New York: Harper Brothers, 1902. ix, 138 pages. Illustrated. Hardback.

An interesting account of a journey through Donegal and Connemara made by an American visitor in the early part of the 20th century. The book provides some interesting local and social history and is well-illustrated with over 30 photographs.

CONTENTS

Title page

Preface

Illustrations

New York to Londonderry

Londonderry to Port Salon

Port Salon to Dunfanaghy

Dunfanaghy to Fallcarragh

Fallcarragh to Gweedore

Gweedore to Glenties

Glenties to Carrick

Carrick to Donegal

Donegal to Ballyshannon

Ballyshannon to Sligo

Sligo to Ballinrobe

Ballinrobe to Leenane

Leenane to Recess

Achill Island

Recess to Galway

Aran Islands

Limerick

Cork and Queenstown

ISBN: None

London: Fisher Unwin, 1894. 249 pages. Hardback.

CONTENTS

Chapter I.—Ancient Law

,, II.—Existing remains of Irish Law

,, III.—The Senchus Mor

,, IV.—Legislative Assemblies

Section

1. Introductory

2. The Feis of Tara

3. Tailltenn and Uisneach

4. The Aenach

5. The Tribal Assemblies

Chapter V.—Classification of Society

Section

1. Introductory

2. Kings

3. Professional Men

Sub-Section

1. Preliminary

2. The Druids

3. The Bards

4. The Brehons

5. The Ollamhs

6. Jurors

Section

4. The Flaiths

5. Freemen Owning Property

Sub-Section

1. Preliminary

2. The Clan System

3. The Céiles and the Land Laws

4. Devolution of Property

5. The Elizabethan Atrocities

Section

6. Freemen owning no Property

7. The Non-Free

Sub-Section

1. Preliminary

2. Bothachs and Sen-Cleithes

3. The Fuidhirs

Chapter VI.—The Law of Distraining

Section

1. Introductory

2. Definition and Scope

3. Distraint by Fasting

4. General Procedure

5. Capacity

6. Minutiae

Chapter VII.—Criminal Law

Section

1. The Book of Aicill

2. The Law Therein Laid Down

3. Capital Punishment

4. The Maighin Digona

Chapter VIII.—Leges Minores

Section

1. Marriage

2. Fosterage

3. Contracts and Wills

4. Artisans

5. Oaths

Chapter IX.—Native, not Roman

Chapter X.—Conclusion

]]> http://www.biblioireland.com/3742/the-brehon-laws-a-legal-handbook/feed/ http://www.biblioireland.com/3741/cumann-na-mban-and-the-irish-revolution/ http://www.biblioireland.com/3741/cumann-na-mban-and-the-irish-revolution/#comments Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:31:06 +0000 Derek Rowlinson Civil WarCumann na mBan http://www.biblioireland.com/3741/cumann-na-mban-and-the-irish-revolution/ Author: McCARTHY, Cal.

Dublin: Collins Press, 2007. 276 pages. Paperback.

Cumann na mBan, a women’s support group to the Irish Volunteers, was founded in 1914. Nationalist in outlook, its aims centred on arming Irish men, generating propaganda and presenting a united Irish opposition to English rule. After participation in the 1916 Rising, members played crucial roles in intelligence work, transporting arms, nursing wounded men, providing safe houses and supporting IRA men in prison. They also boosted attendances at republican election rallies, funerals and protest marches. In 1922 the leadership overwhelmingly rejected the Treaty, causing a split and the formation of Cumann na Saoirse (Free State Cumann na mBan). The Free State government’s awareness of Cumann na mBan’s assistance to the IRA resulted in large-scale imprisonment of republican women during the Civil War. But, for a time at least, Cumann na mBan had placed equality for women on the political agenda and demonstrated women could be as politically active and capable as men.

ISBN: 9781905172146

Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2007. xxi, 266 pages. Illustrated. Paperback.

This stunningly illustrated thematic book is predominantly based on the albums of James Hack Tuke and the Belfast-based photographer Robert J. Welch. Their work from the 1890s until 1920 gives a rich and fascinating insight into the lives and activities of the rural community of the west of Ireland. The images chosen for this book are not only a reflection on the history of photography, but are also valuable resources through which we can increase our understanding of Ireland’s social and economic past. Many of the photographs have not been previously reproduced and show us landscapes, farming techniques, Galway’s Claddagh, images of teachers, children and nurses, clothing and housing, set against the background of the two dominant themes of the book - the Congested Districts Board and the uses of commercial photography. The accompanying texts from expert contributors give historical context and insights, encouraging the viewer to look beyond the image towards a deeper awareness of the use of photography in the pursuit of historical research.

ISBN: 9780716528746

Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2006. xvii, 238 pages. Paperback.

This book examines the political transformation and radicalisation of Ireland between the outbreak of the First World War, August 1914 and Sinn Fein’s landslide electoral victory in December, 1918. It argues, through a novel application of theories of ethno-symbolism and social movement theory, that the myths, memories and symbols of the Irish nation formed the basis for interpretation of the events of the Easter Rising, and that this interpretation stimulated members of the Irish nation to support radical nationalism. The book calls this phenomenon the cultural trigger point. Through an examination of a variety of sources, the book traces, in particular, the impact of the Great War on cultural and religious nationalism, and its role in the rise of radical Irish nationalism.

