A meticulous, compellingly readable reconstruction of those three summer days that ignited the civil war - the defining event of modern Irish politics. The Irish Civil War began at around four o'clock in the morning on June 28, 1922. An 18-pounder artillery piece began to fire on the thick granite walls of the Four Courts - a beautiful eighteenth-century complex of buildings that housed Ireland's highest legal tribunals. Inside the courts a large party of IRA men were barricaded - a clear sign that the treaty ending the war of independence would never be accepted by passionate republicans. After three days of fighting, with the buildings in ruins, the garrison surrendered. But the Four Courts also housed Ireland's historical archives, and these irreplaceable documents were destroyed, with burnt paper raining down over the city. This was a cultural disaster for the new state and its historical memory. Michael Fewer has a sure command of the political and military history of those years, and a mastery of the architectural and technological aspects of the battle. His recreation of this tragic episode is an intimate, detailed and essential addition to the literature of the Irish Revolution.

We all relate readily to doorways - the possibilities they open up, their romance. The doorway tells us much about a building, its purpose and its occupier; and it has, throughout the ages, attracted the art of the designer and the skill of the craftsman perhaps more than any other architectural element. Michael Fewer takes a relaxed and imaginative look at how the idea of the entrance to a building has been dealt with by the builders, designers and craftsmen of Ireland from the earliest times until the present day. He considers function, style, composition, components and materials, together with design influences. The doors he examines range from the humblest to the most impressive, and from the architecturally significant to the whimsical, from the Seefin cairn at Kilbride, County Wicklow, dating from 3000 BC, to the eighteenth-century doors of Merrion Square, Dublin, and, coming right up to date, the doors of the National Gallery Millennium Wing. Describes and illustrates 54 doorways all over Ireland, from Neolithic times to the present day Provides a unique slant on the colourful history and architecture of Ireland By a knowledgeable and popular author

Laced with history, wildlife, antiquities, and politics, this book offers captivating insights into memorable locations, experiences, and moments during walking tours of Ireland. Through a selection of articles, excerpts, letters, and journal entries, we experience the beauty of high moors and mountains, see the conditions of the peasantry improve from poverty to wealth, mark the evolution of politics and society, and, most of all, enjoy the pleasures of exploring Ireland on foot. Here one will find Samuel Johnson's hilarious description of a walk that ended with a fall into the River Liffey, and Eric Newby's account of a pilgrimage ascent of Croagh Patrick. Here are tales by such authors as John Keats, Paul Theroux, and Colm Toibin about the antiquities of the countryside, drinking and singing, botany, the delights of mountain climbing, superstition and folklore, and the quality of inns. This anthology will take the reader on a colorful and eventful journey through time and the lovely and sometimes harsh Irish countryside.

Following the bestselling Naturama, Michael Fewer and Melissa Doran return with an activity book that encourages young readers to discover for themselves the magic of nature right on their doorstep. Season by season, the book is packed with outdoor projects that include making a nest box for birds, adopting a tree, making an insect hotel and moon gazing. But it is perhaps the field guide sections, which encourage observation, collecting and the creation of their very own nature journal, that will be most loved by children in years to come. The charming My Naturama Nature Journal will provide hours of entertainment for budding naturalists everywhere - whatever the season.