Book Reviews

WE ARE BELLINGCAT

BY ELIOT HIGGINS / BLOOMSBURY $29.99

Never heard of Bellingcat? You wouldn’t be alone in that. Just who, or what, is Bellingcat? In brief, the oddly named organization is an online collective formed to investigate international, mainly war, crimes. And yes, we can be a part of it. (Visit the website www.bellingcat.com for further information). In 2014, due to Bellingcat’s patient sleuthing, those responsible for the downing of Malaysian Flight 417 over the Ukraine – with 298 passengers aboard – were identified. Four years later in March 2018, Russian defector, Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found slumped on a bench on the verge of death, in the peaceful English city of Salisbury. They had been in contact with the deadly nerve agent, Novichok A234 which had been developed by the Soviet Secret Service. It was thanks to Bellingcat that the ‘kill team’ compromising of three Russian GRU operatives, was tracked down and the decision makers, even to the very top of the Kremlin hierarchy, were identified. Each of these investigations necessitated the dedicated Bellingcat team, paid staff and volunteers, pouring over many thousands of hours of YouTube and Facebook footage, social media posts, and diverse databases. They trawled through magazine archives, news agency contents, chat sites, Google maps and satellite imagery in their meticulous quest to expose the truth. The book explores the cutting edge tools used in data analysis ranging from virtualreality software capable of building photorealistic models of a crime scene, to apps that can identify at exactly where and what time of day a photograph was taken. Amazingly, 90% of intelligence gleaned by Bellingcat came from open sources freely available to all. Eliot Higgins, the founder of Bellingcat, was a high school dropout who began his rudimentary information gathering on a kitchen laptop in Leicester (England) during the early 2010s. He was initially preoccupied with the wars in Syria and Libya, before formally founding the home-grown investigation unit in 2014, just days before MH17 was hit by a warhead fired from a Russian Buk missile launcher. Now financed through crowd funding, with donations from Google’s Digital News Initiative Fund, Bellingcat’s credo is ‘Identify, Verify, Amplify’. Higgins’ book is a real life thriller about a collective of internet detectives who helped solve some of the biggest crimes of our time. As Toomas Hendrik Ilves (former President of Estonia) remarked, ‘If there were a Nobel Prize in uncovering war crimes, Bellingcat would receive it’. – Reviewed by John Hagan

THE PERFORMANCE

BY CLAIRE THOMAS / HACHETTE $32.99

Thomas’ previous novel, FUGITIVE BLUE, featured three female characters linked together by a small, beguiling, 500 year old painting. In THE PERFORMANCE, she again delves in to the inner lives of three diverse females all of whom are present at the same Melbourne theatrical presentation of Samuel Beckett’s play ‘Happy Days’, as bushfires rage on the outskirts of the city. Margot is a professor of literature and, while ageing, is still at the top of her game in academia. Married to John for over 40 years, their relationship is fraught, as is her rapport with her married son, Adam, who appears to be endlessly disappointed in his mother. Summer is a young drama student from Western Australia who is working at the theatre as an usher to earn some cash between acting roles. While interested in the play, she is preoccupied with the plight of her girlfriend, April, who has ventured in to the fire zone to assist her parents. Final member of the trio is Ivy, a forty year old philanthropist, besotted by Beckett, but perturbed that she is a guest at the play only because the theatre company wants her money. Her enjoyment of the performance is marred by the snoring of the man sitting next to her. The action on stage triggers potent recollections amongst the trio, and as the performance unfolds so do the women’s memories, as each tries to grapple with their anxieties, hopes, relationships and self worth. By making us privy to each woman’s thoughts, Thomas allows the reader to inhabit three different characters in this well plotted and elegantly written novel. Good to see an academic (Thomas teaches literary studies and creative writing at university) actually demonstrate the art of superior story telling instead of sheltering in the lecture theatre. – Reviewed by John Hagan

