Irish Historic Towns Atlas, no. 21, Limerick, by Eamon O’Flaherty (2010).

ISBN 978-1-904890-55-3

c. 60 pp text 410 x 305 mm; 30 pp B&W and colour maps and plates 410 mm x 305 mm to 610 x 820; in a folder 410 x 305 mm.

Limerick examines the topographical development of its three urban centres, from Viking, to Anglo-Norman to Georgian, depicting the strategic importance of the city on the Shannon for military and trading purposes from the 9th century. Histories of over 4,000 sites are documented with a rich collection of maps and illustrations from the 16th to the 21st centuries.

By Myles Dungan.

Conspiracy focuses on the clashes, plots and perjuries that characterised seven notorious trials in Irish legal & political history (1803-1916). Each trial will show how the legal system was contaminated by a political agenda and how that political agenda unwittingly incited great moments of legal drama such as the disintegration of the forger, Richard Pigott under the cross examination of Sir Charles Russell at the Parnell Commission. Read also about the trials of Robert Emmet, Daniel O’Connell and the court martials after the Easter Rising.

Paperback.

IHTA 19: Irish Historic Towns Atlas No. 19, Dublin, Part II, 1610 to 1756 (2008)

By Colm Lennon

ISBN 978-1-904890-44-7

To coincide with the launch of Dublin, Part II, author Colm Lennon gave the 12th annual Gilbert Lecture, entitled "Dublin's civic buildings in the early modern period". The lecture can be downloaded here

By Tom Garvin, MRIA.

An almost mythical narrative has grown up around Seán Lemass and his short career as Taoiseach from 1959 to 1966. He was responsible for not one, but two economic revolutions in Ireland during his time in the Department of Industry and Commerce. This period marked the beginning of a long process that has transformed the island of Ireland from an agrarian province of the British Isles to a successful developed country which has been seen as a model for many aspirant underdeveloped countries. He instigated a new era in North-South relations and began the overhaul of the educational system. In Judging Lemass, renowned historian, Tom Garvin, introduces the many facets of Seán F. Lemass – a “cusp” figure who ushered in the modern world; a visionary who was imagining a “United States of Europe” since the 1920s; a sharp dresser with a striking “film noir” style; an ex-revolutionary; a city man, who regarded rural Ireland as somewhat alien and agriculture as a drag on economic development; and, above all, the architect of modern Ireland.

Hardback

1916 in 1966: Commemorating the Easter Rising
edited by Mary E. Daly and Margaret O'Callaghan

Contributions from Diarmaid Ferriter, Rebecca Graff-McRae, Roisín Higgins, Carole Holohan, Michael Laffan, Catherine O’Donnell and Tony Roche.
This book explores the official 50th anniversary commemorations of the 1916 Rising in the Republic; how the government reinvented the message of 1916 through the jubilee celebrations; the organisation of various unofficial commemorations in Northern Ireland; and the significance of these for nationalist and unionist politics in the mid-1960s.
In also examining the 1966 anniversary of the Rising from the perspectives of drama, performance, youth culture and history, however, the book is one with broader appeal than its subject matter might first suggest.

John Kirkaldy, Books Ireland: "All these controversies and more are revisited in this anthology and the result is a cracking read. Articles look at celebrations in the North and the South in all various mediums [...]I would like to add one thing: if there is a prize for the best cover for any Irish book this year, I would like to nominate this book."

Published: December 2007
Format: Hardback, 238 x 166mm; 356pp
ISBN: 978-1-904890-27-0

Price: €35

By Toby Barnard Hon MRIA

In recent years, archaeologists, anthropologists, sociologists and specialists in design, architecture and art have developed techniques that are now being exploited by historians. Dr Barnard provides a guide to some of the theories and their implications. The materials available to the historian include surviving buildings, artefacts and human interventions in the landscape itself; others, no longer visible, can be reconstructed from apparently unpromising documents like bills, advertisements, tax records and account books.

Paperback 128pp + 16pp plate section. 2005

ISBN: 1-85182-822-2

Published by Four Courts Press

Edel Bhreathnach

Hardback 184pp; 305 x 213 mm
ISBN 1874045356

Edited by Catriona Crowe, Ronan Fanning, Michael Kennedy, Eunan O'Halpin and Dermot Keogh

DIFP Volume VI shows in gripping detail how Irish diplomats established and executed the state's neutrality during the Second World War. Previously unpublished documents reveal how Eamon de Valera, and a small group of Irish diplomats sought to protect Ireland's sovereignty during the Second World War through skilful diplomacy.

Publication date:    25 November 2008 
Format:                Hardback, 232 x 155mm; 566pp
Price:                   €45/£40/$85
ISBN:                   978-1-904890-51-5

Edited by John Bradley, Alan J. Fletcher MRIA and Anngret Simms MRIA

This volume celebrates medieval Dublin. Among the many subjects and topics covered are the intellectual climate of Dublin in the 1970s, the exciting theme of cross cultural processes between the Scandinavian settlers and the native Irish, focusing on language, settlement structure, maritime warfare, politics, childhood and family. Another part of the book, extending over the high-medieval period, deals with spiritual and secular aspects of medieval Dublin providing new research on Christ Church Cathedral, St Mary’s Abbey, the hermits of St Augustine, intra-mural churches, Dublin castle, its medieval harbours, medieval land-use in the hinterland of Dublin, the meaning of a lost stone cross and late-medieval relics of Holy Trinity Church, as well as two textual editions consisting of the earliest recension of the Dublin Chronicle and the accounts of the Holy Trinity Guild. The final section includes representations of Viking and medieval Dublin in texts, maps and finally ‘Dublinia’, the medieval Dublin heritage centre. This book is very entertaining in parts as well as informative. It takes the reader effortlessly to the most recent frontiers of research. The book includes c.75 black and white illustrations and 10 in colour as well as a comprehensive bibliography.

Hardback 584pp; ills. & colour plates. 2009

ISBN:978-1-84682-154-7

Published by Four Courts Press