All about Ireland
Irish Almanac and Yearbook of Facts 1998
Published by ArtCam Publishing
Price £6.95
This is a great book which must have taken a million hours to
research and write. If you want to know the main industries of
County Carlow, or the location of each of Ireland's heritage
sites, or even the details of Garda personnel by numbers, rank
and location, or much, much more, then this is the book for you.
d it is not only a boring list of facts and figures. It also
contains interesting essays by people as diverse as Riverdance
Producer, Moya Doherty and Ken Reid, UTV's political editor.
Quotes of the year, a selection of cartoons and a section of
colour photographs also help to liven up the statistics.
This is an excellent - and as comprehensive as you could expect -
factual picture of Ireland. Of course nothing is ever objective -
show me a book like this which could be - but this one tries
hard. It is a welcome addition to our office and by this time
next year I expect it to be very dog-eared indeed. And I imagine
that's the type of compliment it would like.
One quibble: on a number of occasions it refers to Sinn Féin as
`Provisional Sinn Féin', a name long lost in the mists of time.
By Brian Campbell
Fiction dressed up as facts
Michael Collins and The Brotherhood
By Vincent McDowell
Published by Ashfield Press
Price £9.99
By Aengus O Snodaigh
The fascination with the elusive historical figure Michael
Collins continues with the publication of two new books (one of
which, ATQ Stewart's Michael Collins The Secret File, was
reviewed here three weeks ago), both of which I have found
lacking; ATQ Stewart's because of his sheer audacity in charging
£10.99 for writing 36 pages and photographing intelligence files.
Money for old rope. There is no analysis worth commenting on done
of the documents presented.
Vincent McDowell's book could be said to be in the same vein, in
that the RIC records in Stewart's book are often unverifiable
tittle-tattle, which McDowell presents to us in the pages of his
book as `facts'. He makes intriguing claims that once and for all
he can reveal: why Michael Collins suddenly agreed to sign the
1921 Articles of Agreement, the Treaty; why Emmet Dalton
resigned; why was there no inquest or military inquiry into
Collins' death; or his unreported dalliances and the resultant
off-spring.
The title is misleading and the pre-publicity and the jacket
blurb obscures McDowell's questionable `historical' methodology
which outlines his opening sentences:
``This book is not a simple historical novel, nor is it an
official, documented chronicle of agreed facts. It is a hybrid -
faction, tailored to fit the facts on the sound scientific
principle that the simplest hypothesis that fits all the facts is
usually the right one.''
The topic, the IRB and Michael Collins, or just the IRB, is an
area of history which still needs further in depth research. It
is not sufficient to dress tittle -tattle up as facts.
File this one as fiction.
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