An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir July/August 2019 www.dfmagazine.ie 46 | Author: Dan Harvey, Lt Col retired Publisher: Merrion Press (June 2019) www.merrionpress.ie ISBN: 9781785372414 Pages: 250 Price: €14.95 PB D-Day has for many been depicted in film or written about by many an author and has since never been forgotten. But what has never been revealed in such detail is the inclusion of so many Irish born or those of Irish parenthood in that epic event. Throughout this book you will discover the names of those Irishmen/women who took part or were involved. Like the Irish Coast Guard lighthouse keeper at Blacksod Point, in Co Mayo; where his wife Maureen had sent a weather report by telephone to the RAF's Meteorological Unit in the UK on the eve of D-Day, that there would be a brief interlude of improved weather. This prompted General Eisenhower to issue the famous words, "Okay, we'll go" This is an in-depth and well- researched book, diligent in detail, informative and easily readable. Highly recommended. SS Lt Col Dan Harvey, now retired, is the author of Soldiering Against Subversion: The Irish Defence Forces and Internal Security During the Troubles, 1969–1998 (2018), Into Action: Irish Peacekeepers Under Fire, 1960–2014 (2017), A Bloody Day: The Irish at Waterloo, A Bloody Night: The Irish at Rorke's Drift (both reissued 2017), and Soldiers of the Short Grass: A History of the Curragh Camp (2016). A BLOODY DAWN: THE IRISH AT D-DAY Author: Brendan Lynch Publisher: The History Press (Reprint centenary edition February 2019) www.thehistorypress.co.uk ISBN: 978-0750990004 Pages: 288 Price: €15.00 PB / eBook €7.80 Former racing cyclist and driver Brendan Lynch's first novel Green Dust: Ireland's Unique Motor Racing History won him the Guild of Motoring Writers' Pierre Dreyfus Award, now on his eight book. Yesterday We Were In America was first published in 2012 by Haynes Publishing, now with a new foreword and introduction to bring it up to date for this the centenary edition to mark the 100th anniversary of the Alcock and Brown transatlantic flight. "They battled through a sixteen-hour journey of snow, ice and continuous cloud, with a non-functioning wireless and a damaged exhaust that made it impossible to hear each other." The two British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Brown flew non-stop from Newfoundland, situated in north-eastern North America to Clifden, Co Galway on Ireland's west-coast in a Vickers Vimy, a modified WWI plane with an open- cockpit in June 1919. Brendan's book has a nice clean and easy to read layout and plenty of historical photographs, chapters cover the aviators first meeting, the construction of their plane, other failed flights and their dramatic take-off. Highly recommended reading for the Irish aviation reader or anyone interested in the history of flight. WF YESTERDAY WE WERE IN AMERICA: ALCOCK AND BROWN, FIRST TO FLY THE ATLANTIC NON-STOP Author: Liam Cahill Publisher: Orla Kelly Publishing (reprint centenary edition April 2019) ISBN: 978-1912328413 Pages: 187 Price: €15.00 PB Historian and author Liam Cahill originally wrote Forgotten Revolution: The Limerick Soviet 1919 in 1990 after a long period of research. He has continued to write and lecture about this forgotten part of the revolutionary rise against British rule in the early part of the last century. Liam has republished this 'centenary edition' to bring this story to a new generation of readers. Liam describes the book as "A new framework for understanding the often competing – but occasionally complimentary – relationship between workers/ trade unions, the IRA/IRB, Sinn Féin/ First Dáil and the Catholic Church/middle classes and big famers in the years 1916 to 1921." The book looks at the Limerick General Strike or Limerick Soviet as its otherwise known in April 2019, this edition now goes beyond this event with new information that has been researched in Military Archives and puts new light on involvement of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). This version has a map, with a chronology of events and some unseen photos which are now 100-years-old. This would make a great addition to other publications on Ireland's revolutionary past, especial for topics outside of Dublin. WF FORGOTTEN REVOLUTION: THE LIMERICK SOVIET 1919

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