Book Review

Four Short Stories is Tom Jobling’s latest book. In it, he has moved a little way from his usual nautical fiction but still delivers a character-driven book of cringe-worthy humour balanced by tales perhaps too close to be comfortable. From…

County Fermanagh in the west of Northern Ireland is home to a myriad of loughs and lakes, the largest of which is the well-known Upper and Lower Lough Erne, but one you don’t hear much about is Lough Head near…

Red Stripe Press has published Ireland’s Guiding Lights: Celebrating Our Lighthouses by Dennis Horgan, Gerald Butler and Tim McCarthy, a book full of aerial photography and rich stories from one of Ireland’s most celebrated lighthouse historians. Ireland has a rich…

The rich history of the river Corrib is explored in a new guide by Galway author and historian William Henry. The Corrib is among Europe’s shortest rivers, at only six kilometres from the lake to the Atlantic, but has Ireland’s…

Cormac Lowth of Dublin is a one-man Irish maritime history institute, the first and last port of call for anyone seeking the facts about some aspect of our seagoing history, whether it's obscure or supposedly well-known. Quite how he carries…

Flares Up: A Story Bigger than the Atlantic - New Book Reveals Drama of Transatlantic Rowing Adventure
1st October 2022 Wavelength Podcast
English firefighter Paul Hopkins (55) had recovered from a brain haemorrhage and entrepreneur Phil Pugh (65) was renowned for undertaking extreme physical challenges in honour of his son when they rowed into Antigua in a fourth-hand wooden rowing boat in…

Atlantic-Crossing Book “Long Lost Log” Is A Fascinating Story Within Many Stories
30th June 2022 Book Review
When Michael Chapman Pincher arrived into Howth Yacht Club yesterday for the launch of his sometimes raunchy book The Lost Log, there was a slight shadow clouding his normally sunny visage. The book is about how in 1974 he lost…

‘A Surreal Dance Across the Swell’: An Air Corps Dauphin’s First Night Rescue Off Donegal
19th June 2022 Book Review
In the third instalment of our three-part series of extracts from Lorna Siggins’ new book, Search and Rescue, the journalist and regular Afloat.ie contributor hears from Commandant Jurgen Whyte about his and his crew’s extraordinary efforts to aid the stricken…

‘I Knew I Could Not Sail Back, So I Had to Make a Decision’: Kerry Windsurfer Tells of His Fight for Survival
12th June 2022 Book Review
In the second of three extracts from Lorna Siggins’ new book, Search and Rescue, the journalist and regular Afloat.ie contributor revisits the fateful day in November 2018 when a sudden wind drop left windsurfer Lorenzo Cubeddu cast adrift off Ballybunion in…

‘It Was Horrible to Be Out There’: Galway Cousins Share the Story of Their Harrowing Paddle Board Ordeal
5th June 2022 Book Review
In the first of three extracts from Lorna Siggins’ new book, Search and Rescue, the journalist and regular Afloat.ie contributor recounts the harrowing ordeal of two Galway cousins, Sara Feeney and Ellen Glynn, who were reported missing on 12 August…

New Book on True Stories of Irish Air–Sea Rescues and the Loss of R116 is Published
15th May 2022 Book Review
On 13 March 2017, the Rescue 116 crew of Capt. Dara Fitzpatrick, Capt. Mark Duffy, Paul Ormsby and Ciarán Smith took off from Dublin airport just after 11 p.m. for a medical evacuation off the west coast of Ireland. The…

New Book Brings ‘Long-Lost Treasure’ of Irish Angling to New Generations Around the World
2nd March 2022 Angling
Traditional Irish salmon flies, commissioned 120 years ago for the Cork International Exhibition in 1902, are set to feature in a new historical picture book to mark World Book Day on Thursday 3 March. Fly tying involves the ‘dressing’ of…

Catherine Merrigan & Living Among the Puffins on Skellig Michael
10th December 2021 Wavelength Podcast
Living on a small island in a cabin with no electricity or running water for five months of the year may not be for everyone, but Skellig Michael's Catherine Merrigan wouldn’t miss a season since she began working as a…

Murder, Mutiny & The Muglins: New Book on a Thrilling 1765 Dublin Bay Saga
5th December 2021 Dublin Bay
Mysterious maritime events that happened on Dublin Bay exactly 256 years ago are recounted for the first time in a new book about an extraordinary seafarer, Captain George Glass and his brave wife. The saga involves piracy, mutiny, and murder…

The Coastal Atlas of Ireland has won the “Best Irish Published Book” in this year’s An Post book awards. The award sponsored by TheJournal.ie aims to reward the excellence of native publishing. Submitted titles must come from an Irish-based publishing…

RMS Carpathia’s Role in Rescuing 705 Titanic Survivors Told by Belfast Author Flora Delargy
17th September 2021 Wavelength Podcast
Harold Cottam was a 21-year old radio operator who was on duty on the night of April 14th, 1912 on board passenger ship RMS Carpathia when he received a Morse code message he would never forget. Nor would the world,…