UCD Library Collection Spotlight: Nollaig Shona - Chrismas 2015

Constance Keating has lived a life of exile alienated from her family and from Ireland. Now she has returned home to die. While that process takes place she replays the fragments of her past. And, as the Christmas tree awaits its day, so she also waits, hoping that the outcome will be on her terms.

This book of poems by an Irish poet forms a beautiful vision of Christmas Day.

Also available in our Pamphlets collection.
Contains 20 Christmas poems.

Historical Fiction, First World War, Ireland, Animals at War. December 24th 1914 and all along the western front soldiers are settling down for a night of disturbed sleep, foraging rats, and the evil attentions of enemy snipers. Suddenly from across No Mans Land comes the sound of singing. not sure at first what is happening the troops look at each other in disbelief and then slowly, slowly, they join in - Jim O Hallorans latest novel is set in the trenches of World War One and it tells the story of Irish soldiers in British uniforms, fighting Germans, to win Home Rule for Ireland. Their various motivations and reasons for being at war are exposed as they meet for the first and only time with the enemy. Young men just like themselves with wives, sweethearts, dreams and secrets, the inhumanity of war is slowly exposed for what it is. The complex issue of the Irish at the front is developed as some of the soldiers return to Ireland after the war, some injured physically, all impacted emotionally and psychologically.

Gathered from twenty-eight centuries, ten languages, and sixty-four authors, here is a uniquely diverse and yet wondrously harmonious collection of voices that have joined in praise for the newborn Savior.Indeed, O Holy Night! is the broadest anthology of Christmas poetry ever collected in English.For years, poet Johann Moser searched through hard-to-find works to unearth forgotten treasures of Nativity poetry. Now he brings together these undeservedly obscure masterpieces with familiar favorites -- so that each can inspire you anew with gratitude for the birth of the Holy Infant.From Virgil to Rilke, from Dante to Pasternak, Moser has found the world's most brilliant works of Christmas literature -- and he has carefully arranged them so that the collection as a whole sings with transcendent beauty, as does each of the individual pieces.These poems will enrich your Christmas celebrations and restore in you a lively sense of the miracle of the Incarnation throughout the year!

What would Christmas be without A Christmas Carol? Charles Dickens's famous ghost story is as much a part of the season as plum pudding and mistletoe.

Recordings taken from Armed Forces Radio Service Christmas Jubilee shows, in 1945 and 1947 accompanied by more 40's Christmas goodies.

The film follows the misadventures of Jack Skellington, Halloweentown's beloved pumpkin king, who has become bored with the same annual routine of frightening people in the "real world." When Jack accidentally stumbles on Christmastown, all bright colors and warm spirits, he gets a new lease on life -- he plots to bring Christmas under his control by kidnapping Santa Claus and taking over the role. But Jack soon discovers even the best-laid plans of mice and skeleton men can go seriously awry.

After George Bailey (James Stewart) wishes he had never been born, an angel (Henry Travers) is sent to earth to make George's wish come true. George starts to realize how many lives he has changed and impacted, and how they would be different if he was never there.

Edited by early music experts Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott, this anthology of Christmas carols is the most comprehensive collection ever made, spanning seven centuries of caroling in Britain, continental Europe, and North America. Containing music and text of 201 carols, many in more than one setting, the book is organized in two sections: composed carols, ranging from medieval Gregorian chants to modern compositions, and folk carols, including not only traditional Anglo-American songs but Irish, Welsh, German, Czech, Polish, French, Basque, Catalan, Sicilian, and West Indian songs as well. Each carol is set in four-part harmony, with lyrics in both the original language and English.