Dublin Pub Life and Lore

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Author :
Publisher : Gill
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Dublin Pub Life and Lore by : Kevin Corrigan Kearns

Download or read book Dublin Pub Life and Lore written by Kevin Corrigan Kearns and published by Gill. This book was released on 1996 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Dublin Pub Life and Lore – An Oral History of Dublin's Traditional Irish Pubs

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Author :
Publisher : Gill & Macmillan Ltd
ISBN 13 : 0717164713
Total Pages : 460 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (171 download)

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Book Synopsis Dublin Pub Life and Lore – An Oral History of Dublin's Traditional Irish Pubs by : Kevin C. Kearns

Download or read book Dublin Pub Life and Lore – An Oral History of Dublin's Traditional Irish Pubs written by Kevin C. Kearns and published by Gill & Macmillan Ltd. This book was released on 1996-08-01 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dublin is renowned for its amazing profusion of pubs and for its exuberant pub culture. In Dublin Pub Life and Lore, Professor Kevin Kearns examines the history of this phenomenon by speaking to old publicans, barmen and regular customers, relating the story of Dublin pubs and their patrons in an engaging and entertaining fashion. Traditionally in Ireland, the public house or 'pub' was the centre of a community's social life and a social institution ranking second in importance only to the parish church. Pubs ranged from dusky watering holes frequented by labourers, dockers and shawlies to elegant Victorian gin palaces where the gentry and literati gathered. Along the Dublin quays there were dives filled with scoundrels, prostitutes and misfits of every sort. Following the success of his bestselling classic Dublin Tenement Life, Kevin Kearns has researched and created a wonderful oral historical chronicle of Dublin's pub life. Based on conversations with old publicans, pub 'regulars' and long-serving barmen, Dublin Pub Life and Lore captures the folklore, customs, characters and wit of the traditional Dublin public house. Dublin Pub Life and Lore: Table of Contents Introduction - History and Evolution of Dublin Public Houses Origins and Uses of Alcohol A City of Taverns and Alehouses Dublin's Colourful Public Houses Drinking Customs of the Social Classes Disreputable Drinking Dens Proud and Prosperous Publicans Dublin Temperance Movement Government Inquiry into Intemperance and the Role of Public Houses Oral History and Pub Lore - Dublin Pub Culture and Social Life The Pub as a Living Social Institution The Publican's Role and Status Pub Regulars and Their Local Porters, Apprentices and Barmen Pubs as IRA Meeting Places Women on the "Holy Ground" The Pintman and His Pint Pub Customs and Traditions Pub Entertainment Singing Pubs Literary Pubs Notable Pub Characters Eccentric Publicans and Notorious Pubs Underworld of Shebeens, Kips and Speakeasies Famous Barmen's Strikes Transformation and Desecration of Venerable Pubs - Oral Testimony of Publicans and Barmen - Oral Testimony of Pub Regulars and Observers

Dublin Street Life and Lore

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis Dublin Street Life and Lore by : Kevin Corrigan Kearns

Download or read book Dublin Street Life and Lore written by Kevin Corrigan Kearns and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first half of this century was the heyday of Dublin's vibrant and bustling traditional street life. Now in Dublin's Street Life and Lore, through the vivid oral histories of the participants themselves, Professor Kevin Kearns chronicles this rich street life and lore for future generations. The fascinating and often poignant verbal testimonies of Dublin's last surviving tram drivers, lamplighters, market traders, street dealers, spielers, buskers, local characters and others of their vanishing breed, comprise a wholly original and captivating personal historical record of Dublin's long renowned street life, told in Professor Kearns's uniquely engaging and informative style.

Dublin Tenement Life

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Publisher : Gill & Macmillan Ltd
ISBN 13 : 071715906X
Total Pages : 391 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (171 download)

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Book Synopsis Dublin Tenement Life by : Kevin C. Kearns

