Irish Biography

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...

'What I wanted was for Malachy Finegan to be exposed. I felt that the wee boy I had been might be stepping from the darkness, and I needed him to...

'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,...

To look at Martin McGuinness' life is to follow Northern Ireland's own transition from conflict to peace. Martin McGuinness: A Life Remembered tells the remarkable story of McGuinness' journey from...

'Ach cerbh i Peig Sayers?'Niorbh i in aon chor an tseanbhean ologonach i ar chuir na glunta de dhaltai scoile aithne uirthi. Is leir o chuntais uathu siud arbh eol...

The definitive story of Harry Boland, the ardent and prominent Republican, loyal confidant to de Valera and close friend and, later, love rival to Michael Collins for the heart of...

Maurice O'Sullivan was born on the Great Blasket in 1904, and 'Twenty Years A-Growing' tells the story of his youth and of a way of life which belonged to the...

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...

'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...

'In these strange days Michael Harding's route taking and wise words gently nudge us towards the future, steadying us as we navigate the great unknowns ahead' Joe Duffy The bestselling...

The astonishing story of the English heiress who devoted her life to the IRAShe grew up in a Chelsea townhouse and on a Devon estate. She was presented to the...

'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...

When Charles Frederick Ball was killed at Gallipoli in 1915 The Irish Times called him 'one of the best known botanists and horticulturists in Ireland'. Fred Ball (to friends and...

The Sunday Times and Irish Times bestseller, as featured in the Sunday Independent'You're all fallen women. You've sowed the seed of Satan. You are nothing.'Mary Creighton was just 15 when...

Marty Morrissey - GAA broadcaster extraordinaire and one of the hardest-working people in show business - has been to every corner of Ireland (and a few interesting ones further afield)...

'The greatest selling point you have is to be different - to bring something to the table no one else has'As a child, John Brennan wasn't an obvious candidate for...

10... 9... 8... 7... 6... That's about as far as you get, counting backwards, as you wait for surgery to begin - and that's all most people know about what...

Marguerite Penrose's is an extraordinary story of making a great life from complicated beginnings. Marguerite was born in a Dublin mother-and-baby home in 1974, the daughter of an Irish mother...

'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,...

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...

In 2007, Amy Dunne was barely seventeen years old and pregnant with a baby girl who had anencephaly, meaning the baby was certain to die before or at birth.Amy, who...

Patrick Kavanagh (1904-67) was one of Ireland's foremost poets, best known for 'The Great Hunger' and novel Tarry Flynn. He is also remembered for his cantankerous, sometimes volatile nature, fuelled...

"Marie Duffy is one of the best choreographers in the world. She has been my dance master and right-hand person since 1996. She is like my twin sister. I will...

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...

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...

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...

'Sensational! John Connell has done it again' - Dean KarnazesFrom the award-winning, No.1 bestselling author of The Cow BookIn The Running Book, John Connell vividly describes a marathon through County...

'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...