Local History: Most local historians are nothing if not diligent, and the author of this work on the history of the parish of Ballycallan, not far from Kilkenny city, must be included among the most diligent.
He has produced a painstaking collection of written and oral lore about this rural parish, its history, people, churches, antiquities, graveyards and schools.
The usual sources, such as the Down survey, Griffith's Valuation, electoral registers and county directories have been mined for data. The resultant book, handsomely produced and with many maps and colour photographs, gives the lie to the anonymous commentator, quoted by the author in his preface, who wrote: "Of all dull books, a conscientiously compiled parochial history is the dullest."
Larkin pays due respect to two eminent historians, Rev William Carrigan and Rev J. Holohan, for their pioneering work on Ossorian ecclesiastical history, and devotes a chapter to Owen O'Kelly's relevant and indispensable Placenames of County Kilkenny, last published in 1985.
This latest book is a worthy addition to the many works on Co Kilkenny and its history.
The Road to Knockeenbaun
By Ronald Larkin
Kilmanagh, Ballycallan and Killaloe Community Enterprise Group,
€30
The subtitle of Ireland's Banner County, "Clare from the Fall of Parnell to the Great War 1890-1918", might lead the would-be purchaser to assume that this intensively researched book is a history of the nationalist movement in Co Clare in the period mentioned. However, it is much more than this, and includes detailed sections on the split in the volunteers, "the home front", recruitment for the British Army in the county and an appendix listing the names, birthplaces and circumstances of the death of 505 Clare men who died in the Great War. It focuses, as the author writes in his introduction, on "the catalysing impact of World War I on one Irish county in an attempt to convey the greater national complexion during the 1890-1918 watershed period in modern Irish history".
McCarthy surveys the socio-economic situation in Clare and the "system" of local government which was the setting for crucial political change. There are vivid sidelights on aspects of the national revival (more Clare Irish-speakers in Buenos Aires than in any one area in Clare itself); on British recruitment methods (free drink, with one intended recruit declining to get involved in the "family feud" between Kaiser and King); on de Valera's election campaign (a priest in Quin accused him of being "a harbinger of red ruin and revolution").
This is an entirely fresh and fascinating study of a critical period in the history of the author's native county.
Ireland's Banner County
By Daniel McCarthy
Saipan Press, Darragh, Ennis,
€29.95 hbk, €19.95 pbk
This issue of the Clogher Record, for the year 2002, was launched last March and is dedicated to Monaghan man Theo McMahon, editor of the journal for almost 25 years. The high standards set in this time in the editor's chair are maintained by the current editorial committee in a collection of scholarly articles that will appeal to the society's wide membership in counties Monaghan, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Louth and Cavan - and elsewhere, as the membership list of 900 shows.
The keystone of this issue is a long and learned article on the early peoples and kingdoms of ancient Ulster by Ohio-based Donald Schlegel, in which he traces the reigns of the Ulaid kings from as far back as 69BC.
Rockcorry historian Brian McDonald contributes a study of 'Monaghan in the Age of Revolution', in which the methods used to subdue the United Irishmen are outlined - a Farney yeoman captain said others should "leave to me the curing of this district".
There are several other equally interesting pieces, at least two of which are illustrated with colour photographs - in short, something to appeal to Clogher folk everywhere.
Clogher Record: Golden Jubilee Issue
Clogher Historical Society, Monaghan
Although apparently self-published by the author in Toronto, albeit with subvention from Donegal County Council, Donegal Poitín - A History is an engaging book that should attract many readers in the county of the title, as well as in other places where poitín was (is?) produced. It is a well-developed study of poitín-making in Co Donegal where, in northern Inishowen alone, it was estimated in an 1806 revenue report that there were 1,300 illicit stills in the barony. Of 3,153 fines imposed on poitín-making parishes in Ireland in 1815, the author found that 960 were levied on Donegal and 565 of these were assessed on Inishowen.
This reviewer does not know whether Donegal poitín differs in any way from, say, the Monaghan brand (which he once,unwisely, imbibed), but there are, apparently, few differences in the method of production, described in colourful detail in this book. From earliest times, of course, the Irish made their own spirits (giving the world uisce beatha, or whiskey) and until the 17th century attempts were made to impose a duty on the stuff. From then on, there was a constant battle between illegal distillers and the authorities. It is to their official reports that the author owes much of his intensively researched findings, which he has successfully collated into a readable local history.
Donegal Poitín - A History
By Aidan Manning
• Richard Roche is a local historian, author and critic