Book Review:The Shelter of Neighbours-Eilis Ni Dhuibhne

Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Fellow in creative writing at UCD, has written more than twenty books, received numerous awards and is considered one of Ireland's most important short story writers. Her new book The Shelter of Neighbours is a collection of fourteen short stories and the title draws on an Irish proverb "people live in one another's shelter or shadow." The beautiful and slightly haunting watercolour cover design shows a bare winter tree and it's shadow. With praise on the back cover from Edna O'Brien that "her prose shimmers like poetry" we know that we are in for a treat.
 
The titles of the stories are diverse, from the literary and Joycean sounding 'The Yeats',  'Illumination' and 'A Literary Lunch' to the altogether more ordinary sounding 'Bikes I Have Lost' and 'The Shortcut Through Ikea.'
And it is the normalness of her writing that is the charm. The natural voice discussing the weather, the traffic, the sick cat, "seven hundred euros later and now they should consider putting her down. Shouldn't the vet have mentioned that before?",to the creative writing teacher with writers block - surely a true case of the teacher taking her own advice about writing about what you know.

Deconstructing the pretensions of restaurant menus in 'Literary Lunch', where truffles are listed under sausage and mash, she identifies that the restaurant is saying "we can cook and we are ironic as well, it proclaims, put your elbows on the table, have a good time." Ni Dhuibhne  just seems to have her finger on the pulse, as it were, of everyday life and our inner thoughts. Her humour brings a quiet giggle as contemporary restaurants, well known places and Dublin characters are described. "Oh yes!" you keep saying to yourself as you read each story, "you're so right!"
Literary themes abound; working with writer's block, unsuccessful writers, writers retreats, a soon-to-be literature student. The stories include those with unexpected turns, unexpected discoveries (houses in the woods) and teenage romance.
Short stories are a category out there on their own. They can start mid event and end inconclusively. They can have a certain enigma about them which leaves the reader uncertain of their meaning, thinking about them again or almost being left to finish them themselves. One of the masters of the short story for me was Raymond Carver, evoking small town America and whose stories you can return to again and again. Eilis Ni Dhuibhne certainly should be considered high up there in the sometimes difficult to master short story category. She has a natural voice that flows off the page and the added appeal of the familiarity of place from an Irish writer adds an extra level of interest.
A book that will bring pleasure to all types of readers, the young and the old, the seasoned short-story readers and for those new to the genre, it is also a book to treasure for it's no nonsense insight beyond the sometime pretensions of Irish life.

Published by The Blackstaff Press
www.blackstaffpress.com

Book review: Belfast Taxi by Lee Henry

Belfast Taxi: A drive through history, one fare at a time by Lee Henry, a journalist and Web Editor of CultureNorthernIreland.org, is a book based on interviews Henry conducted with more than thirty Belfast taxi drivers of all ages and backgrounds. The author's grandfather was a Belfast taxi driver which may go someway in explaining his interest, but in this book it is Henry's skill as a journalist that shines through as the drivers have each revealed to him their individually interesting stories. Describing the drivers as "opinionated, personable and forthright", like their counterparts all over the world, he points out that what sets them apart is "their experiences of working in the Troubles." Encouraged by the drivers to go ahead with the book so they could tell their stories, some were happy to have their manes revealed whilst others preferred to remain anonymous. The chapters cover all aspects of the trade; origins, during the Troubles, working with the Press, Falls and Shankill taxis, women taxi drivers, Foreign national drivers and modern Belfast.

 One driver is a keen amateur historian, a great source of information on the origins of Belfast taxis, even going back to a public sedan-chair stand in the early nineteenth century. The biggest advance in Belfast taxi history was the arrival of the Austin 'black taxi' in 1958, enabling anyone with the money to buy independent employment.

From the late 1930s private taxi hire grew and by 1960 Belfast was a thriving city. But as the decade progressed tensions arose and during the 1970s, 80s and even 90s, Belfast was not a safe place, with daily bomb alerts, hoax calls and synchronised explosions. Some drivers were inevitably killed but taxi drivers still continued to work, some closer to the danger than others as the chapter 'Working With the Press' describes. Taxi drivers who knew the city were in demand by the press to drive into the high-risk front line, with one driver naming working passengers as Kate Adie of the BBC and Olivia O'Leary of RTE.
Taxis were also needed by the public when bus services were interrupted and suspended in west and north Belfast. a good neighbour scheme of car pooling 'the people's taxi' into the city was joined by taxi drivers who drove a set route for a a fixed route fare.
The first female taxi-company owner Sally Rodgers is afforded a chapter all of her own. A blow-in from Portglenone and remarkably, a mother of fourteen, she took over a struggling taxi depot in 1975 during the Troubles and is considered a pioneer in the industry. Belfast City Airport taxis has grown over the years since the airport "was only a wee wooden box" and Belfast's regeneration has bought visitors to the city, and celebrities such as at the 2011 MTV awards. As one driver tells Henry, "One of the celebrities and her entourage had gone for burgers. would you believe it, she was sick in his cab!...Famous or not...,I would have bucked her straight out onto the road." That's no-nonsense Belfast taxi talk for you!

