The reading o' the green

REVIEWS BY JAMES NEAL WEBB

Like most Americans, I'm an amalgam of nationalities; there's some English, some French and a great-grandfather who was a full-blooded Cherokee. But every year on March 17, I break out the fact that my grandmother's maiden name was Derry, which is about as Irish as you can get. And if you're lucky enough to be Irish on St. Patrick's Day, you are blessed, indeed.

Lucky for us, publishers have released a veritable pot o' gold concerning Irish history and heritage. So I recently pinned a shamrock to my lapel, poured a green beer and pulled up a chair for a wee bit o' reading.

    My starting point was a comprehensive collection, 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Irish American History by Edward T. O'Donnell. This is a history book, of course, but it's written like an encyclopedia. Proceeding in neat chronological order, it includes lively entries on subjects from Druids to the success of Irish Americans in politics. You can read it from the beginning or you can skip about, which I eventually did, especially to the later chapters that cover topics like science and entertainment. (The list of Irish-American Academy Award winners is particularly impressive.) More than 100 historic photos supplement the informative text.


    Next, I moved on to the story of how the Irish came to America, beautifully told in Journey of Hope: The Story of Irish Immigration to America. This is an "interactive history," to use the authors' term -- a short look through the backgrounds, motivations, trials and triumphs of Irish immigrants. What makes the book interactive is its clever use of documents and memorabilia. Authors Kerry Miller and Patricia Mulholland Miller have reproduced letters from home, ticket stubs, telegrams and prayer cards, right down to the coffee stains, wrinkles and tears. These are immeasurable additions to a fascinating book that should have special appeal to the estimated 30 millions Americans whose forebears made the journey.


    It's always amazed me that an island not much bigger than South Carolina could be such an engine of culture. Perhaps it's the land or perhaps it's the people (it's probably both), but the Emerald Isle has been a hotbed of creativity, from James Joyce to Bono. Several books offer a sampling of Irish artistry, including a new collection of Ireland's Love Poems, edited by A. Norman Jeffares. From Jonathan Swift to Seamus Heaney, the Irish have a gift for celebrating that most universal of subjects. Who could resist the charm of verses like this one from F.R. Higgins' "The Roving Lover": I would string the stars on a blade of grass/ And make my Love a crown/ And I'd give my soul for a little kiss/ To the girl from the County Down.


    Any barroom vocalist who has joined in a chorus of "The pipes, the pipes are calling" can learn more about the famous song in Danny Boy: The Beloved Irish Ballad by Malachy McCourt. Malachy (the brother of Frank McCourt of Angela's Ashes fame) pays rambling homage to the Irish standard whose melody is centuries old, but whose lyrics date from the early 20th century -- and were written by an Englishman to boot!


    We end our excursion on a serious note with Patrick Michael Rucker's This Troubled Land: Voices from Northern Ireland on the Front Lines of Peace, a moving look at the bitterness -- and hope -- that is Northern Ireland in the 21st century. A print journalist and reporter for National Public Radio, Rucker moved to Belfast in 1998 to gain perspective on "the Troubles," the 30-year paroxysm of violence between Protestants and Catholics, Loyalists and Republicans. The hatreds are so deep-seated that one despairs of ever seeing peace, yet Rucker shows us occasional flowers springing through acres of devastation. Will Bloody Sunday eventually give rise to disarmament? Through portraits of people scarred forever, he shows us that the human spirit is difficult to break -- an appropriate message for these difficult times.


James Neal Webb is proud to say he has green roots.

© 2002 ProMotion, inc.
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