Author: Brendan BehanPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dramatists, Irish
Languages : en
Pages : 270
Book Description
Borstal Boy
Author: Brendan BehanPublisher: David R. Godine Publisher
ISBN: 9781567921052
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 404
Book Description
This miracle of autobiography and prison literature begins: "Friday, in the evening, the landlady shouted up the stairs: 'Oh God, oh Jesus, oh Sacred Heart, Boy, there's two gentlemen here to see you.' I knew by the screeches of her that the gentlemen were not calling to inquire after my health . . . I grabbed my suitcase, containing Pot. Chlor., Sulph Ac, gelignite, detonators, electrical and ignition, and the rest of my Sinn Fein conjurer's outfit, and carried it to the window . . ." The men were, of course, the police, and seventeen-year-old Behan. He spent three years as a prisoner in England, primarily in Borstal (reform school), and was then expelled to his homeland, a changed but hardly defeated rebel. Once banned in the Irish Republic, Borstal Boy is both a riveting self-portrait and a clear look into the problems, passions, and heartbreak of Ireland.
Rebel Hearts
Author: Kevin ToolisPublisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1250088739
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 424
Book Description
For ten years Kevin Toolis investigated the lives of the IRA soldiers who wage a secret battle against the British State. His journeys took him from the back kitchens of Belfast, where men joked while making two-thousand-pound bombs, to prisons for interviews with men serving life sentences, and to the graveyards where mourners weep. Each chapter explores a world where history, faith, and human savagery determine life and death. At once moving and harrowing,Rebel Hearts is the most authoritative and insightful book ever written on the IRA.
Author: E.H. MikhailBrendan Behan
Author: Michael O'SullivanPublisher: Roberts Rinehart
ISBN: 1461660270
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
Hailed as the new O'Casey by Irish critics in 1958, Behan is now often portrayed as the archetypal Irishman and spectacular drunk. Behind the myth lies the more compelling story of a writer who was never able to fully harness his larger-than-life personality and talent.
Ireland
Author: Gustave de BeaumontPublisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674031113
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 444
Book Description
Paralleling his friend Alexis de Tocqueville's visit to America, Gustave de Beaumont traveled through Ireland in the mid-1830s to observe its people and society. In Ireland, he chronicles the history of the Irish and offers up a national portrait on the eve of the Great Famine. Published to acclaim in France, Ireland remained in print there until 1914. The English edition, translated by William Cooke Taylor and published in 1839, was not reprinted. In a devastating critique of British policy in Ireland, Beaumont questioned why a government with such enlightened institutions tolerated such oppression. He was scathing in his depiction of the ruinous state of Ireland, noting the desperation of the Catholics, the misery of repeated famines, the unfair landlord system, and the faults of the aristocracy. It was not surprising the Irish were seen as loafers, drunks, and brutes when they had been reduced to living like beasts. Yet Beaumont held out hope that British liberal reforms could heal Ireland's wounds. This rediscovered masterpiece, in a single volume for the first time, reproduces the nineteenth-century Taylor translation and includes an introduction on Beaumont and his world. This volume also presents Beaumont's impassioned preface to the 1863 French edition in which he portrays the appalling effects of the Great Famine. A classic of nineteenth-century political and social commentary, Beaumont's singular portrait offers the compelling immediacy of an eyewitness to history.
Author: John DevoyBrendan Behan
Author: Ulick O'ConnorPublisher: Abacus
ISBN: 0349140960
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 371
Book Description
When Brendan Behan died in 1964 at the age of 41, he had rung the changes in his short life: bomber, gunman, borstal boy, alcoholic and, finally, international literary figure with the success of The Quare Fellow , The Hostage and Borstal Boy . But Behan drowned his talent in a whiskey bottle and became the caricature of an Irish stage drunk, clowning his way with oaths and stories between bars in Dublin, London, Paris and New York. Written in association with his widow, his mother and others of his family and friends, and old IRA comrades, this is a biography of Brendan Behan.
Confessions of a Pagan Nun
Author: Kate HorsleyPublisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834823756
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 171
Book Description
A druid-turned-nun writes of faith, love, loss, and religion in this “beautifully written and thought-provoking book” set at the dawn of Ireland’s Christian era (Library Journal) Cloistered in a stone cell at the monastery of Saint Brigit, a sixth-century Irish nun secretly records the memories of her Pagan youth, interrupting her assigned task of transcribing Augustine and Patrick. She revisits her past, piece by piece—her fiercely independent mother, whose skill with healing plants and inner strength she inherited; her druid teacher, the brusque and magnetic Giannon, who introduced her to the mysteries of the written language. But disturbing events at the cloister keep intervening. As the monastery is rent by vague and fantastic accusations, Gwynneve's words become the one force that can save her from annihilation. “As a slant of sunlight illuminates jewels long buried, Kate Horsley's novel brings words to an ancient silence and a living, vivid presence to people who lived in that time of great changes and estrangements we call the Dark Ages.” —Ursula K. Le Guin
Markievicz
Author: Lindie NaughtonPublisher: Merrion Press
ISBN: 1785370847
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 378
Book Description
Countess Constance Markievicz - one of the most remarkable women in Irish history - was a revolutionary, a socialist and a feminist, as well as an artist and writer. A natural leader, "Madame," as she was known to thousands of Dubliners, took an active part in the 1916 Rising and was one of the few leaders to escape execution. Instead, she spent an arduous year in an English prison, surrounded by murderers, prostitutes and thieves. Later, during another stretch in prison, she would make history as the first woman elected to the British Houses of Parliament, and momentous event that is due to receive widespread commemoration at the time of its centenary in December 2018. Lindie Naughton's compelling biography sheds light on all facets of Markievicz's life - her privileged upbringing in County Sligo, her adventures as an art student in London and Paris, her marriage to an improbable Polish count, her political education, her several prison terms, and her emergence as one of the pivotal figures in early 20th century Britain and Ireland. Constance Markievicz, a woman with a huge heart, battled all her adult life to establish an Irish republic based on co-operation and equality for all. Her message is as relevant today as it was a century ago.
