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NEW TITLES
MERRION
PRESS
2020
MERRION PRESS
New Title • IRISH INTEREST
OLD IRELAND IN COLOUR
John Breslin & Sarah-Anne Buckley
Old Ireland in Colour brings to life the rich history of
Ireland and the Irish through the colour restoration of
these stunning images of all walks of Irish life through-
out the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
From the chaos of the Civil War to the simple beau-
ty of the islands; from legendary revolutionaries to HARDBACK
modest fisherfolk, every image has been exquisitely
transformed and every page bursting with life.
SEPTEMBER 2020
Using a combination of cutting-edge artificial intel- €24.95 / £22.99
ligence technology and his own historical research, 9781785373701
John Breslin has meticulously colourised these pic-
tures with breath-taking attention to detail and au- 330 pages
thenticity.
190 x 230mm
With over 190 photographs from all four provinces,
and accompanied by fascinating captions by his-
torian Sarah-Anne Buckley, Old Ireland in Colour
breathes new life into the scenes we thought we
knew, and brings our ancestors back to life before
our eyes.
John Breslin is a Professor at NUI Galway, where he has
taught engineering, computer science and entrepre-
neurship over a twenty-year period. He has written over
200 publications and co-authored two books. He is
co-founder of boards.ie, adverts.ie, and the PorterShed.
Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley is a lecturer in History at NUI Gal-
way and President of the Women’s History Association of
Ireland. She has published two monographs, four edited
volumes and numerous articles. She is co-founder of the
Irish Centre for the Histories of Labour and Class and Se-
nior Research Fellow in the UNESCO Child and Family Re- MERRION
search Centre. PRESS
New Title • FICTION TERRY BRANKIN HAS A GUN Malachi O’Doherty ‘A deftly spun tale of dreadful intricacy and bewil- dering insight into a paramilitary world in denial of its own duplicitous logic.’ June Caldwell Terry Brankin loves his wife, but it’s a bloody nuisance that a cold-case investigator is trying to pin him for a long past IRA bombing that killed a young girl. His wife Kathleen can’t take it. He tells her that things were different then. She tells him he must confess. He’d only get two years under the Belfast Agree- ment and she’ll stand by him, but she leaves him to give him time to mull it over. PAPERBACK But then Kathleen is attacked. Every house in the Brankin property portfolio is petrol-bombed on the FEBRUARY 2020 same night. Something is going on that’s even big- €16.95 / £14.99 ger than they reckoned. And Terry thinks it’s to do 9781785373107 with the cold case, the bombing and the dead child. He reckons old friends in the IRA are telling him to keep quiet. It’s time to talk to old comrades. And 256 pages Terry still has a gun. 234 x 156mm Fast-paced and thrilling, this powerful Troubles nov- el explores significant legacy issues of the northern conflict and how past deeds can never truly be for- gotten. Malachi O’Doherty has been a teacher to Libyan soldiers, a ghostwriter for an Indian guru, a contributor to BBC Northern Ireland and a regular writer for the Belfast Tele- graph. He has written numerous books about the North- ern Ireland Troubles including Fifty Years On: The Troubles and the Struggle for Change in Northern Ireland (Atlan- tic Books, 2020) and Gerry Adams: An Unauthorised Life MERRION (Faber and Faber, 2018). PRESS
New Title • CHILDREN’S
GIRLS PLAY TOO
INSPIRING STORIES OF IRISH SPORTSWOMEN
Jacqui Hurley
Irish sportswomen have been breaking the mould
for a very, very long time. In 1956, Maeve Kyle be-
came our first female Olympian, and in 1978 rally
driver Rosemary Smith broke the country’s land-
speed record! Through the 1990s and 2000s we had
world champions in Sonia O’Sullivan, Derval O’Ro-
urke and Olive Loughnane, and more recently, the HARDBACK
fantastic Katie Taylor, Kellie Harrington and Annal-
ise Murphy have been among those who have put SEPTEMBER 2020
Irish sportswomen on the map. This book breaks the
mould once more, as a first ever compendium of
€14.95 / £13.99
stories for children about our best contemporary 9781785373374
sportswomen.
64 pages
With a fairytale touch, RTÉ’s Jacqui Hurley tells the 238 x 170mm
stories of women who have proved that being a girl
is not a barrier to sporting success. Each story is one
of overcoming big challenges, and the role models
celebrated here are sure to inspire the next genera-
tion of Irish sportswomen. Featuring twenty-five daz-
zling athletes, and with delightful drawings by five
wonderful female Irish illustrators, Girls Play Too is a
celebration of some of our brightest and best sport-
ing stars, and of all that you can achieve if you try
your best and never give up on your dreams.
Jacqui Hurley is one of Ireland’s leading sports broad-
casters. In 2009, she became the first ever female anchor
of Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio One. She presents the daily
sports bulletins on RTÉ’s Six One News and is also a regu-
lar anchor of RTÉ’s soccer output on television. She lives
in Dublin with her husband Shane and her children, Luke MERRION
and Lily. PRESS
New Title • MEMOIR
BURNING HERESIES
A MEMOIR OF A LIFE IN CONFLICT, 1979-2020
Kevin Myers
In this remarkable sequel to his critically acclaimed
memoir Watching the Door, journalist Kevin Myers
reflects on his roller-coaster career in the Irish media,
from the European conflicts he reported from to the
personal conflicts he fought.
