Ireland: A country of 13-verse-long ballads, outspoken lunatics, strongly held trivial opinions and friendly exchanges about the day's names in the death notices. A place where flattened fizzy drink is treated as a medical panacea, and where celebration can be squeezed out of anything from a major sporting victory, to a valiant quarter-final exit. From Fionn MacCumhail to the FAI, Do You Know Who's Dead? is a hilarious celebration of all things unmistakably Irish, as it describes our distinguishing features - big and small - in politics, music, culture, sport and more. If you find it hard to end a phone call, have ever driven several miles out of your way for slightly cheaper petrol, or spend just a little too long surveying the death notices, this is the book for you.
Remember the time Ray Burke had trees planted for a by-election, then uprooted them when he lost? Remember the time Brian Cowen went on radio with a voice like Barry White, leading everyone to think he spent the night before on the black stuff? Or remember the time Pee Flynn told us a story of three house, six-figure woe and asked us all to 'try it some time'? Politics is a strange business at the best of times, but Irish politics seems to have a special kind of strangeness about it, so much so that you often have to wonder, 'Did That Actually Happen?' With characteristic wry humour, columnist and broadcaster Paddy Duffy recounts the ridiculous but true stories that make Irish politics what it is: intriguing, amusing and completely daft as a brush. If you're looking for a book that gets to the heart of our political system and offers solutions for the future, then you're probably in the wrong section. No navel-gazing, just belly-laughing.
Remember the time Ray Burke had trees planted for a by-election, then uprooted them when he lost? Remember the time Brian Cowen went on radio with a voice like Barry White, leading everyone to think he spent the night before on the black stuff? Or remember the time Pee Flynn told us a story of three house, six-figure woe and asked us all to 'try it some time'? Politics is a strange business at the best of times, but Irish politics seems to have a special kind of strangeness about it, so much so that you often have to wonder, 'Did That Actually Happen?' With characteristic wry humour, columnist and broadcaster Paddy Duffy recounts the ridiculous but true stories that make Irish politics what it is: intriguing, amusing and completely daft as a brush. If you're looking for a book that gets to the heart of our political system and offers solutions for the future, then you're probably in the wrong section. No navel-gazing, just belly-laughing.
The past they tried to hide. His mother died from cancer in 1955. His father committed suicide shortly thereafter. Paddy Doyle was sentenced in an Irish district court to be detained in an industrial school for eleven years. He was four years old... Paddy Doyle's prize-winning bestseller, The God Squad, is both a moving and terrifying testament of the institutionalised Ireland of less than fifty years ago, as seen through the bewildered eyes of a child. During his detention, Paddy was viciously assaulted and sexually abused by his religious custodians, and within three years his experiences began to result in physical manifestations of trauma. He was taken one night to hospital and left there, never to see his custodians again. So began his long round of hospitals, mainly in the company of old and dying men, while doctors tried to diagnose his condition. This period of his life, during which he was a constant witness to death, culminated in brain surgery at the age of ten - by which time he had become permanently disabled. The God Squad is the remarkable true story of a survivor, told with an extraordinary lack of bitterness for one so shockingly and shamefully treated. In Paddy Doyle's own words: 'It is about a society's abdication of responsibility to a child. The fact that I was that child, and that the book is about my life, is largely irrelevant. The probability is that there were, and still are, thousands of 'me's.
I entered the world in 1945, the middle of the twentieth century, but my family's way of life had not changed substantially for more than a hundred years. The area around our house is still known as Castlebarnagh, which is a small townland near Daingean in northeast County Offaly, in the midlands of Ireland. The Road from Castlebarnagh is Paddy O'Brien's lyrical account of growing up as a budding musician in County Offaly in the 1950s and 1960s. Paddy grew up at a time when the social life of the Irish countryside often took place around the fireplace, where stories were told and music was played. In his book he writes of the many colourful characters who shaped his perception of Irish life and culture. Showing Paddy's flair for storytelling, The Road from Castlebarnagh is the story of how a young musician absorbed his surroundings while developing his own distinctive musical style.
Bonaparte's Grande Armée, one of the most renowned battle-winning machines in history, evolved from a merging of the professional army of the Ancien Régime and the volunteers and conscripts of the Revolutionary levée en masse – although the contribution of the former is often underestimated. A leading authority on the history of tactics draws here on original drill manuals and later writings to explain how the French infantry of 1792–1815 were organized for fire and movement on the battlefield. Illustrated with clear diagrams and relevant paintings and prints, and specially prepared colour plates, this text brings the tactical aspects of eight battles vividly to life.
