Medieval Ireland is associated in the public imagination with the ruined castles and monasteries that remain prominent in the Irish landscape. Crisis and Survival in Late Medieval Ireland: The English of Louth and their Neighbours, 1330-1450 examines how the society that produced these monuments developed over the course of a turbulent century, focussing particularly on county Louth, situated on the coast north of Dublin and adjacent to the earldom of Ulster. Louth was one of the areas that had been most densely colonised by English settlers in the decades around 1200, and ties with England and loyalty to the English crown remained strong. Its settlers found it possible to maintain close economic and political ties with England in part because of their proximity to the significant trading port of Drogheda, and the residence among them of the archbishop of Armagh, primate of Ireland, also extended their international horizons and contacts.In this volume, Brendan Smith explores the ways in which the English settlers in Louth maintained their English identity in the face of plague and warfare. The Black Death of 1348-9, and recurrent visitations of plague thereafter, reduced their numbers significantly and encouraged the Irish lordships on their borders to challenge their local supremacy. How to counter the threat from the MacMahons, O'Neills, and others, absorbed their energies and resources. It not only involved mounting armed campaigns, taking hostages, and building defences; it also meant intermarrying with these families and entering into numerous solemn, if short-lived, treaties with them. Smith draws on original source material, to present a picture of the English settlers in Louth, and to show how living in the borderlands of the English world coloured every aspect of settler life.

Crisis and Survival in Late Medieval Ireland: The English of Louth and Their Neighbours, 1330-1450

History

Smith, Brendan

Europe

Oxford University Press

The history of English rule in Ireland stretches back to the twelfth century. This book examines the actions of the earliest English settlers in Ireland and asks a number of questions about the society they developed there. Why did these people come to Ireland? How did they interact with the native Irish neighbors? What was the nature of their relationship with England? This was also a time of English expansion in Wales and Scotland, and the book suggests comparisons and contrasts with the Irish experience in this broader setting.

Colonisation and Conquest in Medieval Ireland: The English in Louth, 1170–1330 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series, Series Number 42)

Cambridge University Press

A riveting documentary anthology that examines a deeply disturbing question: Is the United States guilty of war crimes in Iraq? Until recently, the possibility that the United States was responsible for war crimes seemed unthinkable to most Americans. But as previously suppressed information has started to emerge—photographs from Abu Ghraib; accounts of U.S. attacks on Iraqi hospitals, mosques, and residential neighborhoods; secret government reports defending unilateral aggression—Americans have begun an agonizing reappraisal of the Iraq war and the way in which their government has conducted it. Drawing on a wide range of documents—from the protocols of the Geneva Convention to FBI e-mails about prisoners held in Guantánamo Bay to executive-branch papers justifying the circumvention of international law—In the Name of Democracy examines the legality of the Iraq war and the occupation that followed. Included in this powerful investigation are eyewitness accounts, victim testimonials, statements by soldiers turned resisters and whistle-blowers, interviews with intelligence insiders, and contributions by Mark Danner and Seymour Hersh. The result is a controversial, chilling anthology that explores the culpability of officials as well as the responsibilities of ordinary citizens, and for the first time squarely confronts the matter of American impunity.

In the Name of Democracy: American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond

Brecher, Jeremy

Cutler, Jill

Americas

Metropolitan Books

Globalization from Below

World business leaders' greed-as-usual came to a dramatic halt last November when tens of thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Seattle and shut down the 1999 meeting of the World Trade Organization. This powerful but virtually unknown organization was spotlighted through coordinated actions by such diverse constituencies as environmental, labor, and human rights advocates, catching the attention of the world. The New York Times declared its amazement, "The surprisingly large protests point to the emergence of a new and vocal coalition." According to the Times, that movement includes "a wide swath of Main Street America." As fewer people take greater control of the world's wealth, natural resources, and decision-making power, more and more people are feeling enraged at what amounts to the theft of democracy. Working with their neighbors to wrest power back from the multinational corporations, these citizens will find Globalization from Below an invaluable tool, a concise presentation of the reasons and the means to galvanize a winning challenge to the powers that be. This accessible, practical guide lays out a strategy that will reverse the damaging effects of unfettered pursuit of profits: environmental degradation, a widening gap between rich and poor, and a lack of accountability in international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization. Globalization from Below will inspire ordinary citizens and challenge veteran organizers as it delineates a process of forging lasting links with activists around the world to gain economic and environmental security now and in the future. Jeremy Brecher is the author of Strike! Tim Costello is a union activist based in Boston and has co-authored several books with Brecher, including Global Village or Global Pillage. Brendan Smith is a former staff assistant to Representative Bernie Sanders (Independent, Vermont) and is currently working at Stone Soup, Inc. in Connecticut.

Business & Money

Costello, Tim

International

South End Press

Brecher, Costello, and Smith chart out a dynamic and innovative strategy for building the movement to challenge unchecked coporate globalization.

Colp: Big

Literature & Fiction

Turnbull, David

Hand, Jill

Wyatt, Charles

Talon, David

Petyo, Robert

Gypsum Sound Tales

Cady, North

Dickzen, Rachael

Greene, Randal Eldon

Short Stories & Anthologies

Independently published

Brendan Smith writes a weekly column for The Weirs Times weekly newspaper in New Hampshire, where he is also the editor. 
Since his first column in 1995, Brendan has used his humorous insights to describe his adjustments to living in New Hampshire after moving there from Long Island, New York, in 1985. These early columns were compiled in his first book The Flatlander Chronicles. 
In I Really Only Did It For The Socks -Stories And Thoughts On Aging, Brendan tackles the latest adjustment in his life that we all face regardless of our location - getting older. 
After his open-heart surgery and recovery in 2018, Brendan was inspired to write of that experience, along with updating some columns on aging previously published in The Weirs Times as well as some new stories and thoughts in print for the first time. 
"You don't have to be getting older to enjoy this book," said Brendan. "But it doesn't hurt. And when you are over sixty, anything that doesn't hurt is a plus." 
Brendan lives in Laconia, New Hampshire, with his wife Kimberly and their cat, Dagny.

I Really Only Did It For The Socks

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

MindStir Media

Brendan Smith was born and raised on Long Island, New York, a bagel's throw from New York City. In 1985, Brendan unexpectedly found himself moving to Central New Hampshire. Over the next ten years, he worked hard at adjusting to life there. From learning to rake his roof, to buying firewood for the first time, to trying to fit into the social setting of a morning at the dump, he found that these, and many more adjustments, would not be very easy for this Flatlander. Since 1995, Brendan has been recounting these humorous adventures weekly on the pages of The Weirs Times. This book contains the best of those early columns.

Brendan Smith's the Flatlander Chronicles

Biographies & Memoirs

Memoirs

Piscataqua Press

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Books by Smith, Brendan