|
Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America’s Soul
Michael Reid
Forty years ago many Irish people heard about Latin America only in the context of the work of Irish missionary priests amongst the Peruvian Indians and in the shanty towns of Sao Paolo, as described in the Far East, the missionary magazine of the Columban Order. In the nineteen-eighties, the era when Ronald Reagan and the elder George Bush dominated world politics, the news from Latin America was of murder and massacres at the hands of right-wing death squads owing allegiance to thuggish dictators supported by Washington. In between we caught occasional glimpses of the samba rhythms of Brazil, the controlled passion of Argentinean tango, the magnificent Inca remains of the high Andes in Peru, and the ecological treasure store of the vast Amazon basin.
Forgotten Continent : the Battle for Latin America’s Soul sets out to explain why a region with such an abundance of natural and human resources has so far failed to make the leap from third world to first world, to leave behind forever the world of shanty town and death squad. Reid, who was for many years the Economist correspondent in the region, sees more grounds for optimism than other commentators. It is true that there are fewer dictators in Latin America now than at any time in the last sixty years, and he describes in detail the successful transition of Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico to free-market democracy, in spite of the economic downturn in the region after the turn of the millennium which had severe implications for the economy and social cohesion of Argentina in particular.
The author covers the history of the region from the Spanish and Portuguese conquests through the dismantling of empire in the nineteenth century and the populism of twentieth-century leaders in the mould of Juan Peron of Argentina. While condemning the human rights abuses of Pinochet’s regime in Chile he praises that benighted dictator’s economic liberalization of the country, arguing that this is the reason why Chile, of all the countries of Latin America, now scores highest in many indexes of social progress. He describes the movement towards land reform in a continent where until recently a tiny percentage of the population owned the vast majority of productive land, and he emphasizes that it is in the reform of education, in particular, that the key to the future prosperity of Latin America lies, comparing it to Ireland where the presence of a large and well-educated workforce has been vital to our recent success. He praises the Bolsa Familia programme in Brazil, initiated by President Lula, which channels aid to the poorest families on the condition that the children so aided must continue to attend school. Bolsa Familia is the first programme in Latin America to reach the thousands who live outside the state system – in one shanty town, or favela, in Rio de Janeiro, there are 300,000 people living in a parallel city where the entire income of a family for a month may be no more than 100 Brazilian reais, or 39 euros, hardly the price of a dinner in the tourist hotels of Ipanema. The scheme has been widely imitated in other Latin American countries.
For Reid the bad apple is Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan leader who peddles socialism, land reform, and redistribution of income while remaining in Reid’s eyes a confirmed populist. He has set back the cause of democracy in the region by holding successive referendums to retain power in defiance of constitutional constraints, buying the support of the oppressed with oil revenues, while his rhetorical flourishes frighten off the foreign investment which Latin America so badly needs. Yet there is some evidence for Reid’s optimism in Chavez’s recent loss of a referendum to grant him the presidency of Venezuela for life.
Tim O’Mahony
Top |
 |
|
The Vatican Pimpernel: The Wartime Exploits of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty
Brian Fleming
Fact is often stranger than fiction; the story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty is such an example. The Vatican Pimpernel: The Wartime Exploits of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty by Brian Fleming tells this story in thriller style, from O’Flaherty’s birth in Kiskeam in 1898 to a staunchly Republican family, to his ordination in Rome in 1925 and subsequent return to Rome in 1938 to work in the Holy Office. During the German occupation of Rome from 1942 to 1944, he ran an escape organization for Allied POWs and civilians, including Jews. He placed thousands into safety and was known as ‘the Pimpernel of the Vatican’. When the Allies entered Rome he had saved over 6,000 lives. This is an absorbing tale and one that will have the reader enthralled at the bravery of O’Flaherty and his network. Yet the only monument to him in Ireland is a grove of Italian trees planted in Killarney National Park in 1994. David O’Brien
Top |
 |
|
Dorothy Macardle: A Life
Nadia Clare Smith
Nadia Clare Smith examines Dorothy Macardle, in Dorothy Macardle: A Life - a 2007 publication by Dublin’s Woodfield Press. Born in Dundalk in 1889, Macardle became an internationally renowned historian, playwright and writer during her lifetime, and remained politically active until her death in 1958. A member of Cumann na mBan, she was a committed nationalist, and became a close associate of prominent republicans, including Eamon de Valera. She also worked as a journalist and was an early correspondent for Erskine Childers’ ‘An Phoblacht’ newspaper in the 1920s. Her first play was staged in Dublin in 1918. She was imprisoned during the civil war, and upon her release in 1923 became a full-time writer. Her most famous work was ‘The Irish Republic’, published in 1937. In later years, Macardle became a leading civil rights activist. This is the first major study of her life and work. It is available now at Cork City Libraries’ Reference Department.
