Irish Interest Books

When actor, playwright and comedian Seamus O’Rourke first published Standing in Gaps in 2020 it found a wide audience amongst readers in rural Ireland. With a distinct talent for seeing the absurd in the ordinary, mundane lives of…

In the sequel to Seamus O’Rourke’s popular first memoir, Standing in Gaps, this innocent Leitrim lad finally flees the nest, briefly sampling life in New York, Dublin and London – before inevitably returning to his beloved, duller…

The Great Famine in Ireland is still a current and emotive subject which draws readers from all spheres. This book tells a story not merely unique to Cork, but of interest to the national population. Famine in Cork City explores t…

GBS was the first great brand – discover how he created this most modern of concepts. The fourth book in the Royal Irish Academy’s award-winning ‘Judging’ series looks at the legacy of George Bernard Shaw, Nobel prizewinner for li…

Reading the Maps is a textbook companion to the Irish Historic Towns Atlas, the successful series which documents and assesses the evolution of Irish towns. To date, over 27 published atlases, three bound volumes and ten ancillary…

The hilarious guide to the countryside you never knew you needed, from up-and-coming TikTok-and Instagram-hit comedian Killian Sundermann. Welcome to the countryside! A place of rolling hills, winding rivers and natural beauty. Or…

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 there to stand beside me on the island. The mind w…

Martin Doyle, Books Editor of The Irish Times, offers a personal, intimate history of the Troubles seen through the microcosm of a single rural parish, his own, part of both the Linen Triangle – heartland of the North’s defining i…

An original and fascinating history of Dublin that tells the story of the city through its bridges. Dublin started life on the south bank of the River Liffey and for six or seven centuries that is more or less where the town staye…

When death is a way of life . . .In A Life Among the Dead, David McGowan, Ireland's best known Funeral Director, and subject of the Award-winning Netflix documentary The Funeral Director, guides us through the business, the scienc…

This new volume in the award-winning Atlas Series presents fresh perspectives on, and a nuanced understanding of, the history of the Irish Civil War (1922–3). The centenary of the Civil War has prompted wide-ranging research into …

Rory Gallagher is a hero and icon of rock music. He inspired guitar players from The Edge to Johnny Marr, Slash to Gary Moore, Johnny Fean to Philip Donnelly, Declan Sinnott to Brian May. He toured incessantly and sold over 30 mil…

Enlightening, entertaining and often surprising, Irish Food History: a companion takes you on an unforgettable and expert journey through Ireland's culinary past. Beginning at the end of the Ice age, before reindeer, brown bears, …

Skulls, heads, hands, height, legs, sex organs, blood, brains, stomachs, ears and corpses – discover Irish history through the prism of the body. From the brutal beheading of the 25-year-old, red-headed Clonycavan Man some 2,000 y…

The first recorded game of ladies’ Gaelic football was played in St James’ Park, Dublin, in 1920. Players competed in ankle-length skirts, watched by a sizeable crowd. But the game was not authorised by the GAA and, in the decades…

By 1588, relations between the superpower of the time, Catholic Spain and the relatively small Protestant England had deteriorated to a new low. Philip II had decided that the best way to deal with English piracy and its support f…

The Cork Folk Festival has played an integral part in the history of Cork music since 1979. Over a period of 45 years it has presented an annual festival which encourages musicians, enchants audiences and contributes to the cultur…

Ireland is a strikingly different country now to the one it was in the mid-1990s. Dramatic economic, social and cultural changes, including the Celtic Tiger boom and increasingly secular debate about abortion, the status of women …

At her death in 2020, Eavan Boland left a formidable body of work – poems and prose. Together they transformed Irish poetry and had a considerable influence throughout the English-speaking world. She was also a major essayist, who…

How do you feel about embracing Ireland's native tongue? At odds after a tricky relationship at school? Maybe you've given up, or don't know where to start? Well, is fada an bóthar nach mbíonn casadh ann - long is th…

Is Cailín beag í Rita le smaointe Móra. Nuair a éiríonn sí crosta, samhlaíonn sí go bhfuil dragún fíochmhar feargach aici a chuirfeadh an domhan ar crith.Ach is Féidir tine the na feirge a cheansú, agus tá a fhios ag Rita cén dóig…

Insíonn Susan óg an scéal fíorspéisiúil tochtmhar seo faoin samhradh nuair a bhí sí ocht mbliana d’aois, agus nuair ba bheag nár bádh a deartháir Bruno san fharraige. D’éirigh léi snámh ar ais chuig an trá leis, áit ar éirigh sé a…

Nan lives alone at No. 14 Bóthar na gCastán.  Builders are coming to work on the empty house next door and Nan has her own opinion of all of them.  According to Nan’s three grown-up children she won’t have a moment’s peace.  But w…

In June 1940, the fall of France prompted General Charles de Gaulle to make an impassioned rallying call to his fellow citizens to fight back against the Germans. His famous radio speech, broadcast from the BBC in London, was late…

If the past is another country – what happens when we revisit it, one day a year?Carlo Gébler has done just that. Here is the story of Ireland – from the tail end of the Troubles to the Good Friday agreement, to the glory days of …

Tom Ryan was arrested at his home, near Thomastown, on the night of 5 February 1921. He was held initially in Kilkenny before he was transferred to Kilworth 'rest camp' near Fermoy in mid-March and, on 17 May, to Spike Island inte…

For the first time ever, OUT OF SIGHT! explores the rich history of sport and leisure as experienced by Ireland’s blind and vision impaired athletes, their families, friends, and coaches, as recounted in interviews with Joe Geragh…

Country houses may be triumphs of architecture, fine and decorative art, and landscape design, but they are also about the history and transmission of ideas. In varying degrees their occupants thought, conversed, read, and respond…