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Welcome to Irish Academic Press Irish Academic Press is a long established Dublin-based publisher of high quality books of Irish interest. Our publishing programme includes Irish History, Contemporary Irish History, Military and Political History, Literature, Arts and the Media, Social History, Women's Studies and Genealogy. We hope that among our past and present titles you will find titles of interest.
Our new and forthcoming publications include several important and eagerly awaited titles. |
|  | Rock and Popular Music in Ireland: Before and After U2
McLaughlin, Noel; McLoone, Martin
Accessibly written and well illustrated, this book explores Irish rock music's relationship to the wider world of international popular music through a detailed analysis of the Ireland's most prominent artists and bands - U2, Van Morrison, Sinead O'Connor, The Boomtown Rats, and Horslips - along with key musical movements including the Beat Scene, the Folk Revival, Northern Irish Punk, and Dance Music in Ireland. It brings to the study of popular music the concerns of Irish Studies about national and cultural identity and, at the same time, enriches these debates by applying a focus on popular music culture to debates traditionally concerned with literature and drama. The book focuses on the significance of music and music in performance, and it analyzes songs and albums, as well as live concerts on television and video/DVD. It presents a wealth of primary research to establish a detailed critical context, such as the music press in Ireland, the UK, and US. The authors have interviewed key industry personnel, artists, and commentators, and their thoughts on Irish rock and pop are particularly interesting to the broader debate.
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|  | The Trial of Civilians by Military Courts
Ireland 1921
Enright, Sean
In December 1920, Ireland's War of Independence hung in the balance. The response of the government at Westminster was a declaration of martial law in the south and west of Ireland, placing the courts and civil authorities under the control of the army, and also converting a number of non-capital charges into offenses punishable by death. The army then set up its own courts to bring to trial and to punish those who contravened martial law. The lower tier of the military court sent 549 people to prison and recommended many others for internment. The upper tier of the court tried 128 people. 37 men were sentenced to death, of which 14 were executed. Many others received long sentences of imprisonment. This book provides a full account of the historical context and a legal justification for martial law asserted by the government of Lloyd George. The legal, moral, and constitutional issues are examined, along with an analysis of the circumstances of the conflict and the policy decisions which led to the imposition of martial law. The book also looks at the procedures governing military courts, how they operated, and the men who ran them. Additionally, the constitutional and legal ramifications of ceding control to the army are explored.
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|  | Life on the Fringe?
Ireland and Europe, 1800-1922
Heffernan, Brian
Scholars of modern Ireland have all too often been too immersed in the intricacies of Anglo-Irish relations to cast a wider glance toward the European continent. Was Ireland really on the fringe of Europe during the 19th century, trapped into an Anglo-Irish Neverland by the Act of Union, oblivious to the progress of European events? This volume challenges such notions and explores the general theme of 'Ireland and Europe' from different and fascinating perspectives. This thematic survey places a number of major themes of Irish history in their European context from 1800 to 1922. The Irish-European connections during the 19th century span the entire continent from France to Russia, and from Finland to Spain. It takes Irish history as an organic component of European developments, breaking the Western Europe bias of much of the existing scholarship. The book demonstrates that Ireland under the Union lived on the fringe only in a geographical sense, and that the European tide of change was clearly felt upon its shores.
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|  | Voicing Dissent
New Perspectives in Irish Criticism
Brisset, Sandrine; Doody, Noreen
Voicing Dissent is a collection of critical essays exploring the idea of dissent in contemporary Irish Studies. Prominent in these essays are radical points of view, alternative readings, contentious texts, and some unusual and innovative approaches to canonical works. Energetic young scholars add their voices to the debate, breaking new literary ground and bringing into the light fresh interpretations and original critical insights in Irish literature and culture. While the book is primarily concerned with dissent in changing cultural and social contexts within literature, it also addresses several different fields of academic research, including history, cinema, and gender studies. Elsewhere, by looking at post-colonial trauma in works of fiction, Irish identity is interrogated. Representations of femininity, sexuality, and patriarchy are challenged by rebellious women, whether as characters, writers, or critics.
