Benbecula
By Graeme Macrae Burnet
(Polygon Books, £12)
Benbecula is part of the Darkland Tales series, where modern Scottish authors retell stories from the nation’s more sordid history. Here, Booker-shortlisted literary thriller writer Graeme Macrae Burnet gets to grips with a brutal triple murder on the Hebridean island of Benbecula from July 1857, when Angus MacPhee killed his parents and aunt “in the most brutal and purposeful fashion”.
Their story is told by Angus’s older brother, Malcolm, who has been tainted by the slayings: “the stench of it lingers as the reek cleaves to the thatch”. Ostracised by the community, Malcolm takes refuge in the whisky bottle, making him the most unreliable of narrators, as he recounts the weeks leading up to the crime and the years since. A heady brew of trauma, loneliness and alcoholism have taken their toll on Malcolm’s mental health, as we learn that perhaps Angus is not the only MacPhee with skeletons in his closet. Deliciously dark and twisty fare.
Evolution of Telecommunications: From Telegraph to 5G
By Brendan Kearns
(Amazon, £40)
After a career spent mostly in Telecom Éireann, where he was involved in network evolution, Brendan Kearns provides a comprehensive history of telecommunications, from the inventions of the telegraph and telephone through to quantum computing and generative AI. While it is international in scope, the book delves particularly into Irish telecoms history, including our part in laying the first successful transatlantic telegraph cables in 1866, as well as the adoption of various technologies here, from fax to SMS, pagers to broadband.
Its combination of science and anecdote covers everything from the history of the amplifier to the biggest ransomware cyberattacks of the 21st century, concluding with a look at the key trends guiding the future of telecoms and a warning regarding the ethical and societal impacts of these innovations. Be warned, though, its 500-plus pages are not for the casual reader, but it’s a must for broadcasting geeks, comms freaks and audiophiles.
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Hurling 1810
By Conor Power
(Menma Books, €20)
Waterford journalist Conor Power’s debut novel is set just 12 years after the 1798 Rebellion, when civil unrest continues to bubble just below the surface of Irish society. As the title suggests, it’s about the small ball game, during a time when “hurling-at-goals” was controlled by the landlords in the Big Houses, who put teams together from their estates and wagered large sums of money on games against rival domains.
Seán O’Meara is considered small for the rough and tumble of the sport, but his natural skill with hurl in hand makes him a gamble worth taking for Carlow landlord Charles Kavanagh, whose beautiful daughter is also quite taken by the young labourer when he’s recovering from injury in their stables. A fine story, decently told, Power’s novel shines a light on an almost forgotten period of hurling history, although given the plethora of inconsistencies in the text, it really could have done with a proper edit.