Fresh from the horrors of 1970s Belfast, Myers took
a job with The Irish Times, and brilliantly evokes the
chaos of life in the smoky newsroom of Ireland’s pa-
per-of-record. Having taken over An Irishman’s Di-
ary, he single-handedly pioneered the campaign
to rehabilitate the memory of the Irish soldiers of the
Great War. In the process, Myers fell foul of the pa- PAPERBACK
per’s editor, the legendary Douglas Gageby, so he
was sent back to the frontline of European warzones.
SEPTEMBER 2020
While Myers is at his brilliant best dodging bullets on €19.95 / £18.99
the battlefields of Tel Aviv, Beirut and Sarajevo, he 9781785372612
also keenly and unapologetically participates in
the many cultural conflicts erupting within a rapidly
changing Ireland, all explored in his inimitable prose 320 pages
and sardonic wit. This courageously trenchant ac- 226 x 153mm
count of journalistic conflict and hubris also forensi-
cally examines his very public fall from grace in 2017,
and his legal battle with RTÉ for a public apology.
Journalist, broadcaster and novelist Kevin Myers wrote
for The Irish Times, The Spectator, Sunday Telegraph, Irish
Independent and The Sunday Times in a career that
spanned over thirty years. He reported from Africa, Cen-
tral America, India and Japan, covered the wars in Leba-
non and Bosnia, and was journalist of the year for his des-
patches from Beirut. His first memoir, Watching the Door:
A Memoir, 1971–1978, was published in 2006. In 2017, he
was sacked from the Irish edition of The Sunday Times for MERRION
allegedly anti-Semitic observations. PRESS
New Title • MEMOIR
MY LIFE IN LOYALISM
Billy Hutchinson
with Gareth Mulvenna
Growing up in the Shankill area of Belfast and living
through the sectarian turmoil of the late 1960s, Billy
Hutchinson joined the UVF in the early 1970s. In 1974,
at the age of just 19, he was sentenced to life in
prison, and it was in the cages of Long Kesh that he
first came under the influence of loyalist icon Gusty
Spence.
Hutchinson spent much of the 1980s as overall Com-
manding Officer of UVF/Red Hand Commando pris-
oners, and upon his release, became involved with
the recently established Progressive Unionist Party.
As an authentic link between the UVF and the PUP,
PAPERBACK
he was at the forefront of negotiations that led to
the Belfast Agreement and was the UVF’s point of
contact during the weapons decommissioning pro- OCTOBER 2020
gramme. Written with candour and honesty, this is €18.95 / £17.99
a lively first-hand account of an extraordinary life
9781785373459
and reveals previously hidden episodes of both the
Northern Ireland Troubles and the high-profile nego-
tiations that led to the Belfast Agreement of 1998. 300 pages
226 x 153 mm
From Tartan gang member to leading loyalist para-
military, and from progressive unionist politician to
respected Belfast City Councillor, My Life in Loyalism
is Billy Hutchinson’s remarkable story.
Billy Hutchinson is the current leader of the Progressive
Unionist Party and a Belfast City Councillor. In the early
1970s he was involved in the formation of the Young Cit-
izen Volunteers and was later influential in brokering the
loyalist ceasefire of 1994.
Gareth Mulvenna has held a Visiting Research fellowship
at the School of Politics at Queen’s University Belfast. His
first book, Tartan Gangs and Paramilitaries: The Loyalist MERRION
Backlash was published in 2016. PRESS
New Title • MEMOIR IN ANOTHER WORLD VAN MORRISON & BELFAST Gerald Dawe ‘A lovely and lively little book … all about lost moments, fleeting possibilities and half-forgotten histories … An- other world indeed, a past captured in these bitter- sweet essays that might also stand for a possible future.’ Fintan O’Toole, The Irish Times In Another World is a unique trip through Belfast, mapped into the mystic through the timeless mu- sic of Van ‘the Man’ Morrison. The aptly soulful and inventive prose stems from the electric wit of ac- claimed poet and fellow Belfast man, Gerald Dawe. Struck by the extraordinary brand of rhythm and NEW IN PAPERBACK blues that was Morrison’s brainchild, Dawe’s book is a celebration of the inspirations that underline Morri- son’s music. Silhouetted in the work is Belfast, moody AUGUST 2020 and vibrant, and the formative influence of the €12.95 / £9.99 pre-Troubles northern capital on Morrison’s musical 9781785373657 direction. Dawe’s writing transmutes the tender and unforget- 135 pages table strains of Morrison’s work, from the release in 205 x 130mm 1968 of Astral Weeks to the publication in 2014 of Lit Up Inside: Selected Lyrics. A powerful tribute to mark Van Morrison’s accomplishments, In Another World taps into his legacy’s eclectic soul and is kin to its enchantments. Gerald Dawe has published ten books of poetry, includ- ing The Lundys Letter, Sunday School, Lake Geneva, Points West, Mickey Finn’s Air and The Last Peacock. His other publications include The Wrong Country: Essays on Modern Irish Writing, The Sound of the Shuttle: Essays on Cultural Belonging & Protestantism in Northern Ireland and Looking Through You: Northern Chronicles (2020). He is the recipient of numerous awards and honours, includ- MERRION ing the Macaulay Fellowship in Literature. PRESS
New Title • MEMOIR
LOOKING THROUGH YOU
NORTHERN CHRONICLES
Gerald Dawe
Looking Through You: Northern Chronicles, the se-
quel to renowned Belfast poet and author Gerald
Dawe’s critically acclaimed In Another World: Van
Morrison & Belfast, is the evocative record of the mu-
sical, literary and artistic influences that inspired and
forged Dawe’s awakening as a poet, and his career
in Irish literature.
