Books

  • The Tide Is Coming

    The Tide Is Coming

    €50.00

    The Tide is Coming – a book of Coney Island in Sligo Bay by Maura Gilligan –
    is a beautiful limited-edition publication containing prose, poetry, interviews, photographs
    and artwork.
    As the title of this book suggests, the rhythm of the tides has, for centuries, dictated the
    rhythm of life on Coney Island. During his lifetime, Islander John McGowan called out the
    warning “the tide is coming” countless times, ensuring that visitors would cross the causeway
    safely before channels at either side closed the strand passage and made an island of his
    shores.
    This little island is said to have given its name to Coney Island in New York! Its ancient
    name, Inismulclohy, can be found in maps, records and annals.

    Contents
    Insightful poetry and prose reflect the author’s thoughts as she moves across the Island in
    space and time.
    Author-transcribed interviews with Island elder John McGowan form an integral part of this
    book, illuminating eight decades of life in a place inhabited by John’s ancestors since 1789.
    There are echoes here of life on other offshore Irish islands, now uninhabited.
    Photographer James Fraher’s haunting black and white images, together with Catherine
    Fanning’s remarkable paintings, prints and line drawings, add visual depth and magic.

    Special Features
    The book itself is a work of art; a striking hardback cover collage is enhanced by timeless
    quarter binding, head and tail bands, marker ribbon and rich-coloured endpapers.  Sumptuous
    Munken paper provides the perfect backdrop for superb illustrations and exceptional writing.
    Folded within the pages of this book is a surprise – an A3 loose-leaf ‘Map of Coney Island in
    Sligo Bay’, which can be framed. Created from an old and fragile line-drawn original, the
    current version of this map illustrates locations on and around the Island, some of which still
    carry their original Irish names.
    The Tide is Coming is a wonderful history of an Irish island and a perfect gift.

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  • On the Night

    On the Night

    €50.00

    Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann – Musicians and Senior Ceili Band Winners 1951-2021

    Philip Duffy is uniquely qualified to perform this invaluable task of chronicling the history of ceili bands. His own musical ability, his longstanding involvement in ceili bands, his vast experience of performance in Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann, and his deep understanding of the traditional music community at home and abroad all contribute to the depth and empathy of this book.

    ‘On the Night’ will be enjoyed by many different readers – the family member who wants to learn about their sibling or parent or relation who played with a band from the beginning; the local music enthusiast tracing the evolution of their favourite ceili band; the student of ethnomusicology intent on working out the origins and development of ceili music performance and competition; and the current ceili band members seeking to understand the heritage that has been handed down to them and who now play their own part in gifting this unique native art form on to the next generation.

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  • Sligo and the Great Famine, 1845-52 Walking Skeletons and Shadows

    Sligo and the Great Famine, 1845-52 Walking Skeletons and Shadows

    €50.00

    Sligo offers a unique setting for a study of the Great Famine and the book investigates the period from the first appearance of the blight to the immediate aftermath. The shifting, inept and often heartless government policies reflected different attitudes to famine relief and this impacted on the people in a very direct and often catastrophic way.

    Sligo experienced considerable death and emigration in the years from 1845 to 1852; the second worst affected county in the country after Mayo, losing a third of its population in just a few short years. The reaction of local landlords and landholders to the suffering was also varied and the study explored the lengths to which the Famine offered an opportunity to some landlords to impose long-term policies on their estates.

    Padraig Deignan has previously published ‘The Protestant Community in Sligo, 1914-49’ in 2010, ‘Land and People in Nineteenth Century Sligo: from Union to Local Government’ in 2015 and ‘Sligo in the Eighteenth Century’ in 2021.

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  • Atlas of the Irish Revolution

    Atlas of the Irish Revolution

    €59.00

    The Atlas of the Irish Revolution is a landmark publication that presents scholarship on the revolutionary period in a uniquely accessible manner. Featuring over 200 original maps and 300 images, the Atlas includes 120 contributions by leading scholars from a range of disciplines. They offer multiple perspectives on the pivotal years from the 1912 Home Rule crisis to the end of the Irish Civil War in 1923

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  • Sligo History and Society

    Sligo History and Society

    €60.00

    Available Now

    Featuring essays from:

    Mary Gilmartin, Martin Timoney, Noel McCarthy, Carleton Jones, John Waddell, Rachel Moss and Tamyln McHugh, Kieran O’Connor, Yvonne McDermott, Nollaig Ó’Muraíle, Jack Johnston, Brendan Scott, Pádraig Lenihan, Conchubar Ó Crualaoich, David A. Fleming, David Dickson, Ciarán Mac Murchaidh, Tom Bartlett, Marie Boran and Brigid Clesham, Perry McIntyre and Richard Reid, Gerard Moran, Thomas Power, Jonathan Cherry, Fiona Gallagher, Aideen Ireland, Miriam Moffitt,  Mary Timoney, R.F. Foster, Charles Travis, Gregory Daly, Patrick E. O’Brien, Michael Farry, Anne O’Dowd, Proinnsias Breathnach, and Mary Cawley.

    Further information coming soon.

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  • The Lyrics

    The Lyrics

    €75.00

    A self-portrait in 154 songs, by our greatest living songwriter’More often than I can count, I’ve been asked if I would write an autobiography, but the time has never been right. The one thing I’ve always managed to do, whether at home or on the road, is to write new songs. I know that some people, when they get to a certain age, like to go to a diary to recall day-to-day events from the past, but I have no such notebooks.

    What I do have are my songs, hundreds of them, which I’ve learned serve much the same purpose. And these songs span my entire life.’ In this extraordinary book, with unparalleled candour, Paul McCartney recounts his life and art through the prism of 154 songs from all stages of his career – from his earliest boyhood compositions through the legendary decade of The Beatles, to Wings and his solo albums to the present. Arranged alphabetically to provide a kaleidoscopic rather than chronological account, it establishes definitive texts of the songs’ lyrics for the first time and describes the circumstances in which they were written, the people and places that inspired them, and what he thinks of them now.

    Presented with this is a treasure trove of material from McCartney’s personal archive – drafts, letters, photographs – never seen before, which make this also a unique visual record of one of the greatest songwriters of all time. We learn intimately about the man, the creative process, the working out of melodies, the moments of inspiration. The voice and personality of Paul McCartney sings off every page.

    There has never been a book about a great musician like it. Each volume is 480 pp, not available separately

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  • Painting Dublin

    Painting Dublin

    €95.00

    Delving into a hitherto unexplored aspect of Irish art history, Painting Dublin, 1886-1949 examines the depiction of Dublin by artists from the late-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Artists’ representations of the city have long been markers of civic pride and identity, yet in Ireland such artworks have been overlooked in favour of the rural and pastoral. Framed by the shift from city of empire to capital of an independent republic, this book examines artworks by Walter Osborne, Rose Barton, Jack B. Yeats, Harry Kernoff, Estella Solomons and Flora Mitchell, encompassing a variety of urban views and artistic themes. While Dublin is already renowned for its representation in literature, this book will demonstrate the many attractions it held for Ireland’s artists, offering a vivid visualisation of the city’s streets and inhabitants at a crucial time in its history.

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