Henry also interviewed foreign nationals who had made their way into the business, who both spoke highly of their acceptance by the Belfast community. Describing themselves as "ordinary decent people, the advent of peace has made the drivers into better professionals working in one of the up-and-coming cities of Europe.
This book is packed full of stories from the no-nonsense drivers of Belfast city. It is a reader-friendly collection of the information collected by Lee Henry from his interviews. Telling the history of Belfast and the changes in society through the drivers stories, Henry has managed to write an informative and genuinely interesting book without resorting to stuffy date quoting. Using the voices of the drivers he has managed to gather information about real people by real people and it is both a pleasure to read and a way to subconsciously educate yourself about Belfast society and history.
Of interest to anyone who enjoys reading about society and history, particularly of Ireland, it can also be dipped into as each chapter can be read in its own right.
 Author Lee Henry
Published by Blackstaff Press www.blackstaffpress.com

Book Launch: Rory Gallagher - His Life and Times

This is one book launch that must have been great craic. This reviewer unfortunately couldn't make it down to Cork last Thursday when the Lord Mayor of Cork and Philip King,musician, film-maker and broadcaster as guest speaker, officially launched the book of Cork's guitar legend Rory Gallagher - His Life and Times by Marcus Connaughton and published by Collins Press, but it was the apres-launch where things must have really kicked off, at The Corner House on Coburg Street. With music by The Dave McHugh Band, Pat Horgan and other guests I'd say the place was really rocking.
  
Rory Gallagher is claimed as Ireland's first ever rock star, a guitar hero who sold more than 30 million records. The author Marcus Connaughton, blues expert and record industry veteran, has collected together never-seen-before photographs for the biography as well as insights  from Gallagher's contemporaries, road crew, family and friends.
 Marcus  Connaughton

Fans of Gallagher's travelled from afar for the launch including former fanzine editor Dino McGartland, Germany's 'Rory Tribute Show' organiser $20 Bill, and rock photographers Fin Costello and Colm Henry. Also there were U2 sound engineer Joe O'Herlihy and poet Louis de Paor.

For Rory fans and anyone interested in music, this is a great addition to the rock biography category and will surely make its way onto many Christmas lists this year.
 Rory Gallagher - His Life and Times by Marcus Connaughton and published by Collins Press.
www.collinspress.ie

Book Review: Irish Women at Work

Irish Women at Work is an academic book made up of research from a collection of interviews that were conducted with forty-two women about their working lives between the 1930s and 1960s in Cork, Kerry and Limerick as part of an oral history project. The authors, Elizabeth Kiely and Maire Leane are social policy lecturers in University College Cork.
 
With an introduction by Maria Luddy, a significant voice in Women's History Studies in Ireland, Luddy emphasises how pioneering this work is in offering insight into women's entry into the world of paid work and what it was to be a working woman, highlighting the fact that most gave up this job on marriage. The book is an opportunity for these usually marginalised women to have their stories recorded- an important issue often addressed in women's history. Describing it as a landmark study, it will enter into the world of Irish history and social sciences academia to be referenced by many a third-level  student. But this fascinating book should not just be marginalised to this specialsed group as it contains a wealth of fascinating quoted stories from ordinary Irish women. The brief biographical details of the interviewees listing out the Joans and Marys reminds you that these are real lives we are about to be privy to.
The legislation and policies introduced by the new Irish state from 1921 onwards that limited women's rights, idealising their caring and homemaking roles was the staring point for the questions of how this affected the aspirations and experiences of women in relation to work.
  DeValera's Ireland
The book has six chapters; childhood and entry into work, work in factories and services, work in offices and professions, identities as working women, family and community connections and finally an account of women's accommodation agency and resistance in their work experience. It carries some fascinating photographs including a Christmas party of telephonists circa 1940s, domestic science students with their poultry instructress circa 1950s, a civil engineering graduate in 1949 (surely unusual enough then-as now) and a trainee nurse standing outside Whipps Cross hospital in East London in the late 1940s- the destination for many of the young trainee Irish nurses.
 Nursing Staff at Whipps Cross
Just less than half of the women interviewed had only been in school until fourteen, with no further education and parents played a key role in choosing their daughter occupation. Women who took factory jobs were mainly working class living in urban settings, and the service sector jobs were poorly paid. The professional women were mainly engaged in gender stereotypical jobs with nursing viewed in vocational terms. A professional role gave women the chance to exercise certain autonomy at work and gain advancement. The women were generally accepting of social and cultural norms of the home as being the place to fulfil the role of wife and mother with little regret at employment termination on marriage or pregnancy. But for some this brought physical drudgery or social isolation.

