Discover Kilkenny. By John Bradley. O'Brien Press. £9.99
In their battle to retain '`city" status, the citizens of Kilkenny certainly have had history on their side. For centuries the place has been regarded as a city - it was an important Anglo-Norman centre, a seat of parliament (the 1366 one enacted the infamous Statute of Kilkenny) and it was accorded the status, officially, of a city in 1609. In addition it was for a brief period the seat of a university. Surely enough to be going on. But, to further strengthen their case, they now have this succinct history of the city, which leaves no one in any doubt that the place deserves the title. Bradley, an archaeologist, historian and a native of Kilkenny, contributes this clearly written account to the commendable "City Guides" series published by O'Brien. It is brief (only 127 pages) but the author manages to cram into those pages a colourful record of the place from its origins as an early Christian monastic site, through its Anglo-Norman heyday to the present, with its "urban renewal"; a process that has seen some of Kilkenny's medieval structures destroyed. There are many full-colour photographs to help us to appreciate what is left. Happily this leaves the city retaining more of its medieval character than any other similar centre in Ireland.
Gallon. By William John Bradley. Guildhall Press. £8.95 in UK
The lengthy sub-title of this book really says it all: "The history of three townlands in County Tyrone from the earliest times to the present day." The three townlands are Gallon Lower, Gallon Upper and Gallon Sessiagh but also included are several smaller townlands in the vicinity, all near Newtownstewart, Co Tyrone. When the author, teacher William J. Bradley, was a youth of 15 he undertook his first census of the area and since then he has been chronicling the history of the place. The result is a meticulous record of Gallon over 7,000 years, with understandable emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries, illustrated by the many black-andwhite photographs of local people and places. The book will be of particular interst to the inhabitants of Gallon, but may also stir memories for many Tyrone folk at home and abroad.
Seaweed Memories - In the Jaws of the Sea. By Heinrich Becker. Wolfhound Press. £7.99
The rather banal main title of this collection belies the fascinating contents, gathered by its German author over many years from people in the west of Ireland. The sub-title is more appropriate, being a direct translation of the original I mBeal na Farraige, published by Clo IarChonnachta in 1997. It consists of 86 short memoirs associated with seaweed and the sea, and their place in the folklore of the West. Being direct translations of stories told by fishermen and coastdwellers, the collection has all the irresistible simplicity, together with valuable social dimension, of the classic folk-tale. Here are myths and superstitions involving black mermen, storm witches and fairy abductions, testament to the imagination and enduring culture of a people which has now gone. The author has performed an estimable exercise in rescuing these stories for posterity. The book includes many fine monochrome photographs of some of the people from whom Becker collected the memoirs in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.
The Cliff Scenery of South-Western Donegal. By Kinnfaela (T.C.McGinley). Four Masters Press. £25
This rather expensive hardback is a reprint of a work originally published in 1867 which itself was a collection of articles that first appeared in The Derry Journal. The author was a national teacher, Thomas Colin McGinley (18301887), who adopted the pen-name Kinnfaela, based on the Irish form of his surname, Mac Cinnfhaolaidh, and his "tour" of south-west Donegal shows him to have been a classical scholar, if the reader is to judge by the numerous lengthy quotations from the likes of Shakespeare, Southey, Gerald, Griffin and Goldsmith. He even uses occasional passages in Latin from The Aeneid and although Dr Michael Herity, in a preliminary "Comment", refers to McGinley's "economy which informs his descriptions", readers will find the prose flowery and dramatic. Eanna Mac Cuinneagain, a native of the area described in the book, contributes an informative sketch of McGinley's life and times and there are a few colour photographs at the end to give a taste of the beauty and history of the region. This is a book for the shelves of all Donegal bibliophiles.
George Edmund Street and the Restoration of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. Roger Stalley, editor. Four Courts Press. £30
This volume, the seventh in the Christ Church documents series, is a facsimile reprint of the reports of the Victorian architect George Edmund Street on the "restoration" in the 1870s of the old cathedral. Street's work drastically altered the appearance of Christ Church and its adjoining streetscape, but he ably defended his actions in the face of some scepticism. His reports form the basis of this reprint, which is illustrated with original sketches and carries a learned commentary by Roger Stalley as well as comments from contemporary journals such as the Irish Builder.
Richard Roche is a local historian, author and critic