Irish History

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...

In June 1631 pirates from Algiers and armed troops of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, led by the notorious pirate captain Morat Rais, stormed ashore at the little harbour village of...

This remarkable book provides an account of the history of Ireland like we've never seen before. Told through the prism of the lives of twenty-one extraordinary women, it offers an...

This book explores the Skelligs, Ireland's most dramatic and beautiful Atlantic islands, and focuses particularly on Skellig Michael, a famous UNESCO World Heritage Site. It considers why the construction of...

Twenty years on from her critically acclaimed book, Northern Protestants: An Unsettled People, Susan McKay talks again to the people she 'uneasily' called 'her own', those from a Protestant background...

Why did the Romans never try to conquer Ireland? Why did the King of Spain give his name to an Irish county? And how did brandy change the course of...

On 3 May 1921 the IRA's South Mayo Brigade Flying Column ambushed an RIC/Black and Tan resupply patrol in the village of Tourmakeady, in order to destroy the patrol and...

This book follows the course of the Irish Civil War in Kerry, July & August 1922. With notes on the brief period of confrontation when Free State troops were all...

The true story of one of the biggest bank heists in Irish and British history - and the questions that remain.On a Sunday evening in December 2004, two young men...

By turning off the main highway and discovering old routes, some of which have been travelled for thousands of years, you will see Ireland in an entirely different way. Follow...

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....

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....

'...the most important book to be published in Ireland in the past 10 years.' Irish IndependentThe State's industrial schools were a 'Gulag' or prison system for children. The regimes were...

Roger Casement, the retired British consular official tried for treason and executed for securing German rifles to help the 1916 Rising in Ireland, has been a focus of controversy since...

From late 1994 to June 1997 Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left were a coalition government led by John Bruton, arguably the most left-wing government in the history of the...

This is a new edition of Emmet O'Connor's classic and pioneering work on Irish labour history, providing an introduction for the general reader and a synopsis for the specialist. The...

The Emergency in Colour brings wartime Ireland to life in dramatic colour.Through extensive research, the photos presented here have been painstakingly hand-colourised by photographer John O'Byrne, showing what life on...

Ireland is a strikingly different country now to the one it was in the mid-1990s. Dramatic economic, social and cultural changes, including the Celtic Tiger boom and increasingly secular debate...

Despite the political partition of the island, Ireland competes at rugby internationally with an all-island team - and with a bespoke anthem that nobody loves but everyone tolerates. Ireland has...

This comprehensive directory lists historic locations in Dublin on a street-by-street basis, describing events during the tumultuous decade from the 1913 Dublin Lockout, through the 1916 Easter Rising and Irish...

As I shall embark in a business, within a few days, the event of which is uncertain, I take the opportunity of a vacant hour to throw on paper a...

'Riveting . . . a triumph . . . intertwining personal narratives with wider themes of remembrance, loss, courage and blame' Gary Murphy, Irish ExaminerNovember 1983. Early morning in suburban...

A lively and inviting history of Belfast-exploring the highs and lows of a resilient city Modern Belfast is a beautiful city with a vibrant tradition of radicalism, industry, architectural innovation,...

Pioneering human rights campaigner, patriot, romantic, traitor, LGBTQ+ martyr: this is the story of Roger Casement, one of the 20th century's most complex and compelling figures.'Minutely researched, superbly written, genuinely...

Offering a unique insight into the habitual inebriate offender class in Ireland, this book examines the inebriate reformatory system in Ireland from its foundation in 1900 until its closure in...

Major John MacBride, who was Born in Westport, County Mayo in 1868, was a household name in Ireland when many of the leaders of the Easter Rising were still relatively...

The Course of Irish History is the classic general history of Ireland, covering the economic, social and political development of the island of Ireland from prehistoric times to the present...

Eamon de Valera is the most controversial figure in modern Irish history and as this book argues, the most misunderstood. 'Dev' has been characterised as a stern, un-bending, devious and...

On Saturday night 22 April 1916, a tense meeting in Dublin went on into the small hours to decide whether or not the Easter Rising would go ahead. Present at...

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....

The conflict in Northern Ireland was one of the most devastating in post-war Europe, claiming the lives of 3,500 people and injuring many more. This book is a riveting new...

From the dawn of history to the decline of the Celtic Tiger - how Ireland has been shaped over the centuries.Ireland has been shaped by many things over the centuries:...

From the creator of The Irish History Podcast comes a fascinating look at Irish history through the lens of murder. In A Lethal Legacy, Fin Dwyer charts 200 years of...

A tragic death, a murder trial and a 170-year-old mystery - but what really happened? Shortly after Maria Kirwan died in a lonely inlet on Ireland's Eye, it was decided...

At 5.30pm on 17th May 1974 three no-warning bombs exploded in Dublin city centre killing 26 people and injuring almost 300. Eighty minutes later a fourth no-warning bomb exploded in...