Hey guys and gals.
I just finished up two books about Ireland, thought some might be interested.
I’m sure some of you have seen Rutherford’s Dublin Saga books around, I just finished the Rebels of Ireland, the second book of the twosome. I liked the series a good deal. It’s an epic in the truest sense of the word, from prehistory to 1921. The series follows several families from different backgrounds (Irish, Danes, Old English, Ascendancy English, Ulster Scots) giving a pretty good range of views on the history of Ireland, although at times it can get a little confusing. Interestingly enough, the major focus is on the Old English, which I though was a pretty interesting view of things. Rutherford obviously put alot of time and research into this and good on him. A big plus for me, no green cheese, like in, say, Trinity. So, I enjoyed it, although the ending falls a little flat and he picks a strange time in history to end the series, seems kind of rushed near the end.
The other book is Jaywalking With the Irish by David Monagan. On the back of the book there is a review by Tom McCarthy, who writes “It is also a better book than the immensely popular McCarthy’s Bar - at once more honest and human, while offering a deeper conversation with Ireland…”
Huh?
The drive-by on Peter McCarthy was strange and kind of put me off right away. After reading a bit it seems especially odd considering McCarthy’s Bar is an infinately funnier book yet still manages to touch on all the serious points that Monagan does… indeed many of the facts and anecdotes Monagan uses are found in Peter McCarthy’s book if I remember correctly. Nonetheless, a decent book and useful to me because I’m planning a move, possibly to Cork. The book is a chronicle of Monagan’s, an American medical journalist, move, with his family, to Cork. It all comes across as very sentimental and blah. He rants about the evils of all the tourists ruining the real Ireland yet goes on about his direct link with the country (his family having arrived in the United States in 1840 
) and seems to be in search of the same Ireland as the tourists. He looks down on Ireland from a position of obvious advantage and it colours the book.
A good read, but certainly not better than McCarthy’s Bar. At times the whole Irish-American thing made me a tad queezy, but it’s tolerable.
Brian