LOCAL HISTORY:A round-up of research into places and people from the Dublin docklands to the west Cork Gaeltacht
DUBLIN'S DOCKLANDS, like much of Victorian Dublin itself, have given way to towers of glass and steel, the national conference centre, the Sean O'Casey Bridge (and now, the Samuel Beckett Bridge), sophisticated restaurants and bars, boutique hotels and the promise of theatres, galleries and what amounts to almost a whole new city beyond Butt Bridge. Turtle Bunbury's Dublin Docklands: An Urban Voyage(Dublin Docklands Development Authority, 251pp. €30; available from certain bookshops and from the Docklands Authority, call 01-8183300 or e-mail info@dublindocklands.ie) is a magnificent reminder of what was there before, and the stories attaching to the campshires (the spaces between roads and water), wharves and warehouses. It reaches back into the past, charts the present-day development, and looks to the future. Full of stories, anecdotes and personalities, with lavish illustrations, it makes for enlightening and rewarding reading.
Tuath na Dromann: A history of Cill na Martraby Donal Murphy (Original Writing, Dublin, 173pp. €15; originalwriting.ie) is enough to make one wish to have been born a native of the west Cork town (Kilnamartyra). It would be good to have such a scholarly and readable account of one's home place.
Donal Murphy begins with the geographic and geological features of the area, and continues through its places and names to an account of the life of its patron, St Lachtain. The reliquary of the saint’s right arm, now empty and residing in the National Museum, dates from the early 12th century, and was used locally for swearing all important oaths upon. It is thought that the relic itself gave the church, and the town, its name.
The subject of Senator Kathleen A Browne (1876 – 1943): Patriot, Politician and Practical Farmer,by Mary McAuliffe (Roscrea Publications, 126pp. €30; walshroscrea@gmail.com) sounds like a formidable woman. Indeed, to judge by the photograph on the cover, where she appears clad in Celtic dress and is accompanied by a soulful Irish wolfhound, she was both strong-willed and eccentric. The book is a specially commissioned family memento which has been locally published and describes the life and times of a woman who lived a vivid life. Unfortunately, however diligently Mary McAuliffe has pursued her thorough research, Browne never really comes to life on the page. She has, perhaps, been a victim of her own attempts to create a persona – it is one which remains distant and stiff. For someone who was at various times in her life a political prisoner in 1916, a senator, a politician, a linguist of the local Wexford dialect, Yola, an artist and an enthusiastic Blue-shirt, she should come across more vividly. Still, for anyone interested in women's role in the national struggle, this book will be rewarding.
The research and writing of They Put the Flag A-Flyin': The Roscommon Volunteers 1916 – 1923by Kathleen Hegarty Thorne (Generation Publishing, Oregon, USA 544pp. $49.95; generationpublishing.com) took 12 years, a huge investment of time and life. Now the book has gone into a second edition, with a "Mayo addendum" of volunteers and actions in that county. The book includes many illustrations.
Stylish, well-designed and packed full of goodies for the local historian, the Old Kilkenny Review 2008: Journal of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, (edited by Ann Murtagh, 222pp. €20; rothehouse.com) is one for the permanent bookshelf. Among its many treats is a story about the Metal Man of Danesfort, a classical bronze statue of great beauty, which Francis McEvoy recounts with great gusto. Thought to have originated in the home of the Wemyss family, Danesfort House Co Kilkenny, after an attempted theft it was thrown into a field, where it was erected by the owner and stood for more than a century. In 1979 it was photographed in a house at Bailey, Howth, Co Dublin. Pursuing the many legends concerning the statue's "movements" without ever really solving the whole mystery, makes for a highly entertaining and illuminating essay.
The Light of Other Daysby Sam Hutchison (Wordwell Books, 193pp. €35) is a personal collection of stories about monuments, mausoleums and memorials in Church of Ireland churches and graveyards and those whom they commemorate. One of the most poignant is that of Mary and Emily Wilde, who were preparing for a party on Halloween night in 1871 when the ball gown of one of the girls caught fire. As her sister tried to put out the flames, the blaze spread to her dress too, and both died some days later. They were 22 and 24, and the illegitimate daughters of Sir William Wilde, father of Oscar. They are buried in St Molua's, Drumsnatt, Co Monaghan.
Locomotives of the GSRby Jeremy Clements and Michael McMahon (Colourpoint Books, pp384. £35) is a collection of photographs and descriptions of the locomotive trains on the Great Southern Railways, along with a useful history of the company, created in 1924.
The images are the attraction of Doorways of Irelandby Michael Fewer (Frances Lincoln, 128pp. £14.99). It looks at entrances to buildings ranging from the Neolithic period of about 3,000 BC (the cairn at Seefin, Co. Wicklow), to the 8th-century Gallarus Oratory near Dingle, Co Kerry, to the doorway of Derry City Council Offices dating from 2005. It's a beautiful chronicle of many wonderful buildings.
Finally, Tracing Your Donegal Ancestorsby Helen Meehan and Godfrey Duffy (Flyleaf Press, 160pp. €13.00; flyleaf.ie) has useful ideas for tracing ancestors with sources described, contents explained and a useful indication of where each can be accessed.
Noeleen Dowling is a freelance journalist and local historian