Local History: There are few true aristocrats in Ireland today and gentry, landed or otherwise, are equally thin on the ground. Yet it is still interesting to read about those who did, and do, lay claim to such titles.
Turtle Bunbury and Art Kavanagh (themselves bearers of historic names) bring us back to the heydays (and low days) of lords, earls, viscounts, baronets and other "gentlefolks" of the counties of Wicklow and Meath. Many, if not most, of these people, as in almost every county in Ireland, acquired their titles and lands in one of just a few ways, through conquest, confiscation and plantation, royal favour, descent and inter-marriage, while not a few estates were actually purchased.
We're talking, of course, of the centuries of English rule in Ireland and of those who benefited therefrom. Nineteen of Co Meath's prominent families are dealt with in Art Kavanagh's first volume on that county, while Turtle Bunbury, in this first Co Wicklow volume, details the history of just nine of that county's principal land-owning families. Both books are exhaustively researched and lavishly illustrated. Read and see how the other 10 per cent lived not so long ago.
The Kirwans of Castlehacket, Co Galway, could be said to have been "landed gentry" in their time, but their wealth and position were generated by trade. Unlike most of the families mentioned in the Meath and Wicklow volumes above, the Kirwans were the only family among the merchant tribes of Galway to claim Irish ancestry. Further, they were landlords with a sense of justice which was regularly revealed in their relationship with their tenants. The subtitle of Ronan Lynch's study, "History, folklore and mythology in an Irish racehorsing family", encapsulates the story of "the racing Kirwans", as they were known locally and nationally, chiefly because of the family's prominence in the breeding and racing of horses.
Indeed, the successes of one of their racehorses, the famed Friar, saved the family from bankruptcy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Eccentricity also ran in the family: Richard Kirwan (born 1734), always afraid of catching a cold, was the first person to take exams at Trinity College with his hat on. The author chronicles the history of the Kirwans in expert fashion, lacing the story with intriguing and often hilarious anecdotes in the life of this unusual Irish family.
Coincidentally, two books on Limerick, albeit from different publishers, complement each other in recording facets of the history of the city from Viking times to the present. The latest volume of Made in Limerick is the second in an ambitious project initiated by Limerick Civic Trust in association with Fás and features 30 contributions on the city's history, society, industry, sport and art, all ably edited by David Lee and Debbie Jacobs. It is a hefty, richly illustrated, nicely designed production, drawing on the talents and memories of contributors as varied as Richard Harris, Jim Kemmy, Florence Ziegfeld and Lenore Fischer.
Another of the contributors, Matthew Potter, happens to be the author of the other publication, The Government and the People of Limerick, which, as its subtitle explains, is "The history of Limerick Corporation/City Council 1197-2006". This is a more scholarly and specific work, focusing on the development and role of the local government in the city. At 580 pages, this detailed work is likely to become the definitive study of Limerick and its local administration. It, too, is illustrated, though not on as lavish a scale as its counterpart mentioned above. No dedicated Limerick bookshelf should be without either or both of these volumes.
Nuggets of local history are often found in the most unlikely places. John Martin's An Illustrated Survey of An Óige's Youth Hostels must surely be one of those locations, having in its contents potted histories of 120 hostels, snippets about their neighbourhoods and memories and observations by hostellers who came and went over the 75 years of the association's existence.
Not all of the hostels listed are now in use, with a few having been demolished and at least one (in Bantry, Co Cork) closed permanently following the discovery of "hemipterous insects" (bugs to you and me) in the blankets. An Óige's hostels are or were located in the Republic, although John Martin has also reviewed the 80 hostels in the North in a separate survey. A few inaccuracies in this 350-page illustrated work do not detract from the overall merit of the record. (A few examples: the Abbey Theatre owes its origins to a meeting in Dorus House, Kinvara, Co Galway, in 1904, not 1912; Eamon de Valera was not president in 1956, as stated on page 210; and Dr Kathleen Lynn, who bequeathed her Glenmalure house as a hostel to An Óige, was not a member of the 1919 first Dáil, although she was an abstentionist TD later.)
Richard Roche is a local historian, journalist and author
The Landed Gentry and Aristocracy of Co Meath, Volume I By Art Kavanagh Irish Family Names, €39.90 The Landed Gentry and Aristocracy of Co Wicklow, Volume I By Turtle Bunbury Irish Family Names, €39.90 The Kirwans of Castlehacket, Co Galway By Ronan Lynch Four Courts Press, €45 Made in Limerick, Volume II Edited by David Lee and Debbie Jacobs Limerick Civic Trust, €30 The Government and the People of Limerick By Matthew Potter Limerick City Council, €45 An Illustrated Survey of An Óige's Youth Hostels By John Martin Nonsuch Publishing, €20