In this invaluable study, Jonathan Githens-Mazer has given us a rich and innovative account of a critical moment in the creation of an Irish national state. He has provided both an original interpretation of the role of the Easter Rising, and an imaginative application of an ethno-symbolic approach to the study of a crucial historical development. Above all, he has shown us how Ireland’s cultural heritage informed the thoughts and actions of Irish Catholics in the early twentieth century, and how it was able to furnish a guide to political action at a decisive juncture in Irish history.

ISBN: 071652824x

Dublin: Collins Press, 2006. viii, 200 pages. Hardback.

The English say Dubliners speak the best English. Filmmaker Jim Sheridan insists they don’t, but that they speak the most entertaining English. Naming a piece of public sculpture (The Spike in the Dyke) or commenting on the hardness of life (living on the skin of a rasher) Dubliners have a flair for waxing lyrical. So, to fully appreciate them, one must learn Dublinese. Through the centuries the everyday language of Dublin has acquired its own accent, vocabulary and turns of phrase.

This guided tour looks at vowel play (kyar for car, muriels for murals), rhyming slang (Wolfe Tone for phone) and idioms (’I'll put manners on him!’). It draws on place names (’The Morgue’ - The Templeogue Inn), transport (Dart, Doort or Daart?), animals (the dead zoo - the Natural History Museum) and day-to-day living. Writers like James Joyce and Roddy Doyle lend verbal dexterity, as well as Joe and Josephine Soap and their co-citizens. All have enriched the speech of a city which, to coin a blasphemy, is in essence the word made flesh.

ISBN: 1905172079

Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2006 (reprint). x, 371pp. Paperback.

This is the only comparative biography of Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins, and as such has established itself as a standard work.

ISBN: 0717140849

Dublin: Liffey Press, 2006. xiv, 295 pages. Illustrated. Paperback.

Irish Moves explores and celebrates the history of dance in Ireland. Featuring many rare and striking images, this meticulously researched volume showcases — and in some cases salvages — the stories of Ireland’s unsung movers: actors, dancers, choreographers, playwrights, directors. It describes in their own voices the creative journeys taken by Ninette de Valois, Colin Dunne, Jean Butler, David Bolger, Tom Hickey, John Scott, Joan Davis and many more — artists past and present who have devoted their lives to physical expression, despite the fact that in Ireland their medium was largely ignored and, in some cases, erased from memory, such as the long forgotten Abbey School of Ballet.

Irish Moves not only provides a map of dance and physical theatre in Ireland, it is also a meditation on the Irish nation’s complicated attitude to the body. As the author explores how the Irish moved from “the naked man galloping bareback across Kilkee Strand in celebration of the festival of Lughnasa, to the alarmingly straitjacketed movements of our ‘national’ dance”, the book offers surprising and sometimes disconcerting revelations about Irish society. But this is no dry history: Irish Moves is an engaging and entertaining book certain to appeal to performers, scholars and enthusiasts alike.

ISBN: 1904148921

Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2007. viii, 280 pages. Paperback.

A unique contemporary analysis of the huge imperial mapping project of the British Government in nineteenth century Ireland, which describes as well as re-interprets the value of science and modernity as practiced by the British empire. The book raises questions about representation and academic discourses and highlights and interprets colonial techniques of observation and description. The nature of “evidence” within colonial archive is also questioned. Focussing on the main aspects of the survey from a contemporary theoretical perspective it both enlivens the original documents and serves as a sensitive critique of it. The main themes are ethnographic description, translation and cartography and the relationship between them in the nineteenth century: Central to this is the emerging ‘view’ of Ireland and the Irish and the idea of the project as representative of early Irish ethnography. The book contains new findings in relation to renowned scholars such as John O’Donovan and re-engages with the Friel.vs Andrews debate on ‘Translation and Irish Culture’. The book should be of wide interest to folklorists, cultural sociologists, geographers, historians, ethnologists, cultural studies, Irish language scholars and the general reader with an interest in Ireland.

ISBN: 0716528819 

Dublin: Anvil, 2002 (revised edition). 384 pages. Paperback.

Ernie O’Malley was a medical student in Dublin when the Easter Rising of 1916 broke out. At first he was indifferent. But with the failure of the Rising, the executions and the aftermath, his feelings changed. He joined the Irish Volunteers (later the Irish Republican Army) and organised battalions and companies around Ireland. His abilities and outstanding personal courage led to his appointment as OC of the 2nd Southern Division.

On Another Man’s Wound, its title taken from an old Ulster proverb, ‘It’s easy to sleep on another man’s wound’, was first published in 1936 and has become the classic account of the years 1916-21. More than any other book of the period, it captures the essence of Ireland at the time, the way people lived, their attitudes, their beliefs, the songs they sang, the legends they knew. O’Malley pictures the Irish landscape magnificently, and his cameo sketches of the great personalities of the Rising and the war that followed bring them into instant focus.

ISBN: 1901737373