Taking its bearings from Belfast in the 1960s, The Beat-
les’ Rubber Soul album and the energising shock of
reading the great American poets Robert Lowell
and Sylvia Plath, Dawe’s engagingly lyrical style has
produced an evocative and memorable record of HARDBACK
the music, poetry and culture of growing up in the
northern capital.
AUGUST 2020
Featuring the stunning photography of Euan Gébler, €16.95 / £14.99
this literary memoir is a must-have for fans of Dawe’s 9781785372810
work, a superb introduction to his world for new
readers, and, in his own words, may help ‘renew
Belfast and the ordinary life and lives of the city, and 130 pages
allow its people to overcome as best they can the 205 x 130mm
seemingly irreconcilable and unsolvable conflicts of
the past’.
Merrion Press received financial assistance from The Arts Council for
this publication.
Gerald Dawe has published ten books of poetry, includ-
ing The Lundys Letter, Sunday School, Lake Geneva,
Points West, Mickey Finn’s Air and The Last Peacock. His
other publications include The Wrong Country: Essays on
Modern Irish Writing, The Sound of the Shuttle: Essays on
Cultural Belonging & Protestantism in Northern Ireland
and In Another World: Van Morrison & Belfast. He is the
recipient of numerous awards and honours, including the MERRION
Macaulay Fellowship in Literature. PRESS
New Title • BIOGRAPHY
PSYCHIATRIST IN THE CHAIR
THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY OF
ANTHONY CLARE
Brendan Kelly & Muiris Houston
Born in Dublin in 1942, Anthony Clare was the best-
known psychiatrist of his generation. His BBC Radio
4 show, In the Psychiatrist’s Chair, which ran from
1982 to 2001, brought him international fame and
changed the nature of broadcast interviews forever.
Famous interviewees included Stephen Fry, Anthony
Hopkins, Spike Milligan, Maya Angelou and Jimmy
Saville, each of whom yielded to Clare’s inimitable
gentle yet probing style.
Clare made unique contributions to the demysti-
fication and practice of psychiatry, most notably
through his classic book Psychiatry in Dissent: Con-
troversial Issues in Thought and Practice (1976). This HARDBACK
book, the first official biography of this much-loved
figure, examines the man behind these achieve-
OCTOBER 2020
ments: the debater and the doctor, the writer and
the broadcaster, the public figure and the family €22.95 / £19.99
man. Using extensive public and family records, we 9781785373299
ask: Who was Anthony Clare, really? What drove
him? And what is to be learned from his life, his ca-
300 pages
reer, and his unique, sometimes controversial legacy
to our understanding of the mind? This is the remark- 234 x 156mm
able story of a remarkable person.
Dr Brendan Kelly is Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity Col-
lege Dublin, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal
of Law and Psychiatry. His books include Hearing Voices:
The History of Psychiatry in Ireland (IAP, 2016) and Coping
with Coronavirus (Merrion Press, 2020).
Muiris Houston is a medical writer and health strategist, a
specialist in occupational medicine, Adjunct Professor of
Narrative Medicine at Trinity College Dublin, and writer-
in-residence at Evidence Synthesis Ireland at NUIG. He is
a columnist with the Medical Independent and The Irish MERRION
Times. PRESSNew Title • BIOGRAPHY
KEVIN BARRY
AN IRISH REBEL IN LIFE AND DEATH
Eunan O’Halpin
On 1 November 1920, eighteen-year-old UCD medi-
cal student Kevin Barry was hanged in Mountjoy Jail
for his role in an IRA raid that killed a British soldier. The
reaction to his execution was incensed and interna-
tional, and to this day, he remains a vibrant icon of
patriotic, idealistic death, his name synonymous with
youthful republican sacrifice. The persistence of his
memory is singular, not only within Irish republicanism
but also in the wider world.
Eunan O’Halpin, esteemed historian and grand-
nephew of Kevin Barry, explores his ancestor’s short
but significant life, the dynamics of growing up with PAPERBACK
‘a martyr in the family’, and why Barry’s name has
continued to resonate in Ireland and beyond.
OCTOBER 2020
O’Halpin examines Barry’s ideological formation €16.95 / £14.99
and the impact of his religious education, and chal- 9781785373497
lenges common misconceptions about educated,
privileged men who were just as willing as rural Vol- 250 pages
unteers to do what they saw as their duty. Indeed,
Barry’s life in the IRA in Carlow and Dublin was a 215 x 135mm
surprisingly active one, despite his age, and his sto-
ry tells us a great deal about the young men who
joined the IRA to fight against British rule, and later
each other, and the families left behind to keep their
memories alive.
