Irish Biography

The book shows Michael's 'logical opportunism' in action, and explains how the Smurfit culture and systems provided a world-beating competitive advantage. 'It is up to others to judge how well...

Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887-1916) from Dublin was one of the leaders of the 1916 Rising, the designer of the military plan and the youngest signatory of the Proclamation. A recognised...

Meet Peig McManus, an unforgettable Dublin character whose story will make you laugh and cry.-Her memoir of a 1940s' childhood is recounted with candour and wit, as she describes her...

Angels at My Fingertips takes us back to the territory that made Angels in My Hair a million selling, international bestseller. Stories of Lorna's early life in rural Ireland, of...

'Raw, frank and utterly heartfelt, but full of love and joy too, one of the most moving and uplifting memoirs I've ever read.' Daisy Buchanan'Evanna's account of overcoming an eating...

'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...

"My name is Joe Ward, from Gunnocks, Clonee, in County Meath. I have been asked to put down my recollections of the last two generations of the Ward family and...

'Searing and generous ... a blazing beacon' - Donal Ryan 'Every man and woman should read this' - Sabina Higgins'Written with honesty, power and insight' - Roisin Ingle'Immensely valuable ......

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...

Foreword by Daniel O'Donnell Known as `the Girl from Donegal', Bridie Gallagher was Ireland's first truly international pop star. Over a fifty-year career she sang at sell-out concerts from small...

The Crocodile by the Door by Selina Guinness - shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award - is a remarkable, compelling and moving memoir of a farm, a family and a...

In 1997, Dr Marie Cassidy arrived in Dublin from Glasgow. There to discuss a possible deputy state pathologist post with Professor John Harbison, instead she was whisked by police escort...

***Winner of the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards - Newcomer of the Year*** 'One of the year's most arresting, humbling and acute memoirs. It is a catch-in-the-throat, life-affirming work...

A memoir about death, how to grieve, and the healing power of the sea.Over the course of seven difficult years Miriam Mulcahy lost her mother, father andsister, each grief threatening...

Christy Mangan knows how hard it is to solve a murder.In his forty-year career, Mangan participated in or led over 100 murder investigations. And he set up the Garda cold...

'This is the most gripping book I've read in ages ... It is beautifully written, fascinating, disturbing and often very funny.' Roddy Doyle The childhood world of Hugo Hamilton, born...

What is it like to be a girl, or a woman, in a male-dominated sporting world? If you play on the boys' team, more people pay attention - but you...

Storytelling kept alive the myths, legends and history of the Blasket Islands. In her old age, Peig Sayers, recounted her life to her son who recorded the tale in this...

'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...

Born into a loving working-class home, Lynn Ruane's early years were idyllic, but all that changed when two shocking incidents in her teenage years shook her to her core. She...

A poignant and introspective memoir from Irish journalist and broadcaster Charlie Bird. In 2021, Charlie Bird was diagnosed with motor neurone disease - a man whose voice was so synonymous...

'I have him bitched, balloxed and bewildered, for there's a system and a science in taking the piss out of a screw and I'm a well-trained man at it.' So...

'A fearless investigative journalist and author.' PATTI SMITH'Determined, tenacious, intelligent, and honest in her approach.' ANNA BURNS'A fierce light, a formidable voice.' SINEAD GLEESONA memorial collection of writings by the...

You could say that Frank McNally is a travel writer - he writes while the world travels by!For almost twenty years, Frank's name has occupied the byline of the ever-present...

Leo Varadkar shares his fascinating experience as Irish prime minister ata time of much change and turbulence, in this remarkably honestmemoir.Leo Varadkar was an unlikely Taoiseach – the youngest on...

In June 2019, Valerie French Kilroy was brutally murdered by her husband at their home near Westport, while her three young sons lay in bed. She was the third woman...

We all did time, staff and prisoners. Each of us had a number; each of us wanted the finality of getting out that gate.When John Cuffe entered Mountjoy as a...

John Moriarty was an original, a thinker, a poet, a mythologian. He was born and reared just outside the little village of Moyvane in north Kerry. Growing up on his...

For over three decades Nell McCafferty has been Ireland's most provocative and interesting activist and commentator. As a member of that brilliant 1960s generation of working-class idealists politicized by class,war...

Long before he became President of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams was a civil rights activist who took part in sit-ins, marches and protests in Northern Ireland. Along with hundreds of...

Joyce, June and Paula Kavanagh were three sisters born to a family of ten in Ballyfermot, Dublin in the 1960s. Their father abused all three of them in the family...

With his trademark wit and honesty, Peter Sheridan has written an enthralling account of his parents' relationship, from their first encounter over a poker game in a Dundalk canteen to...

On a solo trip with her best friend to a Wexford caravan park, a barely 18-year-old virginal (ish) Emma Doran discovers it only takes one time to change your life...

NUMBER 1 BESTSELLER IN THE IRISH NON-FICTION CHARTS"Rough Beast is shocking, important and unputdownable." Roddy DoyleRough Beast is Mairia Cahill's harrowing story of her life and of what she went...

'A wit and wisdom that harkens back to an age of enlightenment' - RON PERLMAN, ACTOR'A meditation guide from a man with a mind most unlikely to be conducive to...

'The first time Shocks saw Amber coming, he lowered his head so she could wrap her arms around his nose. It was as if they understood each other's pain. Like...