50th Anniversary Edition A beautifully presented and attractively laid out commemorative edition, with new introductions by Ivan O'Brien, MD of The O'Brien Press and best-selling author Dónal Fallon. The very first book published by The O'Brien Press in 1974 celebrates fifty years in print. The O'Brien Press launched its first publication in November 1974. Me Jewel and Darlin' Dublin , written by Éamonn MacThomáis and published while the author was in jail, was an immediate success and has become a classic. Full of historical facts, anecdotes and Dublin wit, this book evokes the spirit, the characters and colours, the sights, sounds and even the smells of old Dublin. With sections on markets, pawn shops, street characters, the Liberties, slang and wit of Dublin's newspapers, the city's history is traced right back to Brian Boru, the Huguenots, 'the debtors' prison', and Dublin's troubled history of risings and revolutions . Celebrating fifty years of Me Jewel & Darlin' Dublin – and of The O'Brien Press.
The vibrant Irish public house of the nineteenth century hosted broad networks of social power, enabling publicans and patrons to disseminate tremendous influence across Ireland and beyond. During the period, affluent publicans coalesced into one of the most powerful and sophisticated forces in Irish parliamentary politics. Among the leading figures of public life, they commanded an unmatched economic route to middle-class prosperity, inserted themselves into the centre of crucial legislative debates, and took part in fomenting the issues of class, gender, and national identity which continue to be contested today. From the other side of the bar, regular patrons relied on this social institution to construct, manage and spread their various social and political causes. From Daniel O'Connell to the Guinness dynasty, from the Acts of Union to the Great Famine, and from Christmas boxes to Fenianism; Bradley Kadel offers a first and much-needed scholarly examination of the 'incendiary politics of the pub' in nineteenth-century Ireland.
Garda and guardian. Protector and punisher. This is 'Lugs' Branigan: the man, the legend. The story of 'Lugs' Branigan is a tale that is long overdue. It is a story of extraordinary courage and compassion, a story of heroism and altruism, a story of crime, punishment and redemption. The legend of 'Lugs''s career as Ireland's most famous garda (police officer), founded on his physical strength and the manner in which he faced up to the criminal gangs of Dublin over the course of fifty years, is part of Dublin's folk history. In The Legendary 'Lugs' Branigan, bestselling historian Kevin C. Kearns presents a revealing and unvarnished portrait of the man and his life, authenticated by the oral testimony of family members, friends and Garda mates who stood with him through the most harrowing and poignant experiences. Born in the Liberties of Dublin in 1910, Jim Branigan was, by his own admission, a shy, scrawny 'sissy' as a lad. Cruelly beaten by bullies in the railway yard where he worked during his teens, he refused to fight back. Yet he went on to become a heavyweight boxing champion and to earn the 'undisputed reputation as the country's toughest and bravest garda'. Chief Superintendent Edmund Doherty proclaimed him 'one of those people who become a legend in his own time'. As a garda he refused to carry a baton, relying upon his fists. He took on the vicious 'animal gangs' of the 1930s and 40s and in the 'Battle of Baldoyle' broke their reign of terror. In the 1950s he quelled the wild 'rock-and-roll riots' and tamed the ruffian Teddy boys with their flick-knives. All the while, he was dealing with Dublin's full array of gurriers and criminals. As a devotee of American Western films and books, Branigan emulated the sheriffs by doling out his unique 'showdown' brand of summary justice to hooligans and thugs on the street. In the 1960s his riot squad with its Garda 'posse' patrolled Dublin's roughest districts in their 'black Maria'. They contended with the most dangerous rows and riots in the streets, dancehalls and pubs. The cry 'Lugs is here!' could instantly scatter a disorderly crowd. Ironically, for all his fame as a tough, fearless garda, he was most beloved for his humanity and compassion. His role as guardian of the battered women of the tenements and as protector and father figure of the city's piteous prostitutes—or 'pavement hostesses', as he called them—was unrecorded in the press and hushed up by the Garda brass. Yet, Garda John Collins vouches, 'Women ... oh, he was God to them!' Upon retirement he entered his 'old gunfighter' years; ageing and vulnerable, he became a target for old foes bent on revenge and for 'young guns' seeking a quick reputation. A man with a reputation powerful enough to echo through generations of Dubliners, the legendary 'Lugs' Branigan finally has a book worthy of his story.
There was a time when the two most notorious red-light districts not only in Ireland but in all of Europe could be found on the streets of Dublin. Though the name of Monto has endured long in folk memory, the area known as Hell was equally notorious, feared and renowned in its day. In this new work Maurice Curtis explores the histories of these dark remnants of Dublin's past, complete with their gambling, duelling and vice, their rowdy taverns and houses of ill repute.
In this seminal work, publisher and author Tony Farmar places the development of Irish publishing in its social and economic context, exploring how the mechanics of the industry, alongside the changing structure of Irish bookselling, have underpinned developments in the trade.
The Reporter’s Tale is an adventure story about Tom Davies, a young Welsh writer who travels the world looking for the truth and, in a few days of blistering revelation in Malaya, finds it in a series of visions. Thereafter, he takes his new insights on a journey through the media, becoming a reporter for top Sunday newspapers – and later an award-winning author of many books – and realising he has a fresh understanding of the causes of the violence which is so blighting the modern world. His odyssey of discovery begins in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles where he finds that the media – with its persistent pursuit of violence – is the cause of much of the disorder there. The global media, which specialises in reporting the worst of everything from everywhere, has become the mother and father of modern terrorism, he says, giving the IRA disproportionate power and importance merely because they offer violence. Television in particular is the catalyst for the growing disorder in our streets: becoming the very leader of street riot while also giving motive and reward to suicide bombers. The many revolutions of the Arab Spring are fully explained by his visions, he shows. Here the world’s media first began feeding on the self-immolation of a Tunisian trader before spawning revolution after revolution in neighbouring countries. They all wanted freedom and democracy, we were told, but all that seemed to be happening was that they were deranged by watching too much television news as each service, particularly Al Jazeera, spooled out violent imagery on an almost twenty four hour loop mostly from footage downloaded from their viewers’ mobile phones. All outlets of the media have come together and conspired to set loose a tide of evil which is turning violence into the very oxygen we are all now breathing, Davies shows in this book which may well be the most powerful and trenchant attack ever mounted on the tyranny of the modern media.