Eunan O’Halpin is Bank of Ireland Professor of Contem-
porary Irish History at Trinity College Dublin, specialis-
ing in Twentieth-Century Irish and British History. He has
published seven books on Irish history and intelligence,
including Spying on Ireland: British Intelligence and Irish
Neutrality during the Second World War (2008) and The MERRION
Dead of the Irish Revolution, 1916-1921 (2020). PRESSNew Title • NATURE
A NATURAL YEAR
THE TRANQUIL RHYTHMS AND RESTORATIVE
POWERS OF IRISH NATURE THROUGH THE SEASONS
Michael Fewer
Foreword by Éanna Ní Lamhna
In A Natural Year, critically acclaimed travel writer
Michael Fewer celebrates the everyday wonder of
Irish nature in these beautifully written diaries, ob-
served from his homes in south Dublin and rural Wa-
terford, in which he delights at the startling beauty
and extraordinary complexity of the natural world
through the tranquil rhythms of the passing seasons.
Fewer’s infectious passion for his subject simply in-
spires our own observation, and suggests how care-
ful study of the natural world around us can be a PAPERBACK
sure antidote to the stresses of modern life.
At a time when it’s essential for us to understand the MARCH 2020
crisis that faces our wildlife and environment, we €17.95 / £15.99
need to know more about the natural world around 9781785373183
us, the treasures that are being needlessly lost, and
the threat to our very way of life.
296 pages
A Natural Year will open eyes and hearts to a greater 215 x 135mm
understanding of the world around us, and its innate
beauty and fragility.
Michael Fewer combined architecture with academia
for many years before focusing on writing about history,
the environment, landscape, travel and walking. Author
of more than twenty books about walking and nature in
Ireland and over 400 articles, he is a regular Irish Times MERRION
columnist and broadcast contributor. PRESSNew Title • MIND, BODY, SPIRIT
COPING WITH CORONAVIRUS
HOW TO STAY CALM AND PROTECT YOUR
MENTAL HEALTH – A PSYCHOLOGICAL TOOLKIT
Dr Brendan Kelly
How worried should I be? What information can I
trust? What should I tell the children? Can I survive
the panic, let alone the virus?
These are certainly challenging, unprecedented
times. Allow pre-eminent psychiatrist Dr Brendan Kel-
ly to help you understand and cope with the unique
stresses of today, as we all try to deal with the threat
of COVID-19 within our homes, communities and
throughout the world.
The anxiety associated with the coronavirus crisis is
different to the anxiety seen in traditional disorders, PAPERBACK
because demonstrably there is something to fear,
and that’s what makes this worry so ubiquitous, so
persistent and so challenging to manage. MARCH 2020
€4.95 / £3.99
The good news is that, just as we are capable of find- 9781785373640
ing sophisticated ways to make ourselves more anx-
ious, we are equally good at finding sophisticated
ways to manage our mental health, once we put 61 pages
our minds to it. 178 x 110mm
Anxiety-management techniques help hugely once
they are modified to suit the new situation that we
face, and in Coping with Coronavirus, Dr Brendan
Kelly will give you all the practical tools you and your
family need to navigate these dark, uncertain days.
Dr Brendan Kelly is Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity Col-
lege Dublin and Consultant Psychiatrist at Tallaght Hos-
pital, Dublin. He is the author of Ada English: Patriot and
Psychiatrist (IAP, 2014), Hearing Voices: The History of Psy-
chiatry in Ireland (IAP, 2019), and Psychiatrist in the Chair:
The Official Biography of Anthony Clare (Merrion Press, MERRION
2020). PRESSNew Title • HISTORY THE ENIGMA OF ARTHUR GRIFFITH ‘FATHER OF US ALL’ Colum Kenny Almost a century after his untimely death in 1922, this lively and insightful new assessment explores the man Michael Collins described as ‘father of us all’ and reclaims Arthur Griffith as the founder of both Sinn Féin and the Irish Free State. Since his death when President of Dáil Éireann, Grif- fith’s role has often been misrepresented. Too radi- cal for some, he was not militant enough for others. His legacy belongs to no single political party today. Colum Kenny argues that efforts to ‘other’ Griffith as ‘un-Irish’ raise uncomfortable questions about Irish identity. PAPERBACK A dedicated activist and intellectual, as well as a skilled editor and balladeer, Griffith knew what it JANUARY 2020 meant to be poor. He encouraged women to get €19.95 / £17.99 involved in the struggle for Irish independence, and, 9781785373145 unusually for his time, distinguished between Oscar Wilde’s private life and his work. Griffith’s complex re- lationships with Maud Gonne, W.B. Yeats and James 544 pages Joyce are revealed here in significant new ways. 225 x 155mm The Enigma of Arthur Griffith brings the ‘father of us all’ into focus for a new generation. Colum Kenny is Professor Emeritus at Dublin City Universi- ty. A barrister, journalist and historian, he has written wide- ly on culture and society. His books include An Irish-Amer- ican Odyssey (2014) and Moments that Changed Us: Ireland after 1973 (2005). A founding board member of the E.U. Media Desk in Ireland, he served on the Broad- MERRION casting Commission of Ireland. PRESS
New Title • HISTORY
A BLOODY VICTORY
THE IRISH AT WAR’S END: EUROPE 1945
Dan Harvey
Post D-Day, with the Allies on the newly created
‘Second Front’ driving fast eastwards beyond Par-
is, and the Russians on the ‘Eastern Front’ pressing
westwards, the fervour of the fascist Nazi regime re-
mained undiminished. For the Third Reich it was in-
tolerable to believe that they must now concede.
