Pearse's skill as an orator is indisputable. His fiery idealism was one of the key motivators that brought the rebels to the GPO in 1916. This collection of his wrting showcase's this skill, but also the complex philosophy that underpinned it. Ranging from his theories of education articulated in 'The Murder Machine' (1912), through his orations on the great Fenian leaders of the past: Wolfe Tone, Emmet and O'Donovan Rossa; to his writings on 'The Separtatist Idea', 'The Spiritual Nation' ...

The Counter-Culture of Conscience: Protestant Nationalism and the Irish RepublicFor three centuries, a remarkable and often overlooked tradition ran through the heart of Irish political life, the tradition of the Protestant who chose Ireland over community, principle over privilege, and the common good over confessional loyalty. From William Molyneux's foundational legal argument for Irish sovereignty in 1698 to the civil rights marchers of 1960s Belfast, men and w...

Pádraic Pearse, who played a prominent part in the 1916 rebellion, declared Ireland a Republic from the steps of the General Post Office in Dublin. He was executed, along with the other leaders, for his part in the Rising. But he was a gentle warrior at heart. These five stories show us that Pearse was a man of deep understanding with immense human awareness of the way of life of the average person. He analyses the sorrows and joys of the Irish people of his time, and writes of the tragedi...

The life and career of a Poet is often thought of as musing at a desk, or lying in a meadow, or on long journeys to find inspiration for their next masterwork. But more often than not a poet was a part-time profession in subservient submission to their actual, salary-paying job.In this volume we bring together those professionals we engage to bring the full force of the law to bear where we have been wronged, either personally or professionally. Despite the complex morals of such w...

The life and career of a Poet is often thought of as musing at a desk, or lying in a meadow, or on long journeys to find inspiration for their next masterwork. But more often than not a poet was a part-time profession in subservient submission to their actual, salary-paying job.In this volume we bring together those professionals we engage to bring the full force of the law to bear where we have been wronged, either personally or professionally. Despite the complex morals of such w...

Even those who know a great deal about the Easter Rising may not know that there were temporary ceasefires in the St Stephen's Green area, to allow the park attendants to feed the Green's ducks. Few know that the first shots of the rising were actually fired near Portlaoise and not in Dublin or indeed that both sides issued receipts: the rebels for food, the British for handcuffs. It features excerpts from a previously unpublished diary written by a member of the Jacob's garrison; the stor...

A book that revolutionised our understanding of English social history. E. P. Thompson shows how the English working class emerged through the degradations of the industrial revolution to create a culture and political consciousness of enormous vitality.

The House of the Wolfings is a fantasy novel by William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy writer to unite an imaginary world with the element of the supernatural, and thus the precursor of much of present-day fantasy literature.

William Blake is one of the giants of poetry. He is often overlooked because of the obliqueness of many of his poems. But this affordable (read: cheap) collection of poems is well worth the price of admission. Most of Blakes most famous and well loved poems are included in this volume. Most of us had to read at least a couple of these poems in school. The Tyger still stands as one of the great poems of the English language. The Fly, The Lamb, Children of a Future Age, London and Ah, Sunflo...

Poetry is a fascinating use of language. With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries. In this series we look at a particular nation through the eyes and minds of our most gifted poets to bring you a unique poetic guide. Wales, this proud nation with its long history; sometimes rough, hewn from bleak yet beautiful landscapes, sometimes gently soft from its comfor...

The political dilemma of Ireland; the state of faith in England; the charms of the Beggar's Opera; the importance of puns . . . This selection gathers together some of Swift's most brilliant prose, from high politics to social gossip, from savage tirades to lighthearted social satire. In addition to his classic essays, the collection includes several of Swift's letters to Alexander Pope and other great thinkers of the age.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is Coleridge's visionary ballad of transgression, suffering, and spiritual awakening, in which a mariner's killing of the albatross unleashes a voyage through supernatural terror and moral revelation. First published in Lyrical Ballads (1798), the poem helped inaugurate English Romanticism, blending archaic diction, folk-ballad rhythms, Christian symbolism, and gothic intensity. In an illustrated edition, its phantasmagoric seascapes, spectral ship, and lumi...