Paul O'Leary – författare

In this work, Paul O'Leary examines the causes of emigration and seeks to understand the experience of Irish immigrants in Wales. Initially, there was little evidence of Celtic solidarity and the Irish often met with violent hostility from the Welsh. Nevertheless, by the late 19th century the tortuous process of integration was well under way and appeared to be relatively trouble free in comparison with the Irish experience in many other parts of Britain. The author considers key aspects of immigrant life in depth: pre-famine immigration; the role of the Irish in the labour force; criminality and drink; the establishment of community institutions ranging from Catholic churches and schools to pubs and bookshops, from friendly societies to political organizations; the mobilization of support for Irish nationalist organizations; and Irish participation in the labour movement. In each case the author links the distinctive experiences of the Irish to developments in Welsh society.

In this work, Paul O'Leary examines the causes of emigration and seeks to understand the experience of Irish immigrants in Wales. Initially, there was little evidence of Celtic solidarity and the Irish often met with violent hostility from the Welsh. Nevertheless, by the late 19th century the tortuous process of integration was well under way and appeared to be relatively trouble free in comparison with the Irish experience in many other parts of Britain. The author considers key aspects of immigrant life in depth: pre-famine immigration; the role of the Irish in the labour force; criminality and drink; the establishment of community institutions ranging from Catholic churches and schools to pubs and bookshops, from friendly societies to political organizations; the mobilization of support for Irish nationalist organizations; and Irish participation in the labour movement. In each case the author links the distinctive experiences of the Irish to developments in Welsh society.

The majority of historians have viewed Lloyd George's early career to 1896 as superficial and merely the precursor to his successes at Westminster. Emyr Price provides an altogether different view. Based on original research he asserts that Lloyd George had a very strong commitment to Home Rule (and was the first modern Welsh nationalist), official status for the Welsh language and strong labour legislation and that he campaigned fearlessly against the tide (especially within his own party) to being these measures about. His decision to become a careerist politician after 1896 was the only way he could further the cause of Welsh 'national movement'. Price also investigates Lloyd George's 'Welsh' perception of the major issues that dominated his period of power at Westminster (1908-1922) including Ireland and how these Welsh and Celtic values determined his actions.

Street processions were a defining feature of life in the Victorian town, and this book examines how those events created new civic identities in the growing towns of nineteenth-century south Wales.

The Kneeling Light is a story of transition, wilderness, and the strange ways a life reshapes itself when you step beyond the familiar. Set in the summer of 1987,it follows a young veteran who leaves the Navy and walks straight into the high country of Colorado: a place where faith, labor, solitude, and the raw presence of nature converge. What begins as a simple summer job becomes a sequence of initiations: clearing out a barn full of forgotten tools, gently evicting colonies of bats, teaching Scripture to teenagers, guiding hikers up a mountain, and finally venturing alone into the wilderness for three days that change everything. The work is humble, the tasks ordinary, yet each one opens a door inward. The mountains become a mirror. The quiet becomes a teacher. The fall literal and symbolic becomes a turning point. This book is a good read, not because it is dramatic, but because it is true. It captures the way transformation often arrives: through small acts of service, unexpected beauty, and moments of danger that strip us down to what matters. It is a memoir of faith without preaching, adventure without bravado, and reflection without sentimentality. It invites the reader to walk beside the author, to feel the altitude, the solitude, the humor, the ache, and the grace that threads through every page. At its heart, The Kneeling Light is about learning to listen: to the land, to the body, to the spirit, and to the quiet voice that rises when everything else falls away.

My Aumakua is a poetic, mythic memoir of a man carried into the ocean and into himself. In these long, tidal stanzas, Paul OLaoghaire recounts a true encounter with the creatures of the deep-dolphins, manta rays, tuna, humpbacks, and the shark who marks him and transforms him. What begins as a swim becomes a ceremony. What begins as danger becomes initiation. Told with calm clarity and reverence, this work moves through immersion, rupture, rescue, and return, revealing a worldview shaped by kinship with the sea and the ancestral presence that rises from it. The poem honors Hawaiian cosmology without claiming it, instead offering a lived moment of connection where the boundary between human and ocean dissolves. My Aumakua is both testimony and chant a story of being seen, carried, and changed by the living ocean.

A stunningly photographed guide to designing and styling the most used and important room in the home. Showcasing the philosophy and fundamentals of deVOL's iconic values, design principles and now widely recognised kitchen styling, this book is for anyone who values great design and beautiful styling and craftsmanship, for those looking for inspiration for their own kitchen project and everyone who has discovered deVOL's For The Love of Kitchens TV series.From total rebuilds to a more modest sink and cupboard upgrade, it will inspire you to design and style the space available to create a unique and stylish kitchen whatever your budget. Encouraging you to throw out the conventional rule book, draw your own plans and incorporate fitted and existing free-standing furniture and found objects to create a beautiful unique room that is perfect for your needs. With inspiration on how reorganise or elevate a current kitchen using colour, a single brass fitting, a decorated cupboard, a new light or piece of furniture to effortlessly style up for glamour or down for simplicity.Written by deVOL founder Paul O'Leary, inspirational Creative Director, Helen Parker and Robin McLellan and illustrated throughout with stunning photography of many of the unique kitchens and furniture deVOL have designed and made over the last 34 years, including The Real Shaker, The Classic English, The Sebastian Cox and the Haberdasher's Kitchens. Accompanied by the stories of the woodwork, ceramic and metal designers and makers and a styling and decorating guide by Helen Parker, deVOL's inspirational Creative Director.

