Europe

Go Read This | Is WHSmith Travel the UKs Best Bookseller? | Publishing Perspectives

~ Eoin Purcell ~ Leave a comment

Interesting piece on WH Smith Travel on Publishing Perspectives today, well worth reading:

It seems that despite the cost of promotions and shelf space, publishers love WHSmith Travel. Philip Gwyn Jones, Publisher at Portobello, says. “They’re capable of making books that their rivals aren’t touching. We had a difficult, debut novel in February -– Max Schaefer’s Children of the Sun, which deals with skinhead culture -– and they took it, backed it and believed in it. They put in their chart and we had a bigger subscription from them than from Waterstone’s, although you might think this was more of a Waterstone’s book.

“I don’t think WHSmith Travel is celebrated enough. Yes, they take a narrow range, but within that you will see some surprises, in a way you wouldn’t in the supermarkets.”

via Is WHSmith Travel the UKs Best Bookseller? | Publishing Perspectives.

Quick Link | 'Remembering'- the city's involvement in World War I – Londonderry Today

~ Eoin Purcell ~ Leave a comment

Sounds like a fascinating book this!

In Londonderry, as in many other parts of the country, economic necessity as much as a sense of loyalty may well have been a factor in so many men from both the Protestant and Catholic traditions heading for the various battlefields of Europe. In recent years it has been revealed that almost 50 per cent of the names recorded on the City’s Diamond War Memorial hailed from the Catholic/nationalist community. But, with the advent of the Easter Rising in 1916 and again at onset of the Troubles in 1969 it is true that those from the Catholic tradition felt uncomfortable recognising or remembering the involvement of their ancestors in service to the Crown.

via ‘Remembering’- the city’s involvement in World War I – Londonderry Today.

The Election of Jack Murphy in 1957 | The Irish Story

~ Eoin Purcell ~ Leave a comment

Interesting and scarily relevant article about an unemployed TD in 1957 Ireland.

In the Dáil / Hunger strike
Murphy had difficulty trying to get answers to even the most basic questions in the Dáil. He could not even get an answer to how much unemployment relief money was being spent in Dublin.[32]

In May Murphy and two other members of the UPC, Tommy Kavanagh and Jimmy Byrne, began a hunger strike to highlight unemployment and to protest against the removal of food subsidies in the budget.[33]

The hunger strike lasted four days and each evening thousands of protestors gathered on the corners of Abbey Street and O’Connell Street.[34] Resolutions of support came in from trade union branches all over the country and there were demands for a one day strike.

via The Election of Jack Murphy in 1957 | The Irish Story.