Irish Biography

Peacemaker, politician, Nobel laureate: John Hume was a titan of Irish political history and a key architect of the Good Friday Agreement, bringing peace to Northern Ireland after decades of...

***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...

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...

The story of the remarkable Tom Crean who ran away to sea aged 15 and played a memorable role in Antarctic exploration. He spent more time in the unexplored Antarctic...

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...

'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...

Maire Nic Shiubhlaigh was a founder actress of the Abbey Theatre and its first leading lady on its opening in 1904, when she played the title role in W. B....

For sisters Mary Kennedy and Deirdre Ni Chinneide, spirituality has been at the centre of their lives since childhood. Their home in St Brigid's Road in Clondalkin, Dublin, was around...

This is the inspiring story of Michael Flynn, a struggling furniture salesman from Pearse Street, who reinvented himself to become one of Ireland's most beloved national figures.Starting with Mick's formative...

Kit de Waal and her brother and sisters had a hard childhood in the West Midlands. Her Irish mother didn't feed them, didn't believe in Christmas or birthdays, and thought...

David Trimble was one of the most influential figures in modern British and Irish history. A Nobel Laureate, he negotiated the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 that helped to secure...

Anne Marie Allen was fifteen when she was accepted onto a cookery school course that promised real qualifications and a future in the career of her dreams. Seeking a better...

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...

In 1983 an off-duty prison officer was shot by the IRA in cold blood on a Dublin street. Over 40 years later, no one has been convicted of his murder....

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...

In fact, two places called home ...For over sixty years, Alice Taylor has lived in the village of Innishannon, the gateway to West Cork. But her childhood was spent on...

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...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Most people think I save dogs, but really they saved me. Niall Harbison is a dog hero based in Thailand. He spends his days feeding, caring...

The BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Edna O'Brien's The Country Girls trilogy begins in August 2019.I thought of life's many bounties, to have known the extremities of joy and sorrow,...

This book charts the career of a man who has always been respected for his compassion, quirky way of thinking and fearless opposition to orthodox psychiatry. More importantly, he tells...

By age seven, Rebecca Quin, now known in the ring as Becky Lynch, was already defying what the world expected of her.Raised in Dublin, Ireland in a devoutly Catholic family,...

'I read Bessborough in one sitting, veering from fury to devastation within a matter of pages. A vitally important book.' Louise O'Neill'Vivid and powerful' CAELAINN HOGAN'I loved this book for...

Would you, should you, ever sell your well-appointed, five-storey house near Buckingham Palace to uplift an impoverished area in rural East Africa? Kenneth King thought he should, so he did....

***'Raw, brutal and life-affirming - Marise has written a hugely important book that is as entertaining as it is illuminating.' - Sara Pascoe'I couldn't put this down. A brave, honest,...

A force of nature from the day she was born, Lynn Ruane grew up in a loving home in Tallaght, West Dublin. But in her early teens things began to...