Social class was significant for the married women's experience of employment but opportunities were negotiated by women in their own individual ways.There were expectations of daughterly obedience and women had an awareness of public opinion on the various types of work undertaken. But workplace identity spilled over into their social lives bringing solidarity and identity. Most women saw themselves as compliant workers, fearing parental opinion or work reputation if involved in labour activism- less important if the job was not seen as a life long career. The motivation to organise developed more in terms in terms of the women's lives as housewives and mothers rather than workers in organisations such as the Irish Countrywomen's association and the Irish Housewives Association.
   
A record of oral evidence, not meant to be representative, but with potential for future research maybe into single women's work experience, this book's importance should not be underestimated. It will enter the shelves of university libraries all over the country and be added to required reading for students and any close followers of social and women's history in Ireland. 
A project website was created www.ucc.ie/wisp/ohp with publications and conference papers to download so that the information is accessible not just in the book.
Published by Irish Academic Press

www.iap.ie

Le Petit Parisien

I walked past this place yesterday and it was just calling out to me to come in and sample the delights within.

It's a new cafe on Wicklow Street selling eat in or take out french patisserie as well as breakfasts, filled baguettes, savoury tarts, sandwiches and salads. The interior is beautiful- classy and well, just Parisien. They seem to have got the feel just right. Opening on the 25th (Thursday), Saturday it was packed, so good luck to Le Petit Parisien and I look forward to trying it out for myself.
 

Le Petit Parisien
17 Wicklow Street
Dublin 2

Book Review: Song of Duiske by John A. Ryan

Song of Duiske by Michael J. Ryan is not a new book. First published in 1989 and with a revised version in 2006 it is one of those books that seems to have passed under the radar. And that is a shame, because it is a very satisfying little read. I say little because that's just what it is. At just 52 pages in five chapters; Dark, Seed, Earth, Harvest and Home, it is a novella.
 
The cover design might have put off potential readers -it looks a little like a church prayer or hymn book with its woodcut manuscript miniature of monks on a vellum background that could be much more glossy and 'Name of the Rose'-ish. Despite this, it is worth the read and it could become one of those little treasures you think about a lot after reading , recommend it to others and read again yourself.
With a historical note about the Cistercian abbeys of Ireland and the location of Duiske in South Leinster, the story takes place in the early fourteenth century following the monks in their cycle of life. The atmosphere of the abbey; the bare stone, the cold early mornings, the candlelight and shuffling of monks feet is immediately set.

The reader is with the brothers as they go about their daily tasks of morning prayers, the work on the watermill, tending the fruit crops.We are made privy to the seasons changes in the Abbey and the jobs the monks undertakes, the little breaks in the Abbey rules that went unnoticed, the illicit liaisons and we quickly get to know the monks. On a trip to find wood for masts Brothers Simon and Orion meet a group of men with a tall red-haired leader and Simon considers that this is "when their day had begun to slip from their grasp" and he realises that he could be considered an accessory to a crime.
 Duiske Abbey
Ryan has researched the historical and geographical facts to produce this novella,and a glossary is provided to explain some of the medieval and Latin terms used which adds an authenticity to the tale. This little treasure is a bedside companion and with a newly designed eye-catching cover it could make its way to become a classic Irish tale.

Oddsocks Revival in Whelan's

We're here at Whelan's Front Bar on Wexford Street at an Oddsocks Revival gig and the funk soul vibe is filtering through the crowd.

There's no lead singer in Oddsocks; Michael Conefrey on bass seems to take on the bluesy tracks, Luke Mercer is in middle in a floral shirt and Anthony Mannion with the grungy look going on is in his own place and getting lost in the moment. Not to forget those often overlooked in bands, drummer Eoghan O'Kelly.
Anthony tells us they'll sing us a couple of numbers from Willie Dixie, an obvious influence but it's the move then from blues to funk that really brings them back to life - this is their forte. An unusual enough sound in a twenty-something band these days but one that I really love.

A good funk sound with other covers by The Band, Crosby Stills and Nash sounding harmonies and Rory Gallagher, their influences are obviously wide but they have their own sound as shown by their album It's Time, lyric master being Anthony Mannion. Oddsocks Revival- look them up!
www.oddsocksrevival.com
www.myspace.com/oddsocksrevival