REVIEWS -- 1. "Every year from Scotland, from Ireland and from Wales young men flock in hundreds to London. They are of all classes, all degrees of education, united in one common aim, that, namely, of making a living ... debarred by lack of means from lodgings where the rate of payment is high, and yet compelled to be near the great industrial centres where chance jobs may be easily picked up, they and their families are automatically forced into slum dwellings..." Excerpt, "Irish Migrants in Britain 1815-1914," (2002) edited by Roger SWIFT, Cork University Press. Many Irishmen and women had a different fate, those 'whose brilliant talents often enable them to rise from small posts to places of high emolument and power.' Per review, "This is a unique anthology comprising extracts from parliamentary papers, social surveys, letters, newspapers and reminiscences which explore the experiences of Irish emigrants to all parts of rural and urban Britain in this period. Annoted to further reading." H/b. 2. "W&R JACOB, Celebrating 150 Years of Biscuit Making," by Seamas O Maitiu, The Woodfield Press, Dublin. P/b. "The first cracker biscuits to appear in Ireland, in 1880, were imports from Marsh and Company, an American firm. These were called "Niagra Crackers" and were sufficiently popular to cause the long-established Dublin biscuit makers W&R JACOB to send young George JACOB to the USA to investigate. Inside five years, JACOB's had their best seller, the "Cream Cracker." The product went to the battle front in huge quantities during WWI. In the course of the Easter rising (1916) their main factory was taken over by a group of rebels under the leadership of Thomas MacDONAGH. Their crackers and their very elaborate biscuit tins are mentioned in the pages of James JOYCE. The first Aer Lingus spare parts were handily housed in a JACOB's tin during the maiden flight of the Iolar in 1936. JACOB's were one of the earliest to use radio advertising, in particular, with the format of the sponsor show; for many years their public relations representative, the honey-voiced Ms. Frankie BYRNE, who gave advice to the love-crossed at one o'clock each Tuesday, her sagacity sweetened by an unfading admiration for Frank SINATRA, no other music was permitted on the show." 3. "Transatlantic Triumph and Heroic Failure, The Galway Line," by Tim COLLINS, The Collins Press. "In the 1850s, while Ireland was still reeling from famine and pestilence, a Catholic parish priest, Fr. Peter DALY and a Manchester businessman, John Orrell LEVER initiated a steamship line between Galway and America. Fr. DAY was Chairman of the Galway Town Commissioners and Director of the Galway Gas Company which supplied power and public lighting to the town from as early as 1837. On the board of the Midland & Great Western Railway Co., he saw to it that the Dublin line terminated in the town centre and was completed by the building of a magnificent hotel, in Eyre Square. He built schools and churches and clashed regularly with his ecclesiastical superiors. The Galway line owned 16 ocean-going ships at one time or another and sailed under a red St. George's cross with a gold harp in its centre on a green background. The venture lasted from about 1858 to 1864, carried over 30,000 passengers and lost 500,000 pounds, an enormous sum for that time! Mr. COLLINS has done well by producing the first account of this extraordinary venture, complete with the music and words of the poems and ballads which are almost its sole remains, per book review." P/b.