A fascination with the stories of hundreds of past lives inspired Kevin Crangle to delve into the archives from two parishes to produce Ardglass and Dunsford, County Down Biographies (£24). Up to 600 people from this historic part of south Down are featured in his comprehensive survey, based on years of local history research.
One of the strengths of the book lies in the fact that the first few sentences of each entry crystallises their contributions, but they are worth reading in more detail. Celebrated names include the antiquarian Francis Joseph Bigger and the aviator and inventor John Joe Gilmore, who was the first person to carry out a parachute jump in Ireland. But lesser-known lives are of equal merit and a search throws up farmers and fishermen, nuns and nurses, priests and professors, and many more besides.
The author is well placed to write this study since he is part of the eighth generation of Crangles who have had a continuous farming presence in Ardtole. The book deservedly won the Highly Commended category in the Alan Ball Award for UK local history publications.
Father Ferris’s Parish Histories: Rathmore, Gneeveguilla and Knocknagree, (Cló Staire Chiarraí, €20) edited by Brendan McCarthy, is the second volume in the series covering East Kerry and North West Cork. One hundred years ago, Fr. William Ferris (1881-1972) was a curate in three united parishes serving during the first half of the 20th century.
Several decades before the Irish Folklore Commission was established in 1935, Fr. Ferris collected a vast trove of family genealogy, heritage and culture from parishioners at Station Masses. Along with helpers, he used a questionnaire that he had devised, later recording the material in manuscripts at home in the evenings. He also noted information on schools, place names, archaeology, the dinnseanchas, and Irish language, as well as details of local poets, musicians and writers. However, Fr. Ferris refused to make changes ordered by Bishop Michael O’Brien which meant his work has lain unseen in libraries for many years.
The series is local history at its most seductive, an indispensable archive for the people of Cork and Kerry which comes with a comprehensive index. Much of the information recorded is from elderly parishioners born during or shortly after the Great Famine. Had it not been for their stories, as well as Brendan McCarthy’s expertise in gathering the diverse elements, this information would inevitably have been lost. The book also includes a biography and evaluation of Fr Ferris, an intriguing and maverick figure whose legacy continues to resonate more than 50 years after his death.
In Tipperary People of Great Note (Orpen Press, €15) Martin Quinn considers the lives of 86 influential historical figures from Tipperary town and surrounding district. Some date from the 1100s while others have a more recent pedigree, but they were all either born and raised in the area or came to live there. Those featured constitute a wide spectrum including the arts, business, medical, veterinary, military, political, religious and social, Republican and Fenian, and sporting.
Lena Rice, born outside New Inn, became the only Irish winner of the Wimbledon singles title in 1890, beating May Jacks 6-4, 6-1. She is credited with inventing the overhead smash, employing it in her match-winning point against Jacks. Superintendent John Sadleir, born in 1833 at Brookville House, just south of Tipperary town, emigrated to Melbourne with two brothers and joined the police corps, later coming into contact with Ned Kelly and his Gang. His claim to fame is that he captured Kelly, who was later hanged, although a Royal Inquiry into the affair criticised Sadleir’s errors of judgement.
A foreword is contributed by Dr Martin Mansergh, former TD for Tipperary South and Minister of State at the Department of Finance, and for the Arts. His father, Prof Philip Mansergh (1910-1991) was an author, historian of Ireland and the British Commonwealth, and merits an entry in the book.
The story of one family across 300 years is explored in Life in Laois, 1700 to 2000: A Microcosm by Thomas Carroll (€20). Three centuries of the life and times of the O’Dea family, who farmed in Laois since the 18th century, are traced. Through use of ledgers and family records, ten comprehensive sections combine local and family history and lore, reflecting how farming methods and land-ownership have changed across the decades in relation to modernisation, economic forces and political developments.
In the author’s time, when he spent summer holidays in Laois during the early 1950s, he recalls hearing about life at Lisnagomman townland near Abbeyleix. In those days cows were hand-milked, his grandmother hand-churned butter, while weeding and thinning of root crops such as beet, mangolds and turnips were done manually. Culm, a gritty material derived from anthracite coal, came from a local colliery and his uncles mixed it with clay, availing of the moisture on a wet day trampling it to make culm balls for use as a domestic fuel.
Spanning nine generations and 220 years Clancarty: The high times and humble of a noble Irish family (Eyeglass Press, £19.99) by Rod Smith considers the history of the lives of the earls of Clancarty from their estate at Garbally, Co Galway up to the time of their eventual retreat to England. The triumphs and scandals of the flamboyant Irish ascendancy Trench family are brought to life. Tracing their lineage to Frederic de la Tranche, a Huguenot exile in the late 1500s, the Trenches built a realm in Ireland over two centuries. They were rewarded with peerages and lucrative appointments, but their descendants were unable to adapt to Ireland’s changing landscape in the late 19th century.
The book presents not just a family chronicle but explores themes of power and adaption and is a microcosm of Irish history. It reveals a world of diplomats and landlords, artists, autocrats, and a reformed Nazi sympathiser, as well as the lives of the countesses and the women who played crucial roles in the shaping of the family’s destiny. It is enhanced with portraits, drawings, sepia images and Clancarty memorabilia alongside a variety of photographs from locations in and around Ballinasloe.
The Essential George Boole: Logic, Love and Legacy (Mercier Press, €16.99) by Desmond MacHale and Yvonne Cohen, is an engrossing portrait of a largely self-taught English mathematician, philosopher and logician, and his family dynamics. Boole, who was born in Lincoln in the East Midlands in 1815, was appointed first professor of mathematics at the newly founded Queen’s College, Cork in 1849.
Although he published some 50 original articles and papers as well as distinguished books in his lifetime, Boole’s story is not just about his mathematical genius. He was married to a remarkable woman, the educationalist Mary Everest whom he met at Queen’s College. She came from a well-known family – the world’s highest mountain is named after her uncle, the surveyor and geographer George Everest. They had five talented daughters and subsequent generations carried on a legacy of breaking barriers in science, medicine and literature.
During the 20th century, Boole’s discoveries were referred to as ‘Boolean algebra’, used in logic to describe electronic switching circuits and computers. His ideas dominate the world of digital electronics as well as mathematics, semantics and other areas, and nowadays he is referred to as ‘one of the fathers of the digital revolution.’
