This is the Mizen by John D’Alton
(Gascanane, €30)
The shooting of president Abraham Lincoln in April 1865 was first relayed to Europe through a Reuters agency employee stationed in a signal tower near Crookhaven, west Cork. The tower, used as a telegraph office, played a critical role in the breaking news which meant that Crookhaven heard of the event earlier than Cork or London. This is just one of a fascinating collection of largely unknown stories connected to the Mizen peninsula. Others include the history of the Schull & Skibbereen Tramway – known as the Sick & Sore Tramway – shipwrecks and pirates, industrial heritage, ruined churches, and abandoned mines. The most prominent feature – the two white domes of Mount Gabriel, covering the radars of the tracking station – are known locally as ‘Gabriel’s Balls’.
May Morton: Phantom Poet by Liz McManus
(Arlen House, £20)
Although born in Limerick in 1879, May Morton moved to Belfast where she wrote romanticised poems. She taught in a girls’ school but had a liberal view that did not chime with the middle decades of the 20th century. The Free State was monocultural and religiously conservative, while sectarianism and internecine conflict was endemic in the North. Morton published four collections, becoming a powerhouse of activism through her work with the PEN writing association. She was dubbed ‘Maud Gonne of the Ulster Union Club, Lady Gregory of PEN’. Her best-known poem, Spindle and Shuttle, about women mill workers, won a major prize in 1951. As well as an engaging biographical sketch, the book includes a generous selection of Morton’s poems rescuing her from obscurity.
[ Kiss all the time. Dystopia, occasionally: YA reads for FebruaryOpens in new window ]
The Hidden Seasons: A Calendar of Nature’s Clues and Signs by Tristan Gooley
(Hodder, £22)
Reading clues about the weather, as well as plants, animals and the celestial kingdom, has become a specialty of Tristan Gooley’s writing. His latest book deciphers the subject on a month-by-month basis, and through detailed observation he presents insights about the natural world. Topics include rabbit habits, bumblebees and flower signs, Lammas leaves and harvest suns, and the marcescent chatter of the wind. His philosophy is that nothing should be seen in isolation and that trees and plants relate to each other. What stands out in Gooley’s work is his ability to explain complex ideas in a conversational and humorous way. He quotes a BBC Radio 4 presenter celebrating overnight rain: ‘How can you tell it’s summer in the UK? The rain is warmer.’