The colourful story of the 80-year-old saxophone player and singer affectionately know as The King of The Swingers. Paddy Cole has taken his style of Jazz, Dixieland and Swing band music all over the world – and back home too. Paddy Cole is the grand old man of Irish Showbiz who still is young at heart and has built a new radio career with his show on Dublin's Sunshine Radio every Sunday. His story is as heart-warming as it is hilarious!
Vauban was the foremost military engineer of France, not only during his lifetime, but also throughout the 18th century when his legacy and methods remained in place almost unchanged. Indeed, his expertise and experience in the construction, defence, and attack of fortresses is unrivalled by any of his contemporaries, of any nationality. In all three of those fields he was a significant innovator and prolific exponent, having planned approximately 160 major defensive projects and directed over 50 sieges. This book provides not only a modern listing of his varied interventions and their fates, but also a wide-ranging discussion of just how and why they pushed forward the international boundaries of the arts of fortification.
Set in 1803 New York, Hudson's Kill is the riveting next historical thriller from NPR reporter and producer Paddy Hirsch, perfect for fans of The Alienist and Gangs of New York. New York in 1803 is rife with tension as the city expands, and whoever knows where the city will build can control it. And violence builds as a mysterious provocateur pits the city’s black and Irish gangs against each other. When a young black girl is found stabbed to death, both Justy Flanagan, now a City Marshal, and Kerry O’Toole, now a school teacher, decide separately to go after the killer. They each find their way to a shadowy community on the fringes of the growing city, where they uncover a craven political conspiracy bound up with a criminal enterprise that is stunning in its depravity. Justy and Kerry have to fight to save themselves and the city, and only then can they bring the girl’s killer to justice. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Born to Rule is the unauthorised biography that unravels the many layers of the man who has just become the 29th Prime Minister of Australia. The highs and lows of Malcolm Turnbull's remarkable career are documented here in technicolour detail by journalist Paddy Manning. Based on countless interviews and painstaking research, it is a forensic investigation into one of Australia's most celebrated overachievers. Turnbull's relentless energy and quest for achievement have taken him from exclusive Point Piper to Oxford University; from beating the Thatcher government in the Spycatcher trial to losing the referendum on the republic; from defending the late Kerry Packer—codenamed Goanna—in the Costigan Royal Commission to defending his own role in the failure of HIH, Australia's biggest corporate collapse. He was involved in the unravelling of the Tourang bid for Fairfax, struck it rich as co-founder of OzEmail, and fought his own hotly contested battle for Wentworth. As opposition leader he was duped by Godwin Grech's 'Utegate' fiasco; as the most tech-savvy communications minister he oversaw a nobbled NBN scheme. And now he has assumed the leadership of the Liberal Party for the second time after wresting the prime ministership from first-term PM Tony Abbott. Will Turnbull crash and burn as he has before or has his entire tumultuous life been a rehearsal for this moment?
A penetrating examination of the history and future of the Australian Greens The re-election of a Coalition government, after a lost decade of policy backflips and leadership volatility, has redrawn the political landscape. With a record quarter of voters abandoning the major parties at the last election, what lies ahead for the Greens, the ‘third force’ in Australian politics? In a nation divided over global warming, rising inequality and national security, can they agitate for forward-thinking policy, or will a refusal to compromise prove a stumbling block? Inside the Greens investigates the personalities, policies and turning points that have formed the party: from the fight to save Lake Pedder to the Stop Adani convoy; from heckling George W. Bush to the fateful decision to vote down the carbon tax; from party of protest to the balance of power in minority governments at state and federal level. It also exposes the Greens as they are today: a divided organisation reckoning with structural and strategic challenges. Beset by factional showdowns and suggestions of internal sabotage, can the party hang together? Has it strayed too far from grassroots activism? Can the Greens do politics differently and still succeed? Journalist Paddy Manning draws on previously unrevealed archival material and interviews with party friends, foes and key figures – including Bob Brown, Christine Milne, Lee Rhiannon, Adam Bandt and Richard Di Natale – to weave a compulsively readable account of where the Greens are heading, and what that means for Australia. ‘A monumental effort ... Inside the Greens manages to be not just a fine resource on a single party, but of the times that produced them.’ —Crikey
From blue collar to billionaire ... Hunter Valley mine electrician Nathan Tinkler borrowed big in 2005, made a fortune from several speculative coal plays, and by 2011 was a self-made billionaire. He had gambled and won, but his volatility and reluctance to pay his debts were making him enemies. He lived the high life as only a young man would, buying luxury homes, private jets, sports cars and football teams, and splurging massively to build a horseracing empire. But Tinkler’s dreams had extended beyond even his resources, and his business model worked only in a rising market. When coal prices slumped in 2012, Tinkler had no cash flow to service his massive borrowings and no allies to help him recover. Within months he was trying desperately to stave off his creditors, large and small, and fighting to save his businesses and his fortune. In this impressive new biography, leading business writer Paddy Manning tells the story of Tinkler’s meteoric rise to wealth, and captures the drama of his equally rapid downfall.