A stunningly photographed guide to designing and styling the most used and important room in the home. Showcasing the philosophy and fundamentals of deVOL's iconic values, design principles and now widely recognised kitchen styling, this book is for anyone who values great design and beautiful styling and craftsmanship, for those looking for inspiration for their own kitchen project and everyone who has discovered deVOL's For The Love of Kitchens TV series.From total rebuilds to a more modest sink and cupboard upgrade, it will inspire you to design and style the space available to create a unique and stylish kitchen whatever your budget. Encouraging you to throw out the conventional rule book, draw your own plans and incorporate fitted and existing free-standing furniture and found objects to create a beautiful unique room that is perfect for your needs. With inspiration on how reorganise or elevate a current kitchen using colour, a single brass fitting, a decorated cupboard, a new light or piece of furniture to effortlessly style up for glamour or down for simplicity.Written by deVOL founder Paul O'Leary, inspirational Creative Director, Helen Parker and Robin McLellan and illustrated throughout with stunning photography of many of the unique kitchens and furniture deVOL have designed and made over the last 34 years, including The Real Shaker, The Classic English, The Sebastian Cox and the Haberdasher's Kitchens. Accompanied by the stories of the woodwork, ceramic and metal designers and makers and a styling and decorating guide by Helen Parker, deVOL's inspirational Creative Director.

Street processions were a defining feature of life in the Victorian town, and this book examines how those events created new civic identities in the growing towns of nineteenth-century south Wales.

Street processions were a defining feature of life in the Victorian town. They were diverse in character and took place regularly throughout the year in all towns. They provided opportunities for men and women to display themselves in public, carrying banners and flags and accompanied by musical bands. Much of the history of nineteenth-century Wales has been written around political demonstrations and revolt, but this book examines how urban communities in Victorian Wales created inclusive civic identities by using the streets for peaceful processions.

This innovative collection offers a reappraisal of gender as a category of analysis in modern Welsh history. Beginning with sex work in the eighteenth century and concluding with women’s late twentieth-century anti-nuclear activism, the contributors show how gender has been constructed, represented, performed and experienced by men and women at different times and places throughout Wales’s modern past. Using a variety of approaches, the collection interrogates gender as a concept that encompasses both femininity and masculinity, provides fresh perspectives on familiar themes, and demonstrates the value of gender analysis for our understanding of the political, social, cultural and economic history of modern Wales. Chapters by leading historians and early career academics each set an agenda for exploring the intersection of gender with nationality, race, class, age and sexuality.

This innovative collection offers a reappraisal of gender as a category of analysis in modern Welsh history. Beginning with sex work in the eighteenth century and concluding with women’s late twentieth-century anti-nuclear activism, the contributors show how gender has been constructed, represented, performed and experienced by men and women at different times and places throughout Wales’s modern past. Using a variety of approaches, the collection interrogates gender as a concept that encompasses both femininity and masculinity, provides fresh perspectives on familiar themes, and demonstrates the value of gender analysis for our understanding of the political, social, cultural and economic history of modern Wales. Chapters by leading historians and early career academics each set an agenda for exploring the intersection of gender with nationality, race, class, age and sexuality.

This innovative collection offers a reappraisal of gender as a category of analysis in modern Welsh history. Beginning with sex work in the eighteenth century and concluding with women’s late twentieth-century anti-nuclear activism, the contributors show how gender has been constructed, represented, performed and experienced by men and women at different times and places throughout Wales’s modern past. Using a variety of approaches, the collection interrogates gender as a concept that encompasses both femininity and masculinity, provides fresh perspectives on familiar themes, and demonstrates the value of gender analysis for our understanding of the political, social, cultural and economic history of modern Wales. Chapters by leading historians and early career academics each set an agenda for exploring the intersection of gender with nationality, race, class, age and sexuality.

The majority of historians have viewed Lloyd George's early career to 1896 as superficial and merely the precursor to his successes at Westminster. Emyr Price provides an altogether different view. Based on original research he asserts that Lloyd George had a very strong commitment to Home Rule (and was the first modern Welsh nationalist), official status for the Welsh language and strong labour legislation and that he campaigned fearlessly against the tide (especially within his own party) to being these measures about. His decision to become a careerist politician after 1896 was the only way he could further the cause of Welsh 'national movement'. Price also investigates Lloyd George's 'Welsh' perception of the major issues that dominated his period of power at Westminster (1908-1922) including Ireland and how these Welsh and Celtic values determined his actions.