Missionaries, myths and musicians - and a little linguistic ripenesss

From a lively, complete portrait of Longford to warm memories of a Glasnevin school, there is much to read in this batch of new titles

A LOT OF WHAT passes for local history these days should be described as social history or simple reminiscence. It has its place and can often make for charming reading, but it is far too often misdescribed as something a good deal more serious than it is. This is most emphatically not true, however, of Longford History and Society, edited by Martin Morris and Fergus O'Ferrall, (Geography Publications, 755pp, €60).

The book is part of a series on Irish counties, which has reached number 21 with this volume. The substantial text subtitled “Interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county” includes essays on just about every Longford-associated topic you could think of, taking in both local and national politics, social history and statistical analysis. It’s a complete portrait of the fourth-smallest Irish county.

Longford is, however, distinguished in local history because an earlier text often referred to in the present volume, Raymond Gillespie's and Gerard Moran's Longford: Essays in County History, is one of the foundation texts of the subject.

Irish Timesjournalists Stephen Collins and Kathy Sheridan contribute to Longford History and Society. Sheridan's piece is a delightfully personal one, while Collins's is a typically forensically argued chapter on local politics between 1960 and 2000, taking as his signature icons politicians Sean Mac Eoin and Albert Reynolds. It's a lively piece, liberally laced with quotations. The same is true of the whole book, which combines learning with readability to great effect.

Collins reconstructs local politics with lots of vivid language, particularly from Reynolds, who has a reputation for linguistic ripenesss. For example, after a particularly bitter row with the former British prime minister John Major, Reynolds reportedly was asked how things had gone. He replied: “It wasn’t too bad. He chewed the b****s off me but I took a few lumps out of him.”

27 Main Streetby Tom Wood, (Red Hen Publishing, 238pp, €13.99 pbk, €18.99 hbk) is a warm-hearted family memoir of Fr Bill Wood, an Irish missionary priest from Cashel, Co Tipperary, who spent more than 60 years ministering in New Zealand while never forgetting his home at No 27 or the people who lived there.

His nephew Tom has used the rich family archive of letters, essays and reminiscences to reconstruct and tell the story of his uncle’s life at home and abroad, and very satisfying it is too. The “history” here is mainly social: how people went about their lives, where they took their holidays, what they thought about.

Very convincingly, the writer gets inside his uncle’s head to bring us his thoughts and aspirations. There is a glimpse of what you might call “big history” when he deals with the siege of Hong Kong as horrific events unfold.

The Lessons We Learned and Games We Played; 100 years at Lindsay Road National Schoolby Yvonne Deegan and editorial committee, (Associated Editions, 95pp, €20 from the school) will be a must for past pupils, their parents and friends. Nicely-produced and well-judged, it is a nostalgic trip back in time to the beginnings of the school in Glasnevin, Dublin, in 1911.

It contains photographs, artwork and personal accounts by past and present students. The final chapter is a funny and provocative glance at what the school of the future might be like. Daire Cavanagh, for example, foresees that all the teachers will be robots.

Three from the History Press are contenders for "real" local history texts: Following the Shoals: Cornerstones of Modern Irish Fishingby Pat Nolan (176pp, €14.99): Sport in Donegal: a History, by Conor Curran, (160pp, €15.30) and Ballybunion : an Illustrated Historyby Danny Houlihan, (128pp, €15.30). Though small, each book is authoritative and well researched.

North Munster Antiquarian Journal Volume 50 2010, edited by Liam Irwin, (Thomond Archaeological and Historical Society, 183pp €30, available from liam.irwin@mic.ul.ie) is a treasure-trove of topics, which range from the economy of Limerick during the first World War to a story of brick manufacturing. Denis Casey's account of historical and literary representations of Brian Boru's funeral in Armagh in 1014 AD is particularly enjoyable.

The Journal of the Bray Cualann Historical Society Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh Centenary Issue, edited by Jim Lynch and guest editor Colum Kenny, celebrates the centenary of the birth of the fifth President of Ireland with 15 articles and poems about him, as well as other historic figures from Bray, including some notable women, the Blind Fiddler of Bray Head and world boxing champion Katie Taylor.

Ríocht na Midhe: records of Meath Archaeological and Historical Society, edited by Seamus MacGabhann, (published by the society with support from Meath Co Library service, no price given) includes a piece on St Wendelin, the Irish missionary saint of the 6th and 7th centuries who laboured in southwest Germany. Dr Manfred Peter outlines his importance and shows how he has become part of the culture of the region.

Belfast Trolleybusesby David Harvey, (Amberley Publishing, 192pp, £16.99) has charming photographs of individual buses. My dictionary says a trolley bus is "an electrically-driven public transport vehicle that does not run on rails but takes its power from an overhead wire through a trolley". Belfast was the only place in Ireland to have such a service, and this book is packed with information about it.

NOELEEN DOWLINGis a freelance journalist and local historian

Picture this:  A town in profile

THE CHARACTER of a town is defined as much by its citizens as it is by bricks and mortar. A case in point is Nenagh Face2Face, the recently published collection of portraits of the people of Tipperary town. This charming set of black-and-white images by local photographer Pádraig Ó Flannabhra spans the two decades that saw the birth and death of the Celtic Tiger.

Together in book form the studies amount to a fascinating portrait of a town. There is an honesty in the straightforward, almost formal style of the photography, all shot on black-and-white film in medium format. The overwhelming impression is of ordinary decent people – butchers, publicans, shopkeepers, characters, clergy and even the coroner – frequently photographed in a way that conveys their position in local society.

Although many are studio portraits there is little obvious glamour and no major celebrities or rock stars. It is the sheer normality of the subjects that is intriguing.

It brings to mind the work of the photographer August Sander who documented German bourgeois society in the early 20th century.

It also reminds me of a town recreated through portraits in the US Holocaust museum in Washington DC filled with studio portraits of the entire Jewish community of Monastir, Macedonia, before their annihilation in the Nazi concentration camps.

Ó Flannabhra’s motivation comes from that same instinct as Sander and the anonymous Jewish photographer – to document what is here now so we may examine ourselves with curiosity and so others may look back on us and wonder.

The hardback book is published under the local Clo Collchno imprint and nicely printed in Ireland by Guardian Print Design, Nenagh (€20). A special signed and numbered limited edition of 150 copies is available at €50.

FRANK MILLER

FRANK MILLERis a picture editor and photographer at The Irish Times