Irish Books

In this introduction to the best known film and TV series where the majority of the filming was undertaken in Ireland, we take a look behind the scenes and explore the spectacular locations used by the filmmakers. 

Which Irish road was renamed after a Star Wars character?What John Wayne did during the filming of The Quiet Man?That Ryan’s Daughter was based on Flaubert’s Madame Bovary?That a vampire story was filmed in the library used by Bram Stoker?The Dublin location used for filming The Italian Job, Michael Collins and The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones?

A jewel in the Garden County.Photography © Liam Blake

 Here Tony Curtis writes 24 poems to celebrate great women writers from now back to Sappho 2600 years ago, and Liam Blake finds places of beauty, then observes the sky and listens to weather forecasts so as to return to capture a perfect cast of light. Dr Pat Meere, co-author of Geology of Ireland: A Field Guide *, described to me these rocks at Garretstown and Garrylucas, as “gorgeous rocks and a marrying of aesthetics and geology”. Science and art can both be a fullness and an enhancement of the other and these poems and images balance within a space where knowledge is both present and optional.

“Gorgeous rocks and a marrying of aesthetics and geology” –Dr Pat Meere
Head of Geology at UCC Cork City and co-author of Geology of Ireland: A Field Guide.

The rocks which we see in this book are located on the coast 4 km to the northwest of the Old Head of Kinsale in County Cork. They started life some 330 million year ago as muds, silts and fine sands that were washed down from great mountain ranges mainly to the north into a shallow, gradually deepening, coastal sea. Within this sea we can imagine small drifting and free-swimming organisms, such as goniotites, which were shelled relatives of the present day octopus, squid and Nautilus, and whose fossilised shells can now be seen within some of these rocks. Although we age these rocks as some 330 million years old we can think of them as old as the beginning of this planet some 4.5 billion years ago since they are composed of the detritus of eroded earlier lands, which in turn were composed of even earlier lands.

Photography © Liam Blake

Poetry Tony Curtis

The spectacular landscapes of the West Cork peninsulas with their raw and almost

skeletal qualities are very much the product of the underlying bedrock geology of the

region. This geology predominantly consists of layered sandstones, siltstones and

mudstones of Upper Devonian age that were deposited in a large sedimentary basin,

the Munster Basin, 380-360 million years ago.

“This syncline structure, while relatively small, very powerfully evokes the incredible tectonic forces that were required to produce the Variscan mountain belt of southern Ireland, a geological event that shapes our landscapes to this very day.” –Dr Pat Meere
Head of Geology at UCC Cork City and co-author of Geology of Ireland: A Field Guide.

Photography © Liam Blake

Poetry Tony Curtis

A compendium of his wicked witticisms, profound pithy pronouncements and prophetic aphorisms.

“There is only one thing worse than being talked about and that is not being talked about.”

“When good Americans die they go to Paris.”

“A poet can survive everything but a misprint.”

This is a compendium of over 300 of Oscar Wilde’s witticisms on almost every topic imaginable. The contents can be quickly accessed to enliven conversation, invigorate speeches and demonstrate erudition or just enjoyed for their dazzling originality and intelligence.

Height 153mm x Width 108mm x Depth 12mm

 Photographs from Brittas Bay • Magherabeg • Magheramore County Wicklow • Ireland.

A collection of photographs from the beaches of Brittas Bay, Magherabeg and Magheramore County Wicklow. 

Featuring Haiku by the poet Tony Curtis with an introduction by Richard Nairn (author of Ireland's Coastline 2005).

At certain times, such as after high winds and tides, the sands on the beach are shaped into beautiful abstract formations, the lack of scale giving the feeling that they could be pictures of the Earth from space, or of other planets. They are in most cases a square meter or two of sand at my feet.

Liam Blake 2011

Colourful, fun and interesting picture book featuring 15 Irish recipes. Code MB-RE 9780946887453.

Colourful illustrations and 15 traditional Irish recipes.

Such as Oysters and Stout, Irish Stew, Pig's Head Brawn and Bacon and Cabbage.

Part of a series of eight.

Colourful, fun and interesting picture book featuring 28 images of Irish Pubs from around Ireland. 

Code MB-PU 5390534051230

Irish pubs are famous the World over for their hospitality, the music and the craic.

This little picture book presents some of the most iconic of these pubs.

Part of a series of eight.

Colourful, fun and interesting picture book featuring 15 Irish proverbs. Code MB-PR 9780946887507.

With gems such as 

"You can take a man out of the bog, but you cannot take the bog out of the man" and

 "You'll never plough a field by turning it over in your mind"

Part of a series of eight.