MAHR was made Director of the Irish National Museum in 1927.

Many questions remain unanswered about Mahr. Was he a Nazi?

Hitler clearly made an impression when he 'delivered' Mahr's native Sudatenland back to Germany. Did he know of Hitler's planned murder of Jews? Seems to have but kept his head down.

What was he doing in Dublin? Was he a Nazi spy? Could well have been, the Irish army intelligence kept him under surveillance.

When he left Ireland with his family for Germany in the summer 1939, war broke out but he seemed in no great hurry to get back to Ireland. Why? At the close of the war British authorities arrested him. Why would Britain feel it necessary to arrest a harmless archaeologist? Final question: Is it a good read? Intriguing.

Close the Wicket Gate
By Johanna O'Mahony Walters Mercier Press npa 222pps

THE Kilmichael Bar in Bandon was the genuine article, the real Irish pub now flagrantly pastiched ad nauseam. Your genuine Irish pub came about because back in the 40s there was so little profit to be made from drink alone that the pub doubled as a grocery.

This is a clear-eyed account of what those times were like for Johanna and her community. It is sentimental in parts, but honest.

It was a community complete in itself. The one thing they didn't have was work. People left by the boatload, Johanna reminds us. There is whimsy, too, as when a fishing party is in endangered when their boat leaks. While the others are furiously bailing out, one refuses. "Why should I, " he snorts indignantly, "it's not my boat."

I'll Stop Tomorrow Alcoholism: The Journey to Recovery
By Paul Campbell Mercier Press /13 223pps

ONE morning "dynamic Dublin businessman" woke up with that end-of-the-line feeling. "Keep doing this and you're going to be totally and absolutely f*****." What he had to stop doing was drop the one remaining friend he had left; Dr Booze. All his other friends had left him. His ritzy home in Ballsbridge was gone, no more travelling business classftake your time with this book, sup it slowly, take it all in. In particular, read the brilliantly illuminating chapter where Paul is confronted by his family. His wife reminds of their last flight together when he swore at the hostess and the pilot had to be called in. . . the evidence of wives, daughters, sons, no one escapes the abuse of alcohol.

The Half Life of Stars
By Louise Wener Hodder �7.00 306pps

THE plot of Wener's novel can be summed up thus: One hell of a peevish household in which Dad two-times Mom. Son hits Dad. As a result, Dad dies of heart attack. As a result, Mom hits the bottle.

Son takes off. Is reported missing. His sister, Claire, sets out to find him. Does so. Neat ending. There is also some fine writing. Claire is the heart of the book. She is promiscuous, irresponsible. Lots of sex and glib dialogue are the main selling points here: "Have you any cherry-blossom ice cream?" Waitress: "See it on the menu?" "Well, nof" "So what yah think. I go find a tree, cut down some cherries to make a special bowl all for you?"

Steal You Away
By Niccolo Ammaniti Canongate �8.00 405pps

BILLED as Ammaniti's "new novel", following the success of the Italian's bestseller I'm Not Scared, Steal You Away is Ammaniti's first, unpublished novel. The publishers brought it out now to capitalise on his success. Set in off-the-tourist-trail Italy, 11-year-old Pietro is having trouble with school exams. His father is alcoholic.

His mother mentally disturbed. An ageing Casanova arrives in town and sets his leery eyes on Pietro's teacher, Flora. What follows can only be classed as a satire about the traditional Italian male. Women are reduced to anatomical studies: "firm globesflong legs." The stories of Pietro and the Casanova converge and come to a morally unsettling conclusion. I'm Not Scared is the one to read.