Instead of ending the war, the levels of hostility,
brutality and terror increased. The resistance to the
Allied advances across Europe, first towards, then
inside, Germany intensified, and every inch of the
Fatherland was bitterly contested. With the Allies, in
their thousands, were the Irish.
PAPERBACK
A Bloody Victory unearths these people from the
corners of Irish history and transports them back to
the D-Day beaches and the bridge at Arnhem, to JUNE 2020
the frozen landscapes at the Battle of the Bulge, the €16.95 / £14.99
banks of the River Rhine, to the unimaginable horrors 9781785373336
of Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald concentration
camps, and finally to the ruinous Battle of Berlin.
150 pages
There was no one ‘Irish narrative’ in the Second 234 x 156mm
World War, but there was a narrative of Irish individ-
uals, and in A Bloody Victory, Dan Harvey pays due
tribute to their significant contribution.
Lt Col. Dan Harvey is the author of A Bloody Summer: The
Irish at the Battle of Britain; A Bloody Week: The Irish at
Arnhem; A Bloody Dawn: The Irish At D-Day; Soldiering
against Subversion: The Irish Defence Forces and Internal
Security During the Troubles, 1969–1998; Into Action: Irish
Peacekeepers Under Fire, 1960–2014; A Bloody Day: The
Irish at Waterloo; A Bloody Night: The Irish at Rorke’s Drift;
and Soldiers of the Short Grass: A History of the Curragh MERRION
Camp. PRESSNew Title • HISTORY
A BLOODY SUMMER
THE IRISH AT THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
Dan Harvey
The Battle of Britain, regarded by historians as one
of the greatest air battles in the history of warfare,
was an early turning point in the Second World War.
In the summer of 1940, the German army had, with
astonishing speed, mercilessly swept aside all before
them and were perched on the northern coastline
of France. Outright victory over all of Europe was im-
peded only by the expanse of the English Channel.
The supremely confident, yet-to-be defeated Luft-
waffe (German Air Force) were eager for continued
action, to claim air superiority and victory over an
outnumbered RAF and clear the skies for the am-
phibious invasions of Britain and Ireland. It was vital PAPERBACK
that the RAF deny them, and so a ferocious and
highly strategic aerial battle began that was to rage
for more than three months. JULY 2020
€16.95 / £14.99
Among those in the RAF’s Spitfire and Hurricane 9781785373251
fighter squadrons were Irishmen, who were in the
thick of the aerial exchanges, daring ‘dog-fights’,
and intrepid interceptions of German bombers. A 150 pages
Bloody Summer: The Irish at the Battle of Britain for 234 x 156mm
the first time tells the true and full story of their hereto-
fore underestimated involvement in this epic aerial
encounter.
Lt Col. Dan Harvey is the author of A Bloody Victory: The
Irish at War’s End, Europe 1945; A Bloody Week: The Irish
at Arnhem; A Bloody Dawn: The Irish At D-Day; Soldiering
against Subversion: The Irish Defence Forces and Internal
Security During the Troubles, 1969–1998; Into Action: Irish
Peacekeepers Under Fire, 1960–2014; A Bloody Day: The
Irish at Waterloo; A Bloody Night: The Irish at Rorke’s Drift;
and Soldiers of the Short Grass: A History of the Curragh MERRION
Camp. PRESSNew Title • BIOGRAPHY
MAY TYRANTS TREMBLE
THE LIFE OF WILLIAM DRENNAN, 1754–1820
Fergus Whelan
William Drennan, founder and leader of the Society
of United Irishmen, is long overdue a comprehensive
biography. May Tyrants Tremble fills that gap and oblit-
erates the historical consensus that, after being ac-
quitted at his 1794 trial for sedition, Drennan withdrew
from the United Irish movement. In fact, Fergus Whel-
an proves that Drennan remained a leading voice
of Presbyterian radicalism until his death in 1820, and
his ideals, along with those of Wolfe Tone and other
pivotal United Irishmen, formed the basis of Ireland’s
republic.
By 1784, Drennan had already established a national
HARDBACK
reputation as a leading writer in the radical cause. He
composed the United Irish Test and he was the Soci-
ety’s most prolific literary propagandist. Here, Whelan MARCH 2020
offers new evidence that Drennan was ‘Marcus’, au- €29.95 / £24.99
thor of the most seditious material published in Dublin
9781788551212
in 1797–8, and he also establishes that Ulster Presbyte-
rian Drennan did in fact champion Catholic Emanci-
pation throughout his life. 350 pages
234 x 156mm
May Tyrants Tremble repositions William Drennan as
the father of Irish democracy. The brazen walls of sep-
aration he so eloquently lamented are with us still, but
his story shines a light on one of the great mysteries of
Irish history: what happened to Presbyterian republi-
canism after 1798?
