Secondhand Irish Biography Books

We read because we want to experience lives and emotions beyond our own, to learn, to see with others' eyes.The 32 is a celebration of working-class voices from the island...

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...

A powerful and moving autobiography from a gifted writer who has been compared to Joyce and Yeats.'A book of sheer wonder. As an author he competes as an equal with...

***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...

'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...

Garret FitzGerald is an economist, statistician, journalist, barrister, historian and politician who was twice Taoiseach of Ireland in the 1980s. This autobiography of an Irish Prime Minister includes political recollection...

'Reflections on a Life' offers short excursions into autobiography, informal evocations of particular incidents, times and places, and sharply-etched memories of individual people who have left an imprint on the...

The controversial autobiography of the man at the heart of Irish Republican politics. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams offers his own unique, intimate account of the early years of his...

For the Love of My Mother is the tragic and uplifting story of one Irish mother and her son. Born into a life of poverty and detained at the tender...

The Ireland of the inter-war years was an island of remarkable contradictions. In spite of the highly moralistic attitude of Church and State, including an official censorship of publications, there...

Bryan Gallagher's reminiscences of the Ireland of his youth, first heard on Radio 4's 'Home Truths', transport you to a world of boyhood pranks, playground politics and the confusion of...

'Quietly triumphant.' Donal Ryan 'Ambitious and gentle.' Belinda McKeon 'A terrific book.' Michael Harding In May 2020, John Connell finds himself, like so many others, confined to his local area,...

Woven into the story of his life and the national events of his times are the equally dramatic changes in which he participated during his twenty-seven years with the Irish...

Set in 1950s rural Ireland, Rathcormick is an engaging tale of a large and happy family: a stern and domineering Papa, a warm and practical Mama, their two daughters and...

'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...

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...

Tomas O'Crohan was born on the Great Blasket Island in 1865 and died there in 1937, a great master of his native Irish. He shared to the full the perilous...

Irish cottages, the pleasures of walking in autumnal woods, a hens' hatching house and a country garden: these are just some of the elements in this varied patchwork quilt of...

Danny Ellis was a survivor, strong and resilient. A successful singer/songwriter, he was proud of the way he'd `handled' his painful past: the grinding poverty of the 1950s Dublin slums,...

'The prospect of taking over the 'Regarding Ireland' column scared me witless. If they'd changed the title to 'Regarding Reality TV' or even 'Regarding Roisin', I might have been slightly...

#1 Irish Times Bestseller!A book about hope when the world was collapsing Irish TimesA modern travel tale, part personal pilgrimage, part political quest that captures the power of human resilience"McKiernan...

50th Anniversary Edition. Paperback.'In the sharply formal conversations of the stonemen, the bittersweet flavour of provincial Ireland is presented with neither sentiment nor adornment.' -William Trevor, The Guardian'The men who...

In his highly addictive style, Gene Kerrigan effortlessly reconstructs the Ireland of the 1950s and early 1960s in which he grew up. An adult world of absolute moral certainties, casual...

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...

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...

Malachy McCourt, actor, gadfly and raconteur follows up his international best sellerA Monk Swimming with this, the second instalment of his hilarious memoirs. Malachy McCourt grew up in Limerick amid...

Julia Kelly met a charismatic and successful artist, Charlie Whisker, while she was working on her first novel. He was twenty years older than her. Their relationship was passionate and...

In this long-awaited bioraphy, Wilde the legendary Victorian - brilliant writer and conversationalist, reckless flouter of social and sexual conventions - is brought to life. More astute and forbearing, yet...

Malachy McCourt grew up in Limerick amid death, squalor, poverty and abuse. When he went to America as a young man, he took with him a gargantuan appetite for what...

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...

Sunday Times Memoir of the Year 2019RTE Radio 1 Listeners' Choice Award Winner 2019 - An Post Irish Book AwardsWhen Vicky Phelan delivered an emotionally charged statement from the steps...