ScienceSpin Online Store

Bewley's, 2004 Edition - Paperback

This is the story of the legendary Dublin coffee house, Bewley's and its many colourful patrons down through the decades. This book tells the story of the Bewley family, how their Grafton Street coffee house came into existence, and characters such as the boxer Jack Doyle, the poet Patrick Kavanagh, and the Sinn Féin revolutionary Arthur Griffith that enjoyed its atmosphere. Bewley's survived the 1916 Easter Rising, the War of Independence and The Emergency years during WWII and lived to tell the tale. That tale is told here with wit and flair by author Hugh Oram.

Cold waters, emerald seas

The relatively cool waters, like those off the Irish coast, are much richer in life than most of us realise. There is an amazing diversity of life and since 1980 John Collins has been capturing this life, not just off Ireland, but in temperate seas around the world with his camera. With more than 140 great photographs, this book is a real eye opener, revealing the full beauty of sea creatures in their natural environment.
Price €34.40 hardback, post and packing included.

Colour: What we see and the science behind sight

This very well-researched book describing various aspects of the 'science of colour' by Tom Kennedy, with contributions from Margaret Franklin, Ian Elliott, Sue McGrath and others is the first volume in the Science Spin Discovery Series.

The aim is to explain what we humans see in the visible world all around us, and the science behind science, in a lively, informative, and occasionally entertaining fashion. The colour illustrations and the writing here are top class, with interesting stories from contemporary life, and from history, that enliven the subject of colour for readers.

This is a wide-ranging account, everything from the science behind paints and dyes, to a description of why the sky is blue, to colour television and lasers is covered here. Anyone that is curious about the natural world around them, and how it works, should read this book.

-Sean Duke

Irish Mammals

Irish Mammals
Juanita Browne
All of Ireland's mammals, on and offshore, on land, and even in the air, are described in this handsome book. The author, Juanita Browne is a zoologist and one time editor of Wild Ireland. In this book she explains how and where all these mammals live, and her accounts are backed up with drawings and a great selection of photographs.
For a review of this book, see our book review section.
Irish Mammals
Juanita Browne, Browne Books. 192 pp hardback.
€28.75 post and packing included.

Rock around Ireland: A guide to Irish geology - Hardback

In this colourful book, Peadar McArdle, Director of the Irish Geological Survey, explains how all the rocks we see around us came to be there. Words and photographs help us to explore and understand Ireland's varied landscape. From granite hills we cross a limestone plain to the western coast and some very ancient rocks. From the black columnar basalt in the north, Peadar brings us south to red sandstones, formed when Munster was at the edge of a desert. There is a wealth of information here for everyone with an interest in rocks and the Irish landscape.

Rock around Ireland: A guide to Irish geology - Paperback

St Vincent's Hospital Fairview: An illustrated history 1857-2007 - Hardback

An illustrated history detailing now the hospital, started with money handed over to an informer, provided a safe haven for thmentally ill over the course of 150 years. As the author, Aidan Collins, who works as a doctor in the hospital, explains, Vincents not just shaped the way nurses are trained, but even had an influence on James Joyce. Many of the original features remaining in the area are described in his unusual book.

St Vincent's Hospital, Fairview: An illustrated history 1857-2007 - Paperback

An illustrated history detailing now the hospital, started with money handed over to an informer, provided a safe haven for the mentally ill over the course of 150 years. As the author, Aidan Collins, who works as a doctor in the hospital, explains, Vincents not just shaped the way nurses are trained, but even had an influence on James Joyce. Many of the original features remaining in the area are described in his unusual book.

The Exemption - Hardback

In the Old Jewish Quarter of Budapest, in Café Spinoza, a woman sits at her regular table by the window. She watches the tourists filing past, but from a distance of sixty years, still hears the sound of German soldiers marching. If not for a curious grace this would have been her round to Auschwitz.

The Exemption is the story of Vera Hajnal, of her courage during a wartime adolescence, "when bombs gave you more of a chance than people" and of her passion and perseverance as the country is rebuilt in the wake of devastation. Great hope and sacrifice soon turn to disillusionment on seeing how the ideals of a just society are gradually, but steadily, betrayed.

A private chronicle unfolds, recounted with sparkling humour and perception, of student days, family life and a professional career, punctuated by the occasional family recipe, police raid or prison visit. In the changing political climate, the borders open and a new Irish dimension develops with the arrival of a son-in-law from Dublin.

An inveterate story teller, our author Vera takes us on a journey from the Danube to the Liffey that brings us through the realms where History meets the every day, where hilarity and pain collide to produce an intoxicating cocktail of the absurd. Above all, it is about the thrill of staying alive.

The Hook Peninsula

The Hook Peninsula
Billy Cofer
The Hook Peninsula is within sight of Waterford, yet it is a self contained area, isolated because it is on the way to no where else, yet, as Billy Cofer describes, there is a lot to be found on this fifteen kilometre long triangle of land. The author, who grew up on The Hook, gives the background to just about every feature visitors will encounter in the area, such as the curious hollows along the shore, made, we are told, when rising tides were harnessed to help cut millstones from the sandstone rock.
For the full review, see our section on book reviews.
The Hook Peninsula
Billy Cofer. Cork University Press
€46 post and packing included.

Wexford - A Town and its Landscape

Wexford, a town and its landscape
Billy Colfer
Detailing the origins and the growth of one of Ireland's most interesting sea port towns. The author describes how the region already had a long history of settlement before the Vikings gave the town its name. Beautifully produced, with hundreds of illustrations, the book provides an in depth history of development over the centuries. Billy Colfer, is also the author of a companion volume, The Hook Peninsula.
Published by Cork University Press.
Price, including post and packing, €56.40, hardback.

Castlebar, Co. Mayo at end of 19th Century

Castlebar, Co Mayo at end of 19th century. This read into Castlebar became known as Staball following the retreat of English forces before the French advancing from Killala. Locals are said to have cheered on the attackers with cries of "stab them all." One of the photographs from the Wynne collection. For more prints from this collection www.iol.ie/~source.foxford/ <http://www.iol.ie/~source.foxford/>
Buy now €40 post and packing included.

Galway Bay Hooker

Galway Bay Hooker sailing out of Kilronan, Aran Islands. Photograph by Leo Daly from Source Phographic Archives. Fine photographic print ready for framing. 12 by 18 inches (350 x 454 mm) including white border to facilitate framing. Allow apx one week for processing and dispatch. For more prints www.iol.ie/~source.foxford/ <http://www.iol.ie/~source.foxford/>

Annual Subscription - Europe

Subscibe now for just €25 and get the next 6 issues. Price includes VAT, postage and packing. This price applies only for addresses within Europe excluding Ireland and the UK.

Annual Subscription - Ireland

Subscibe now for just €18 and get the next 6 issues. Price includes VAT, postage and packing. This price applies only for addresses within Ireland.

Annual Subscription - Ireland (Bulk Education)

Bulk education, 50% discount,10 copies of each issue, €90 Ireland only.