Fergus Whelan is the author of Dissent into Treason: Unitar-
ians King-killers and the Society of United Irishmen (2010)
and God-Provoking Democrat: The Remarkable Life of
Archibald Hamilton Rowan (2015). He has contributed to
History Ireland magazine, An Irishman’s Diary in The Irish
Times and the Irish Humanist and Look Left magazines.
May Tyrants Tremble is his third book.New Title • MYTHOLOGY
EARTHING THE MYTHS
THE MYTHS, LEGENDS AND EARLY HISTORY
OF IRELAND
Daragh Smyth
In Ireland, the link between place and myth is strong,
and there is no more enlightening way to under-
stand the rich tapestry of Irish mythology, and its
relationship to our true history, than by reading the
landscape. Earthing the Myths is an engaging and
exhaustive county-by-county guide to the vast num-
ber of fascinating places in Ireland connected to
myth, folklore and early history.
Covering the period 800 BC to AD 650, this book
spans the Late Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the
early Christian period, and explores the ways in
which the land evolved, and with it our catalogue of HARDBACK
myths and legends. Smyth chronicles sites the length
and breadth of the country, where druids, fairies,
goddesses, warriors and kings all left their mark, in JULY 2020
tales both real and imagined. €29.95 / £24.99
9781788551359
With over one thousand locations recorded, from
Rathlin Island to the Beara Peninsula, Earthing the
Myths breathes life into places throughout Ire- 450 pages
land that find their origins in our pre-Christian and 205 x 130mm
pre-Gaelic past, and shows that they still possess
unique wisdom and vibrant energy.
Daragh Smyth is a retired lecturer from the Dublin Institute
of Technology and co-founder of Saor Ollscoil na hÉire-
ann (The Free University of Ireland). He was in charge of
the Erasmus programme at D.I.T., where he taught Irish
Cultural studies to students from Europe, Australia and
North America. Smyth has published two books with Irish
Academic Press: A Guide to Irish Mythology (1996) and
Cú Chulainn: An Iron Age Hero (2005).New Title • ESSAYS
THE SOUND OF THE SHUTTLE
ESSAYS ON CULTURAL BELONGING &
PROTESTANTISM IN NORTHERN IRELAND
Gerald Dawe
‘…wonderfully written. Dawe has a fluidity in his
prose that moves these pieces along at quite a rate’
Andrew Cunning, The Irish Times
The Sound of the Shuttle is an eloquent and compel-
ling selection of essays written over four decades by
Belfast-born poet Gerald Dawe, exploring the diffi-
cult and at times neglected territory of cultural be-
longing and northern Protestantism. The title, taken
from a letter of John Keats during a journey through
the north-east in 1818, evokes the lives, now erased
from history, of the thousands of workers in the linen
industry, tobacco factories and shipyards of Belfast. HARDBACK
Sketching in literary, social and political contexts to
widen the frame of reference, Dawe offers fascinat- JANUARY 2020
ing insights into the current debate about a ‘New Ire- €18.95 / £16.99
land’ by bringing into critical focus the experiences, 9781788551069
beliefs and achievements of a sometimes maligned
and often misread community, generally referred to
as Northern protestants. 200 pages
205 x 130mm
In making the telling point that ‘The jagged edges
of the violent past are still locked within ideological
vices’, The Sound of the Shuttle is an insightful and
honest report based upon many years of creative
and critical practice.
Gerald Dawe has published ten books of poetry, includ-
ing The Lundys Letter, Sunday School, Lake Geneva,
Points West, Mickey Finn’s Air and The Last Peacock. His
other publications include The Wrong Country: Essays on
Modern Irish Writing, In Another World: Van Morrison &
Belfast, and Looking Through You: Northern Chronicles
(2020). He is the recipient of numerous awards and hon-
ours, including the Macaulay Fellowship in Literature.New Title • HISTORY
WITHOUT A DOG’S CHANCE
THE NATIONALISTS OF NORTHERN IRELAND AND
THE IRISH BOUNDARY COMMISSION, 1920–1925
James A. Cousins
Covering the years 1920–1925, Without a Dog’s
Chance is the first major study of Northern national-
ists’ role in the Boundary Commission that they, and
their allies in the Irish Free State, had hoped to use
to end partition and destroy the new Northern state.
For Northern nationalists, the partition of Ireland was
an intensely traumatic event, not only because it
consigned almost half a million nationalists to a gov-
ernment that was not of their choosing, but also be-
cause they regarded partition as the mutilation of
their Irish citizenship and nationhood.
PAPERBACK
Without a Dog’s Chance fills an important gap in the
history of this period by focusing on the complex rela-
tionship between partition-era Northern and South- JANUARY 2020
ern nationalism, and the subordinate role Northern €24.95 / £22.99
nationalists had in Ireland’s post-partition political 9781788551021
landscape. Feeling under-valued, abandoned and
exploited by their peers in the South, Northern na-
tionalists were also radically marginalised within the 380 pages
new Northern Irish state, which regarded them with 234 x 156mm
fear and suspicion.
With December 2020 marking one hundred years
since partition, this timely book is essential reading.
