Have any of you men ever read a really good book on James Connolly? I want to learn more about the man but can’t seem to find anything on the library services website. I thought I’d ask here before I go into Dublin and head for Connolly books and probably get nothing. Cheers ![]()
Another daycent holiday read from the Robert Harris stable. This one is about the aftermath of the English Civil War.
Fuck me that was a long book. Great read though. It was a grim enough life on the frontier.
I read this very recently. Enjoyable read and interesting insight into the puritans and Cromwell supporters of the time.
Fitzy jnr is big into the oul Communism (he’s reading Engels at the moment). Connolly is his hero and he reckons this is the best book about him.
I will look into this, thanks for that ![]()
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Another Robert Harris book, his first. Got it in the Vincent de Paul for €1.50 so why not. The premise here is the Germany won the war and it’s the fallout from that. Sags a bit in the middle but another good holiday read.
I enjoyed “Precipice” by Robert Harris
About PM Asquith and World War I.
Asquith was a very odd sort
Nearly finished “Young Mungo” by Douglas Stuart ( his first novel was the excellent Snuggie Bain)
I’m an emotional wreck reading it.He really is a very good writer.
His Scotland is a miserable auld place
I’m currently reading his new book ‘John of John’ which is set on a remote island like where Hot Shot Hamish came from
I’ve also read Young Mungo and although both books are decent I doubt he’ll ever approach the brilliance of Shuggie Bain again
I’m reading Archangel at the moment,
I had to look up Beria afterwards. What an absolute piece of shit he was.
I found that one dragged on a bit and I was fairly sick of Asquith for a finish.
Fatherland was good, interesting perspective.
Another daycent holiday read. First novel by journalist Jennifer Bray. Might be a few too many threads in the story but she pulls them together in the end I think.
And most importantly it’s set in its entirety in Dunmore East except when it goes to Passage East in the last few pages.
A bit like the Sunday Drives thread
I’m really enjoying this debut novel by Neil Tully. Set in the weeks leading up to JFKs visit to New Ross in 1963 though it’s not really about Kennedy. A very impressive debut novel. I think our numerous well read Wexford posters will particularly enjoy it. The Rackards get a few mentions.
This book is written by Katja Hoyer, who previously wrote a very good book on life in East Germany, called Beyond the Wall.
This book focuses on the town of Weimar in the inter war years. In that regard it is similar to A Village in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd, but I think this is a better book.
It starts with the Americans marching the townspeople up to Buchenwald to witness the horrors the Americans have just discovered in the concentration camp and then it loops back to 1914 and works back through the years to the construction of Buchenwald which was just outside the town. It focuses on individuals in the town, principally Carl Weirich a shopkeeper who kept a meticulous diary and a couple one of whom was Jewish who ran a hotel that Hitler used to frequent. It’s slow enough to start with but once it gets into the 1930s it’s unputdownable.
Fact or fiction?
Fact.
What’s it’s about?






