Irish Biography

'A delightful evocation of Irishness and of the author's deep-rooted love of the very fields of home' Publishers WeeklyAlice Taylor's classic account of growing up in the Irish countryside, the...

'Fascinating . . . O'Driscoll's research is impressive' Ben Macintyre, The Times'It would be hard to overstate how good this book is . . . a fantastic read' Sunday Independent'Superb...

In 1993, aged twenty, Carmel Mc Mahon left Ireland for New York, carrying $500, two suitcases and a ton of unseen baggage. It took years, and a bitter struggle with...

'A searing, honest and courageous account of professional soldiering in a toxic military culture' Senator Tom Clonan, retired army captainDuring her 31-year career as a soldier in the Irish Defence...

The Number One Bestseller______________For over thirty years, David McDonald worked in Ireland's biggest prisons. This is his story.As a young officer, McDonald got a baptism of fire in Mountjoy. In...

'Honest, vulnerable and empowering' Angela Scanlon'Poignant, profound, and moving, I have no doubt that this beautifully written book will comfort anyone who is in the process of falling apart' Louise...

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...

Reclaiming is a brilliantly written and thought-provoking book. Through amazing story telling, Yewande highlights the richness in her culture that so many other black women can relate to. It was...

When Catherine Corless began researching the Tuam Mother and Baby Home in Galway in 2010, she could not have known where her interest in local history would lead her. Uncovering...

Nora Ephron meets Bram Stoker in Sophie White's vivid and ambitious literary non-fiction collection. White asks uncomfortable questions about the lived reality of womanhood in the 21st century, and the...

An Affair with My Mother by Caitriona Palmer: a moving and gripping story of love, denial and a daughter's quest for the truth.Caitriona Palmer had a happy childhood in Dublin,...

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.'...

For most of her life, Stefanie Preissner was a people-pleaser. From hair-raising sleepovers and endless offers of cake to unwanted second dates and unrealistic work demands, she said yes to...

'What I wanted was for Malachy Finegan to be exposed. I felt that the wee boy I had been might be stepping from the darkness, and I needed him to...

Winner of the An Post Irish Sports Book of the Year AwardLonglisted for The William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award'Not only the sports book of the year, the...

Originally from west Kerry, Thomas Ashe was a schoolteacher in north County Dublin and a founding member of the Irish Volunteers. During the 1916 Rising he commanded the Fingal Battalion...

One of Europe's most important literary figures, Jonathan Swift was also an inspired humorist, a beloved companion, and a conscientious Anglican minister-as well as a hoaxer and a teller of...

Colin Carroll has spent a lifetime avoiding anything that might involve commitment of any kind. But one day he wakes up feeling empty and unsatisfied by the idyllic beach lifestyle...

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...

'Are you going into town today?' she says, which annoys me because it's something she says all the time, having forgotten she said it before, and I say, 'Jesus, Mum,...

To look at Martin McGuinness' life is to follow Northern Ireland's own transition from conflict to peace. Martin McGuinness: A Life Remembered tells the remarkable story of McGuinness' journey from...

As a Facebook moderator, Chris Gray made a living looking at graphically violent images and reviewing some of the internet's most toxic debates. Following a short training induction, he was...

For years acclaimed comedian Des Bishop wanted to write a show about his father. Mike Bishop was a model and actor who gave up that life to become a hard-working...

The book is full of warm anecdotes and wry observations on the numerous literary, artistic and musical characters John Montague encountered, befriended and occasionally provoked. He recounts his personal and...

Winnie and George tells the true and previously untold story of two individuals who lived remarkable lives, both before and after they crossed paths. Enhanced with dramatised dialogue, it is...

At the end of his bestselling debut, Wednesday's Child, Shane Dunphy was burnt out, and wrote of leaving his job as a child protection worker. But he returned to the...

'I'm at that age now where the Topcat TV theme, the cover of a Ladybird book, the smell of dulse, or even simply my mum scolding me for not turning...

Available for the first time in paperback, Robert O'Byrne's landmark biography of Hugh Lane remains the essential work on this enigmatic art dealer and patron. From his birth in Cork...

The definitive story of Harry Boland, the ardent and prominent Republican, loyal confidant to de Valera and close friend and, later, love rival to Michael Collins for the heart of...

Tomas O'Crohan was born on the Great Blasket Island in 1865 and died there in 1937, a great master of his native Irish. He shared to the full the perilous...

'From the moment I crossed the mountain I fell in love. With the place, which was more beautiful than any place I'd ever seen. With the people I met there....

Riverdance exploded across the stage at Dublin's Point Theatre one spring evening in 1994 during a seven-minute interval of the Eurovision Song Contest hosted by Ireland. It was a watershed...

'In my life, I've lost a twin, had an adored sister-in-law suffer a fatal asthma attack at just 31, my brother was murdered, a cherished brother-in-law died in his 40s...

The Irish nana is a repository of family history, memory and lore. Sometimes, like the Italian nonna, she is also a 'walking cookbook', carrying the old knowledge of how things...

Homeless at 13, pregnant at 14: life was not working out the way young Deborah Somorin had hoped. And yet, Deborah is now a chartered accountant at Ernst & Young,...

Every time I write about my heart, I write about walking. Every time I write about walking, I write about my heart. What is it like to be born with...