Stephen Leach
Top |
 |
|
The Fifty Minute Mermaid: Poems in Irish
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill's collection of poems on the merfolk, a people of the sea who, in a mixture of folk tradition and invention, have come up on to dry land and live amongst us unawares, who, in Muldoon's translation, "have suffered the trauma of being left high and dry" is truly breathtaking.
In Ireland the seal-wife has long represented exile and alienation, the one who, having lost her sealskin, is trapped on dry land forever, remembering with regret a former life. The merfolk in these poems, in Irish na murúcha, live under an unlucky star, and in speaking of them Ní Dhomhnaill speaks of humanity too - we are suffering a similar grief; as the trauma of being left high and dry is often the nature of things.
The richness of these poems is revealed at every turn. Na Murúcha agus an litríocht describes how, though they have knowledge of their own merfolk's tongue, they are not anxious to use it, just as we are reluctant to use our native Irish, a matter of regret all the more profound for Ní Dhomhnaill's great confidence and finesse in the language.
Ta aithreachais orthu mar fhágadar é
agus caitheamh i ndiaidh an tseanshaoil
ar mhórán; mar sin féin ní bhíd ag cáiseamh
mar is maith a thuigeann siad gur fíor
nach bhfuil aon dul siar,
Is cé nách mbeidh a leithéidí arís ann,
beag ná mór,
ní scríobhann siad dréachta filíochta nó caibidilí leabhar
ag maíomh as.
Fagann siad na cúraimí sin
faoi na Blascaodaigh.
The poet opens up far landscapes of the mind, full of the "Fáinne", Gaeilgeoirí, the poor mouth, school Irish, our love and hatred of Peig Sayers, loss, self-hatred, resignation, and cultural impoverishment.
In Muldoon's translation of another poem, a meeting is described between the merfolk and St. Brendan:
Brendan asked her which of the two choices she would prefer,
'to go immediately to heaven or to return to the territory of her forbears.
'The mermaid answered in a dialect that only Brendan himself could understand
That she would prefer to go to heaven - 'for I can already hear
the voices of the angels singing the praises of the All-Powerful Creator.' Then she received the Eucharist and died immediately
without any anxiety or worry, and Brendan had her buried with great ceremony.
There is nothing at all in that description that doesn't chime
in with my own personal experience of the merfolk...
But who is to say what the mermaid said if the only one who understood her language was Brendan? And what good was done to her by "the great ceremony of her funeral"? The merfolk are as credulous as ourselves and are just as easily persuaded by priests and prophets.
Other poems of great power include Glór an uisce or Water Voice and An Mhurúch agus an Sagart Paróiste or Mermaid with Parish Priest, about a mermaid who used to be sent to the parish priest with messages, but the priest was abusing her. This mermaid wasn't so fatalistic:
Sa deireadh dhiúltaigh sí glan dul ann.
Is rud a bhí an-ait, ni dúirt an bhean rialta faic
is cuireadh íobartach beag eile chuige thar a ceann.
Muldoon's English version reads:
In the end she refused point-blank to go over there again.
To her astonishment the nun made no comment whatsoever,
and another little victim was sent over in her stead.
In one of the later poems in the collection Ní Dhomhnaill mentions "an mhurúch seo'gainne", "our own mermaid" and suddenly these sad, funny, strange and troubled beings are not living in a secondary world like Tolkien's hobbits. They are living in our own houses, sitting at our tables, eating the food we eat, we know them as intimately as we know ourselves. This is a magical collection of poems, both Ní Dhomhnaill's originals and Muldoon's translations.
Tim O'Mahony
Top |
 |
|
Beara the Unexplored Peninsula
Beara the Unexplored Peninsula is a celebration of one of the most beautiful and magical places in Ireland. Festooned with coves and harbours, great and small, and dotted with picturesque towns and villages, this mist covered neck of land is superbly revealed. Photographs by Francis Twomey speak for themselves while an accompanying text by Tony McGettigan provides entertaining and informative commentary. This book is an invaluable vade mecum for the traveller of Beara.
Kieran Burke
Top
|
 |
|
The Boy in the Striped Pyamas
John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, intended for teenage bookworms has found a wider audience. Boyne’s story is at once a wonderful depiction of childhood innocence and a harrowing tale of destruction. It centres on Bruno, young eight year old son of the commandant of Auschwitz Concentration Camp during the Second World War.