Download or read book Dublin Tenement Life written by Kevin C. Kearns and published by Gill & Macmillan Ltd. This book was released on 2006-03-07 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For nearly 150 years, the wretched, squalid tenements of Dublin were widely judged to be the worst slums in all of Europe. By the 1930s, 6,400 tenements were occupied by almost 112,000 tenants. Some districts had up to 800 people to the acre, up to 100 occupants in one building, and twenty family members crammed into a single tiny room. It was a hard world of hunger, disease, high mortality, unemployment, heavy drinking, prostitution and gang warfare. But despite their hardship, the tenement poor enjoyed an incredibly closely knit community life in which they found great security and indeed, happiness. As one policeman recalls from over half a century ago, they were 'extraordinarily happy for people who were so savagely poor'. Contents of Dublin Tenement Life - History and Evolution of the Tenement Slum Problem Physical Deterioration Profiteering Landlords and Powerless Tenants Overcrowding, Sanitation, and Illness Social Stigmas and Stereotypes The Press and Public Enlightenment Housing Reform and Slum Clearance Oral History and Tenement Folklore - Social Life in the Tenement Communities Community Spirit and Gregarious Nature The Home Setting Economic Struggle Securing Food and Clothing Health, Sickness, and Treatments Entertainment and Street Life Religion and MoralsCourting, Marriage, and Childbirth The Role of Men, Mothers, and Grannies Drinking, Gambling, Prostitution, and Animal Gangs Death, Superstitions, and Wakes - Oral Testimony: The Monto and Dockland Maggie Murray—Age 80 Timmy "Duckegg" Kirwan—Age 72 Alice Caulfield—Age 66 Chrissie Hawkins—Age 83 Johnny Campbell—Age 68 Mary Waldron—Age 80 Billy Dunleavy—Age 86 Nellie Cassidy—Age 78 Elizabeth "Bluebell" Murphy—Age 75 - Oral Testimony: The Liberties Nancy Cullen—Age 71 Paddy Mooney—Age 72 Harry Mushatt—Age 83 Margaret Byrne—Age 72 John-Joe Kennedy—Age 75 Frank Lawlor—Age 66 Mary O'Neill—Age 84 John O'Dwyer—Age 70 Tommy Maher—Age 81 Lily Foy—Age 60 Senan Finucane—Age 73 Christy Murray—Age 86 Bridie Chambers—Age 66 John Gallagher—Age 60 Mickey Guy—Age 72 Margaret Coyne—Age 72 Patrick O'Leary—Age 70 Jimmy Owens—Age 68 Elizabeth "Lil" Collins—Age 91 Stephen Mooney—Age 65 - Oral Testimony: The Northside Paddy Casey—Age 65 Chrissie O'Hare—Age 76 John V. Morgan—Age 70 Peggy Pigott—Age 65 Mary Chaney—Age 84 Father Michael Reidy—Age 76 Ellen Preston—Age 65 Thomas Lyng—Age 70 Una Shaw—Age 61 Con Foley—Age 75 Margaret Byrne—Age 81 Jimmy McLoughlin—Age 50 - Four Tenement Tales Mary Doolan of Francis Street Noel Hughes of North King Street Mary Corbally of Corporation Street May Hanaphy of Golden Lane

Dublin Tenement Life

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Author :
Publisher : Penguin Group
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (321 download)

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Book Synopsis Dublin Tenement Life by : Kevin Corrigan Kearns

Download or read book Dublin Tenement Life written by Kevin Corrigan Kearns and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 2000 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This number one bestseller from Ireland presents a fascinating, often heartbreaking look at life in the slums of Dublin from the early 19th century to the middle of the 20th. "A fascinating and vital book that captures perfectly the voices, smells, and sounds of a way of life that has almost disappeared".--Roddy Doyle. of photos.

In Fact

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Publisher : Gill & Macmillan Ltd
ISBN 13 : 0717190390
Total Pages : 416 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (171 download)

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Book Synopsis In Fact by : Mark Henry

Download or read book In Fact written by Mark Henry and published by Gill & Macmillan Ltd. This book was released on 2021-10-22 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This optimistic guide to Ireland at 100 tells our national story through facts and stats, placing Ireland under the microscope to chart 100 achievements of the past 100 years. Ireland remained one of the most poverty-stricken nations in Europe for decades after the State was formed. Yet now, it has the second-highest standard of living in the world. Author Mark Henry has gathered the data to tell an under-told story of our national progress across every aspect of Irish life. He identifies the factors that account for Ireland's extraordinary success, as well as the five most prominent psychological biases that prevent us from recognising how far we have come. He also highlights the greatest challenges that we must now address if we are to continue to progress in the century ahead. While there is still more to be done, In Fact illustrates that Ireland, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than you might think.

Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History [2 volumes]

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Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1576078345
Total Pages : 805 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (76 download)

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Book Synopsis Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History [2 volumes] by : Jack S. Blocker Jr.

Download or read book Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History [2 volumes] written by Jack S. Blocker Jr. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2003-12-17 with total page 805 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive encyclopedia on all aspects of the production, consumption, and social impact of alcohol. Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia spans the history of alcohol production and consumption from the development of distilled spirits and modern manufacturing and distribution methods to the present. Authoritative and unbiased, it brings together the work of hundreds of experts from a variety of disciplines with an emphasis on the extraordinary wealth of scholarship developed in the past several decades. Its nearly 500 alphabetically organized entries range beyond the principal alcoholic beverages and major producers and retailers to explore attitudes toward alcohol in various countries and religions, traditional drinking occasions and rituals, and images of drinking and temperance in art, painting, literature, and drama. Other entries describe international treaties and organizations related to alcohol production and distribution, global consumption patterns, and research and treatment institutions, as well as temperance, prohibition, and antiprohibitionist efforts worldwide.

A History of Irish Autobiography

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108548458
Total Pages : 436 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (85 download)

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Book Synopsis A History of Irish Autobiography by : Liam Harte

Download or read book A History of Irish Autobiography written by Liam Harte and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-01 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A History of Irish Autobiography is the first ever critical survey of autobiographical self-representation in Ireland from its recoverable beginnings to the twenty-first century. The book draws on a wealth of original scholarship by leading experts to provide an authoritative examination of autobiographical writing in the English and Irish languages. Beginning with a comprehensive overview of autobiography theory and criticism in Ireland, the History guides the reader through seventeen centuries of Irish achievement in autobiography, a category that incorporates diverse literary forms, from religious tracts and travelogues to letters, diaries, and online journals. This ambitious book is rich in insight. Chapters are structured around key subgenres, themes, texts, and practitioners, each featuring a guide to recommended further reading. The volume's extensive coverage is complemented by a detailed chronology of Irish autobiography from the fifth century to the contemporary era, the first of its kind to be published.

Dublin Voices

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Publisher : Irish Books & Media
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 326 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Dublin Voices by : Kevin Corrigan Kearns

Download or read book Dublin Voices written by Kevin Corrigan Kearns and published by Irish Books & Media. This book was released on 1998 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For nearly 30 years, Kevin C. Kearns has been collecting the memories and recollections of Dubliners on tape. His previous books have focused on specific themes such as tenements and pubs. Now in this ambitious work, he uses the voices of ordinary Dubliners to construct an oral folk history of the city.

No Hero's Welcome

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Publisher : Ballybur Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1947108050
Total Pages : 262 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (471 download)

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Book Synopsis No Hero's Welcome by : Jeffrey K. Walker

Download or read book No Hero's Welcome written by Jeffrey K. Walker and published by Ballybur Publishing . This book was released on 2019-09-06 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The horrors of the First World War devastated many a Dublin family and the Brannigans weren’t spared. Struggling to get past their heartache, the family finds itself divided by both the rebellion against British rule and the wide Atlantic. Devoted matriarch Eda Brannigan witnesses her family unraveling. Sean and Molly make startling choices with potentially lethal consequences. Francis steeps in a drunken angry stupor. Young Brandon is so eerily quiet. Eda desperately wishes her beloved firstborn, Deirdre, wasn’t living so far away. But with a determined resolve, Eda soldiers on in her bustling pub, The Gallant Fusilier, where tragedy, triumph and even love unfold. Can this family endure the violence and intrigue of the Easter Rising, the bloody struggle for independence, and a bitter civil war?

Dublin Voices

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Author :
Publisher : Gill & Macmillan Ltd
ISBN 13 : 0717162737
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (171 download)

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Book Synopsis Dublin Voices by : Kevin C. Kearns

Download or read book Dublin Voices written by Kevin C. Kearns and published by Gill & Macmillan Ltd. This book was released on 2001-09-06 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For nearly thirty years, Kevin C. Kearns collected the memories and recollections of Dubliners on tape. These interviews have formed the basis of an extraordinary body of work, one whose subjects have included the life of the Dublin pub and the tenement house. In this ambitious book, he considers their contributions in aggregate, drawing on the voices of ordinary Dubliners to build an oral folk history of the city in the twentieth century. Firemen, engine drivers, bell ringers, gatekeepers, cinema ushers, gravediggers, dockers, factory workers, butchers, hatters, booksellers and many more: all contribute their own words to this epic portrait of Dublin city life in the turbulent decades separating the Victorian and modern eras. In Dublin Voices, the words of ordinary Dubliners can be heard as they recall their lives and times. Lucid, witty and compelling, these oral narratives bring the city to life in a manner that conventional histories simply cannot match.

