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Christmas Preview 2010 | Irish History

Editor — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:52:32 +0000

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The Best Of Irish History Titles For Christmas 2010

The sheer volume of Irish History titles that come on the market in any one year makes picking even a small number of them for this preview a difficult task. However some do stand out for a variety of reasons.

The one likely to get the most attention in the press is of course Ryan Tubridy’s, JFK In Ireland: Four Days That Changed A President. HarperCollins have staked quite a bit on their two book deal with Tubridy and he himself mentions the books on a fairly regular basis. What’s more JFK is popular still in Ireland and I’d expect the attention to be reflected in good sales.

Another candidate for high sales in Gill & Macmillan published, THE IRA – A Documentary History by Brian Hanley, a frankly gorgeously illustrated work that will appeal to both dedicated history buyers and a more gift orientated buyer. Much more controversial and definitely bound to attract column inches, is Gerard Murphy’s The Year of Disappearances: Political Killings in Cork, 1920-1921, also published by Gill & Macmillan.

O’Brien Press‘ A Coward If I Return, A Hero If I Fall: Stories Of Irishmen In world War I, by Neil Richardson is a great book touching on territory that Irish society has slowly but surely been coming to terms with over the last few years. The powerful illustrations and the striking cover are likely to attract sales over the christmas.

Brandon will publish, Dissent Into Treason: Unitarians, King-killers And The Society Of United Irishmen, by Fergus Whelan in November. The book, while maybe not having the popular appeal of some others nonetheless deals with the fascinating origins of Irish Republicanism in the days of Cromwellian repression of Ireland.

Collins Press in Cork publish, Remember When: Pictures from the Irish Examiner Archive, which will no doubt sell exceptionally well in Cork, but also nationwide. Mercier Press‘ big Christmas title may well be Raymond O’Reagan’s Hidden Belfast: Benevolence, Blackguards and Balloon Heads which is part of their Hidden series, which now has three titles in print (Dublin and Cork being the other two).

Not to be ignored either is the Royal Irish Academy‘s latest publication, The Cosgrave Party: A History of Cumann na nGaedheal by Ciara Meehan. Given the recent form of the RIA with two successful Christmas releases behind, I’d imagine this might go well, it’s also a relatively understudied part of our history.

Quite the mix for the christmas season then.

The Books

Daily Links 29/04/2010

Editor — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 19:15:05 +0000

DELVIN (Garradrimna) BOOK FAIR
Readings from The Valley of the Squinting Windows by Mary McEvoy and Eamonn Lawlor at the DELVIN (Garradrimna) BOOK FAIR
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Royal Irish Academy
This will be fun I think! See you there?
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A Quick Note On Media 2020
Publishers, why were you not at Media 2020?
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Irish Twitterati | Gadget Republic
David links to Gadet Republic’s take on the Twitterati
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Book Trailers
I’m not a huge fan of book trailers, I think most of them are terrible!
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Python loose in Bantry
Looks like a very good line up!
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Daily Links 20/02/2010

Editor — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 14:37:04 +0000

New Cool Book Feature at Newsweek
A very cool site with digested reads on Newsweek!
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A fascinating portrait of ‘little London’
A very full review of the RIA’s Historic Atlas of Limerick
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The light of Lismore
Nice feature on Dervla Murphy!
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Guest blog: day 5
And it’s day five! I’m liking these contributions!
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Nebula Awards Shortlist
You can rely on David to update the prize lists!
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Cover Unveiled for Android Karenina
This may well be the limit of Zombie-lit that I can take!
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Could the Kindle and iPad Kill Quality Content?
Interesting note on GigaOm
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At Record-Busting $19 Mil, It’s Happy Holiday Season for E-Books
Stunning ebook sales figures!
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Daily Links 15/02/20101

Editor — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:23:45 +0000

Guest blog: Twins A and C come to Little Island
A rather nice feature Liitle Island’s junior interns are sharing their thoughts
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Author Dick Francis dies aged 89
89 is a good age!
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Epic achievement lays milestone for Irish scholarship
The Independent covers the Dictionary of Irish Biography
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Sunday Indo feature plus Arts Council news
Odd how they hide the big news down the bottom!
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Loose Leaves
Notes on the Dublin Book Festival!
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Captain Rock and a hard place
review of Collins’ Captain Rock
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In pursuit of the pinkindindies
Noleen Dowling rounds up some local history releases!
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Poetry Now Festival
Emerging shares the highlights of the upcoming poetry now festival
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National Library of Ireland appoints new Director
Fiona Ross appointed new Director of the National Library of Ireland.
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RIA's The Dictionary of Irish Biography Wins US Award

Editor — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:45:35 +0000

The Royal Irish Academy‘s Dictionary of Irish Biography has won the prestigious PROSE* award from the Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division is part of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) in the Multivolume Reference/Humanities & Social Sciences category.

The Irish Times is currently featuring extracts from the book in its weekend section and a reader from Santa Monica in Californian is blogging his way through the 9700 entries.

The Dictionary can be accessed online here.

The PROSE Awards annually recognize the very best in professional and scholarly publishing by bringing attention to distinguished books, journals, and electronic content in over 40 categories. Judged by peer publishers, librarians, and medical professionals since 1976, the PROSE Awards are extraordinary for their breadth and depth.

From the Prose Awards Website.

Open Thread: January Sales Bargains

Editor — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:57:15 +0000

The January sales have begun
Yesterday the best value I saw was Jamie’s America(if you’ve nor seen his website for the show, check it out here) for €12.99 in Easons a stinking price. Likewise in Easons, Albert Reynolds’ Memoir was only €9.99.

Hughes & Hughes have a 20% of everything which is a blanket backlist deal across the store which strikes me as an excellent offer. I was also taken by the 30% off the RIA published Judging Lemass, written by Tom Garvin.

Otherwise nothing really caught my attention, let me know what you’ve seen out there in Irish bookshops.
Editor