Irish Biography

'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...

A biography of Sam Hanna Bell, the Ulster broadcaster and writer, based on Bell's personal papers and the reminscences of family, friends and colleagues. Born in Glasgow of Ulster emigrant...

'Sublime' - Donal Ryan, author of Strange Flowers'Here is a writer who matters' - The Irish Times'A book about the raw, riotous, brutally beautiful act of being alive.' - Kerri...

1968. In a small town in the west of Ireland, a beautiful baby boy is born. He enjoys an idyllic country childhood: privileged, carefree, surrounded by love - and pet...

At a crossroads in her life, Grainne Lyons set out to travel Ireland's west coast on foot. She set a simple intention: to walk in the footsteps of eleven pioneering...

The biggest regret of Michael Healy-Rae's life was a time he didn't talk when somebody needed him the most. After that, he vowed to never stop talking, listening and trying...

Every young person is looking for freedom, but some have to fight harder than others ...In 1960s Ireland there was a special place for disabled children: behind the walls of...

This volume traces the 12 years spent in Belfast by BBC journalist and Northern Ireland Correspondent, Mark Devenport. It presents an insight into the region's recent troubles through a journalist...

Gerald Butler was one of Ireland's last lightkeepers. Until they were fully automated in the 1990s, Gerald spent over 21 years tending to many lighthouses around the coast of Ireland....

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...

An introduction to all the leading Irish writers and some of the lesser known playwrights, novelists, short story writers, poets, placing them in context and providing a list of their...

"When my parents signed me up to Trojan Swimming Club, they had no idea of the evil behind Gibney's interest in me. As a thirteen-year-old, who knew nothing but kindness...

In 2018, after receiving a life-changing diagnosis, broadcaster Gareth O'Callaghan retired from full-time work and gave up the career that he had loved for decades.In this deeply personal and inspiring...

A remarkable and powerfully uplifting memoir of living with cancer by the Number One bestselling author In 2005 Emma Hannigan was thirty two years old, happily married to her long-time...

'Luke Waters had more than 20 years on the job. What he saw, what he heard and what he did will make you sit up, stay up and keep reading...

In 2008, Simon Fitzmaurice was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (mnd). He was given four years to live. In 2010, in a state of lung-function collapse, Simon knew with crystal...

Before he was thirty, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Thomas Weaver was an accomplished engineer and geologist who was successfully managing Avoca's main copper mine and had brought...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...