James A. Cousins holds a PhD in history from Simon Fra-
ser University, Canada, and master’s degrees in political
science and Indigenous public policy. James is originally
from the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, and he cur-
rently works as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Ontario Min-
istry of Indigenous Affairs, specialising in matters related
to Indigenous governance and self-determination.New Title • HISTORY A HISTORY OF IRELAND IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Owen McGee This essential new history of the Irish state is a study of Ireland’s international profile on the world stage, rather than its party politics. Against a global backdrop, it offers a fresh and an- alytical study of the origins of the Irish state, the Irish revolution and the growth of Irish diplomacy, from just six consulates in the 1920s to over sixty embassies by the 2010s. Through original research and analysis, historian Owen McGee explores how Ireland’s economic performance formed a perpetual context for its role PAPERBACK in international relations, and also locates Ireland’s place within evolving European, American and Unit- ed Nations debates, resulting in the first comprehen- FEBRUARY 2020 sive and incisive overview of a century of Irish diplo- €24.95 / £22.99 macy. 9781788551137 By focusing on Ireland’s struggle for independence in a global context, McGee examines how the Irish 368 pages state slowly came to find a distinct role on the world 226 x 153mm stage, and raises questions regarding its evolving geopolitical, cultural and economic identities, as it sought to find its place within a globalised economy, not only politically but also in terms of the world of ideas. Owen McGee is a historian who has contributed articles to Irish Studies in International Affairs, Éire-Ireland and oth- er academic journals. His previous books include Arthur Griffith, the award-winning study The IRB, and a revised edition of Souvenirs of Irish Footprints Over Europe.
New Title • HISTORY
THE BENEDICTINE NUNS &
KYLEMORE ABBEY
A HISTORY
Deirdre Raftery & Catherine KilBride
For one hundred years, Kylemore Abbey has been
home to the Irish Benedictine nuns, whose monastery
in Flanders was destroyed during the First World War.
Known in continental Europe as the Irish Dames of
Ypres, the community was founded in 1665 and pro-
vided education to the daughters of elite Irish Cath-
olics during the penal era. On arriving in Connemara
HARDBACK
in 1920, the Benedictines established a monastery
and opened a boarding school. JUNE 2020
€19.95 / £17.99
This book provides the first fully illustrated account of
the Irish Benedictines and their monastery at Kyle-
9781785373220
more. It also charts the fascinating history of the
castle, built by Mitchell Henry and later home to the 210 pages
Duke and Duchess of Manchester. The stunning- 225 x 170mm
ly beautiful castle became a national landmark in
the nineteenth century. The twentieth century saw
the Benedictines develop the gardens, restore the
Gothic Chapel and open the castle to the public.
Meticulously researched with material from the Kyle-
more archives, this book provides a compelling ac-
count of a unique part of Irish history, while the im-
ages capture the life of the nuns, and the savage
beauty of Kylemore and its surroundings under the
Diamond Mountain.
Deirdre Raftery is Professor of the History of Education at
UCD, and an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Soci-
ety. She has thirteen book publications including (jointly)
Nano Nagle: The Life and the Legacy (2018) and Trans-
nationalism, Gender and the History of Education (2017).
Catherine KilBride was Principal of Pembroke School (Miss
Meredith’s), Education Director of the Marketing Institute,
and lecturer in Education Management at University Col-
lege Dublin. She is now an editor, translator and writer.
This is her fourth book.New Title • HISTORY RETREAT FROM REVOLUTION THE DÁIL COURTS, 1920–24 Mary Kotsonouris In the spring of 1920, a remarkable phenomenon occurred in Ireland: the people took over the ad- ministration of law and order in their own commu- nities and turned their backs on the enforced British judicial system. It became international news. Small tribunals adjudicated in local disputes about land, the local Volunteer companies abducted and pun- ished thieves and petty criminals, directed public order at race meetings and fair days, and in parts of the country burnt down the existing court houses. Retreat from Revolution is the first in-depth account of the courts system established by a Dáil decree in PAPERBACK June 1920. Presided over by locally elected justices and attached to virtually every parish in the country for ready access, these Dáil courts soon displaced JUNE 2020 the largely abandoned British court system, on which €18.95 / £17.99 people turned their backs. 9781788551250 This is the true story of the Dáil Courts as told by the people involved – the litigants, the officials and the 174 pages judges. Mary Kotsonouris vividly portrays the self-con- 234 x 156mm fidence of these men and women, their ability to create structure that answered their needs, and their keen appreciation of their place in the emerg- ing democracy. Mary Kotsonouris was born in Limerick and educated in Roscrea and University College Dublin. She practised as a solicitor in Dublin before serving as a judge of the District Court for nine years. In 1992 she was awarded an M.Litt degree for legal research by Trinity College and she is the author of Talking to Your Solicitor (1992), The Winding-up of the Dáil Courts, 1922–1925 (2004), and ‘Tis All Lies, Your Worship.:Tales from the District Court (2011).
New Title • HISTORY
WOMEN AND THE IRISH
REVOLUTION
FEMINISM, ACTIVISM, VIOLENCE
Linda Connolly (ed.)
The narrative of the Irish revolution as a chronology
of great men and male militarism, with women pre- Cover Coming Soon
sumed to have either played a subsidiary role or no
role at all, requires constant vigilance. Women and
feminists were in fact extremely active in Irish revolu-
tionary causes from 1912 on, but ultimately it was the
men as revolutionary ‘leaders’ who took all the pow-
er (and indeed all the credit) after independence.
