Irish Biography

Ballybunion to the River Kwai is the remarkable story of Don Kennedy's harrowing experience as an Irish prisoner of war under the Japanese from 1942-45. Vividly narrated by Don's son...

While there have been biographies of anti-Treaty male figures such as CathalBrugha, Eamon de Valera and Harry Boland, there has been limited in-depthanalysis of on women on the anti-Treaty side....

'Captivating' Manchan Magan'Sublime' Eoghan Daltun'An earnest and uplifting blend of biography, almanac, travelogue and conservation call-to-arms' The Irish TimesSean Ronayne always knew he was different. Nicknamed 'nature boy' by the...

'An absolutely brilliant read' Patrick Kielty, Late Late Show, RTE'Blisteringly honest . . . hilarious, traumatic, joyful and terrifying. Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy read!' Liz...

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...

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...

'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 ......

They could prove nothing. There was no evidence that Helen O'Reilly was ever there. And how would they believe that a woman of Mamie's years could drag the body of...

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...

Bestselling author and psychologist Tony Bates has spent his career seeking to understand the lives of others. Here he turns his therapeutic eye on himself and describes the events and...

Two days after the Winter Solstice in 2019 Kerri and her partner M moved to a small, remote railway cottage in the heart of Ireland. They were looking for a...

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...

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...

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'An unadulterated delight...suffused with a sense of love and very, very funny' Maggie O'Farrell It's 2004 and Anne Enright, one of Ireland's most remarkable writers, has...

An Irish epic, The Maximalist documents in unflinching detail and with great subtlety the meteoric rise and slow unravelling of an Irish icon. 'Biography of the Year.' The Sunday Times'Biography...

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...

Throughout his life, Michael Harding has lived with a sense of emptiness - through faith, marriage, fatherhood and his career as a writer, a pervading sense of darkness and unease...

Born prematurely, weighing less than a bag of sugar, Oisin Murphy's life has always been one of struggle. From a young age he found communion with horses. Mesmerised by their...

This bibulous, drug-indulgent and anarchic rock legend was born on a small farm in Tipperary, won a scholarship to Westminster, was rapidly expelled, became a rent boy, then a central...

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...

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...

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...

'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...

"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...

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...

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

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 unforgettable true story behind the Sunday Times bestselling memoir Finding Tipperary Mary.Bridget 'Tipperary Mary' Larkin faced poverty, bereavement, cruelty and abandonment many times over, yet never lost the heart...

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...

John Spillane fell in love with singing when he was a small boy and now that he has written about 200 songs and an opera, he feels he's starting to...

AS FEATURED ON DESERT ISLAND DISCS, BIG SCOTTISH BOOK CLUB AND THE ZOE BALL BOOKCLUB, A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, GUARDIAN, IRISH TIMES, OBSERVER,...