Anne Chambers (1)
Auteur van Granuaile
Voor andere auteurs genaamd Anne Chambers, zie de verduidelijkingspagina.
Over de Auteur
Anne Chambers is a best-selling biographer.
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Algemene kennis
- Geboortedatum
- 20th century
- Geslacht
- female
- Nationaliteit
- Ireland
- Woonplaatsen
- Dublin, Ireland
- Opleiding
- National University of Ireland (MA | History)
- Beroepen
- banking executive
biographer
author - Organisaties
- Irish Writers Union
Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild
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Ireland's Pirate Queen: The True Story of Grace… door Anne Chambers
Interesting reading, although information regarding this interesting historical figure appears to be difficult to find.
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3612554.html
I cannot say that I knew Ken Whitaker well, but he and my grandfather were close colleagues and he was an occasional presence at extended family parties in Dublin from my childhood. The last time I spoke to him, I cannot remember when, but he was already very old, he told me that in the late 1930s he had shared an office with my grandfather, who at the time was dating my future grandmother, also a civil servant. “He spoke to her on the phone in German so that I wouldn’t understand - but he didn’t realise that I spoke German too!”
Anne Chambers, the author of this book, did know Whitaker well; I’ve read a couple of her other biographies, of Eleanor, Countess of Desmond and the pirate queen Granuaile, who both lived in the sixteenth century. This is much better than the other two, based on primary documentation and conversations with the subject and others who knew him.
A study of any senior official in the new Irish government as it underwent the generational shift in the decades after independence would be interesting enough. But of course Whitaker was much more important to Irish history than as a mere senior administrator. Three years into his tenure at the top of the Department of Finance, the government published what in the UK would be called a White Paper, with Whitaker's name on it, with the title "Economic Development", making a powerful case for the Irish state to raise its game in terms of public spending and fiscal planning, and encouraging foreign investment. The adoption of the plan gave Ireland a much needed boost, not just of wealth but of confidence, after almost four decades of what we would now call austerity. For once, Ireland was doing economics, rather than having economics done to it.
Chambers is very good on the detail of how Whitaker's career progressed, and how he managed to acquire the necessary political capital to successfully get major policy initiatives through a very conservative system. It's no big mystery; he just happened to possess a powerful combination of colossal intelligence combined with immense personal charm and modesty. (These are not of course assets that everyone has, even senior civil servants.) The book is disappointing though on Whitaker's intellectual journey. As a recruit direct from high school, he had had no third-level education when he became a civil servant and invested much time in distant learning through the University of London. It would have been really interesting to know what Whitaker actually learned, and to trace the roots of his economic theory, especially since it turned out to be so successful in practice.
The personal glimpses are very interesting. Whitaker was born in Rostrevor, though moved to Drogheda in the 1920s. His Northern links remained very strong, and he personally brokered the first Lemass / O'Neill meeting in 1965. He continued to send sensible advice on Northern Ireland to successive Irish governments until the end of the century. I cannot think of another person operating at that level of politics in the Republic who genuinely took the same level of interest in Northern Ireland over a period of decades. I cannot think of any equivalent level of long-term engagement with and commitment to Northern Ireland from any senior English, Scottish or Welsh political figure at all.
I can't say that this book would have huge interest outside Ireland, but it's very interesting for anyone wanting to understand the trajectory of the Irish state in the third quarter of the twentieth century.… (meer)
I cannot say that I knew Ken Whitaker well, but he and my grandfather were close colleagues and he was an occasional presence at extended family parties in Dublin from my childhood. The last time I spoke to him, I cannot remember when, but he was already very old, he told me that in the late 1930s he had shared an office with my grandfather, who at the time was dating my future grandmother, also a civil servant. “He spoke to her on the phone in German so that I wouldn’t understand - but he didn’t realise that I spoke German too!”
Anne Chambers, the author of this book, did know Whitaker well; I’ve read a couple of her other biographies, of Eleanor, Countess of Desmond and the pirate queen Granuaile, who both lived in the sixteenth century. This is much better than the other two, based on primary documentation and conversations with the subject and others who knew him.
A study of any senior official in the new Irish government as it underwent the generational shift in the decades after independence would be interesting enough. But of course Whitaker was much more important to Irish history than as a mere senior administrator. Three years into his tenure at the top of the Department of Finance, the government published what in the UK would be called a White Paper, with Whitaker's name on it, with the title "Economic Development", making a powerful case for the Irish state to raise its game in terms of public spending and fiscal planning, and encouraging foreign investment. The adoption of the plan gave Ireland a much needed boost, not just of wealth but of confidence, after almost four decades of what we would now call austerity. For once, Ireland was doing economics, rather than having economics done to it.
Chambers is very good on the detail of how Whitaker's career progressed, and how he managed to acquire the necessary political capital to successfully get major policy initiatives through a very conservative system. It's no big mystery; he just happened to possess a powerful combination of colossal intelligence combined with immense personal charm and modesty. (These are not of course assets that everyone has, even senior civil servants.) The book is disappointing though on Whitaker's intellectual journey. As a recruit direct from high school, he had had no third-level education when he became a civil servant and invested much time in distant learning through the University of London. It would have been really interesting to know what Whitaker actually learned, and to trace the roots of his economic theory, especially since it turned out to be so successful in practice.
The personal glimpses are very interesting. Whitaker was born in Rostrevor, though moved to Drogheda in the 1920s. His Northern links remained very strong, and he personally brokered the first Lemass / O'Neill meeting in 1965. He continued to send sensible advice on Northern Ireland to successive Irish governments until the end of the century. I cannot think of another person operating at that level of politics in the Republic who genuinely took the same level of interest in Northern Ireland over a period of decades. I cannot think of any equivalent level of long-term engagement with and commitment to Northern Ireland from any senior English, Scottish or Welsh political figure at all.
I can't say that this book would have huge interest outside Ireland, but it's very interesting for anyone wanting to understand the trajectory of the Irish state in the third quarter of the twentieth century.… (meer)
A well compiled, (roughly) chronological telling of the life of the Irish 'queen of the pirates' Gráinne Mhaol. Expertly researched and drawing from a library of reference material, the book is encyclopaedic and historical, and rarely encounters Chambers' personality. One interesting aspect where it does is in Chambers' statements on the role of women in leadership historically, which ties in well with the historical narrative of Mhaol's life. Good reference material.
I had to read this because someone told me it was an early example of historical fiction and the subject matter was of interest to me. Its also a love story! Pretty interesting but made me want to know which characters were real people. I spent a lot of time looking up references.
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