The plot revolves around the protagonist’s move from Berlin to his new home at Auschwitz. Unsettled by the loss of friends and familiar surroundings, the boy is curious however about the people in pyjamas and the fences and buildings he can see from his home. This, of course is the concentration camp, though Bruno does not have full realisation of it as an evil place. He is forbidden to go near the camp but in exploring its perimeter befriends Shmuel, a Jewish boy. This relationship blossoms in spite of the barriers and fences between the two boys. By a quirk of fate the friends unite holding hands, one by design one by accident. This is a book that lingers long in the mind. Read it.
David O’Brien
Top |
 |
|
Morality for Beautiful Girls
In Morality for Beatuiful Girls, the third instalment of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith, the Motswana protagonist Precious Ramotswe is forced to make difficult choices.
Faced with a slowdown in business at The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency at Gaborone, Botswana, Mma Ramotswe moves the business into the office of “the excellent” Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, owner of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors.
This hard-working, generous-hearted mechanic is behaving oddly, however. Disinterested and lethargic, in short, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni is depressed; so much so that he cannot continue to run his business. Mma Ramotswe's assistant Mma Makutsi is eager for promotion, and there are now two orphan children whom Mma Ramotswe and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni must raise.
As always with the Precious Ramotswe novels, however, the story of how people live, how deeply they empathize with others, and how well they value courtesy and respect forms the real story. Mma Ramotswe holds this novel’s central position: ever observing, remarking on, and indeed influencing the African world around her.
Clare Doyle
Top |
 |
|
Are you Still Below? The Ford Marina Plant, Cork, 1917 – 1984
In 1917, the Company of Henry Ford and Son Ltd. was established in Cork. Ford was economically motivated -England needed tractors to improve agricultural production to combat the German U-boat blockade, yet he may also have been influenced by his parents’ beginnings in Ireland’s second city. For 67 years Fords would be an integral part of the economic and social life of Cork. Built on the old Cork Park Racecourse site at the Marina, its workforce was regarded as elite among the working classes.
The plant, designed by the famous Kahn Brothers of Detroit, opened on 1 July 1919, one of the most modern industrial plants in Europe. On 3 July 1919, the first tractor rolled off the assembly line. Later, the plant would diversify and assemble cars and vans. At its peak, Fords employed 7,000 men.
The Cork plant forged a unique, almost symbiotic relationship with Fords at Dagenham to which many Irish workers traveled for work during layoffs at the Marina. Emigrants returning to Cork for holidays in style and finery, with traces of an English accent entered Cork folklore as ‘Dagenham Yanks’.
There was the relentless, monotonous demand of the assembly line, however, frequent lay offs, unofficial disputes (Fords did not recognize trades union until 1950), and class distinction between office staff and factory workers. In 1984, unable to cope with the removal of tariff barriers after Ireland joined the EEC, Fords closed. Cork City reeled from its closure.
These events, and many more, are splendidly chronicled in Miriam Nyhan’s Are You Still Below? Using company and trade union archival material, newspapers, photographs and interviews with former members of staff the book vividly recalls the long history of the Cork plant. Miriam Nyhan has produced an important contribution to the economic and social history of Cork.
Kieran Burke
Top |
 |
|
God is not Great – How Religion Poisons Everything
God is not Great follows in the footsteps of books such as Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. Thought provoking and challenging, Hitchens’ argument proposes an a-religious way of being: in a non –objective manner however.
This author’s emotive viewpoint lacks objectivity, and an initial reasonable tone is lost in impassioned argument as the book progresses.
Given the contemporary nature of its subject matter, God is Not Great is worth consideration nonetheless.
Jamie O’Connell
Top |
 |
|
The Accidental Mind
Have you ever wondered… why are the events in dreams so bizarre? Why can’t I tickle myself? Does playing classical music to an infant help its brain to grow? If so, David Linden’s The Accidental Mind is a must read. This lucid presentation of the functioning of the human brain as currently understood by neuroscientists investigates memory, emotion, motor functioning, sleep, vision and even dreams, in accessible prose. The author goes as far as to investigate the localization of functions in the human brain - yet makes the mistake of ascribing a property to a part of the mind that may only be ascribed to a person as a whole. While a visual cortex grants an ability to see, e.g. it is the individual human agent, who sees. This is a hugely enjoyable book however.
Kieran Burke
Top |
 |
|
Jigs and Reels
There is certain quirkiness to Joanne Harris’ work and Jigs and Reels is no exception to this rule. An intriguing collection of short tales, with Jigs and Reels Harris muses on present day preoccupations.
In “Auto-da-fe” the protagonist’s road rage culminates in a vicious attack on another driver. A Place in The Sun takes a further modern focus as its central character obsessively strives for acceptance through physical perfection.
