Irish Biography

In his first book, Time to Talk, Michael Healy-Rae established himself as part of the great tradition of Kerry storytellers with his chronicles of life in rural Ireland. Now, in...

'"Mrs Byrne, you've a beautiful, very pale, ginger-haired baby boy with a wonky eye." As she was handed me by the midwife, my mother wept for all the wrong reasons....

ON 2 December 2009 two very special baby boys were born in a London hospital. Joined from chest to pelvis, the conjoined twins Hassan and Hussein Benhaffaf's heart-warming and remarkable...

Shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize 2019'[A] painfully intense, courageous and gripping account of [Fanning's] journey to the underworld of madness and back. This is a brave and instructive book.'...

An Irish Times book of the year 2022 A powerful, probing book about PTSD. As a journalist Keane has covered conflict and brutality across the world for more than thirty...

Mary McEvoy, one of Ireland's best-loved actresses, lived for many years with undiagnosed depression. From the outside looking in, she was a successful, confident woman, making strides in her career,...

What's it all about? Why am I here? Is there a God? Why do bad things happen? What happens when we die?On RTE's The Meaning of Life, Gay Byrne has...

'The embodiment of the spirit of rural Ireland'Anna May McHugh's name is synonymous with 'the Ploughing' - the annual Championships of the National Ploughing Association. The event is the biggest...

In a fearless and honest memoir, an ordinary Irish woman recounts an extraordinary life. Born 'chronically ugly and cross as a briar' into a poor rural homestead in 1920s Ireland,...

'A ballsy paean to self-determination and body confidence ... will leave you dizzy but exhilarated ... if you read one heart-breaking yet bouncy true-life memoir this year, make sure it's...

In this book of consideration and appreciation, best-selling author and broadcaster Mary Kennedy takes stock of her life and those things most important in it. She considers what makes us...

Charlie Bird has made his name as a front-of-camera reporter covering the news as it happens, from wherever it happens. During his career as a news journalist, he reported on...

When seventy-year-old Maura Murphy discovered she had cancer, she left her husband of fifty years and started writing her memoirs. Born 'chronically ugly and as cross as a briar' into...

'I was torn. My best friend needed me. But little did I know then what the consequences of helping her would be...'In 2015, Gail O'Rorke stood trial on three counts...

A force of nature from the day she was born, Lynn Ruane grew up in a loving home in Tallaght, West Dublin. But in her early teens things began to...

When Deirdre Purcell turned sixty, she cheered. Never again would she have to fit into a size ten dress, and while her dream of crossing the US on a Harley...

This is the first biography of Denis Johnston, barrister, theatre director, film-maker, pioneering television producer, war correspondent, essayist and celebrated playwright. Johnston was of Ulster Presbyterian stock, born into Edwardian...

The Making of an Artist is a fascinating portrayal of the formative years of Micheal MacLiammoir, actor, playwright, artist, linguist, raconteur and co-founder of the Gate Theatre. Born in Cockney...

This is the first volume of the authorized three-volume life of George Bernard Shaw, the playwright, wit, socialist, vegetarian and polemicist. It covers the first 41 years of his life,...

West Cork is a magical place. We Irish know this, as do the international celebrities who have been attracted by its beauty and security. The countryside has remained unspoiled and...

'This story is the result of long hours of delving into the pasts of my nanny and my ma. I hope it will give some insight into the experiences of...

'I was about 10 feet away when a soldier fired the rubber bullet that struck me on the bridge of my nose. I didn't hear the bang of the discharge....

John Doyle was born in the small town of Nenagh in Co Tipperary in 1957. In 1962, his father purchased the family's first television set. By day, the Christian Brothers...

Death is a whisper in the Anglo-Saxon world. But on a remote island, off the coast of County Mayo, it has a louder voice. The local radio station runs a...

'I have put my genius into my life but only my talent into my work'. So said Oscar Wilde of his remarkable life - a life more complex, more erotic,...