Reviews

White Cargo by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh - Mainstream Publishing

Don Jordan and Michael Walsh have produced an excellent review of the trade in human cargo from Ireland and England in the 17th Century. Up to 300,000 people, mostly politicial prisoners, the poor, vagrants and street children across England and Ireland were forcibly rounded up and shipped to America where they became slaves in all but name. The book covers the role of the slave trading routes as people were transported from Bristol in slave ships to be bought and sold on arrival in the New World.

Described by the Times as "An eye-opening and heart-rending story", the book is briskly written in a journalistic style. Author Don Jordan is a television producer and director who has worked on dozens of documentaries and dramas. He also co-produced and co-wrote Love is the Devil, a film about the life of Francis Bacon. Michael Walsh spent twelve years as a reporter and presenter on World in Action and has won six awards for his work.

To Hell or Barbados by Sean O'Callaghan - Brandon Press

O'Callaghan has brought together some excellent research on the 1600s in Ireland, covering Cromwell's campaigns, the mass population movements to Connaught and the forced transportation of over 50,000 Irish people to the Caribbean in the 1650s. Described by one reviewer as "one of the most harrowing books I have read for years", the book tells vividly and with rich detail, the forgotten story of those sent to work in appalling conditions in the New World and reveals a little known chapter in the history of slavery.

The author, Sean O'Callaghan, a former Irish Army officer, has written several other books on the topic of slavery worldwide.

Sean Treacy and the Tan War

Joe Ambrose

ISBN 9781856355544

€12.99

A thoroughly interesting book that looks back on the role of Sean Treacy in the guerrilla war in Tipperary.

Joe Ambrose is the author of nine books including Dan Breen and the IRA and the novels, Serious Times and Too Much Too Soon which were praised by The Guardian as being 'unputdownable'. A native of Tipperary, where as a child he knew many of the leaders of that county's IRA campaign, he now divides his time between London, Ireland, and Morocco. He has broadcast with RTÉ, BBC World Service, Lyric FM, and Channel 4.

History's Daughter: A Memoir from the only child of Terence MacSwiney

Máire MacSwiney Brugha

ISBN 9780862789862

€19.95

Published by The O'Brien Press

Far aside from having on the most haunting covers in recent years, this was a book well worth reading casting as it did an interesting and fascinating light on the life of the only daughter of Terence MacSwiney. The book was very well received and was highly praised on release.