IHB Christmas Newsletter 2023
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Mayo: The Irish Revolution 1912-23
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A Look Back at 2023
One of the many perks of being a bookseller is having access to so many excellent books about Irish history. The downside is having to recommend just a small number for our round up of the year!
I will start with a recommendation of two books by the late Fergal Tobin – a stalwart of Irish publishing and writer of many Irish history books who sadly passed away earlier this year.
January saw the publication of the paperback edition of “The Irish Difference”. The hardback was an Irish Times Book of the Year and now available in paperback it is an accessible and entertaining consideration of Ireland’s relationship with Britain during the 400 years prior to independence.
“A City Runs Through Them” was published in November and provides a unique history of Dublin told through its bridges. From the Viking era to the opening of the Rosie Hackett Bridge in 2014 it charts the development and expansion of our capital city.
As the decade of centenaries draws to a close, “A Nation is Born” takes a look at the period from 1923 to 1938. Michael B. Barry documents the days of the Irish Free State while John O’Byrne’s hand colourised photographs bring to life an age we normally only see in black and white.
Our bookshop in Cong is surrounded by pre-Christian archaeology. Court tombs and burial cairns abound across the isthmus between Lough Corrib and Lough Mask. I was therefore pleased to come across “Death in Irish Prehistory” by Gabriel Cooney. The book explores the substantial archaeological evidence of ritual and practice associated with death from 8000 BC to AD 500 available in Ireland. Although written in an Irish context, the analysis draws on the wider European experience as well as considering change and continuity in practice and ritual. Most importantly the book sheds light on the lives lived by our prehistoric ancestors and brings meaning to their monuments dotted across the Irish landscape.
There are few histories of the Irish Defence Forces but “The Irish Defence Forces – 1922-2022” by Eoin Kinsella fulfils that role well. The book gives a comprehensive account of the Defence Forces from the pre-State origins in the founding of the Irish Volunteers. Fully illustrated throughout, the book examines the role of the Defence Forces at home and overseas as a vital component of the United Nations peacekeeping force.
Four Courts Press continued their excellent series on the Irish Revolutionary Decade with the publication of a number of county level histories of the period. This year we were pleased to host the launch of “Mayo: The Irish Revolution 1912-23” by Joost Augusteijn which highlights the unique circumstances in County Mayo in the lead up to the War of Independence and the Civil War.