The Dublin Docker

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Author :
Publisher : Merrion Press
ISBN 13 : 1911024876
Total Pages : 285 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis The Dublin Docker by : Aileen O’Carroll

Download or read book The Dublin Docker written by Aileen O’Carroll and published by Merrion Press. This book was released on 2017-08-09 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a port city, Dublin owes much to the labourers who strove against the heavy-duty tide of imports and exports; a league of thousands who were hired on a day-to-day basis for generations, defining the bustle of Dublin city centre – a cornerstone of the urban industrial working class in Ireland. The Dublin Docker is a sumptuously illustrated history that determines the dockers’ and stevedores’ importance as an industrial subculture within the Dublin that they navigated. The authors excavated the archive of the Dublin Dockworkers Preservation Society to discover a wealth of photographs, spanning the mid-nineteenth century to the 1970s, that capture the dockers’ arduous labour and the energy of Dublin port. These evocative images bring this beautifully designed social history to life, complementing the inimitable voices revealed in interviews with the dockers themselves. How they negotiated working hours and pay, the changes that came with epochal events – the Dublin Lockout, the First World War, the Easter Rising and War of Independence – and the innumerable myths and ‘dark stories’ that shrouded their image: The Dublin Docker is a history of the dockers and their deep-woven connection to the city.

McCarthy's Bar

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Author :
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1466866373
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis McCarthy's Bar by : Pete McCarthy

Download or read book McCarthy's Bar written by Pete McCarthy and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-03-18 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It was half past five in the morning as I lurched through the front door of the B&B. Mrs. O'Sullivan appeared just in time to see me pause to admire the luminous Virgin holy water stand with integral night-light, and knock it off the wall. Politely declining the six rounds of ham sandwiches on the tray she was holding, I edged gingerly along the hallway to the wrong bedroom door and opened it." Despite the many exotic places Peter McCarthy has visited, he finds that nowhere else can match the particular magic of Ireland, his mother's homeland. In McCarthy's Bar, his journey begins in Cork and continues along the west coast to Donegal in the north. Traveling through spectacular landscapes, but at all times obeying the rule, "never pass a bar that has your name on it," he encounters McCarthy's bars up and down the land, meeting fascinating people before pleading to be let out at four o'clock in the morning. Through adventures with English hippies who have colonized a desolate mountain; roots-seeking, buffet-devouring American tourists; priests for whom the word "father" has a loaded meaning; enthusiastic Germans who "here since many years holidays are making;" and his fellow barefoot pilgrims on an island called Purgatory, Peter pursues the secrets of Ireland's global popularity and his own confused Irish-Anglo identity. Written by someone who is at once an insider and an outsider, McCarthy's Bar is a wonderfully funny and affectionate portrait of a rapidly changing country.

Working Class Heroines

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Author :
Publisher : Gill & Macmillan Ltd
ISBN 13 : 0717162702
Total Pages : 619 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (171 download)

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Book Synopsis Working Class Heroines by : Kevin C. Kearns

Download or read book Working Class Heroines written by Kevin C. Kearns and published by Gill & Macmillan Ltd. This book was released on 2018-09-21 with total page 619 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Working Class Heroines acclaimed historian Kevin C. Kearns brings us the voices of the forgotten women of Dublin's tenements. If it weren't for his work the lives of these everyday heroines would be lost forever. Based on 30 years of research spent interviewing and recording the life stories of the working-class women of Dublin, it covers the squalid tenement days of the early 1900s, through the mid-century decades of 'slumland' block flats, and into the 1970s when deadly drugs infiltrated poor neighbourhoods, terrifying mothers and stealing away their children. What emerges is an intimate and poignant celebration of the mammies and grannies who held the fabric of family life in an environment of hardship and, often, cruelty.Through vivid tales of how they coped with grinding poverty, huge families, pitiless landlords, the oppressive Church, dictatorial priests, feckless and often abusive husbands, these remarkable women shine with astonishing dignity, wit, pride and a resilient spirit, despite their struggles.Working Class Heroines gives voice and pays tribute to the long silent, unsung heroines who were the indispensable caretakers of both family and community, and remains one of the most important Irish feminist documents of our times."The ordinary woman has long been absent from our national narrative. I think we should be grateful that Working Class Heroines exists, and we can benefit now from listening to these voices.' Ellen Coyne, The Sunday Times