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|  | Asylums, Mental Health Care and the Irish, 1800-2010
Prior, Pauline
This book is a collection of studies on mental health services in Ireland, from the beginning of the 19th century to the present day. In addition to an analysis of overall trends in patient numbers and an exploration of the development of mental health law on the island of Ireland (North and South), there are studies on individual hospitals. These include: the famous nursing strike at Monaghan Asylum in 1919, when a red flag was raised over the building * extracts from Speedwell, a hospital newsletter, showing the social and sporting life at Holywell Hospital during the 1960s * an exploration of diseases, such as beriberi and tuberculosis at Dundrum and Richmond in the 1890s * the legal action taken by the Belfast Asylum against the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the 1860s to avoid appointing chaplains * the problems encountered by doctors in Ballinasloe Asylum as they tried to exert their authority over the Governors * the experiences of Irish emigrants who found themselves in asylums in Australia and New Zealand. The book also includes a discussion of mental health services in Ireland from 1959 to 2010, the first time such a chronology has been published.
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| | | Ireland in the Newsreels
Chambers, Ciara
In Ireland, before the advent of television in the 1950s, the newsreels were the only visual news medium available to all sections of the Irish public. They provided important records of what audiences were shown about 20th-century historical events, figures, and politics. Constantly seeking to avoid censorship and controversy, the newsreels sought to perpetuate social norms and satisfy public taste. This book tells the story of how the newsreels depicted the Irish as violent, insular, and backward, as well as enterprising, plucky, and an asset to Britain, depending on the political climate. The book also recounts how governments, north and south, manipulated newsreel producers in order to pursue a particular agenda, often at odds with local perspectives. The issues covered also contextualize the birth and development of onscreen news, engaging with the problematic nature of media production and its relationship with audiences. This exploration has particular relevance in relation to the storms of controversy still associated with media power, political institutions, and the release of information to the general public. Richly illustrated, Ireland in the Newsreels is a vital new lens through which to look at contemporary Irish history and society.
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|  | Recollecting Hunger: An Anthology
Cultural Memories of the Great Famine in Irish and British Fiction, 1847-1920
Corporaal, Marguerite; Cusack, Christopher; Janssen, Lindsay
Recollecting Hunger brings together selections from Irish Famine novels, as well as stories from the Famine until Independence. This anthology contains not only well-known material by authors such as Anthony Trollope, William Carleton, and Canon Patrick Sheehan, but also includes obscure texts by writers such as Margaret Percival, Susanna Meredith, Canon William Francis Barry, and Louis J. Walsh. Fully annotated and placed in their historical context, these writings make visible the ways in which literary texts remember the Famine. Many of these texts - some known, more unknown - are not only interesting from a scholarly point of view, but are in fact engrossing and well-written, and will also appeal to general readers with an interest in the hidden treasures of Irish literary history. As the first anthology of Famine literature, Recollecting Hunger will receive popular and critical attention, and is an excellent text for teaching students at all levels.
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|  | Trains, Coal and Turf
Transport in Emergency Ireland
Rigney, Peter
Winner: Railway and Canal History Society 2012 Railway category and Overall Winner of the 2012 Transport Book of the Year
The GSR operated all railway lines which lay wholly within Eire, and was the main transport provider during the Emergency. In this book, author Peter Rigney describes how the company coped to keep trains moving, and challenges the view that Emergency rail service was one of unremitting chaos. In fact, the experience of the GSR in these years was similar to railway companies in other neutral countries. The GSR was Ireland's biggest coal importer, one of its largest single employers, and its biggest owner of engineering workshops. It played a key role in the Anglo-Irish trade diplomacy which helped the Allied war effort, kept the Irish economy ticking over, and was the main means of transporting turf to heat homes. The book is based on a wide range of sources such as the British and Irish National Archives, the Archives of the Irish Railway Record Society, national and provincial newspapers, the trade press, and of memoirs written by railwaymen of the period. The book also examines such diverse themes as soap rationing, fuel poverty, and desertion from the British forces. It shows that wartime trade co-operation was much greater than previously thought. The Emergency experience caused Irish railway managers to move towards diesel locomotives earlier than their counterparts in Europe and particularly their counterparts in Britain.
