Irish Biography

Aged just 12, Patrick Sheedy placed his first bet for 10p and devised his first scam, marking the beginning of his life as a compulsive gambler and one of Ireland's...

Malachy McCourt, actor, gadfly and raconteur follows up his international best sellerA Monk Swimming with this, the second instalment of his hilarious memoirs. Malachy McCourt grew up in Limerick amid...

From the author of the million-selling Angela's Ashes -- the most keenly anticipated sequel of the decade. Angela's Ashes was a publishing phenomenon. Frank McCourt's critically acclaimed, lyrical memoir of...

Special edition of the bestselling classic, to tie-in with the release of Alan Parker's major new film of Angela's Ashes Angela's Ashes is Frank McCourt's sad, funny, bittersweet memoir of...

David Norris is one of Ireland's most popular, colourful and charismatic public figures. Not a man to shy away from controversy, he has spent most of his adult life challenging...

In late 2018, Michael Harding was in a hotel room in Blanchardstown experiencing severe pains in his chest. He eventually phoned an ambulance and was admitted to hospital, suffering from...

The intensely moving memoir of Patrick Maguire, one of the 'Maguire Seven' wrongly imprisoned as a teenager for making bombs for the IRA. On the night of October 5 1974,...

In The Kick, poet Richard Murphy has constructed, from astonishingly detailed diaries kept over the course of five decades, a unique memoir of his life and times. The book is...

Mary McEvoy, one of Ireland's best-loved actresses, lived for many years with undiagnosed depression. From the outside looking in, she was a successful, confident woman, making strides in her career,...

Executed in Kilmainham Gaol on 8 May 1916, Michael Mallin had commanded a garrison of rebels in St Stephen's Green and the College of Surgeons during Easter Week. He was...

Samuel Beckett was one of the towering figures of twentieth-century literature; he was also famously reclusive. Here, in these intimate interviews conducted by his biographer, James Knowlson, Beckett and his...

In late 2018, Michael Harding was in a hotel room in Blanchardstown experiencing severe pains in his chest. He eventually phoned an ambulance and was admitted to hospital, suffering from...

'I was living in a world where a priest who spoke the words of God used me for sex, and there was no-one to tell. The world where this horror...

In 2013, Una-Minh Kavanagh, a young journalist and content creator, was racially abused and spat upon in Dublin's city centre. Having dealt with racism throughout her young life, this proud...

Here's Me Here: Further Reflections of a Lapsed Protestant features a wide and thought-provoking selection of Glenn Patterson's writings. With his trademark wit and intelligence, Patterson offers his wry take...

This is the story of a boy from a small Irish village who became an adventurer, a humanitarian and a doctor to the stars. Part travelogue, part thriller, part celebrity...

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...

In Running from the Shadows Stephanie Hickey tells, in her own words, how she survived abuse at the hands of a trusted family member and of how running, a simple...

'When my legs went from underneath me and my breath stopped coming, just minutes before we were due to go live on The Voice, I knew this was panic at...

Fr Tony Coote was just fifty-three years old in February 2018 when he was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease. Just a few short months later, he found himself confined to...

*A mesmeric, harrowing and uplifting childhood memoir that will open up much-needed conversations about identity and mental health*'This will blow you away'- Stylist'Joly's prose is sensitive and heartbreaking...darkly compelling' -...

Molly Keane (1904 - 96) was an Irish novelist and playwright (born in County Kildare) most famous for Good Behaviour which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Hailed as...

Molly Keane (1904 - 96) was an Irish novelist and playwright (born in County Kildare) most famous for Good Behaviour which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Hailed as...

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...

In April 2001, Trevis Gleason was a chef on the rise. Then one day he suffered a stroke-like episode and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He lost everything - his...

'One of Ireland's most powerful campaigners' The Kavanagh SistersI look back now and see that I never stood a chance. It's hard when you realise your whole childhood was taken...

Her mother, who wrote vivid versions of old Irish folk tales, once said of the Irish Civil War: 'In those days... fear kept you from sleeping, but also from getting...

Forewarned - the follow-up to Colm Keane's No. 1 bestseller Going Home and The Distant Shore - is a riveting collection of stories concerning premonitions and predictive dreams. Featuring 60...

As she turns 80, Mary O'Rourke writes a letter to 20 people, past and present, close and distant, living and deceased.To her beloved brother, Paddy ... to the Athlone Fianna...

Soon, the lockdown would start. People would die alone, without any proper ceremony. Charlotte's death would be washed away, the first drop in a downpour. Nobody knew it then but...

Ellen Keane spent most of her teens uncomfortable with her limb difference. Hiding behind long-sleeved hoodies, she perfected poses in photographs and concealed her insecurities. How did she go from...

From the award-winning, number one bestselling author of The Cow Book.It is summer, the hay and silage have not yet been made on John Connell's farm, so he has time...

For every woman who's ever looked in the mirror and felt crap.Jules Coll was a slim child, which was misleading in a way, as she spent her formative years doing...

I thought of life's many bounties, to have known the extremities of joy and sorrow, love, crossed love and unrequited love, success and failure, fame and slaughter, to have read...

The continuation of the journey on horseback through the west Ireland described in Connemara Mollie. With her replacement pony, Peggy, the author travels from the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry,...

Death is a whisper in the Anglo-Saxon world. But on a remote island, off the coast of County Mayo, death has a louder voice. Along with reports of incoming Atlantic...