Secondhand Irish Biography Books

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...

Hugely entertaining and refreshingly honest, So Me is the memoir everybody has been waiting for. Graham Norton, whose impish charm and quick wit has earned him a place in our...

'There's great power in talking, but there's greater power in laughing. Even the best doctor in the world would be hard pushed to find a treatment with better medicinal properties...

An entertaining memoir of a rollicking life in New York of an Irish immigrant. The title is derived from the young Malachy's mishearing of the words 'amongst women' in Hail...

When she fell pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to the convent of Roscrea, Co. Limerick, to be looked after as a fallen woman'...

The Last of the Bald Heads is Ferdia Mac Anna's remembering of his remarkable youth - from the trials and tribulations of growing up in a bohemian household in Howth...

When Jordan Ferguson was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the age of thirty-five and told he had only months to live, a psychologist advised him to write a letter to...

The letters from 1926-1950 complete the four-volume edition of Shaw's correspondence. The book covers the final quarter-century of the dramatist's life, a period in which Shaw had reached the pinnacle...

This autobiography includes stories of village life in Co Wicklow between the wars, and of schooldays in Kilkenny and of the cosily eccentric Trinity College during the 1940s. Yet even...

West Cork is a magical place. We Irish know this, as do the international celebrities who have been attracted by its beauty and security. The countryside has remained unspoiled and...

For every woman who's ever looked in the mirror and felt crap: a funny, filthy and uplifting account of one woman's quest to leave body insecurity behind.Jules Coll was a...

He claimed he couldn't talk about his work, but Samuel Beckett proves remarkably forthcoming in this text, which documents the 30-year working relationship between the playwright and Alan Schneider, his...

At the age of nine, the author was knocked on the jaw in her school playground. What her family initially thought was a toothache brought on by the accident, turned...

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...

A mesmerising novel of love, freedom, and retribution set in the Caribbean. It is 1952 on the Caribbean island of Bimshire. Mary-Mathilda - mistress of plantation manager Mr Bellfeels and...

Brendan O'Carroll now performs to tens of thousands of people a night in packed-out stadiums across the country. In the last four years he has become one of the most...

Marie Fleming became a household name in Ireland with her trail-blazing campaign for the right to die with dignity, when she took a landmark case against the Irish State to...

'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...

This is the first volume of the authorized three-volume life of George Bernard Shaw, the playwright, wit, socialist, vegetarian and polemicist. It covers the first 41 years of his life,...

'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...

His work has long been recognised for its innovation and his reputation for clashes with the so-called gardening 'establishment' are famous. He has won many accolades including Silver Gilt at...

The Third Daughter begins in 1940s Limerick, where the O'Mara family were merchant princes of the city. The story follows the family fortunes from middle-class comfort to genteel poverty as...

As the eldest of The Nolan Sisters, Anne Nolan's life appeared from the outside to be one of boundless excitement and glamour - a dream come true for any young...

'We walk in the footprints of great women, women who lived through hard times on farms, in villages, towns and cities. The lives of these women are an untold story....