Secondhand Irish Biography Books

***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...

Her addiction to the drug took her to a place about as low as a person can go. She had grown up in Ballymun and had, like many others, succumbed...

I want to walk through time, for days, for nights, I want every kind of walk, walks under sunsets and stars, walks of rain and storms, through howling winds and...

'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...

'We asked listeners to be honest, creative, funny, engaging and evocative in their writing ... to try to make us laugh, cry and think. We never imagined we would get...

Patrick 'Paddy' Reilly is an Irish folk singer and guitarist. Born in Rathcoole, County Dublin, he is one of Ireland's most famous balladeers and is best known for his renditions...

With Time to Talk, Michael Healy-Rae established himself as a new storyteller, steeped in the traditions of rural Ireland. In A Listening Ear, his superior storytelling skills come once again...

'Keelin's compelling story is as powerful as the woman she was.' Liz NugentJoan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking is a masterpiece. This ranks alongside. How can such a beautifully...

Nobody thought Rory O'Connor would make it - written off as 'thick' at school he struggled to find a career he felt he could succeed in. When a hot tip...

Dr Tony Holohan served as Chief Medical Officer in Ireland for 14 years, but only really became known to the public during the Covid 19 pandemic. During this time his...

After more than three years of suffering from Alzheimer's disease, the novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch died in January 1999. Early that month she was taken to a home for...

On the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, the destitute children swarm and the rich turn a blind eye. To these needy children "Mama Tina" has become an irrepressible, unorthodox...

What's it all about? Why am I here? Is there a God? Why do bad things happen? What happens when we die?On RTE's The Meaning of Life, Gay Byrne has...

Much of Mark Mehigan's twenties read like a 'how-to' manual: How to get very drunk without raising people's suspicions you might be an alcoholic. Although outwardly successful, nearing 30 he...

'I have come to think of all the metal in my body as artificial stars, glistening beneath the skin, a constellation of old and new metal. A map, a tracing...

'Witty, shocking in parts and written with real heart ... has something to say to everyone' Sunday Times'Honest, witty and poignant observations on life that are both heart breaking and...

'Thirty feet above ground, I picked some flecks of peeling paint from my skin and looked clean across the dressing-room rooftops ... to the cars whizzing by on the Straight...

Angela Collins O'Mahony came from a small farming background and originally worked as a secretary for a steeplejack company. One day she was sent to a site to deliver materials...

'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...

With the imminent arrival of her third child, veterinary surgeon, Gillian Hick, decides to abandon the perils of mixed animal practice, in a favour of setting up a small animal...

The groundbreaking two-term President of Ireland tells the stories of her lifeWhen a young Mary McAleese told a priest that she planned to become a lawyer, the priest dismissed the...

'The path I have travelled, the things I have done and the people I have met in crisis situations have given me a window into those qualities that make us...

'Derry Girls meets David Sedaris' Elske Rahill 'The writing is full of energy and originality' Irish Times Growing up on the Falls Road in 1990s Belfast, Alix O'Neill has seen...

Nora Ephron meets Bram Stoker in Sophie White's vivid and ambitious literary non-fiction collection. White asks uncomfortable questions about the lived reality of womanhood in the 21st century, and the...

'On Skellig Michael, thousands of birds appear and disappear, erecting towers, coming together in wings of movement which build and unravel over the empty sea. Often, no one else is...

Every time I write about my heart, I write about walking. Every time I write about walking, I write about my heart. What is it like to be born with...

From humble beginnings in Romania, Josef Cretzan went on to become one of the most accomplished glass blowers of the 20th century. For 37 years his knowledge and skills were...

'Are you going into town today?' she says, which annoys me because it's something she says all the time, having forgotten she said it before, and I say, 'Jesus, Mum,...

A memoir of growing up in New York in the 1930s and in Ireland in the 1940s. McCourt tells of extreme hardship and suffering, in Brooklyn tenements and Limerick slums...

Local rather than international, the dramas and privations described in this memoir are not the stuff of headlines. This is the story of an ordinary boy growing up in Belfast...

Sean MacBride (1904-1988) was at different times the Chief of Staff of the IRA, a top criminal lawyer, Irish Foreign Minister, and a founder of Amnesty International, of which organisation...

'I was fascinated, moved and entertained by every page. This is the kind of book the world needs right now' DONAL RYAN_______________'My dictionary's first two definitions of 'comrade' are:A close...

The attraction of THE VILLAGE, more perhaps than its illustrious predecessors, lies in the fact that Alice Taylor has captured it so well. Leave aside for a moment the extraordinary...

Green fields surrounded St Mary's National School at the foot of Three Rock Mountain in County Dublin in the 1930s. The author, as a boy, went from the little playground...

This is the story of a man from early twentieth century rural Cork who rose to the heights of the RAF and excelled as a major figure in international rugby...

Claire Walsh spent her twenties living the life she thought she was supposed to live, all the while playing hide and seek with depression. As a result, the road to...

'Sublime' - Donal Ryan, author of Strange Flowers'A book about the raw, riotous, brutally beautiful act of being alive.' - Kerri ni Dochartaigh, author of Thin PlacesAlice Kinsella was in...

Today was his first climb to the top. He knew if he was there, watching, then she would never leave him. Her name was Bernadette and he climbed the shed...

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...