DEAD IN THE WATER

BY RICHARD BEASLEY / ALLEN & UNWIN $29.99

Who would have imagined that our most important environmental law, the Commonwealth Water Act (2007), could be so engrossing or that the Murray Darling Basin Authority, formed to oversee Australia’s ‘food bowl’, could allegedly become so corrupt, venal and untrustworthy? Oh yes, there are deaths too; namely over one million Murray Cod, not to mention the demise of many thousands of precious gum trees. The national bill for the fiasco is in the region of thirteen billion dollars. This book is a revelation of unlawful and negligent decision making, secrecy and fraud, with all the twists and turns of a well plotted thriller. Beasley pulls no punches and spares no blushes in this meticulous and at times florid narrative on the degradation and death of our most precious resource. He reveals how Big Agriculture and downstream irrigators, with the help of politicians, both state and federal, have destroyed the potential of the Murray-Darling Basin. It is a subject Beasley knows well as he was Senior Counsel Assisting at the 2018 Murray-Darling Royal Commission, and so was up close and intimate as the disaster unfolded. All the usual suspects are involved – Gillard, Turnbull, Burke, Howard, Joyce, Littleproud and Deputy PM Michael McCormack, who supported the burning of ‘The Guide to the Proposed Basin Plan’ when it was published. The contribution of the National Country Party to the whole debacle is ‘contained in a sealed section at the back’. Instead of a ‘best science only’ plan to provide what the Basin needed, namely between 3900 and 7600 gigalitres of water per year, ‘the postcode of Penrith, 2750 became the final [gigalitre], recovery target’. No logical argument has been advanced for arriving at this number.

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This is a book about the most precious resource Australia possesses – water. It’s about how little we have and how appallingly we manage it. DEAD IN THE WATER is the tale of a catastrophic shambles which should outrage us all. – Reviewed by John Hagan

PLACE NAMES IN ULSTER

BY JONATHAN BARDON / ULSTER HISTORICAL FOUNDATION £6.99 (PLUS POSTAGE).

Most Irish people are familiar with the prefixes ‘dun’ and ‘rath’ in relation to towns (eg. Dungannon and Rathfriland). Both, of ancient Celtic origin, mean ‘fort’, but what is the difference between them? This is just one of the interesting and informative revelations in this new publication from the Ulster Historical Foundation (www.ancestryireland.com). In addition to explaining the sources of Gaelic place names from Ulster’s ancient kingdoms (Tyrone – Land of Eoghan), its peoples (Fermanagh – Men of Manach), physical features (Strabane – white stream), and the Irish church (Templepatrick – St Patrick’s church), this enlightening book expands to clarify root words featured in townlands (Ballygawley – O’Daly’s townland) and land divisions (Carrowdore – quarter of the water). The old shibboleth is certainly true, ‘The Irish language named the landscape and if you know the language, the landscape talks back’. Bardon traces, through place names, the Anglo-Norman (Carrickfergus – Fergus’s rock), and Elizabethan (Mountnorris – built and named after Sir John Norris) conquests, the Plantation of Ulster (Castleblaney – founded by Sir Edward Blaney) plus many street names associated with Belfast (Beal Feirsde – the mouth of or approach to the sandbank). PLACE NAMES IN ULSTER explores, and highlights, the richness of the Ulster heritage while serving as a guide to its present. This is a hugely illuminating, enjoyable, and well illustrated foray into our past by an acclaimed historian. – Reviewed by John Hagan

IRELAND’S FORGOTTEN PAST: A HISTORY OF THE OVERLOOKED AND DISREMEMBERED

BY TURTLE BUNBURY / THAMES AND HUDSON

Mr Turtle Bunbury of County Carlow is a respected writer in various fields, a historian, a public speaker and a television personality. He has received prestigious awards for two of his books and - judging from the quality and interest of Ireland’s Forgotten Past - he surely deserves additional recognition for this recent work.

