Portfolio
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Books for Organisations
We Were Happy There: A Hundred Years of St Louis High School Rathmines
edited by Ita Daly
When the Sisters of St Louis established a secondary school in Rathmines in 1913, local clergy regarded them as dangerously ‘progressive’ but in reality they were catering for the daughters of the aspiring Catholic middle classes, offering a range of academic subjects, music and art, with an emphasis on ‘deportment’ and accomplishment in ‘all the duties of woman’s sphere’.
We Were Happy There includes contributions from some of those who spent their youth in its classrooms and corridors. Mary Black sang there; Mary Finan couldn’t sing but managed a speaking part in a musical; Angela Bourke sat for years of Latin in front of Miss Ingram; Ita Daly joined a Marxist-Leninist party while a teacher there (the principal took it in her stride).
Ita Daly was born in County Leitrim but has spent most of her life in Dublin. She has published four novels and a collection of short stories. She was both student and teacher in St Louis Rathmines.
A Most Respectable Meeting of Merchants: Dublin Chamber of Commerce, A History
Enda MacMahon
A Most Respectable Meeting of Merchants, as the members described themselves in one of their many official delegations to the British administration, is a history of business, of many interesting individuals, of the city of Dublin and of the wider country.
Enda MacMahon qualified as an architect in UCD and his interests include genealogy, history and architectural history. His first book was a collection of biographies of Dublin Chamber of Commerce presidents (for Dublin Chamber). He lives with his family in Dublin.
A Special Place
Scoil Mhuire Cork
A Special Place is a beautiful, copiously illustrated book with contributions from past pupils, students and staff of Scoil Mhuire Cork senior and junior schools. It chronicles the school’s eventful journey from its foundation by Kathleen Cahill and Mary O’Donovan in 1951, to its current position as one of Ireland’s leading centres of secondary education for girls.
The book is made all the more personal and poignant by the fact that founder and trustee Mary O’Donovan oversaw its publication in her final years. She died in 2022.
New Horizons: The Sisters of St Louis in a Changing World
Jo O’Donoghue
New Horizons is the story of the Sisters of St Louis from 1947, when the institute established its first mission in Kumasi, Ghana. Drawing on historical and archive material and interviews with sisters from many countries, the book recounts achievements, challenges and changes of all kinds as well as the personal stories of religious, many of whom entered a teaching order but found themselves in apostolates of infinite variety, sometimes in far-flung locations. It is the story of a group of women with great heart and courage who drew renewed inspiration for living in a changing world from the vision of their founders and the fruits of their own ministries.
50 years of Guaranteed Irish
Lessons from the Past for a Sustainable Future
Enda MacMahon
Organisations to promote Irish manufacture and associated Buy Irish campaigns existed from the end of the 19th century but it was not until 1974 that the Guaranteed Irish scheme with its iconic symbol was inaugurated under the aegis of the Irish Goods Council. In 2024 Guaranteed Irish celebrates its 50th birthday. The company now has over two-and-a-half thousand members – businesses based in Ireland, licensed to use the trusted Guaranteed Irish symbol after appraisal by a specialist committee. The symbol to which member companies now subscribe and contribute in proportion to their employee numbers is a guarantee of their commitment to jobs, community, provenance and sustainability, open both to multinational companies based in Ireland and indigenous businesses. A professional team administers and promotes the brand for the benefit of its member companies through strategic partnerships specialising in PR, marketing, sustainability and networking.
In Lessons from the Past for a Sustainable Future: 50 Years of Guaranteed Irish Enda MacMahon provides a fascinating account of the background and history of the organisation, from its beginnings as a government-sponsored agency in 1974 to its reinvention in 1984 as a not-for-profit member-funded company, Guaranteed Irish Ltd, and the fifty years of its development and progress since 1974. Few such brands, even international, enjoy such longevity and adaptability.
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Books for Individuals
My Dinner with Peter Ustinov
Paddy McEvoy
Peter Ustinov (1921-2004) was one of the most versatile entertainers of the 20th century: a gifted raconteur, actor, playwright, and director. Paddy McEvoy once spent a hilarious afternoon with Ustinov and a small group of friends. That dinner is the starting point for a character study that follows Ustinov on a path towards self-actualization, not only as an entertainer but as a committed humanitarian, especially as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.
Paddy McEvoy was born in Dublin and educated in Belvedere College SJ, UCD and The Harvard Business School, where he was awarded an MBA. In 1973 he established the Irish Intercontinental Bank (later IIB Bank) which he led until his retirement as CEO in 1995. Paddy lives in Dublin with his wife Keyna; they have two sons and five grandchildren.
The Stones Still Speak: The Patriot Graves of Killarney’s New Cemetery
Tim Horgan
The Stones Still Speak is an account of the lives and deaths of those who died in the War of Independence 1919-21 and the Civil War of 1922-3 and who are buried in Killarney’s New Cemetery. They include the four men – Jer Donoghue, Stephen Buckley, Daniel Donoghue and Tim Murphy – killed by Free State Forces at the Countess Bridge in Killarney in March 2023, the centenary of whose death was recently commemorated. Tim Horgan’s book is a tribute to those who died and an expression of his determination that their sacrifice should not be forgotten.
Tim Horgan is a consultant ophthalmic surgeon in Kerry University Hospital and lives with his family outside Tralee.