The first edition (1981) took a critical look at the accepted wisdom of historians who interpreted battlefield events primarily by reference to firepower. It showed that Wellington's infantry had won by their mobility rather than their musketry, that the bayonet did not become obsolete in the nineteenth century as is often claimed, and that the tank never supplanted the infantryman in the twentieth. A decade later, the author has been able to fill out many parts of his analysis and has extended it into the near future. The Napoleonic section includes an analysis of firepower and fortification, notably at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. Additional discussions of the tactics of the American Civil War have been included. The evolution of small-unit tactics in the First World War is next considered, then the problem of making an armored breakthrough in the Second World War. Following is a discussion of the limitations of both the helicopter and firepower in Vietnam. The author points to some of the lessons learned by the U.S. military and the doctrine which resulted from that experience. Concluding is a glimpse at the strangely empty battlefield landscape that might be expected in any future high technology conflict.
Hillwalking is one of Ireland's most popular leisure activities today. Rock climbing has developed to a level of technical excellence with crags in almost every county and numerous indoor climbing walls. Irish mountaineers have completed winter ascents in the Alps, scaled the highest Himalayan peaks and other previously unclimbed giants, and explored hitherto unknown valleys. Paddy O'Leary recounts the history of hillwalking and mountaineering in Ireland: from the early activists – some were involved in gunrunning, others died at Gallipoli – until the turn of the millennium, when mountaineering in Ireland was no longer the preserve of the middle class. This history recounts the adventures, dangers, successes and failures which make this multifaceted activity such a fascinating one, and mirrors the spirit of all who love these places. * Also available: The Longest Road by Sean Rothery
The wargaming rules in this book have been designed by the well-known military historian, Paddy Griffith, and combine simplicity with fun and speed. No less than seven types of wargame are explained: the traditional skirmish and Divisional games, the brigade game and army level game, which all involve the use of model soldiers in battles of varying scales; the generalship game, which is concerned with how a general on campaign divides his time; and finally, a map kriegsspiel and a tactical exerise without troops.
A teenager on the tram meets an old man claiming to be Jesus Christ. Six young women band together on a night prowl. A Filipino immigrant clashes with his eldest sister, who has brought him to Australia for a better life. And in a future where dogs have risen up against their owners, a mother is alarmed by her adolescent daughter's behavior. Through such diverse characters, Paddy O'Reilly takes us into the fringes of human nature—our hidden thoughts, our darker impulses, and our unspoken tragedies. By turns elegiac and acerbic, but always acutely observed, Peripheral Vision confirms O'Reilly as one of our most inventive and insightful writers.
Historians have portrayed British participation in World War I as a series of tragic debacles, with lines of men mown down by machine guns, with untried new military technology, and incompetent generals who threw their troops into improvised and unsuccessful attacks. In this book a renowned military historian studies the evolution of British infantry tactics during the war and challenges this interpretation, showing that while the British army's plans and technologies failed persistently during the improvised first half of the war, the army gradually improved its technique, technology, and, eventually, its' self-assurance. By the time of its successful sustained offensive in the fall of 1918, says Paddy Griffith, the British army was demonstrating a battlefield skill and mobility that would rarely be surpassed even during World War II. Evaluating the great gap that exists between theory and practice, between textbook and bullet-swept mudfield, Griffith argues that many battles were carefully planned to exploit advanced tactics and to avoid casualties, but that breakthrough was simply impossible under the conditions of the time. According to Griffith, the British were already masters of "storm troop tactics" by the end of 1916, and in several important respects were further ahead than the Germans would be even in 1918. In fields such as the timing and orchestration of all-arms assaults, predicted artillery fire, "Commando-style" trench raiding, the use of light machine guns, or the barrage fire of heavy machine guns, the British led the world. Although British generals were not military geniuses, says Griffith, they should at least be credited for effectively inventing much of the twentieth-century's art of war.