The most appealing stories relay the happenings of ordinary lives; amongst them Faith and Hope a wonderful flight to freedom by two retired ladies who outwit their carers at Meadowbank Home for a day - and Breakfast at Tesco’s where the lonely Miss Golightly befriends the hapless Cheryl.
This may be Harris’s first foray into short story writing; it most certainly will not be her last.
Fionuala Ronan
Top |
 |
|
Emerging Cork
This celebration of Cork’s architectural heritage published by Cork Civic Trust comprises over one hundred images of “the real capital”. A chronology of structural design Emerging Cork examines the face of Ireland’s second city during a period of unprecedented boom and presents a ‘pictorial journey’ of contemporary Cork.
This book is an artistic triumph - images verge on abstraction, with photographs of established landmarks contrasting sharp repetitions with curvilinear aspects of design. Representations of buildings yet to be completed promise exciting developments for a Cork city of the
21st Century. Emerging Cork presents this city’s modern day architecture at its finest.
Jamie O’Connell
Top |
 |
|
Engleby
Sebastian Faulks’ narrative introduces the seemingly uninspired life of Mike Engleby from youth to middle age. We join our protagonist as an English student in 1970s Cambridge: the author artfully conjures Engleby's world of muffled sexual longing and folk rock evenings in the student bar. This character is awkward and socially aloof; an obsession with the attractive Jen is his only link to the undergrad crowd. Jen then disappears in mysterious circumstances - Engleby heads into 1980s London and journalism; but the strange vanishing haunts the rest of this novel.
Faulks has created, in Mike Engleby, an inner world of delicate observations; he finds a girlfriend, and takes a job at a broadsheet, interviewing Jeffrey Archer and Alan Clarke. But there are attacks of instability: "The centripetal force of Engleby failed and I began to fly apart, into my atomic pieces." Engleby pores over Jen's diary, stolen from her Cambridge room.
The author’s moving final passages are faithful to the experience of Engleby and Jen. Faulks writes lines that speak to the heart effectively.
Clare Doyle
Top |
 |
|
Every Single Ball: The Brian Corcoran Story
Every Single Ball is a story of sport, endurance and a passion for Gaelic Games. A journal of Cork’s own Brian Corcoran during the course of a Championship Season, this chronological review of games is interspersed with personal anecdotes and flashbacks to previous hurling and football GAA seasons.
The book becomes the story of one man and the realisation that he is doing too much, and illustrates the point where Corcoran quits the game altogether only to risk a comeback against the odds.
Every Single Ball is a must read for the sports fan and indeed those interested in one individual’s single minded pursuit of success followed by a term in the wilderness. This is a story of personal triumph by one of Irish sports gentlemen. Written in an entertaining style Every Single Ball allows a unique insight into Cork Hurling from a player’s viewpoint. The title comes from a catch phrase used by the Cork Hurling Team of 2006 in their pursuit of the elusive third All Ireland Hurling Championship in a row.
David O’Brien
Top |
 |
|
Father Prout of Watergrasshill 1757-1830
Father Prout, born Daniel Prout in 1757 at Ballingarry, Tipperary became parish priest of Watergrasshill (then known as the parish of Balinalty and Ardnageehy) in 1806. Previously based at Annacarty in Tipperary, Prout was welcomed to Cork by Bishop Moylan who installed him as parish priest at Watergrasshill.
The church in same said parish was in a bad state – Prout immediately drew up plans, and raised funds by levying an unofficial toll on the Cork-Dublin road, (in keeping with his reputation for eccentricity).
Daniel Prout died in 1830. Watergrasshill Community Association must be congratulated on rescuing him from obscurity in this lively book which also includes a brief biography of Francis Sylvester Mahony.
Kieran Burke
Top |
 |
|
The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Back and How We can Still Save Humanity
James Lovelock, gifted scientist, is best known for his proposal of the Gaia hypothesis - the idea that the earth, atmosphere, oceans, geological processes and all living creatures on the earth form a vast, complex, intertwined system that has operated for billions of years; so that conditions on earth remain optimal for life despite the increasing heat from the sun. Lovelock calls this system Gaia and contends that it has the purpose of ensuring the survival of life as a whole, rather than the continued existence of any one form or species. Indeed Gaia as a system will turn against any one predatory energy in its efforts to sustain balance.
This book guides the reader through the problem of global warming and the relentless encroachment of agriculture on areas that were formerly wildernesses which are endangering the future of life on the planet.
Lovelock is a rare creature a genuinely independent thinker. Only the use of nuclear power, he feels, will free us from reliance on the burning of fossil fuel for energy, (the chief cause of global warming); he argues that banning the use of DDT has caused millions of deaths in the tropics from malaria and other insect-borne diseases. This book provokes, surprises, alarms and moves the reader. The author writes with passion, and sometimes anguish, in his attempt to prevent humanity destroying itself through greed and short-sightedness.