The author is acutely aware of the nature of Ireland’s florid and often spectacular history and notes that “every field, hill, stream and rock seems to hold another secret about the island’s past…” Furthermore, he is worried about fading collective memory and notes that “the dolmen earns a brief mention in the occasional tourist brochure but I have never seen any record of the monastery or ringfort – no archived memories of who built them, who died there, who slept, ate, thought, laughed, loved, mourned or died there. It is simply the shapes of earth and stone that reveal the human touch”. The book provides us with obscure or almost completely forgotten lesser-known tales - thirty six in all - from the long and sometimes messy saga that is Irish history. As for people, Bunbury says, “the cast includes a pair of ill-fated pre-historic chieftains, a psychopathic Viking monarch, a chivalrous Norman warrior, a dazzling English traitor, an ingenious tailor, an outstanding warhorse, a fanatical spymaster, a

brothel queen, a randy prince and an insanely prolific sculptor”. He begins by examining the earliest stages - obscure and hard to interpret though they are - of human occupation and activity in the distant past. About 13, 000 years ago Palaeolithic hunters were active in Ireland. During the Neolithic period they morphed into farmers and makers of strange monuments that are still turning up in odd places today. Then came disaster - what may have been a complete break with the past marked by mounting evidence of mass slaughter of the earlier peoples. The newcomers who took over (the Bell Beaker culture) were warlike, builders of hill forts and good at metal work. During the Iron Age (from about the 800s BC) there was much land clearing, building activity and - eventually - hard evidence of ugly customs such as human sacrifice. Roman scholars understood what that was about. The Druids were now on the scene. Forget about romantic nonsense re the Druids: “the bodies of sacrificial victims found in the Irish bogs” confirm the barbarities (chapter 5). All power to St Patrick and other missionaries who helped terminate such horrors. Bunbury entertains us (chapter seven) with stories about pilgrimages to the holy wells of Christian Ireland in the hope of cures from various ailments. All of the churches eventually became hostile to the custom. One of the last wells (at Warrenstown) was deliberately wrecked in 2018. However, all is not lost for believers. This writer has witnessed traditional visits to holy wells - in England, believe it or not, where the custom is not under attack. Mr Bunbury is at his best when he deals with individuals. For example, chapter 23 looks into the activities of Lord Rosse and the foundation of the Hellfire Club in 1737 - “the rumours alone would give Stephen King the shivers. Lord Rosse and his cronies are said to have hosted black masses, mock crucifixions and…”. But no more. What follows is not for the sensitive. On a happier note, in chapter 19 readers are favoured with the story of Daniel O’Byrne, a Dublin tailor and staunch Catholic who extracted a fortune in hard cash from the esteemed and always charming Oliver Cromwell when he made his pleasant 1649 visit to Ireland. In between massacres Cromwell and his cronies felt the need to get red uniforms for their troops. Mr O’Byrne believed he could get the material together. He accepted the challenge, hired scores of folk for the task and worked miracles. The result: 40,000 outfits were eventually supplied and Cromwell paid up. Mr O’Byrne flourished thereafter as a great man of business and a landowner. He died in 1684, still firm in his Catholic believes. The gentleman’s standing was so great he even managed to procure a baronetcy for his son. Mr Bunbury’s book contains many such surprising stories. It is a real page turner and deserves high accolades. – Reviewed by Peter Conole

THE KING OF SWINGERS

BY TOM GILMORE / O’BRIEN PRESS

Paddy Cole is ‘The King of the Swingers’ to most music fans back in Ireland. He is an icon from the showband era having played in bands such as Butch Moore and The Capitol, and as bandleader for Brendan Bowyer the Big 8 in Las Vegas, where he even entertained alongside Elvis. These days, back in Ireland Paddy is a noted Jazz player who has always been top of the bill at the Cork Jazz Festival and many other similar events.

