'From Tango to Twist' has photos of 858 Irish bands…

This week there’s a fascinating history of Irish emigrants to America, those off the ‘coffin ships’ of the Famine years, and a surprising story of – mostly – prosperity and upward social mobility, which is not the narrative we’re used to hearing.

There’s a sensitive debut about three 30-somethings living in London, where the plot is distilled into a single weekend in 2019. There’s a marvellous anthology of short stories written by authors who have various ties with the city and county of Cork, and there’s a book for Irish showband fans, described as ‘an almanac of 20th century Irish dance-bands and showbands’ from a musician who has spent most of his life collecting showband memorabilia.

Plentiful Country, Tyler Anbinder, Eriu, €20.99

This is an extensively researched history of those Irish migrants who left during the famine and managed not to die enroute to New York. And unlike what we’ve been led to believe, many of them succeeded, not only in securing work and somewhere to live, although the slums of 19th century New York were as bad, if not worse than, those in Europe, but managed to climb the social ladder pretty quickly.

Unsurprisingly, those with skills did best while those who didn’t have endured the backbreaking work of construction sites and keeping the streets clean, but a much larger slice of the Irish immigrant community did very well for themselves.

The evidence comes from a bank whose records have only recently been excavated; The Emigrant Savings Bank, an Irish-founded bank in New York in 1850, whose records have been forensically examined by a small army of researchers (all credited in Anbinder’s acknowledgements).

Thousands of Irish emigrants didn’t stay put in New York but travelled further into the states and across to California. We know that many Irish did well in the Land of Opportunity, certainly compared to how they fared in Britain, but I figure must of us never knew that so many prospered so quickly; within years rather than decades. A fascinating segment of Irish-American history.

Evenings and Weekends, Oisín McKenna, 4th Estate, €16.99

The story takes place over a single hot summer weekend in 2019 in London, focusing on three central characters. Thirty-year-old Maggie discovers she’s pregnant and realises that she can’t afford to rear her child in London, taking for granted that her partner will leave London, too.

But partner Ed has a secret he’s kept from Maggie and is undecided what to do. He shares this secret with Maggie’s best friend, Phil. Phil is in a gay relationship with a guy who’s afraid of one-to-one commitment, preferring to carry on as things are, in an open relationship. Yes, it’s complicated, but so is life, especially for millennials in our chaotic world.

Add to that some peripheral characters with troubles of their own and things come to a head on the Saturday night, when everybody’s lives will be changed forever. A novel about secrets and lies, about the fear of ‘coming out’, about the state of the planet’s ecosystems and about the real fragility of relationships, it’s a beautifully written and intricately plotted debut from a writer who I imagine we’ll hear a lot more from in the future.

From Tango to Twist, Francis K Beirne, Curious Cat Club, €30

This book is packed with photographs of 858 different Irish bands from every corner of the island (most with bio and a list of personnel), 160 vintage dancing and music cuttings, and selected discographies for all bands who recorded. The book includes an 11-page index with 1,500 entries including bands, towns, villages and singers or featured artistes.

The author, Francis K Beirne, is a retired musician from Athenry who has been collecting press cuttings, magazines, records, photographs and memorabilia since he was a teenager. He has had articles on the subject published in various publications including the Irish Independent, Ireland’s Own, Senior Times, the Irish Post and Irish-America Monthly.

He was a consultant for the RTÉ series ‘A Little Bit Showband’ and the 2005 TV film, ‘Showbands’. He founded the irishshowbands.net web archive in 2002. The book is available in selected outlets from 16 July and online at buythebook.ie and irishshowbands.net.

Cork Stories, edited by M D’Arcy and L Mckenna, Doire Press, €16

The largest county in the country and the one that contains ‘the real capital of Ireland’ is awash with stories and storytellers. Doire Press, having previously published Belfast Stories and Galway Stories, has published another sparkling anthology with this volume.

The writers are either Corkonians or have strong connections to Cork and this anthology is, like its predecessors, a marvellous and varied read. There are some big names among the contributors, too, such as the great Kevin Barry, Gráinne Murphy, Danielle McLaughlin, William Wall, Danny Denton, Mary Morrissey and plenty more.

Cork city landscapes abound, like Douglas Street and The Elysian, the Imperial Hotel, Reidy’s Wine Vaults, Buxton Hill and the Victoria. Further afield, there’s Mallow, Kinsale, Ballycotton, Passage West and Kanturk. And the characters are as varied as the stories. A lonely cook sits with a famous film star as they eat ice cream cones, looking out at Ballycotton Lighthouse and reflecting on their respective lost children.

The tenant of a squalid flat on Buxton Hill dreams of owning a small house in a quiet place. A man in his 40s loses his fight with early onset dementia. A lonely old pensioner spends his dead wife’s birthday waiting on a phone call from his daughter. The call doesn’t come. All human life is here, in all its pain, but there’s flinty Cork humour too. Another gem from Doire Press, a book to dip in and out of, to read and reread.

Footnotes

Fans of Irish traditional music are spoilt for choice in the coming days. There’s the Ulster Fleadh in Dromone, County Tyrone, July 21-28; see the Facebook page for details. And in Belfast the Belfast Tradfest is also running from July 21 to 28, for details see belfasttradfest.com. Still up north, but in the south if you know what I mean, the Mary From Dungloe Arts Festival runs from July 27 to August 5 in Donegal. See maryfromdungloe.ie for details.