Kieran Burke
Top |
 |
|
Say What: New Words Around Town
Say What: New Words Around Town - a humorous dictionary of casual terms that have entered our vocabulary over the last number of years covers modern, sometimes irreverent slang, from “Alcopuppies” to “Yule Grinner”, with sharp illustrations throughout.
This anthology taken from a long running column by Keith Barker Main from the British Metro publication is entertainment itself.
Humorous entries such as Barker-Main’s description of a “Battenberg”, (a holidaymaker whose sunbathing efforts result in a tanning tapestry from white to red to brown) make Say What: New Words Around Town ideal summertime reading.
Jamie O’Connell
Top |
 |
|
Water like a stone
Water like a stone is the eleventh book in the detective series by Deborah Crombie featuring Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James, colleagues in Scotland Yard and life partners when they go home at night. Gemma, divorced, has a young son, Toby, while Kincaid too has a son, Kit, who was born to his wife after his first marriage ended. The twist here is that Kincaid knew nothing of the birth of this boy, now a troubled adolescent, until his mother was the victim of a particularly bloody murder. Now the four have set up home together and the series is as much about the development of trust between Kincaid and Gemma, between Kit and his new stepmother, and between Kit and his new brother, as it is about police work.
The latest novel opens as the family go to Cheshire for their first Christmas with Kincaid’s parents, who live in rural Cheshire. Gemma is worried about Kit, who is doing badly at school and who has become sullen and withdrawn, but she is conscious of the need to tread carefully in the uncertain ground between father and son. However when they arrive in Cheshire in heavy snowfall these worries take second place as Kincaid’s sister Juliet discovers the mummified body of a baby in a barn which her building firm is turning into a luxury residence. Juliet’s family is troubled too: her marriage is breaking up and her elder child, a daughter called Lally, is exhibiting increasingly wild and dangerous behaviour.
Kincaid and Gemma are drawn into the police investigation of the discovery of the dead child, as the investigating officer is a childhood friend of Kincaid. Juliet’s husband’s business partner is also in the circle, as the barn is down the road from where he lives. So too are the canal people, those who live in barges on the Shropshire Union canals, both the traditional narrow boat workers, and the new leisure boaters. Annie Lebow is the owner of one of these ‘weekend’ boats, and the Wain family, isolated by a tragic past which connects them to Lebow, are cornered between the investigating officers and their fear of officialdom. The tangled threads of the mystery come together in the canal people, with fatal consequences, and, as cousins Kit and Lally become closer, the book moves to a nail-biting finish, all the more striking when set against the quiet snow-covered reaches of the canal and the civilised world of Kincaid’s parents’ Christmas preparations.
All in all another excellent novel from Crombie, who lives in Texas but writes beautifully of the English countryside.
Tim O’Mahony
Top |
 |
|
A new view of the Irish Language
Editors Caoilfhionn Nic Pháidín and Seán Ó Cearnaigh have done us all a service by focussing on the state of our first official language in their new work, a collection of essays by various scholars entitled A new view of The Irish Language published by Cois Life Press earlier this year. In the introduction they offer these essays as a successor to Brian Ó Cuív’s View of the Irish language, a series of Thomas Davis lectures published in 1969. Now, as then, the fortunes of the language may be summed up in the phrase ‘a glass half full or a glass half empty’, but the new publication gives some credence to the idea that Irish is in a better position now than it has been since the foundation of the state.
Even since the 2002 census there has been a marked increase in the percentage of those who list themselves as speakers of Irish, both within the Gaeltacht and in the country as a whole, and more importantly there is an increase in those who say they use Irish on a daily basis. Schoolchildren excepted, this figure has gone from roughly 79,000 to 109,000, a remarkable jump. However, more than two-thirds of Gaeltacht schoolchildren who list themselves as daily speakers do not speak Irish outside of school.
We are all guilty of a certain amount of exaggeration in our assessment of our ability to speak Irish, but the essays do portray a more favourable attitude to the language in recent years. The late 1960s and the ‘70s were the years of the Language Freedom Movement, when Irish was compulsory, and failure to pass the Leaving Certificate exam in Irish meant no Leaving Certificate at all. The language was poorly taught in school, the textbooks were old-fashioned, and no attempt was made to encourage students to speak Irish or to integrate the study of Irish with our ordinary lives. Blasketwoman Peig Sayers topped one poll for the most hated person in Ireland! In my own Oral Irish exam for the Leaving Cert, the examiner asked me about Diarmuid Ó hÉigeartaigh, who had been born and reared in the next parish, Caheragh, in West Cork, and had published an autobiography in Irish, Is uasal céard. I had never heard of it. Neither was it ever pointed out to us that our great grandparents, who were still alive in the 1920s, were native speakers. So many opportunities lost.
