Four book recommendations for summer reading
The Globe and Mail’s Arts staff John Doyle, Marsha Lederman, Brad Wheeler and Kate Taylor give their picks for summer reading.For ages people have been suggesting I read and review Fintan O’Toole’s book. I get it. O’Toole and I are of the same age, and similar background. We attended University College, Dublin, together, graduated at the same time and, unknown to many making the suggestion, were on nodding acquaintance there.
In his childhood there was in the air the idea of a “disappearing Ireland.” Emigration was so widespread, especially from rural Ireland, that there was a visceral sense of a shrinking population and culture. Even by 1971, he points out, the Republic of Ireland’s population was less than 3 million, smaller than the city of Paris. What dominates his history of the past few decades is the drag put on Ireland by the Catholic Church and its related institutions.
He is excellent on the series of political scandals that even today beggar belief. The scams and chicanery, the millions made from dubious deals. But the book can get lost in the corridors of power in Dublin. Also, O’Toole is inattentive to sport in Irish life and its meaning. It’s a sporting nation and the success of the national men’s soccer team in the 1990s has far more connotation than is acknowledged. The difference between me and O’Toole is that I left for Canada’s embrace.
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