Dublin: The Story of a City The publication of any book of drawings by Stephen Conlin is something of an event for any student of our capital city. This book is particularly welcome, bringing together as it does most of the artist’s most important Dublin drawings, made in a long career stretching well over 30… Read More Dublin: The Story of a City by Stephen Conlin and Peter Harbison, reviewed
What are we to make of Eamon de Valera? Incomparably he was the dominant figure of twentieth century Irish politics. Indeed he was the maker of modern Ireland, nation builder par excellence, a figure comparable with Gandhi or Nehru in India or with Washington in the United States. In a newly created state like Ireland,… Read More Eamon de Valera, a Will to Power by Ronan Fanning.
Marina Neary’s Dublin-based novel takes the extraordinary, real-life figure of feminist; stage actress, Trade Unionist and Irish republican revolutionary Helena Molony and turns her life into a page turner set as a series of dramatic vignettes and events. The whole thing is set during Ireland’s Cultural Renaissance and Gaelic Revival and the extraordinary Revolutionary period.… Read More Never Be at Peace – a historical 1916 novel by Marina Neary.
A History of the Easter Rising in 50 Objects. By John Gibney historian. Some if not most readers may be familiar with Ireland in 100 Objects, a wide ranging history-through artifact book helmed by Fintan O’Tooole. Here in A History of the Easter Rising in 50 Objects, historian John Gibney (who I know, formerly… Read More A History of the Easter Rising in 50 Objects. By John Gibney historian.
Four best books on Dublin, for your Christmas list. Often after giving a talk or a tour, guests ask me to recommend a good reference book or two on Dublin. People, with their curiosity piqued or revived, naturally want to learn more. I’m flattered to be asked, and usually recommend the same books I use… Read More Great books on Dublin, for your reading pleasure.
I’m delighted to see my neigbour and friend Hugh Oram has put himself online with a excellent, very attractive new website. I find myself quite jealous of the nice clear presentation and lovely pictures there! For those of you that haven’t discovered him yet, Hugh sometimes stands in and writes the well-known daily Irish… Read More Hugh Oram’s website, a national treasure, online at last!
The castle at Bentheim: an essay of random thoughts on landscape, history and money, modernity and nostalgia in the Dutch Golden Age. Look at this. Don’t by the way try reading this piece on a phone. Wait until you have access to a proper screen. Then look at this. It’s a detail of a work… Read More Landscape, modernity and nostalgia in the Dutch Golden Age.
Arran Q Henderson 