The Bombing of Dublin's North Strand by German Luftwaffe

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Author :
Publisher : Gill & Macmillan Ltd
ISBN 13 : 0717151603
Total Pages : 631 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (171 download)

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Book Synopsis The Bombing of Dublin's North Strand by German Luftwaffe by : Kevin C. Kearns

Download or read book The Bombing of Dublin's North Strand by German Luftwaffe written by Kevin C. Kearns and published by Gill & Macmillan Ltd. This book was released on 2009-10-16 with total page 631 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the Whit bank holiday weekend of 1941, the neutral Irish capital was suddenly and inexplicably bombed by the German Luftwaffe. On a gloriously starry night four bombs fell, the last and most devastating at precisely 2:05 a.m. on 31 May. There was a thunderous explosion and the earth quaked. Tremors were felt as far away as Enniskerry and Mullingar. Panic and pandemonium reigned in a "city seized with fear". Destruction was astonishing – homes and shops in the North Strand were largely demolished, 2,250 buildings in the city suffered some bomb damage, over forty people were killed, about 100 seriously injured, many more wounded. Hospitals and morgues filled within hours. Almost 2,000 people were rendered homeless refugees. It would later be determined that in terms of destructive performance a monstrous "perfect bomb" had done the deed. For two-thirds of a century, no book was written on what the Evening Herald proclaimed a "Night of Horror". Later called a "seismic event" in Dublin's history. Finally, near the end of the century both the Irish Military Archive and Dublin City Archive declassified their documents on the bombing – some stamped "Secret" for sixty years. At last, the theories and myths long surrounding the mysterious incident would be examined in the light of real evidence. But the heart of a book on so human a tragedy is the oral historical testimony of survivors, rescuers and observers who provide graphic eyewitness accounts. This is a narrative social history of immense human drama.

Ireland 1963

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Author :
Publisher : Gill & Macmillan Ltd
ISBN 13 : 071718076X
Total Pages : 512 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (171 download)

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Book Synopsis Ireland 1963 by : Kevin C. Kearns

Download or read book Ireland 1963 written by Kevin C. Kearns and published by Gill & Macmillan Ltd. This book was released on 2018-09-21 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over 30 years, renowned author and historian Kevin C. Kearns has been recording and publishing the valuable memories and recollections of Dubliners. In his latest book, he revisits the extraordinary year of 1963, bringing to life the voices of the ordinary people who lived through it in a way no conventional history could match.It was a year like no other. Not for any one monumental event, but for an astonishing sequence of occurrences – triumphs and tragedies, joys and sorrows – that spanned all twelve months.Ireland 1963 deftly records the unrelenting roller coaster ride of dramas, traumas and mysteries of that year: a biblical-like flash flood, tenement collapses and victims, the liberating Bingo Craze, and a frightening 'mystery caller' posing as a priest. And, of course, it was the year of President Kennedy's rapturous four-day visit to Ireland.The year reached its climax with fear for thirty Irish passengers aboard the liner Lakonia, "ablaze and sinking" at sea during Christmas week. Yet, a series of happy and frolicsome events throughout the year balanced people's emotions and brought great joy to their lives.Such a bewildering and fascinating year demands a grass-roots type of social history, one that is biographical in nature. Kevin C. Kearns humanises these events by relying on oral history from participants and observers who were on the scene over fifty years ago. Their words and emotions bring a riveting authenticity and immediacy to this wondrous biography of the extraordinary year of 1963.

The Legendary 'Lugs Branigan' – Ireland's Most Famed Garda

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Author :
Publisher : Gill & Macmillan Ltd
ISBN 13 : 071715937X
Total Pages : 614 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (171 download)

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Book Synopsis The Legendary 'Lugs Branigan' – Ireland's Most Famed Garda by : Kevin C. Kearns

Download or read book The Legendary 'Lugs Branigan' – Ireland's Most Famed Garda written by Kevin C. Kearns and published by Gill & Macmillan Ltd. This book was released on 2014-10-03 with total page 614 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.