Book review - 'Reconstructions: The Troubles in Photographs and Words'

I have just written a book review of the following book for the long established peer-reviewed academic journal, Études Irlandaises:

Reconstructions: The Troubles in Photographs and Words. (Poems and words by Steafán Hanvey. Photographs by Bobbie Hanvey) (Dublin: Merrion Press, 2019). 

Read my review here.

Front cover of Reconstructions: The Troubles in Photographs and Words. Image source.

The book is made up of photographs of everyday life during the dark period in recent Irish history known as the Troubles (1968-1998). The photographs were taken by Bobbie Hanvey and they are accompanied by poems by his son, Steafán Hanvey. The poems were inspired by the photographs and it proved to be an excellent combination.

French edition of James Joyce's 'Ulysses'

Ulysse, the French language edition of James Joyce's Ulysses was published by Adrienne Monnier's La maison des Amis des Livres in Paris in 1929. It was translated from English by Auguste Morel and Stuart Gilbert. 

Photograph of James Joyce from the article in La Liberté

In this review of the book from the French newspaper, La Liberté, from 29 April 1929, Roger Kemp is full of praise. "Elle est admirable de précision, de vie, de couleur...". He ends the review by saying "La publication d'Ulysse est une belle entreprise", before congratulating the publisher for undertaking its publication. Read the review in full here on the Gallica website.

Ulysses is set on 16 June 1904. It charts the progress of Leopold Bloom through the streets of Dublin from 8am to around 3am the following day. 16 June is now known as Bloomsday. Happy Bloomsday!

Review of Ulysse from La Liberté 22 April 1929.

Irishman's Diary reappears in Courrier International

I was pleasantly surprised to see my Irishman's Diary from May 20th 2020 on La Fronde and Marguerite Durand reappear on the website of Courrier International recently. Here is a link to their article. 

For some reason, I didn't think that there would be that much interest in the story in France. I thought that it was widely known that the world's first newspaper for women was published there in 1897 by Marguerite Durand. However, given the coverage of my Irishman's Diary on social media by people in France and the piece in Courrier International, I was proved wrong.

The image that accompanied the article in Courrier International.

Courrier International is a French language weekly newspaper that translates and publishes excerpts of articles from newspapers around the world. I remember buying copies of it a few years ago. In those pre-internet days, I thought it was a very good idea to get a perspective of what's happening around the world. 

I still think it's a good idea, but haven't seen it on sale here for a while. I will look out for it in Easons once the Covid 19 pandemic lock down is over and things have returned to 'normal'. 

The story of the Nautilus, the Arctic submarine that visited Ireland

The Nautilus was a Polar submarine that made an unexpected visit to Cork in southern Ireland in June 1931. I have just written an Irishman's Diary about it in The Irish Times newspaper. Read it here. 

Photograph of the Nautilus in the Arctic. Image source.

The 1931 expedition to take a submarine under the pack-ice of the North Pole and carry out meteorological experiments in the world's last remaining uncharted territory was led by Sir George Hubert Wilkins (1888-1958). 

This Australian-born man was a very interesting individual who achieved many 'firsts' during his lifetime, including becoming the first person to capture battle scenes on a movie camera in the Balkan War of 1912 and the first person to fly over Antarctica. He would later be referred to by some as the "Australian Indiana Jones". After he died in 1958 his ashes were scattered on the North Pole by a US Navy submarine. 

The Ohio State University library has a collection of photographs and original documents from the expedition. Check out their website to see digitised photos of the crew and what living conditions were like onboard the submarine.

Video of Wilkins describing the Polar expedition that he was about to undertake. Video source.

News clip of the Nautilus in Cork, June 1931. Video source.

In this news clip from British Pathé, you can see Wilkins and some of the crew on the deck of the Nautilus when it arrived in Cork city on June 22nd 1931. You can also see some of the curious locals who turned up on the quayside to get a glimpse of this unusual visitor to an Irish harbour.