In the 60’s, (yes, I’m that old) with my good pal, Tony St Ledger, whose brother Chris was a founding member of the Victors Showband in Cork, we saw many great showbands bands play in and around the city. I see Art Supple, a lead singer of the Victors, is still knocking out a song around Ireland. The Arcadia in the city, Majorca in Crosshaven, Redbarn near Youghal were the places to see the great showbands. Tom Gilmore’s book brought back fond memories for me of those halcyon days. I know of many of my friends in Perth who met

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their future wives in the dancehalls of the UK where many showbands including Butch Moore and The Capital with Paddy Cole played their dance music. Interestingly, Pat McGuigan (McGeegan) was also a lead singer for the Victors (1964-1966) and his son Barry went on to be a world boxing champion. Pat McGuigan (who died 1987) sang “Danny Boy” before several of his son’s fights. But back to Paddy, who is something of a secret star in Australia and New Zealand as he never played here, even though he and the showbands have many fans in both countries. I have a copy of Paddy’s ‘Celtic Rendezvous’ in my collection. So, it was with great delight that I received a copy of the book from my good friend Tom Gilmore, and found the book does more than just lift the lid on Paddy’s own showbiz exploits at home and abroad. It also reflects an ever-changing Ireland, and indeed an ever-changing world, culturally, socially, musically, economically, and religiously. For me, being away for near 50 years was an eye-opener. The book is appropriately titled ‘The King of the Swingers’ as that is the tune that is best identified with his Jazz style of music interspersed with showband sounds and Irish Trad tunes. In this book Paddy reveals secrets of his international escapades from “sleeping like a spoon” in an old van in Scotland to playing for Elvis, and going on stage after Go Go Girls, in Las Vegas! Paddy, who seems forever young, has been entertaining audiences since he was only 12 years old. The book has been a best seller for O’Brien Press in Ireland and can also be got by fans of the showband era in Ireland who are now living in Australia and New Zealand. As John McColgan of ‘Riverdance’ fame writes in his foreword in this new book, “Paddy has had a stellar career. His exceptional musical talent across all genres has entertained generations nationally and internationally”. From a world that was at war when he was born in 1939, to a world that is still at war with Covid-19, Paddy (81) tells tales of seeing an ever- changing Ireland, and world, through the eyes of an entertainer. He has even written a poem in this book, about the times that people in Ireland have been living in, appropriately titled “Strange Times”. The tales he tells reflect the social history of Ireland, and the Irish at home and abroad; from the hungry years of emigration of the 50s and 60s to the dramatic highs and dreadful lows of recent decades. His stories, as told to writer Tom Gilmore, a regular visitor to Western Australia, are full of sincerity, laced with the good humour for which this bubbly star of stage, radio and TV is famous for. From playing at the London Palladium, performing to a TV audience of over 30 million, to entertaining Elvis in Las Vegas, or doing TV shows in Dubai, or playing the Jazz clubs of New Orleans this virtuosic saxophonist, clarinettist, tin whistle player, and “sometimes a singer!”, is humble and humorous about it all. But when Bob Geldof makes disparaging remarks about the showband scene that spawned entertainers like Paddy, he retorts with a stinging response, “Geldof probably never even saw a showband play at a live venue.” Like myself, Butch Moore, as well as another icon, Joe Dolan, was a compositor by trade in the printing industry and it is said that Butch continued to pay his union dues (just in case the music didn’t work out). For Butch and Paddy Cole it sure did work out and they went on to bring so much enjoyment many in the USA, Ireland and in the UK for many years. Sadly, Butch passed away in 2001 and my old pal Tony St Leger in 1979. RIP. Nowadays, Paddy lives in Dublin and presents a popular Sunday morning show on Sunshine Radio which has listeners all over the world. To his loyal listeners in Cabinteely or Cabra, his native Castleblayney, and as far as Canberra, Casablanca and California, Paddy Cole is still something of a secret Irish international star, as revealed in this book published by O’Brien Press now available on line at www.obrien.ie, amazon.com and eason.ie or by phone from O’Brien Press at 00353 1-14923333. This is a great read and I have no problem recommending this to readers. – Reviewed by Fred Rea

Paddy Cole with author Tom Gilmore at Lahinch Golf Club in Co. Clare where they put the finishing touches to ‘The King of the Swingers’ book after Ireland emerged from Covid-19 Lockdown.