Secondhand Irish Biography Books

Patrick Deeley's train journey home to rural East Galway in autumn 1978 was a pilgrimage of grief: his giant of a father had been felled, the hurley-making workshop silenced. From...

When Moire O'Sullivan's husband, Pete, took his own life, she was left with a stark choice: to weep forever over the glass of milk that had just spilt or get...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING - HIGHLY COMMENDED'A special, beautiful, many-faceted book' Amy Liptrot'A remarkable piece of writing . . . Luminous' Robert Macfarlane'Eloquent . . ....

In over forty years in medicine - seven of these as Master of the National Maternity Hospital - obstetrician Peter Boylan was at the births of more than 6,000 babies....

'A little gem of a book' Brendan O'Connor'Quietly devastating ... A touching testament to the relationship between one man and his dog' Business Post Tom Inglis and his Wheaten terrier...

Before the 1970s flipped the switch to colour, Irish children ere raised in a world of black, white and an awful lot of grey. But kids, being kids, found endless...

In a life stranger than any fiction, Grace OMalley, daughter of a clan chief in County Mayo, went from marriage at fifteen to piracy on the high seas. She had...

Eden Halt describes a childhood spent on a remote coast of Northern Ireland, in the shadow of the Second World War. With his father absent in the African campaign, a...

American or Irish, Republican or Democrat: many people are one or the other, but Larry Donnelly has been all of them. Born into an Irish American political dynasty, Larry was...

The Yew Tree at the Head of the Strand is an affectionate and humorous memoir of growing up in Newry - 'predominantly Catholic and sometimes fiercely Nationalist' - in the...

It was love at first taste for fifteen-year-old Tadhg Hickey when he drank a can of Scrumpy Jack on the night of his exam results. Straight away it provided a...

Very funny and genuinely moving, THE EMPRESS OF IRELAND is an inspiring portrait of the unique and improbable friendship between Christopher Robbins, then an impoverished writer in his twenties, and...

From the author of the million-selling Angela's Ashes -- the most keenly anticipated sequel of the decade 'The reader of this stunning memoir can only hope that Mr McCourt will...

Brian Dowling and Arthur Gourounlian are among Ireland’s most beloved television personalities and social media stars. The internet exploded when the couple announced they were expecting their first child, with...

A fascinating story of love and campaigning for equality and social justice.When Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan met it was love. It has been love through twenty-seven years together....

For more than 30 years, Gay Byrne has broadcast on Irish radio and television. He tells his life story of growing up in Dublin and how he became a household...

I grew up in a psychiatric experiment crossed with an alcoholic experiment. . . . a place run by two people who were extraordinarily drunk and guarded by a potentially...

'Donal Walsh was able to see the beauty in life. He spent his valuable time helping us to open our eyes' Cecelia Ahern, authorDonal Walsh lost his battle against cancer...

Ulick O'Connor takes us into the heart of Irish life in the 70s and 80s, evoking the streets and bars of Dublin with their now legendary characters: the world of...

Charlie Bird has made his name as a front-of-camera reporter covering the news as it happens, from wherever it happens. During his career as a news journalist, he reported on...

This is Patrick Touher's sequel to "Fear of the Collar", his memoir of boyhood in Artane Industrial School. The book opens with his leaving of Artane. It then traces his...

THE IRISH TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLERAN POST BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR'Gorgeous' Pandora Sykes'A rare and beautiful book' Marian Keyes'Tender, sad and side-splittingly funny' Annie MacManus'A delight' Dara O BriainSeamas O'Reilly's...

This autobiography describes the first ten years of the life of Christy Kenneally, a working-class Cork northsider who lost his mother when he was five years old. The book captures...

'"Mrs Byrne, you've a beautiful, very pale, ginger-haired baby boy with a wonky eye." As she was handed me by the midwife, my mother wept for all the wrong reasons....

Takes a critical look at the international aid industry. This book covers topics such as the Peace Corps, debt relief, the aid business, health, food and cultural practices, among many...

For several years, Gareth O'Callaghan, one of Ireland's most popular broadcasters, suffered from severe depression. No one guessed that the moment he was off air, he would retreat to his...

Originally published in 1992, this childhood memoir, revised and augmented, now has the status of a modern Irish classic. On his first trip abroad, Adrian Kenny observes that the signs...

Based on personal testimony, this book was written to show what the term "domestic violence" really means to the thousands of women, children - and sometimes men - who suffer...