living in the margin - Synge in Aran; words of mouth - Joyce and the oral tradition; Mr Joker and Dr Hyde - Joyce's politic polyglot polygraphs; in the heart of the Theban necropolis - mummyscripts and mummiescrypts in "Finnegan's Wake"; the burning roof and tower - identity in Elizabeth Bowen's "The Last September"; Elizabeth Bowen - rebuilding the big house; a ghost of style; exorcising the Anglo-Irish past.

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Book SynopsisExploring key areas relating to media, power and cultural identity, this study looks at the effects of the media in Ireland, first radio, then television, and now the newer media.Trade Review"TV is so ubiquitous in the west that we forget it has any effect on people - yet it is there, quietly forming and reflecting our opinions. So too with radio and film... Here, a series of articles have been gathered to look at the Irish experience: The North; Glenroe's treatment of such topics as travelling people and the unemployed...talk radio; broadcasting in Irish... Anyone working in the media has to read this." Lucille Redmond RTE Guide Nov. 1997 "this volume, much of whose contents are published for the first time, is a welcome and timely addition to the critical literature concerning the roles of media in contemporary Ireland." Media, Culture and Society 21 (1) 1999 "The chapters in this book constitute a valuable contribution to our understanding of how meaning is constructed by media audiences." Bill Rolston, University of Ulster Irish Journal of Sociology vol 8 1998 "Media Audiences in Ireland provides useful, audience-empowering insights for both students and professionals studying and working within all aspects of culture and communication - a good, practical set-text for university courses relating to the media." Jayne Steel. Lancaster University Irish Studies Review 7 (3) 1999Table of ContentsParticipatory media and audience response, Mary J. Kelly; the arts show audience, Brian O'Neill; gender, class and television viewing, Barbara O'Connor; the female audience and the pleasures of the cinema, Helen Byrne; a study of community relations broadcasting in Northern Ireland, Paul Nolan; dominant ideologies and media power, the case of Northern Ireland, David Miller; Northern Ireland audiences and television news, David Miller; talk radio and the public sphere, Sara O'Sullivan; divorce referendum coverage; a history of Irish language broadcasting, Iarfhlaith Watson; "Glenroe", its audience and the coverage of social problems, Eoin Devereux; children and television pleasure, Margaret Gunning.

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Book SynopsisOrganized in three parts, conceptual issues, applied issues and experimental issues, this book focuses on advanced topics in behaviour analysis and the psychology of learning. It is a joint venture with the Behaviour Analysis in Ireland Group.Table of ContentsHuman development - a question of structure and function, Karola Dillenburger and Michael Keenan; private events - a neglected and misunderstood construct in radical behavourism, Ian Taylor and Mark F. O'Reilly; 'W'-ing - teaching exercises for radical behaviourists, Michael Keenan; what are the reinforcers for cognitivism in behaviour therapy? Kevin J. Tierney and John A. Smith; bye-bye behaviour modification, Peter Walsh; applied psychology from the standpoint of behavioural analysis, Julian C. Leslie; the behavioural self-control of study in third-level students - a review, Samuel D. Cromie and Leo J.V. Baker; compliance training as an intervention strategy for anti-social behavoiur - a pilot study, Dermot O'Reilly and Karola Dillenburger; assessing challenging behaviour of persons with severe mental disabilities, Mark F. O'Reilly; relational frame theory and the experimental analysis of human sexual arousal - some interpretive implications, Dermot Barnes and Bryan Roche; rules and rule-governance - new directions in the theoretical and experimental anaysis of human behaviour, Ken P.J. Kerr and Michael Keenan.

