Strong Words, Brave Deeds: the poetry, life and times of Thomas O’Brien, volunteer in the Spanish Civil War

H. Gustav Klaus (ed.) (O’Brien Press, £15.99) This is several books rolled into one—biography, letters, poems, plays, and essays, the whole project ‘illustrated with historic photographs, documents and ephemera’. The title suggests a simplistic approach belied by the contents. This is a book that will enchant, inform, anger and frustrate, as much as the events … Read more

A Companion Guide to Architecture in Ireland, 1837-1921

Jeremy Williams (Irish Academic Press, £35) In his foreword to this book Mark Girouard recalls schoolboy holidays in Ireland and a youthful appreciation of Irish nineteenth-century classicism gained through the seat of his trousers on sliding down the staircase balustrade of an aunt’s Greek-revival house. Jeremy Williams A Companion Guide to Architecture in Ireland, 1837-1921 … Read more

Landlords and tenants in mid-Victorian Ireland

Landlords and tenants in mid-Victorian Ireland W.E. Vaughan (Clarendon Press, £40) This scholarly work is the result of long, methodical research based on an impressive range of primary sources, most notably estate papers. It is delivered free from irritating jargon with the econometric analysis lightened by a varied array of anecdotal backup. Vaughan questions conventional … Read more