There were very few blue shirts worn at the launch of Dr Mike Cronin's academic tome, Blueshirts And Irish Politics, yet there was little doubt which presidential candidate most attendants were backing. Senator Maurice Manning praised the work of the Sheffield-based writer, whose work drew from the Senator's own book written on the subject 26 years ago. Senator Manning is making his first foray into fiction with Betrayal, due to be published next month, while also working on a biography of former Fine Gael leader James Dillon.
Barristers and rising academics dominated the gathering in the trendy rooms of Four Courts Press at Fumbally Lane, These included junior counsel Frank Callanan, who has the pleasure of having Vincent Browne devilling for him, and who is currently writing on Parnell in the works of Joyce and Yeats. Thomas F. O'Higgins, former Chief Justice and Justice of the European Court in Luxembourg, not to mention Fine Gael presidential candidate 31 years ago, also came along. Cardiologist Risteard Mulcahy was there, enthusing about writing he is doing on the rich political backgrounds of his mother and his father, General Richard Mulcahy. The young academics present - all working in the domain of modern Irish history - included John Regan, research fellow at Oxford, and Ann Dolan from the University of Cambridge and Pauric Dempsey, who together are working on the Dictionary Of Irish Biography. Mike Cronin is now working on another book, Sport And Nationalism In Ireland.