Best of
Ireland

1978

The Brendan Voyage: A Leather Boat Tracks the Discovery of America by the Irish Sailor Saints


Tim Severin - 1978
    Brendan, award-winning adventure writer Tim Severin painstakingly researched and built a boat identical to the leather curragh that carried Brendan on his epic voyage. He found a centuries-old, family-run tannery to prepare the ox hides in the medieval way; he undertook an exhaustive search for skilled harness makers (the only people who would know how to stitch the three-quarter-inch-thick hides together); he located one of the last pieces of Irish-grown timber tall enough to make the mainmast. But his courage and resourcefulness were truly tested on the open seas, including one heart-pounding episode when he and his crew repaired a dangerous tear in the leather hull by hanging over the side--their heads sometimes submerged under the freezing waves--to restitch the leather. A modern classic in the tradition of Kon-Tiki, The Brendan Voyage seamlessly blends high adventure and historical relevance. It has been translated into twenty-seven languages since its original publication in 1978.With a new Introduction by Malachy McCourt, author of A Monk Swimming

The Complete Plays: The Hostage / The Quare Fellow / Richard's Cork Leg


Brendan Behan - 1978
    First comes the three famous full-length plays: The Quare Fellow, set in an Irish prison, is "something very like a masterpiece" (John Russell Taylor); The Hostage, set in a Dublin lodging-house of doubtful repute, "shouts, sings, thunders and stamps with life . . . a masterpiece" (Harold Hobson); and Richard's Cork Leg, set largely in a graveyard, is nevertheless "a joyous celebration of life" (Michael Billington). There follow three little-known one-act plays originally written for radio and all intensely autobiographical: Moving Out, A Garden Party and The Big House. The Introduction, by Alan Simpson, who knew Behan well and first directed his work on stage, provides the essential biographical details as well as candid insights into Behan's working methods and his political allegiances. Also included in the volume is a wide-ranging bibliography. "It seems to be Ireland's function, every twenty years or so, to provide a playwright who will kick English drama from the past into the present. Brendan Behan may well fill the place vacated by Sean O'Casey."-Kenneth Tynan

The Book Of Conquests


Jim Fitzpatrick - 1978
    A retelling of three of the great oral legends of ancient Ireland, accompanied by illustrations influenced by the Book of Kells.

Collected Short Stories


Michael McLaverty - 1978
    Focusing on moments of passion, wonder or bitter disenchantment in lives that are a continuous struggle towards the light, these stories, in the compassion of the tone and the spare purity of the language, are nothing short of masterly.

Cliffs of Dread


Virginia Coffman - 1978
    It was here that lovely young Moira Bannion came on a visit to her father - only to discover that handsome Stephen Dread and not Paddy Bannion was the true master of Dread House.And from the moment of her arrival at the mansion, Moira became a helpless pawn in a terrifying game she didn't understand. Yet there was no one she could turn to for help. Not her father, who had lied to her from the start. Not Stephen, who seemed to forget he had a wife whenever Moira was near. Not Mrs. Dread, who appeared to be almost too well-informed about the shipwrecks along the coast. Some dark evil was casting its shadow over all of them, and Moira knew she must escape this place at once. But her heart betrayed her into staying until it was far, far too late...

Landlord or Tenant?: A View of Irish History


Magnus Magnusson - 1978