Month: October 2008

Our War: Ireland & WWI

~ Eoin Purcell ~ Leave a comment

Eoin Purcell

Cross Posted @ Uncovered History

The New Irish Farm World War One Cemetery
The New Irish Farm World War One Cemetery

National Myths
There are some really sacred cows in Ireland. One of them is that national feeling was firmly behind the radical position demanding a separate government and state. In fact I’d go so far as to suggest the whole strain of moderate nationalism (the strain that was in favour of and very nearly achieved Home Rule or perhaps some form of Dual Monarchy, which in many ways was what was finally achieved after much violence and wasted trauma in 1922) has been ignored by the national conversation and the national psyche.

This is not to suggest that people don’t know about it (although I’d be interested to see how many people knew who John Redmond was), more that we, as a nation, tend to gloss over it.

We ignore the men who served in the RIC and the British Army and felt that they were loyal Irishmen. We ignore the current of opinion that consistently elected not radicals but moderates as our nations representatives in parliament. We decidedly ignore the fact that for much of the 19th Century we were a normal part of metropolitan Britain. We especially ignore the fact that even in the year of Sinn Féin’s breakthrough 1918 election, The Irish Parliamentary Party contested 57 seats to Sinn Féin’s 107 and won around 250,000 votes to their approximately 470,000.

That the party won only 7 seats to Sinn Féin’s 73 is all we remember. We assign a party that won about 21% (almost the same as Unionists) of the national vote to the dust heap and assume that they were a minority for all their existence when the opposite is in fact the truth. The real outlier was the rising of 1916 (a Black Swan event) and event that was rescued only by the excessive reaction of British Forces in executing the leadership (and some no-leaders) of the rising.

Why this is important?
All of this is to set the background for introducing RTÉ & the RIA‘s new history effort: 1918: Ireland & The Great War. It is an exciting development that involves Radio, Television, a Book and an archive exhibition dealing with Ireland’s part in the First World War.

One of the key components is the Thomas Davis Lecture Series, which has often acted as a way of throwing ideas into the national discourse. There is a nice introduction by Lorelei Harris, Editor, Arts, Features & Drama on the Thomas Davis Lecture’s site:

The idea for the project came during the course of a conversation with Professor John Horne of Trinity College Dublin who brought to my mind the number of Irish men who served and died during World War I. It seemed to me appropriate that we should mark this major contribution by Irish soldiers on the 90th anniversary of Armistice and from that point the project started to evolve.
I hope that you will enjoy listening and that the programmes will reveal to you, as they have to me, the significance of Ireland’s participation in the Great War

The book also looks fantastic the equal of RIA’s Judging Dev which stormed the charts last year. I think that this or more really hope that this marks the start of Ireland addressing its REAL history as it matures into a more assured member of the club of nations.

The role of Irishmen and women in World War One is so often downplayed and forgotten as I mentioned above. It is a shame because despite any misgivings there might be now about the war itself or about the justification for war in general, those who fought and died did so bravely and with a certainty that what they did was right.

Uncovered History can only welcome such revisiting of our national history and breaking down of myth and illusion!
Eoin

Our War: Ireland & WWI

~ Eoin Purcell ~ 3 Comments

Eoin Purcell

The New Irish Farm World War One Cemetery
The New Irish Farm World War One Cemetery

National Myths
There are some really sacred cows in Ireland. One of them is that national feeling was firmly behind the radical position demanding a separate government and state. In fact I’d go so far as to suggest the whole strain of moderate nationalism (the strain that was in favour of and very nearly achieved Home Rule or perhaps some form of Dual Monarchy, which in many ways was what was finally achieved after much violence and wasted trauma in 1922) has been ignored by the national conversation and the national psyche.

This is not to suggest that people don’t know about it (although I’d be interested to see how many people knew who John Redmond was), more that we, as a nation, tend to gloss over it.

We ignore the men who served in the RIC and the British Army and felt that they were loyal Irishmen. We ignore the current of opinion that consistently elected not radicals but moderates as our nations representatives in parliament. We decidedly ignore the fact that for much of the 19th Century we were a normal part of metropolitan Britain. We especially ignore the fact that even in the year of Sinn Féin’s breakthrough 1918 election, The Irish Parliamentary Party contested 57 seats to Sinn Féin’s 107 and won around 250,000 votes to their approximately 470,000.

That the party won only 7 seats to Sinn Féin’s 73 is all we remember. We assign a party that won about 21% (almost the same as Unionists) of the national vote to the dust heap and assume that they were a minority for all their existence when the opposite is in fact the truth. The real outlier was the rising of 1916 (a Black Swan event) and event that was rescued only by the excessive reaction of British Forces in executing the leadership (and some no-leaders) of the rising.

Why this is important?
All of this is to set the background for introducing RTÉ & the RIA‘s new history effort: 1918: Ireland & The Great War. It is an exciting development that involves Radio, Television, a Book and an archive exhibition dealing with Ireland’s part in the First World War.

One of the key components is the Thomas Davis Lecture Series, which has often acted as a way of throwing ideas into the national discourse. There is a nice introduction by Lorelei Harris, Editor, Arts, Features & Drama on the Thomas Davis Lecture’s site:

The idea for the project came during the course of a conversation with Professor John Horne of Trinity College Dublin who brought to my mind the number of Irish men who served and died during World War I. It seemed to me appropriate that we should mark this major contribution by Irish soldiers on the 90th anniversary of Armistice and from that point the project started to evolve.
I hope that you will enjoy listening and that the programmes will reveal to you, as they have to me, the significance of Ireland’s participation in the Great War

The book also looks fantastic the equal of RIA’s Judging Dev which stormed the charts last year. I think that this or more really hope that this marks the start of Ireland addressing its REAL history as it matures into a more assured member of the club of nations.

