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John P. Gribbin, "Gribbin: A Family History of Ulster" (Ulster Historical Foundation, 2023)
This is a comprehensive history of the Gribbin (Gribben/Gribbon) family. The author traces his own family line back to the early nineteenth century, setting it within the context of the wider Gribbin family story. He then tracks back through time to pinpoint Gribbins wherever they appear in the record. He has trawled the available sources, compiling the data in order to establish where all the Gribbins of the world were living during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (mostly in Ulster is the short answer), what they were doing and their socio-economic status. He is particularly keen to record any distinctive detail which might bring these Gribbin ancestors to life for the reader. In the process, we learn the history of Ulster and of those who emigrated from it; the politics, the wars, the tribulations and the daily lives of Gribbins down through the centuries. We trace their movements, their involvement in politics and how social/political change affected them. This is a rich tapestry which includes small Catholic farmers, Protestant industrialists, reforming doctors, learned scribes, soldiers and rebels, reformers and priests, all of them caught up in the turbulent whirlwind of Irish history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Véronique Altglas, "Judaizing Christianity and Christian Zionism in Northern Ireland" (Routledge, 2025)
Véronique Altglas holds a PhD from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris and has served as a as a lecturer in sociology at Queen’s University Belfast since 2009. Dr. Altglas’ publications include two monographs: Le nouvel hindouisme occidental (CNRS, 2005); and From Yoga to Kabbalah: Religious Exoticism and the Logics of Bricolage (Oxford University Press, 2014), for which she won the book award of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion in 2017. She is also the editor of a four-volume reader, Religion and Globalization: Critical Concepts in Social Studies (Routledge, 2010). Her In this interview, she discusses her new book, Judaizing Christianity and Christian Zionism in Northern Ireland, recently published with Routledge. This book explores the contemporary Judaization of evangelical Christianity through the ethnography of a Messianic congregation in Northern Ireland. A constellation of Messianic "congregations" have expanded worldwide over recent years, combining Jewish liturgy, symbols, and artifacts with prophecies about the End Times and the return of Jesus. Increasingly recognized as a legitimate subdivision within evangelicalism, the Messianic movement has facilitated a popularization of Jewish practices and symbolism beyond its own congregations. The author considers: What insights do these congregations offer about the deregulation of religions? Is there any logic to the combinations of Christian and Jewish sources in Messianic beliefs and practices? How can we understand this fascination with Jews and Judaism? Finally, what is the political significance of Messianic relationship with Jewish people, the state of Israel, and Christian Zionism? The book will be of particular interest to scholars of the sociology and anthropology of religion, religion and politics, and Jewish-Christian relations. Judaizing Christianity and Christian Zionism in Northern Ireland. For God, Israel and Ulster is published with Routledge Aidan Beatty is a lecturer in the history department at Carnegie Mellon University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Claire Pierson, "Women's Troubles: Gender and Feminist Politics in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland" (Manchester University Press, 2025)
How do feminist movements develop and organise in ethno-nationally divided societies? How does this challenge our understandings of contemporary fourth wave feminism? Women's Troubles: Gender and Feminist Politics in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland (Manchester University Press, 2025) by Dr. Claire Pierson sets out to answer these questions using rich empirical data and analysis in an examination of feminist activism after the Northern Irish peace agreement. Utilising feminist frameworks and debates on movement building, policymaking, abortion rights, gender-based violence and the UN women, peace and security agenda, Dr. Pierson interrogates the opportunities and challenges in articulating a feminist voice and creating feminist spaces in the conflict transformational politics and society. Capturing the complexities of contemporary feminist movement building in a divided society, Women's Troubles contributes to ongoing analysis of contemporary global feminisms. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Donall Mac Cathmhaoill, "Theatres of Post-Conflict Northern Ireland: Winning the Peace" (University of Exeter Press, 2024)
Theatre has played an important role in post-conflict northern Ireland, where it has been used by artists, communities, and organisations as a tool for political advocacy. Theatres of Post-Conflict Northern Ireland: Winning the Peace (University of Exeter Press, 2024) provides an up-to-date assessment of the state of theatre in northern Ireland since the end of the conflict, across a period of complete transformation, from entrenched civil conflict to relative peace and prosperity. With a focus on applied theatre and works that use theatre as advocacy, the book investigates the ways the main communities in the region have used theatre to promote their agendas, combat prejudice, and deal with legacy issues of the conflict. It also explores the emergence of new theatres that reflect social and demographic changes in the post-conflict period, including theatre with migrants and minorities, LGBTQ and Irish language theatre. In doing so, it examines the crucial role that theatre (and by extension, arts) can play in processes of reconciliation. The book will prove valuable to students and academics in the fields of applied theatre, conflict studies, and arts for reconciliation. It will appeal also to the general reader with an interest in northern Irish politics and culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Jane Elizabeth Dougherty, "Narrating Irish Female Development, 1916-2018" (Edinburgh UP, 2024)
Narrating Irish Female Development, 1916-2018 (Edinburgh UP, 2024) studies narratives of Irish female and feminized development, arguing that these postmodern narratives present Irish female maturation as disordered and often deliberately disorderly. The first full-length study of the Irish female coming of age story, the book develops a feminist psychoanalytic narratology, derived from the belated oedipalization of Joyce’s bildungsheld, to read these stories. This study argues that all Irish maturation stories are shaped by the uneven and belated maturation story of the Irish republic itself, which took as its avatar the Irish woman, whose citizenship in that republic was unrealized, as indeed was her citizenship in an Irish republic of letters. Dougherty takes the writing of Irish women as seriously as other critics have taken Joyce’s work. Discusses texts by James Joyce, John McGahern, Hannah Lynch, Kate O’Brien, Lady Gregory, Maud Gonne, Mary Colum, Elizabeth Bowen, Edna O’Brien, Dervla Murphy, Clare Boylan, Nuala O’Faolain, Eavan Boland, Anne Enright, Claire Keegan, Eimear McBride, Éilís ní Dhuibhne, Melatu Uche Okorie, and Soula Emmanuel Examines the form, narration, and content of fictional, non-fictional, and national narratives Develops a feminist psychoanalytic narratology Synthesizes historical, sociojuridical, feminist, post-colonial, and literary historical narratives of Irish development Jane Elizabeth Dougherty is Professor in the School of Literature, Writing and Digital Humanities and affiliate faculty in the School of Africana and Multicultural Studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Helen Penet is a lecturer in English and Irish Studies at Université de Lille (France). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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