Irish History Books

A story of State betrayal, complicity, cover-up and one man’s quest for justice. In 1985, John Corcoran, a Garda informer within the ranks of the Cork IRA, was exposed and brutally executed by militant republicans. No one has ever…

The Shortest History of Ireland is based at every step on the latest scholarship, but it’s all brought together, for once, as a fluent story, as captivating as a novel, galloping from the Ice Age to the present, using language, gr…

Embrace all things Irish with these 200 interesting, important, and fun Irish words and phrases—as well as what each teaches us about the history and culture of Ireland. Céad míle fáilte! Dia duit. You don’t need to be fluent to a…

The first biography of IRA leader Rory O'Connor, close comrade of Michael Collins and Richard Mulcahy and prominent member of the anti-Treaty IRA.The execution of IRA leader Rory O'Connor on 8 December 1922, along with Liam Mellow…

A new book celebrating the achievements of 12 inspirational women who made significant contributions to local government in Cork city was launched recently in Cork City Hall. ‘Leading the Way’ was written by Dr Aodh Quinlivan, Sen…

This captivating book delves into the secretive world of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and its profound impact on Ireland's political landscape between 1914 and 1924. With the aid of new documentation, Ranelagh unravels t…

April 1998: the Good Friday Agreement is signed, ending decades of violence and bloodshed in Northern Ireland. The process of getting the IRA to end its so-called ‘armed struggle’ was always the prerequisite of the search for peac…

Ferriter tells the latest chapter in Ireland's story with authority and insight, deftly weaving together economic and political upheavals with equally tumultuous societal and cultural shifts' Financial Times 'Forensic and insightf…

In eighty short essays, historians, folklorists, archaeologists, theologians, anthropologists, poets, novelists, artists, literary scholars, and educationalists explore diverse facets of the experience of childhood in Ireland over…

This fully illustrated and authorised history marks fifty years of one of Ireland’s most ground-breaking and successful theatrical ensembles. Founded in 1975, Druid is a touring theatre company, anchored in the West of Ireland and…

The Croppy Boy Way is a love letter to Cork’s Northside - its people, its stories, and the places that shaped generations. Over seven years, authors Gerry Corbett and the late Jim O’Shea walked the hills and boreens of their commu…

Uncover the gripping narrative of Irish immigrants who transformed America in the aftermath of the Great Hunger. Tyler Anbinder's landmark work exposes the grit and resilience of the Famine Irish, defying hardship to redefine the …

The Turning Tide is a hymn to a sea passage of world-historical importance. Combining social and cultural history, nature-writing, travelogue and politics, Welshman Jon Gower charts a sea which has carried both Vikings and saints;…

Immerse yourself in the rich history and cultural significance of the Irish pub, from its humble beginnings in the 17th century to its modern incarnation as a global phenomenon. This book offers a comprehensive examination of the …

Twelve Paintings is an intimate and compelling exploration of the life and work of the renowned Irish artist Colin Davidson. Structured around a series of deeply personal conversations with the broadcaster Mark Carruthers, the boo…

This groundbreaking study reveals the fascinating international dimension of the Irish Revolution (1919-1923), exploring how a small nation's fight for independence reverberated across the globe. The Irish republican counter-state…

Myths and lies have distorted the truth behind the founding of an Irish state. The struggle for independence was dramatic and dangerous, but there was no outright ‘Irish revolution’ from 1913 to 1927. In this new work from Colum K…

The British Isles hold a unique position in the history of art, a place where local traditions fuse with international ideas in extraordinary waysAt once isolated by coastal boundaries, yet also part of larger networks of diverse …

Ireland, under both the Irish Free State and after full independence, has now had just over 100 years of autonomous national political leadership. This book, based on Iain Dale’s blockbuster podcast, tells the story of Irish polit…

The crown was the symbol of British power in Ireland, and in December 1921 opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty claimed that its terms tied Ireland to the Crown forever. The new Irish Free State would be within the British Commonwe…

We walk past remnants of our past every day without noticing. Our ancestors left echoes of themselves all around us, if we only know where to look and how to interpret the signs. These remnants lie all over Ireland, telling us of …

The prospect of Irish unification is now stronger than at any point since partition in 1921. Voters on both sides of the Irish border may soon have to confront for themselves what the answer to a referendum question would mean - f…

A new and definitive account of one of the most famous and mysterious manuscripts in the world. The Book of Kells is a mystery. It is distinct from all copies of the gospels from the early Middle Ages, not only in the quality and …

Maps allow us to see how the world is organised spatially and show us relationships which cannot be understood from simply reading a text. This magnificent book highlights a vast selection of maps that range across the centuries a…

The story of the grassroots #WakingTheFeminists movement in Irish theater, a campaign that changed how we saw the world and reshaped the future both on and off the stage. When the Abbey Theatre's 2016 centenary program excluded wo…

How do people transform a house or flat into a home that nourishes both body and soul? How do they engage in the alchemy of homemaking? This book focuses a scholarly lens on one homemaking practice, dresser- and delph-keeping in w…

The two opposing political figures that shaped Irish life in the 1980s and beyond. In the 1980s, Irish politics was dominated by a fierce rivalry between Charles J. Haughey and Dr Garret FitzGerald, both leaders of their respectiv…

The head of the Guinness family tells the true story of how his ancestors created the largest brewery in the world. In this narrative non-fiction book, Arthur Edward Guinness, the 4th Earl of Iveagh and head of the Guinness family…

The Book of Chad or the Gospel of Teilo is the earliest extant Welsh version of the Latin Gospels. This is a reprint of Hopkins-James' transcription of the manuscript of 1934, with a critique, a history of the text, its charcteris…

Haunted English explores the role of language in colonization and decolonization by examining how Anglo-Celtic modernists W. B. Yeats, Hugh MacDiarmid, and Marianne Moore "de-Anglicize" their literary vernaculars.Laura O'Connor de…