The role of Irishmen and women in World War One is so often downplayed and forgotten as I mentioned above. It is a shame because despite any misgivings there might be now about the war itself or about the justification for war in general, those who fought and died did so bravely and with a certainty that what they did was right.

Uncovered History can only welcome such revisiting of our national history and breaking down of myth and illusion!
Eoin

Doubleday Layoffs

~ Eoin Purcell ~ 2 Comments

Eoin Purcell

It’s been a bad year for Doubleday and so they are sacking people!
Sometimes you think publishing is immune to economic problems, but if you are in New York publishing, this story must be feeling very close about now:

The cuts come on the heels of a painful year during which several of Doubleday’s big bets did not pan out, among them Andrew Davidson’s The Gargoyle, which famously drew an advance of $1.25 million but failed to ignite the bestseller list upon publication this summer, and Jon Krakauer’s biography of Pat Tillman, which the author unexpectedly canceled after promotion had already gotten underway.

Be careful what you wish for
In a sense that I never anticipated I’m glad that we don’t have a magazine that follows the Irish trade as closely as they do in New York. How hard would it be to be seen on the list in this article?

Google Book Search Deal – The impact, initial thoughts

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Eoin Purcell

So here are my initial thoughts & a poll

1) What about the rest of the world?
In the short term this just reinforces the impression that Europe is way behind America in making digital trade publishing a reality.

It not just that Amazon isn’t even bothering to launch Kindle in the UK in 2008 or that despite some decent sales, Sony’s Reader is making only ripples, but by being outside of this deal and being split into dozens of separate territories, Europe will be waiting for years until it is covered by a deal as comprehensive as thus! Just as it is taking years for sales of TV shows to shuffle onto our iTunes accounts.

As a consumer that is a frustration, as a small publisher it means more waiting, more second guessing myself and much much more wondering what the hell IS going to happen. The truth is, Google has the capacity to act to create an open market, just as Amazon has the capacity to create a closed market (as it is with Kindle).

Sub Note: The Proposed notice from Google & it soppents does contains ome details for the publishers of non-us books. Not sure how far it takes us but in any case here it is:

ATTENTION AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS OUTSIDE THE UNITED
STATES: If you are a rightsholder who is a national of, or is otherwise located in, a country other than the United States, you are likely to own a U.S. copyright interest if (a) your Book was published in the United States, or (b) your Book was not published in the United States, but your country has copyright relations with the United States because it is a member of the Berne Convention, or (c) your country had copyright relations with the United States at the time of the Book’s publication. You should assume that you own a U.S. copyright interest in your Book, unless you are certain that your Book was published in, and that you reside and are located in, one of the few countries that have not had or do not now have copyright relations with the United States.
For a list of countries with which the United States has copyright relations, please visit http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ38a.html or request it from the Settlement Administrator. If you own a copyright in a Book or Insert published in a country outside the United States, you are advised to seek advice from an attorney or a Reproduction Rights Organization to determine whether your interests would be better served by participating in this Settlement or opting out of the Settlement.
You may also contact the appropriate telephone numbers on the list attached to this Notice for further advice.

2) Finally a Soundly Based Orphan Rights Agency
The amount of money that will go to pay for the “Registry” seems to me to be a great outcome. Even a fancy Registry will take some time spending the money assigned:

US $34.5 million paid by Google to establish and maintain a Book Rights Registry (“Registry”) to collect revenues from Google and distribute those revenues to copyright owners.

Especially if as envisaged, it generates a revenue stream! Hopefully a similar model will be rolled out across the world! HOPEFULLY INDEED!

3) Revenue streams
If there is one thing likely to make publishers sit up and take notice, it is revenue streams. Money makes the world goes around after all. Google’s deal creates both the method of charging and a method for paying out any money generated.

For every publisher this is enticing, it makes working with google pretty attractive. And the beauty of it all is that Google does the back breaking work for you! Seems like a fools game! Which means there is a downside.

4) The Downside
Google wouldn’t be doing this if it didn’t help them achieve their goal, which aside from the urge to no “be evil”, is to make money and organise the world’s information.

Even if this works for the current crop of publishers, it surely brings us closer to the day when Google controls the entire publishing value change except the author.

If there is truly to be a digital trade publishing market, then Google controls all the access to that. they won’t need publishers to provide content, just authors (and maybe editors). Authors of course would no doubt be happy to get a bigger slice of the value if Google offers it!

Think it through and it is a little freaky for publishers. Of course it might be a ways off and the (and maybe editors) piece is of interest. Filters as we have discussed here previously are important. Perhaps Google’s core strength in search will enable it do automate the function of editors and allow readers preferences to filter the content of the masses.

Certainly, that is how they have succeeded on the web!

I’ll write some more when these thoughts develop.
Eoin

Other thoughts on the Google Book Search Deal

~ Eoin Purcell ~ Leave a comment

Eoin Purcell

PersonaNonDate & Booksquare seem to have it right:

PND:
All around on the surface this looks like an excellent compromise. Indeed, it could represent a momentous shift in the way we interact with books and book content. Congratulations to all parties for getting this agreement completed without too much blood spent.

Booksquare:

Still, it’s an even bigger win for the publishing industry. It continues to baffle me that it took approximately three years of litigation to get this far. That’s three years of lost gains and potential lost revenues. Makes my head hurt to think that so much time was wasted. Recall, if you will, that during this dead period, Amazon was able to introduce the closed-system Kindle, creating another kind of pressure on publishers to fall in line with an Internet giant.

UPDATE! O’Reilly’s TOC blog are updating and linking out too! Worth keeping an eye on!
I’m sure there will be more and I have a few thoughts of my own which I will post tomorrow!
Eoin