Women from different backgrounds were activists in
not insignificant numbers, and women across Ireland
were profoundly impacted by the overall violence
and tumult of the era. But they were then relegat-
ed to the private sphere, with the memory of their
PAPERBACK
important political and military contribution to the
revolution forgotten and erased.
NOVEMBER 2020
Women and the Irish Revolution examines diverse €24.95 / £21.99
aspects of women’s experiences in the revolution
9781788551533
after the Rising. The complex role of women as ac-
tivists, the detrimental impact of violence and social
and political divisions on women, the role of women 288 pages
in the foundation of the new State, and dynamics 226 x 153mm
of remembrance and forgetting are explored in de-
tail. Important and timely, and featuring previous-
ly unpublished material, this book will prompt vital
new public conversations about the experiences of
women in the Irish revolution.
Linda Connolly is the Director of the Social Sciences In-
stitute at Maynooth University. A Professor of Sociology,
her research interests include gender, family studies, and
Irish studies. She has published extensively on these sub-
jects, in journals and edited volumes, and has written two
books: The Irish Women’s Movement: from revolution to
devolution (2003) and Documenting Irish Feminisms: the
second wave (with Tina O’Toole, 2005).BACK
MONTH 20XX
€XX.XX / £XX.XX
ISBN
XXX pages
XXX x XXXmm
MERRION
PRESSNew Title • ART HISTORY
ART, IRELAND, AND THE IRISH
DIASPORA
CHICAGO, DUBLIN, NEW YORK, 1893–1939
CULTURE, CONNECTIONS & CONTROVERSIES
Éimear O’Connor
Art, Ireland, and the Irish Diaspora reveals a labyrinth
of social and cultural connections that conspired to
create and sustain an image of Ireland for the na-
tion and for the Irish diaspora between 1893 and
1939. This era saw an upsurge of interest among pa-
trons and collectors in New York and Chicago in the
‘Irishness’ of Irish art, which was facilitated by gallery
PAPERBACK
owners, émigrés, philanthropists, and art-world ce-
lebrities. SEPTEMBER 2020
€35.00 / £30.00
Leading Irish art historian Éimear O’Connor, explores
the ongoing tensions between those in Ireland and
9781788551496
the expatriate community in the US, split as they
were between tradition and modernity, and be- 400 pages
tween public expectation and political rhetoric, as 240 x 190mm
Ireland sought to forge a post-Treaty international
identity through its visual artists.
Featuring a glittering cast of players including Jack.
B. Yeats, George Russell (Æ), Lady Gregory, and
Seán Keating, and richly illustrated in colour with im-
ages from archives on both sides of the Atlantic, Art,
Ireland and the Irish Diaspora presents a wealth of
new research, and draws together, for the first time,
a series of themes that bound the Dublin art scene
with that in New York and Chicago through complex
networks and contemporary publications at an ex-
traordinary time in Ireland’s history.
Éimear O’Connor is an Honorary Member of the Royal
Hibernian Academy of Arts. She is the author of Seán
Keating in Context: Responses to Culture and Politics in
Post-Civil War Ireland (2009), Seán Keating: Art, Politics
and Building the Irish Nation (IAP, 2013) and Editor of Irish
Women Artists 1800-2009: Familiar but Unknown (2010).BESTSELLERS MERRION PRESS
PB: 9781785372698 • €18.95/£16.99 PB: 9781785372858 • €16.95/£14.99 PB: 9781785372377 • €19.95/£18.99
380pp • 38 illustrations 280pp 450pp
PB: 9781785373053 • €16.95/£14.99 PB: 9781785372452 • €19.95/£17.99 PB: 9781785372100 • €14.95/£13.99
250pp • 12 illustrations 272pp 190pp
PB: 9781785372537 • €18.95/£17.99 HB: 9781785372339 • €35.00/£29.99 PB: 9781785371776• €16.99/£15.99
200pp • 16 illustrations 228pp • 300 illustrations 290pp • 16 illustrationsBESTSELLERS IRISH ACADEMIC PRESS
HB: 9781788550987 • €24.95/£22.99 PB: 9781788550932 • €19.95/£16.99 PB: 9781788550703 • €19.95/£17.99
350pp • 20 illustrations 277pp 272pp • 21 illustrations
PB: 9781788550789 • €18.95/£17.99 PB: 9781788550741 • €24.95/£21.99 PB: 9781788550864 • €29.95/£26.99
232pp 304pp • 12 illustrations 500pp • 47 illustrations
HB: 9781911024958 • €15.95/£14.99 PB: 9781911024859 • €24.95/£22.99 PB: 9781911024491 • €24.99/£22.99
252 pp • 36 illustrations 278 pp • 180 illustrations 304 pp • 22 illustrationsIRISH ACADEMIC PRESS • MERRION PRESS
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Opposite: ‘Teatime’: Members of the Sheridan and O’Brien families pictured in Loughrea, Co. Galway,
in 1954, From Old Ireland in Colour by John Breslin & Sarah-Anne Buckley.MERRION PRESS
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