The book makes a number of valid points in the debate about future language policy. Should language policy be aimed at those who speak Irish, or should it be aimed at the whole population? The difference here, as pointed out, is between maintenance and revival. Should we be aiming to preserve Irish as a national symbol rather than as a language spoken by the vast majority? Is it fair to the people of the Gaeltacht to expect them to bear the whole responsibility for keeping the link to the living Irish of our forbears, a link we all want to preserve but which we do precious little about? Is it possible to maintain Irish as a living language in the remaining Gaeltachts, with the pressure of an English-dominated media? Is Irish going to become a kind of ‘pidgin’ Irish, such as the phrase heard recently, ‘An enjoyeáil tú do holidays?’. A great part of everyday Irish spoken in the Gaeltachts is like that, particularly amongst younger people. Is that such a very bad thing?
The book also includes a number of illuminating essays on the literature of the modern language, discussing poets such as Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Louis de Paor, Biddy Jenkinson, and Cathal Ó Searcaigh, who have explored new themes and visions in their work, and point out the seminal importance of the journal Innti, whose first editors were Gabriel Rosenstock and the late Michael Davitt. In Irish language fiction too, the influence of magic realism is discussed and many innovative and experimental writers are mentioned, including Tómás Mac Síomóin, Mícheál Ó Conghaile, Pádraig Standún, Lorcán S. Ó Treasaigh, and Alan Titley.
Silly episodes such as the controversy about the proper name of Dingle have obscured much of the good work done by the state and the present Minister for the Gaeltacht. Irish enjoys an official position of strength now, both at home and in the European Union, and while the translation of thousands of documents into Irish is expensive, it does give a rationale to the study of the language. Once teaching was the only career open to those with a third-level qualification in Irish, but now there are so many positions as translators, interpreters, and media personnel that Irish in school is already acquiring a new importance as a useful subject, instead of its old image as drudge and hardship.
This book is a thought-provoking and timely collection of well-balanced essays, and is beautifully produced by Cois Life.
Tim O’Mahony
Top
|
 |
|
The Journal of the Cork Historical & Archaeological Society 2008. Vol. 113.
One of the most venerable societies in Cork, the Cork Historical & Archaeological Society, recently issued its journal for 2008. The 80th birthday of the outstanding scholar Diarmaid Ó Murchadha is celebrated in this issue with articles in Irish and English on medieval Gaelic manuscripts and history and on Cork placenames, topics on which Dr Ó Murchadha has written with authority. Other highlights of the journal include a splendid article by John A. Murphy on ‘Six South Munster popular songs and their background’, an article by Dagmar Ó Riain-Raedel on the architect Henry Hill’s journey through the south of Ireland in 1831, a fascinating article by Mary Lantry on the various depictions of the arms of Cork city and a spirited contribution from Pat Holohan on two Cork parliamentary elections in the 1830s and their connection with a broadsheet ballad.
The 2008 volume maintains the high standards of scholarship and readability of its predecessors. It is available in the Local Studies Department of Cork City Libraries.
Kieran Burke
Top |
|
|
In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century
Geert Mak’s In Europe is at once a travel book and a meditation on the history of Europe in the twentieth century. Each chapter is set in either one of Europe’s great cities, or in places that are associated with some of the grim events in the continent’s recent history, e.g. Srebrenica. Mak visits and revisits Berlin, Moscow, London and other capitals and vividly recreates many of the historic happenings that helped chart the course of European history. This author’s descriptions are always interesting and his grasp of the major personalities of twentieth century is very impressive. Brilliantly written and displaying an encyclopaedic knowledge of modern European culture, In Europe is a profound study on the history of modern Europe. In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century is available now at Cork City Libraries.
Kieran Burke
Top |
 |
|
Foul Play: What’s wrong with sport?
Joe Humphreys
This book might more aptly be titled "The Sport Delusion". In his fresh and challenging review of a world inordinately focused on the pursuit of competitive sport — in the media, business, education institutions, community life, ‘cultural’ activities, and everyday personal lives — Humphreys challenges the bona fides of competitive sport. While praising uncompetitive play, he argues that most ‘sport’ activities are exercises in exclusion, tied closely to identifying weakness among would-be participants. Competitive sport is seen as far from innocent fun, despite the repeated mantras that "sport is good for you" or "sport improves character", which can convince uncritical thinkers who easily overlook very many disreputable aspects of sport, which he sees as a "moral experiment that has gone badly wrong".
