Irish Biography

ON 2 December 2009 two very special baby boys were born in a London hospital. Joined from chest to pelvis, the conjoined twins Hassan and Hussein Benhaffaf's heart-warming and remarkable...

In a fearless and honest memoir, an ordinary Irish woman recounts an extraordinary life. Born 'chronically ugly and cross as a briar' into a poor rural homestead in 1920s Ireland,...

'A ballsy paean to self-determination and body confidence ... will leave you dizzy but exhilarated ... if you read one heart-breaking yet bouncy true-life memoir this year, make sure it's...

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...

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...

'I was torn. My best friend needed me. But little did I know then what the consequences of helping her would be...'In 2015, Gail O'Rorke stood trial on three counts...

This is the first biography of Denis Johnston, barrister, theatre director, film-maker, pioneering television producer, war correspondent, essayist and celebrated playwright. Johnston was of Ulster Presbyterian stock, born into Edwardian...

The Making of an Artist is a fascinating portrayal of the formative years of Micheal MacLiammoir, actor, playwright, artist, linguist, raconteur and co-founder of the Gate Theatre. Born in Cockney...

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,...

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...

'This story is the result of long hours of delving into the pasts of my nanny and my ma. I hope it will give some insight into the experiences of...

'I was about 10 feet away when a soldier fired the rubber bullet that struck me on the bridge of my nose. I didn't hear the bang of the discharge....

John Doyle was born in the small town of Nenagh in Co Tipperary in 1957. In 1962, his father purchased the family's first television set. By day, the Christian Brothers...

'I have put my genius into my life but only my talent into my work'. So said Oscar Wilde of his remarkable life - a life more complex, more erotic,...

To the outside world, Father Cleary was a charismatic cleric, staunchly devoted to the Catholic Church and its doctrines, and remembered as the warm-up man before Pope John Paul's historic...

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....

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...

From the author of the million-selling Angela's Ashes -- the most keenly anticipated sequel of the decade. Angela's Ashes was a publishing phenomenon. Frank McCourt's critically acclaimed, lyrical memoir of...

Special edition of the bestselling classic, to tie-in with the release of Alan Parker's major new film of Angela's Ashes Angela's Ashes is Frank McCourt's sad, funny, bittersweet memoir of...

David Norris is one of Ireland's most popular, colourful and charismatic public figures. Not a man to shy away from controversy, he has spent most of his adult life challenging...

The intensely moving memoir of Patrick Maguire, one of the 'Maguire Seven' wrongly imprisoned as a teenager for making bombs for the IRA. On the night of October 5 1974,...

In The Kick, poet Richard Murphy has constructed, from astonishingly detailed diaries kept over the course of five decades, a unique memoir of his life and times. The book is...

Mary McEvoy, one of Ireland's best-loved actresses, lived for many years with undiagnosed depression. From the outside looking in, she was a successful, confident woman, making strides in her career,...

Executed in Kilmainham Gaol on 8 May 1916, Michael Mallin had commanded a garrison of rebels in St Stephen's Green and the College of Surgeons during Easter Week. He was...

Samuel Beckett was one of the towering figures of twentieth-century literature; he was also famously reclusive. Here, in these intimate interviews conducted by his biographer, James Knowlson, Beckett and his...

In late 2018, Michael Harding was in a hotel room in Blanchardstown experiencing severe pains in his chest. He eventually phoned an ambulance and was admitted to hospital, suffering from...

'I was living in a world where a priest who spoke the words of God used me for sex, and there was no-one to tell. The world where this horror...

In 2013, Una-Minh Kavanagh, a young journalist and content creator, was racially abused and spat upon in Dublin's city centre. Having dealt with racism throughout her young life, this proud...