Shinners, dissos, and dissenters is a long-term analysis of the development of Irish republican media activism since 1998 and the tumultuous years that followed the end of the Troubles. It is the first in-depth analysis of the newspapers, magazines and online spaces in which strands of Irish republicanism developed and were articulated in a period in which schism and dissent underscored a return to violence for dissidents. Based on an analysis of Irish republican media outlets as well as interviews with the key activists that produced them, this book provides a compelling snap shot of a political ideology in transition as it is moulded by the forces of the Peace Process and often violent internal ideological schism that threatened a return to the 'bad old days' of the Troubles.
Military expert Paddy Griffith argues that despite the use of new weapons and of trench warfare techniques, the Civil War was in reality the last Napoleonic-style war. Illustrations.
When Paddy Holohan discovered mixed martial arts as a teenager, it was the first time his life settled into something approaching focus. Far removed from the chaos of the outside world, every bout reduced that maze of hardship to one simple proposition: survive – a task made all the more unlikely given Paddy's rare form of haemophilia, which he kept secret from the MMA world for years. For the duration of his career, he was never more than one misplaced strike away from the end. Why enter the Octagon knowing you might never leave? For Holohan, it would take a journey to the summit of his sport, and a high-profile fall from grace, to unravel the answer to that question and, with it, finally find some measure of redemption. This is his story.
The war on Western Front from 1914 to 1918 remains one of the notoriously great tragedies of the twentieth century. Most people hold it in their minds as a milestone in modern history, yet many of them know less about this devastating clash of nations than they would like—and they would be interested to discover more. Paddy Griffith's short history of the conflict has been written with them in mind. It provides an accessible primer to an enormous and fascinating subject. His account is aimed at an English-speaking readership, and he concentrates on the part played by British Expeditionary Force and the Americans in the conflict. The French and German perspectives are also explained and the wider political and strategic evolution of the war as a whole is laid out as essential background.
No Forwarding Address tells a story in the life of Reynaldo Garcia, a sixteen-year-old boy who is confined in a drug treatment center. The story involves his treatment, his adjustment to the facility, and his interactions with other patients there. In contrast to the other patients, he likes the facility. It provides the most stable environment and most caring people he’s ever known. But it is difficult for him to adjust because of the bad influences that still control his life.
When it first appeared in 1964, Stuart Hall and Paddy Whannel's The Popular Arts opened up an almost unprecedented field of analysis and inquiry into contemporary popular culture. Counter to the prevailing views of the time, Hall and Whannel recognized popular culture's social importance and considered it worthy of serious study. In their analysis of everything from Westerns and the novels of Mickey Spillane, Ian Fleming, and Raymond Chandler to jazz, advertising, and the television industry, they were guided by the belief that studying popular culture demanded an ethical evaluation of the text and full attention to its properties. In so doing, they raised questions about the relation of culture to society and the politics of taste and judgment in ways that continue to shape cultural studies. Long out of print, this landmark text highlights the development of Hall's theoretical and methodological approach while adding a greater understanding of his work. This edition also includes a new introduction by Richard Dyer, who contextualizes The Popular Arts within the history of cultural studies and outlines its impact and enduring legacy.
Ireland: A country of 13-verse-long ballads, outspoken lunatics, strongly held trivial opinions and friendly exchanges about the day's names in the death notices. A place where flattened fizzy drink is treated as a medical panacea, and where celebration can be squeezed out of anything from a major sporting victory, to a valiant quarter-final exit. From Fionn MacCumhail to the FAI, Do You Know Who's Dead? is a hilarious celebration of all things unmistakably Irish, as it describes our distinguishing features - big and small - in politics, music, culture, sport and more. If you find it hard to end a phone call, have ever driven several miles out of your way for slightly cheaper petrol, or spend just a little too long surveying the death notices, this is the book for you.
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