Humphreys argues that, to be immersed in the world of competitive sport, people must take seriously what is essentially a triviality, must debase and stupefy themselves, must engage in various convoluted rituals not unlike religion, and must believe the unbelievable while they embrace their ‘faith’. Furthermore, like religious fundamentalists, whose lifeblood is attacking people who don’t share their particular faith, sports fans tend to define themselves by their opposition to ‘the other’. They can often switch support to a particular team because they hate that team’s opponent.
The author points out that sport often provides one of the last refuges for forms of widespread intolerance — such as, racism, sexism, homophobia, animal cruelty, foul language, and divisions between race, gender, and class — that are otherwise removed from modern organized activities. Hatred in sport has claimed a few thousand victims through hooliganism and public fights, sometimes termed ‘a bit of fun’ by fans.
Humphreys contends that the real cost of sport is in our time lost in an escape from reality, an escape that can sap life and its very meaning. Noam Chomsky believes that sport has a retarding effect on society, "to take apart the system of illusions and deception which functions to prevent understanding of contemporary reality ... instead of questions that really matter for human life, their own included". Sport is a distraction that the world can ill-afford, e.g., many sports fans know the minutiae of sports statistics while having no clue of the 1998-2003 Congo war that left 4 million dead. Sport is the modern equivalent of Nero’s Roman fiddle (Chomsky): we play it while the world burns.
Another negative of competitive sport is that it can be seen to be anti-family, contrary to the promoted view that it brings families closer. The author sees fathers who wax lyrical about football yet are found wanting when more serious issues concerning their children could be discussed: the intensity of sport fanatics tends to increase in proportion to their neglect of family duties. ‘Collateral damage’ in family relationships can be manifested where children might know almost everything about their father’s favourite football team while knowing little about their father as a person. Athletes sacrifice quality of life; family; personal development, including education; weekends; kids’ birthdays, etc.
Humphreys cites research findings on the sociology of sport showing that sport legitimizes egocentrism, and — rather than developing virtues like fair play, social cohesion, respect for others — instead encourages even amateurs to cheat, to distort rules, and to show disrespect for fellow competitors, while followers tend to engage in boorishness. Sport competitions encourage athletes to commit what would normally be considered moral transgressions. In turn, sport organizations try to deflect attention from the bad qualities of sport towards the individuals who are seen to transgress.
The author challenges sports journalists, whose collective duty he sees as trying to intellectualize the unintelligent, embellishing straightforward statements about the shallow pursuit of kicking a ball around a field. While he is sceptical of professional commentators as they try to ‘brain up’ sport, he is more scathing of academics who lose themselves when stating the obvious within their own self-sustaining constructs, since any effort to intellectualize the ‘dumb’ pursuit of competitive sport is futile, adding that research on sport tends to be either humbug or banal.
If one were to classify sport with other organized activities, Humphreys believes sport might compare with MTV’s ‘Jackass’ pursuits rather than with refined pursuits such as literature or art. He contrasts the behaviour of match followers with those attending an art display, who are never heard shouting abuse at the art curator to "get another pair of f***ing glasses", or how you never see head-butting at book fairs. Instead, competitive sport permits or even encourages behaviour verging on the psychopathic.
Humphreys argues that fairness in sport competition is only an illusion and that cheating in competitive sport is de rigueur. Mean-spirited judgementalism is the stock response today to mistakes, and is a new type of puritanism which is getting worse. His arguments reflect Stephen Blair who suggested that, "The ‘high priests of Fleet Street thrive in this heightened world of judgementalism. In today’s world of tabloid-driven, manufactured outrage, celebrities and public figures are ‘fair game’ for abuse, fanned on by the pack mentality of sports enthusiasts". The hallmark of a fan is often someone who easily takes offence, since sport is associated with heightened judgementalism as well as being a theatre for exaggerated emotions. The stereotypical sports fan is not known for his sense of perspective, as he is compelled to eulogize rather than praise, to condemn rather than censure, and he is as eager to give offence as to take it. Sport fanatics also fail to see the bigger picture. Sports administrators can be very inconsistent: one time ignoring cheating while another time victimizing the perpetrator.
The author is also critical of politicians who spend vast sums of public money on competitive sports facilities, particularly contact sports, "detrimental to individuals’ moral character", adding that the pack mentality evident at competitions also dilutes players’ sense of personal moral responsibility. The book presents a variety of other critical comments concerning sport, e.g., that all sporting codes have elitism, arrogance, a sanctimonious air; that gambling is a sister pursuit of sport; that sports journalism often more closely resembles advertising than news; and that the hallmark of a closed society is an unhealthy obsession with sport. Humphreys also argues that competitive sport is often quite unhealthy for athletes, leading to steroid taking and long-term damage; starving or overeating for results; damaging joints; not to mention contact sport damage, such as spinal injuries and fatalities.