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Book SynopsisThe main purpose of this book is to validate a reading of Joyce in negative terms. Central to the enquiry is an examination of the roles of irony and of indeterminacy. Irony, interpreted in metaphysical rather than merely rhetorical terms, is envisaged as deriving from two separate if related orientations, one associated with Friedrich Schlegel, the other with Gustave Flaubert. Insofar as Joyce's work (including "Ulysses") owes more to the latter than the former, it forgoes the genial humour central to Schlegel's theories, and embraces instead the ironic detachment and formal control of a Flaubertian perspective. Such irony (which entails a suspicion of sentiment and a related dehumanisation of character, as in some of the stories in Dubliners) becomes normative in Joyce, and along with a similarly deflationary parody pervades "Ulysses". In addition, a persistent indeterminacy is established as early as 'The Dead', so that it becomes impossible in that story to adjudicate between not just contradictory but mutually exclusive interpretations. Such indeterminacy is pushed to further extremes in "Ulysses", with its notorious proliferation of narrative perspectives. As a corollary to the work's encyclopaedic inclusiveness and quotidian particularism, every detail tends to assume the same significance as every other; the consequence being that (in Gyorgy Lukacs' famous formulation) we lose all sense of any 'hierarchy of meaning'. From that it is but a step to Franco Moretti's assessment that in "Ulysses" everyday existence remains 'inert, opaque - meaningless', and that in fact the whole point is to represent the meaningless precisely 'as meaningless'. Indeterminacy, in effect, ushers in the possibility of nihilism. The analysis of "Ulysses" culminates with the attempt (unavailing in both cases) to discover in either Bloom or Molly a genuine source of countervailing affirmation. The study concludes with a brief consideration of the polysemic vocabulary of "Finnegans Wake" as a logical extrapolation of the poetics of indeterminacy.Trade Review"[Brian Cosgrove] has written extensively in literary studies, particularly on Joyce. In this book he takes the novel approach of interpreting Joyce's works via negatives. He sees the use of irony, in the metaphysical rather than rhetorical sense, as a key way into Joyce's work ... This is definitely for the well-read." Books Ireland Dec 2007 "Cosgrove's analysis is fresh and insightful about both the theories he applies and, more importantly, about the Joycean text A... [He] patiently examines the various ramifications of his readings, such as showing how the relationship Joyce has towards his craftsmanship of the English language impacts on his A... attitudes towards the complex history of Irish subjugation under England. In this, Cosgrove's reading is superior to many of the so-called post-colonial readings of Joyce since most of those have unfortunately tended to elide Joyce's multivalent rapport with language. This also shows another strength of Cosgrove's book: even though he is dealing with abstract philosophical concepts, he never loses sight of the more quotidian, which would be to say the more fundamental and practical, implications of his argument A... As an application of theory-informed concepts and models to reading Joyce, Cosgrove's study is exemplary." Sam Slote Irish University Review Spring/Summer 2008 "This ingenious study by the retired Professor of English and Head of Department at NUI, Maynooth, and author of Wordsworth and the Poetry of Self-Sufficiency (1982), Brian Cosgrove, dispels the view of Ulysses as a celebration of the redemptive power of love and language. According to the author, Joyce's dehumanized characters inhabit a senseless world presided over by a cold artificer, whose playful language is a mere distraction from his thoughts of mortality. Its main contribution to Joyce studies is that it rescues him from second-hand sentimentalism and invites the readers to re-examine his Weltanschauung. [There is an] extraordinary alertness to the finer points in the texts exhibited in this study. Nor is the author neglectful of Joyce's delight in obscene language or his self-satirizing impulse. Notwithstanding the seriousness of its subject matter, the book exhibits a fine sense of humour. The writing is lucid; the reader never loses sight of the argument, however inventive and broad it becomes. James Joyce's Negations is a significant new departure in Joyce studies and provides a highly erudite model for the study of nihilism and irony in modernist literature." Irina Ruppo Malone National University of Ireland, Galway Sage: Irish Theological Quarterly 2008; 73; 413 November 2008 'Cosgrove's book - offers a refreshing view of familiar texts and critical debates. Bringing his rich experience and insight, gained from long years of reading and teaching Joyce, Cosgrove proves that any serious Joyce scholar shall do well to keep a healthy critical distance between him/her and the canonical readings of the industry.' Soichiro Onose, University of Tokyo Journal of Irish Studies 2008 vol. XXIII IASIL Japan "Cosgrove discusses Joyce as an international modernist rather than as a 'self-evidently Irish artist'. Many writers - among them E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, and George Bernard Shaw - considered Ulysses a bad book. Cosgrove disagrees, and he carefully explains what makes Joyce an astonishingly great novelist. - Cosgrove tells the reader that 'a central part of the argument of this study [is] that irony is the normative mode in Joyce'. And irony is what Cosgrave focuses on. Those who can deal with its complexity will enjoy Cosgrove's book." Q. Grigg Emeritus, Hamline University CHOICE October 2008 Vol. 46 No. 2 Cosgrove navigates a wide range of sources for his inquiry, including Schlegel, Flaubert and Kierkegaard, with perhaps the most interesting detours turning toward Chaos Theory. By drawing on the work of Thomas J. Rice and Peter F. Mackey, Cosgrove highlights the existential necessity of seeking to comprehend a work such as 'Ulysses' and of interrogating modes of survival within complex surroundings that deny the fulfillment of desire and thereby confront us with a metaphysic of negation. James Joyce is a pillar of modernity, and Cosgrove's engagement with the poetics of indeterminacy implicates more than just one man's work. In a world where definitive positions are increasingly difficult to find, let alone maintain, irony can be an effective way to disrupt and critique without actually having to take a position. Cosgrove of 'James Joyce's Negations' takes a position and makes no apologies for its bleakness. He offers a thorough, engaging and often provocative reading of James Joyce that confronts us with the implications of living in a world that is inexhaustible and not only devoid of meaning, but actually constructed to frustrate human hopes of transcendence. The point of the study is not to dismiss or devalue James Joyce, but rather, given the tendency to sentimentalise his work, to be as sensitive as possible to the challenges which he poses. - At times one is almost tempted to give up and jump into the relativist void, but the honest search for truth which pervades Cosgrove's investigation is what holds us back, and we find ourselves determined to return to the source with renewed vigour and a greater appreciation for what we are up against." Kasper Hartman, McGill University Canadian Association of Irish Studies vol 33 no 2 Fall 2007Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part One, Irony and Indeterminacy as Normative: Irony and Inclusiveness; Dubliners and The Persistence of Irony; Part Two: Irony, Technique and The Fate of Sentiment in Ulysses: Technique and Language in Ulysses; Sentiment, Music, Women; Part Three, Multiperspectivism, Indeterminacy and Nihilism in 'Ulysses': Ulysses: Fragmentariness, Pluralism, Indeterminacy and the Question of 'Meaning'; 'Ithaca' and the Futility of Taxonomy, Ulysses and The Question of Order/Design; Part Four, Negation and The Possibility of Affirmation - Bloom, 'Ithaca' and 'Penelope': Leopold Bloom: Passive Hero or 'Aesthetic Man'?; 'Avoiding the Void? 'Ithaca' and 'The Apathy of the Stars'; Trying to Say 'Yes': Ironising Molly Bloom; Part Five, 'Finnegans Wake' as Culmination: The Paradox of Willed Indeterminacy in Finnegans Wake; Postscript: Joyce and the Limitations of Comedy; Bibliography; Index.

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