Irish Biography

Accidentally buying a derelict 22-room villa in the Italian countryside? What could possibly go wrong?When Rosie Meleady's landlady doubles her rent in cold, wet, overpriced Ireland, she packs up her...

One farm. Two worlds. Three generations.Fuelled by dreams of a rural idyll, Lorna Sixsmith and her husband swap the 9 to 5 for a return to her family's ancestral farm...

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...

In September 2013, on the Late Late Showin front of an audience of more than half a million, Majella O'Donnell had her hair shaved off and raised a phenomenal 600,000...

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

************'Spit-your-tea-out funny.' -Fern Brady'Raw, brutal and life-affirming' -Sara Pascoe'Addictive, exhilarating and raw' -Daisy Buchanan, author of Insatiable 'Graphic, explicit, visceral' -Irish Times'Blistering' -Sunday Business Post'Transcendent' -Irish IndependentMarise was nine when...

'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...

In his book, DEATH NEED NOT BE FATAL, McCourt explores the role death has played and continues to play in his life and in the world. From the dead babies...

W.M.("Bertie") Smyllie was editor of The Irish Times from 1934 until his death in 1954 and remains one of the legendary figures in Irish journalism. Short-sighted, massively overweight, given to...

In Full On, ex-government minister, businessman and broadcaster Ivan Yates recounts a fascinating political and personal story. From his early days in Enniscorthy to his youthful entry into national politics...

Aidan Comerford was on top of the world. He stepped off stage having just been crowned the winner of So You Think You're Funny at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in...

Born and bred in the tough inner city slums of Summerhill in Dublin, Bill Cullen was one of fourteen children. A street seller from the age of six, Bill left...

Once every blue moon a book is written on parchment and in dried blood. Here Huckleberry Finn meets Dylan Thomas on Achill Island, a lost world of corncrakes and ragamuffins.

No British statesman of the nineteenth century reached the same level of international fame as Lord Castlereagh, or won as much respect from the great powers of Europe or America....

When seventy-year-old Maura Murphy discovered she had cancer, she left her husband of fifty years and started writing her memoirs. Born 'chronically ugly and as cross as a briar' into...

'Explosive' Belfast TelegraphChilling. Candid. Controversial.This is the voice of one man from within a dark scandal that nestled in the heart of London's Soho in the 1970s.Travelling to the big...

On a gloomy Sunday afternoon at the height of the Troubles, rookie bomb disposal officer Ray Lane was called to the Border to defuse a 1,000kg bomb planted by the...

Martha is now in her thirties. Her daughter has left home and she is lonely and vulnerable. The hard knocks have taken their toll on her health, and as she...

'Reading it is an intense experience - much sadder and more beautiful than I was expecting ... a ballsy paean to self-determination and body confidence ... McSharry's style is a...

If the past is another country - what happens when we revisit it, one day a year?Carlo Gebler has done just that. Here is the story of Ireland - from...

June 1849: Dr William Wilde, passing a wretched hovel in Dublin's Liberties, discovers James Clarence Mangan in a state of indescribable misery and squalor. Aged just 46, the man dubbed...

Leaving his abusive Irish boarding school after eight long years, Patrick Touher thought his troubles were over. But the adult world was a dangerous place for a naive adolescent. From...

The full-career autobiography of a legendary footballer.After being expelled from school for playing football for his country, fifteen-year-old Liam Brady travelled to London to join Arsenal, and soon became an...

In the middle of one of the worst civil wars in Syria's history, Louise Monaghan crossed a heavily guarded border to save her six-year-old daughter from the father who had...

Adorable dogs,spirited horses, mischievous donkeys and cats who barely tolerate us are just some of the colourful characters you will meet in Animal Crackers. You will also encounter bright bunnies,...

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...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'What an extraordinary story... very moving indeed' Vanessa Feltz, Radio 2The astonishing true story of a daughter's search for her own past and the desperate mother who...

'Honest, funny, heartfelt ...I loved it' Cathy Kelly Clear-eyed, touching, forthright and funny, In My Mother's Shoes is Alison Walsh's delightful account of three generations of mothers -- her Nana,...

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...

April 5, 2017, 4.52 pm - The last time Gary wore a suit he was in Court 5 receiving a sentence to Mountjoy Prison for three and a half years....

Nora Joyce is commonly portrayed by the literary world as an illiterate, coarse chambermaid and no match for her husband's genius. This biography studies Nora's life before, with, and after...

The definitive inside account of the 2016-20 coalition government.Cabinet minister Shane Ross reveals the bitter internal battles fought with the old Blueshirts, the crises when the coalition came close to...