Irish Biography

The Sunday Times Top Ten BestsellerSuzanne suffered five heart attacks and made it through open heart surgery. But even that pales in comparison to the horrors she faced as a...

Intensely private, possibly saintly, but perhaps misanthropic, Samuel Beckett was the most legendary and enigmatic of writers. Anthony Cronin's biography is a revelation of this mythical figure as fully human...

LONGLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE 2021'One of the year's funniest books' i Paper'Funny, smart, soulful and sometimes devastating ... It made me laugh and cry' EMILIE PINE, author of...

'A little gem of a book' Brendan O'ConnorTom Inglis and his Wheaten terrier Pepe have lived together for eighteen years: countless days of walks and play and the odd bit...

In the first authorized biography of W. B. Yeats for over 50 years, Roy Foster brings new light to one of the most complex and fascinating lives of the late...

Richard Ellmann has revised and expanded his definitive work on Joyce's life to include newly discovered primary material, including details of a failed love affair, a limerick about Samuel Beckett,...

Annie Caulfield's early years were spent by the seaside in Ireland. However, the family shifted to Sixties London and soon she wasn't sure who she was - was she English,...

Local rather than international, the dramas and privations described in this memoir are not the stuff of headlines. This is the story of an ordinary boy growing up in Belfast...

A memoir of growing up in New York in the 1930s and in Ireland in the 1940s. McCourt tells of extreme hardship and suffering, in Brooklyn tenements and Limerick slums...

'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...

'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...

'Ach cerbh i Peig Sayers?'Niorbh i in aon chor an tseanbhean ologonach i ar chuir na glunta de dhaltai scoile aithne uirthi. Is leir o chuntais uathu siud arbh eol...

Duine de sharscealaithe na GaeilgeIn Eanair 1952, se bliana sula bhfuair Peig Sayers bas, thionscain Coimisiun Bealoideasa Eireann agallaimh lei agus i in ospideal Naomh Anna, Baile Atha Cliath. Bhi...

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...

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...

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...

Solace is that feeling of calm and comfort, that sense of peace that is all around us when we are open to finding it.Writer and photographer Catherine Drea explores the...

'On Skellig Michael, thousands of birds appear and disappear, erecting towers, coming together in wings of movement which build and unravel over the empty sea. Often, no one else is...

'In these strange days Michael Harding's route taking and wise words gently nudge us towards the future, steadying us as we navigate the great unknowns ahead' Joe Duffy The bestselling...

A special commemorative edition with an introduction by acclaimed author June Caldwell. Are You Somebody? is the incredibly candid story of Nuala O'Faolain, born one of nine children into the...

With exclusive access to the Haughey archives, Gary Murphy presents a reassessment of Charles Haughey's life and legacy. Saint or sinner? He was the most talented and influential politician of...

'Derry Girls meets David Sedaris' Elske Rahill 'The writing is full of energy and originality' Irish Times Growing up on the Falls Road in 1990s Belfast, Alix O'Neill has seen...

'Poignant, funny and highly readable. Would make a wonderful present.' Sue Leonard, Examiner'A real snapshot in time ... a celebration of female friendship ... fantastic - such a good read'...

WINNER OF BOOK OF THE YEAR, NARRATIVE NON-FICTION BRITISH BOOK AWARDS 2021Rediscover the natural world with the multi-award winning phenomenon and youngest ever major literary prize winner in UK history.'Miraculous...

'A wonderful book'David Park, Irish TimesIn 1949, when Marianne Elliott was just a baby, her parents moved into the White City, one of the first mixed-religion estates to be built...

'The path I have travelled, the things I have done and the people I have met in crisis situations have given me a window into those qualities that make us...

'Quietly triumphant.' Donal Ryan 'Ambitious and gentle.' Belinda McKeon 'A terrific book.' Michael Harding In May 2020, John Connell finds himself, like so many others, confined to his local area,...

The groundbreaking two-term President of Ireland tells the stories of her lifeWhen a young Mary McAleese told a priest that she planned to become a lawyer, the priest dismissed the...

Patrick Kavanagh (1904-67) was one of Ireland's foremost poets, best known for 'The Great Hunger' and novel Tarry Flynn. He is also remembered for his cantankerous, sometimes volatile nature, fuelled...

'Destined to be a classic' Sunday Independent'Gabriel Byrne tells his story brilliantly' - Edna O'Brien'Dazzles with unflinching honesty' Washington Post'An absolutely marvellous book' - Colm ToibinBorn to working-class parents and...

"Marie Duffy is one of the best choreographers in the world. She has been my dance master and right-hand person since 1996. She is like my twin sister. I will...

Julia Kelly met a charismatic and successful artist, Charlie Whisker, while she was working on her first novel. He was twenty years older than her. Their relationship was passionate and...

With the imminent arrival of her third child, veterinary surgeon, Gillian Hick, decides to abandon the perils of mixed animal practice, in a favour of setting up a small animal...

Angela Collins O'Mahony came from a small farming background and originally worked as a secretary for a steeplejack company. One day she was sent to a site to deliver materials...

'I caught a glimpse of him, behind the veil. And he knew I'd caught it. There was that understanding between us. We were members of the club of the X-ray...

A GARDA, A FORCED ADOPTION, A FIGHT FOR JUSTICEIn 1984, Majella Moynihan was a fresh-faced young garda recruit when she gave birth to a baby boy. Charged with breaching An...

'Thirty feet above ground, I picked some flecks of peeling paint from my skin and looked clean across the dressing-room rooftops ... to the cars whizzing by on the Straight...