On the plus side, the author argues that the positive aspect of sport is sport that is performed for its own sake or for fun, i.e., without the goal of victory. The benefit of non-competitive sport roughly equates to the benefits of play: exercise, socializing, and even discipline, courage, and invention. He suggests that the Special Olympics, by not focusing primarily on competition, do advance personal development and self-esteem. As John Gray said, "The best fisherman is not the one who catches the most fish but the one who enjoys fishing the most".
Overall, the author sees competitive sport as ultimately a dangerous emotional crutch since teams lose most of the time. Reflecting Chomsky, Humphreys surmises that maybe sport is craved because it creates fleeting euphoria papering over the cracks of human despair, making everyman’s humdrum life bearable — and this obsession thrives in a world where those who do not share an interest in sport can be seen as partaking in one of the most subversive acts in society today. For sport agnostics and sport fans, Foul Play provides a well articulated challenge to the all-pervasive goliath of a world increasingly focused on the distraction of competitive sport.
John Mullins |
 |
|
Books on Fire: The tumultuous story of the world’s great libraries
Lucien X. Polastron
In the words of the author, “almost as old as the idea of the library is the urge to control and destroy it.” For millennia, the world’s greatest libraries have been subject to wanton acts of vandalism, from the burning of the library at Alexandria to the destruction which occurred in Iraq as recently as the past decade. “Books on Fire” follows this trend, and attempts to uncover the reasons why seats of learning and knowledge have traditionally posed such a threat to various (often extremist) powers. This book is quite academic but very readable for persons interested in matters such as censorship and freedom of expression (Germany in the 1930s and Cambodia in the 1970s are cases which stand out as examples of extreme censorship). A thought provoking book, which is available now from the lending department of Cork City Libraries.
|
 |
|
An A to Z of Youghal
Tim FitzGerald
‘An A to Z of Youghal’ edited by Tim FitzGerald, with entries from a variety of contributors, is an enjoyable book to dip into for information on the history of the famous old walled East Cork town. There are entries on prominent persons associated with the history of Youghal including Cromwell and the ‘witch of Youghal’, Florence Newton. Other entries deal with the cinema in Youghal, the railway line, the lighthouse and a fascinating entry on ‘Quotations’ which lists the use of the name ‘Youghal’ in the works of famous writers including Rudyard Kipling and James Joyce. The entries are succinct, well chosen and replete with little known facts about the town. All in all, the book is a little gem. ‘An A to Z of Youghal’ is available in the Local Studies Library at Cork City Libraries.
Kieran Burke
|
|
|
The Pacific War
William B. HopkinsThe author of this well structured book, unlike most of the Second World War historians, actually fought in the pacific theatre. Hopkins admits that he knew very little about how the battles against Japan were won or lost. In the years that past after the war Hopkins set about informing himself about those battles. Many massive volumes have been published about those battles along with the memoirs of the senior commanders involved. Worthy yet wordy texts, which tell you what happened and when. Hopkins’s book is different. He focuses on why these battles were fought, how decisions were made, and what actually happened at the strategic level. Answering questions which have been difficult to get answers to, and thereby giving us a much deeper understanding of why the pacific war evolved the way it did. The book is well thought out and structured, making the insights Hopkins reviles readily accessible. The Pacific War, the Strategy, Politics, and Players That Won the War is available now at Cork City Libraries. |
 |
|
The Vikings in Ireland
Mary Valente
The popular image of the Viking age in Ireland is often limited to marauding warriors and prowling long ships. This is certainly how the Viking age began in Ireland, but is this all there is to this period? Mary Valente thinks not. In her new book ‘The Vikings in Ireland’, she argues that the Viking age saw the introduction of urbanisation in Ireland. The expansion of trade, both on a national and most importantly an international level and the introduction of new materials and technologies are just tow of the profound changes that they brought to Ireland. Yet the task of sifting the remaining records and making sense of the place names and family histories and surnames is no mean feat! Yet Valente manages to do this and present her findings in a way which keep the reader interested in her subject. The first chapter in very interesting in the picture it paints of Ireland in the seventh and eight centuries. The inclusion of easy to read maps in the book will also picq the interest of the ‘self thought’ historian as much as the more academically minded. This book is a must for anyone interested in the development of Ireland and its towns and cities, including of course Cork! ‘The Vikings in Ireland; Settlement, trade and urbanisation’ is now available at Cork City Libraries.
Top |
 |
