Another Country Growing Up In 50s Ireland

From First Communions to CIÉ Mystery Tours – the heartwarming story of award-winning journalist Gene Kerrigan's childhood in Dublin in the '50s In his highly addictive style, Gene Kerrigan effortlessly reconstructs the Ireland of the 1950s and early '60s in which he grew up. An adult world of absolute moral certainties, casual cruelties and mass emigration; for children an age of innocence, but an innocence hemmed in by fear and guilt. In this brilliant and humorous memoir, Kerrigan tells of a world that now seems as distant as another country. Into the details of school, street and family life, of Christmas, First Communion, school violence, CIE Mystery Tours and the arrival of television are woven the political background of the day and recollections of the impact of major figures: Michael O Hehir, Seán Lemass, Eamon 'Dev' De Valera, JFK, not to mention Hector Grey, Shane, Davy Crockett and Audie Murphy. It's a compelling, touching and often very funny account of a happy childhood in a country that was itself far from happy.

This memoir reconstructs the Ireland of the 1950s and early 1960s, in which the author grew up. The details of school, street and family life, interweave with the political background of the times and recollections of major political figures.

Drawing on interviews with key players and previously unused archival sources, this book offers a fascinating account of a critical period in Fine Gael's history when the party was challenged to define its place in Irish politics.

In 1949, Ireland left the Commonwealth and the British Empire began its long fragmentation. The relationship between the new Republic of Ireland and Britain was a complex one however, and the traditional assumption that the Republic would universally support self-determination overseas and object to 'imperialism' does not hold up to historical scrutiny. In reality, for economic and geopolitical reasons, the Republic of Ireland played an important role in supporting the Empire- demonstrated clearly in Ireland's active involvement in the Cyprus Emergency of the 1950s. As Helen O'Shea reveals, while the IRA formed immediate links with EOKA and the Cypriot rebels, the Irish government and the Irish Church supported the British line- which was to retain Cyprus as the Middle-Eastern base of the British Empire following the loss of Egypt. Ireland and the End of the British Empire challenges the received historiography of the period and constitutes a valuable addition to our understanding of Ireland and the British Empire.

This is the first major study of the life and times of John Charles McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin, who for more than three decades, from 1940 to 1972, dominated political and social and religious developments in Ireland. While Archbishop McQuaid ranks as one of the great social reformers of independent Ireland, he was also a 'control freak'. A superb administrator, and an admirer of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, he imposed his iron will on Irish politics and society, by instilling fear among his clergy and people. Resolutely opposed to Communism and liberalism, McQuaid's 'vigilance committee' kept files on politicians and priests, workers and students, doctors and lawyers, nuns and nurses, housewives and trade unionists, writers and film-makers. There was no room for dissent. His ambition was directed towards the building up of a truly Catholic-State-he attempted to exclude Protestants, Jews, liberal Catholics and feminists. This book tells the inside story of how McQuaid crushed the attempts of the reformist Minister for Health, Dr Noel Browne, to introduce a free welfare system for mothers and children. It also shows how McQuaid exercised enormous power over all aspects of government: education, hospitals, the adoption services, penal institutions and the criminal justice system. For Protestants in northern Ireland he embodied their fears of 'Rome Rule'. Here is the first detailed look at the career of this giant in Irish life, who also wielded enormous influence in defining Ireland's relations with the Vatican and the Irish Catholic diaspora worldwide. In this exceptional study, McQuaid comes to life as an extraordinary man, able to seize every opportunity to forward his ideals and those of his Church.

A ground-breaking history of the twentieth century in Ireland, written on the most ambitious scale by a brilliant young historian. It is significant that it begins in 1900 and ends in 2000 - most accounts have begun in 1912 or 1922 and largely ignored the end of the century. Politics and political parties are examined in detail but high politics does not dominate the book, which rather sets out to answer the question: 'What was it like to grow up and live in 20th-century Ireland'? It deals with the North in a comprehensive way, focusing on the social and cultural aspects, not just the obvious political and religious divisions.

From its earliest days, association football was seen not just as a contest between individuals and teams, but also between nations and peoples. The Irish national team was among the first in the world to participate in international competition in the early 1880s, but not everyone accepted it as a truly national entity. Sport in Ireland was disputed ground in a manner that was not the case elsewhere – even the term ‘football’ itself was a contested one. But soccer followers generally found no contradiction between their sporting and national loyalties, and the game found an important niche in Irish life, supported by many leading nationalists, from James Connolly to John Hume. This book provides a unique window into the history of Ireland and Britain, with keen insights into the making of national, regional, sectarian, class and gender identities that crystallised around Irish soccer. Taking the story from the 1870s up to the present, it examines the domestic as well the international game in Ireland, North and South, and sets both in a richly detailed historical and cultural context. It also examines the experience of Irish communities in England and Scotland, and the ways in which the game affected their relationship with their host societies. Carefully weaving together political, social, cultural and sporting history, No Foreign Game tells a story not just of division and conflict, but also one of solidarity and celebration, and in doing so it breaks new ground in the history of Irish sport.

Follows the political, economic, and social development of Ireland from the pagan past to the contemporary religious strife and hope for reconciliation.