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|  | Turning Points in Twentieth Century Irish History
Hachey, Thomas
Outstanding Academic Title - Choice 2011
Irish history has always turned on a variety of axes or 'turning points,' beyond the accounts of high politics. In acknowledging the profound changes that have shaped new approaches to research and writing within the historical discipline, Irish historiography now embraces not only the re-examination of pivotal events, but also eclectic dimensions that further enrich our understanding of the broader narrative. This collection explores themes such as: political murders during Ireland's Revolutionary period, the nature of women's employment and political activity, Easter Rising, Irish neutrality, and the Northern peace process. The contributions by leading scholars make this work a remarkable new assessment of modern Irish history.
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|  | The Last Irish Plague
The Great 'Flu Epidemic in Ireland
Foley, Caitriona
Winner: Publication Prize in Irish History, National University of Ireland Irish History Awards 2011
Judges' Comment: 'This is an excellent, multi faceted study of a relatively neglected episode. There is no aspect, however unexpected of the great flu that Dr Foley has not exhaustively researched in this fascinating and graphic historical reconstruction'.
Decimating as many as 100 million people in the space of a few months, the Great 'Flu of 1918-19 was one of the worst outbreaks of disease in global history, totally eclipsing the damage wreaked by the First World War. In Ireland, the Registrar-General felt that not since the Great Famine had an outbreak of disease caused such havoc. The flu found its way into every corner of the country, infecting as many as 800,000 people, and taking over 20,000 lives. All across Ireland, there were many cases of families being almost wiped out by this mysterious malady as hospitals and workhouses heaved with the sudden influx of 'flu-stricken patients. Despite the fact that it claimed many more lives than the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War combined, the Great 'Flu is rarely incorporated into the narrative of twentieth century Ireland. 'The Last Irish Plague' explores this catastrophe, teasing out the full dimensions of a lethal and widespread outbreak of disease. It offers an illuminating account of an event which has slipped through the historical net, a part of the Irish past which has remained undocumented for almost a hundred years.
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| | |  | Returning Home
Irish Ex-Servicemen after the Second World War
Kelly, Bernard
Returning Home investigates one of the least known periods in Irish history - the story of the estimated 12,000 Irish veterans who returned to Ireland after the end of the Second World War. They came back to a country where jobs were scarce, commemoration was a divisive issue, and the public had little understanding of the veteran's experiences. Even worse, an estimated 5,000 deserters from the Irish army faced potentially severe punishment when they returned home. Based on interviews with surviving veterans and drawing on a wide array of archival sources, Returning Home explores how Irish ex-servicemen coped with the difficult task of re-integration into Irish civilian society. The book details their impact on government policy, their economic difficulties, struggles with psychological problems, the vexed issue of Remembrance, and the treatment of deserters from the Irish forces. Returning Home makes an important contribution to how we view Ireland's connection to the Second World War.
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| | | Blasphemers & Blackguards
The Irish Hellfire Clubs
Ryan, David
Prostitutes, pimps, cutpurses, murderers, and bawdy houses...What were the hellfire clubs of 18th-century Ireland? Were they really elite groups who engaged in obscene orgies, devil worship, and the ritual murder of servants? These questions have intrigued virtually everyone who has visited the supposed hellfire club meeting place in the Dublin Mountains, or heard the lurid stories that are associated with it. Cutting through this veil of myth and legend, Blasphemers & Blackguards: The Irish Hellfire Clubs reveals the truth about these mysterious societies. The book uncovers striking new information about the outrageous activities of these clubs - provocative blasphemy, taboo sexual activities, atrocities (most shockingly, the ritualistic murder of a servant), and the clubs' habit of toasting the devil.
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| | We welcome manuscript proposals and ideas in all the subject areas outlined above and these can be directed to our Editor, Lisa Hyde: lisa.hyde@iap.ie |
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