Irish History

In 1993, aged twenty, Carmel Mc Mahon left Ireland for New York, carrying two suitcases and a ton of unseen baggage. It took years, and a bitter struggle with alcohol addiction, to unpick the intricate traumas of her past and pres…

Shortlisted for the ALCS Gold Dagger Award for Nonfiction A brilliant work of historical true crime charting a pivotal event in the l9th century, the Phoenix Park murders in Dublin, that gripped the world and forever altered the c…

100s of personal testimonials, 1000s of teachers, 100s of 1000s of pupils… all connected through one organisation, Cumann na mBunscol. Caoga Bliain ag Fás is a story of ‘ordinary’ men and women who did extraordinary things, and th…

Níl aon dabht ach gur mhinic cogaíocht, ár agus sléacht le fáil i stair na hÉireann, agus is iomaí scéal ar a léithéid. Ach bhíodar ann i gcónaí a mhol slí eile don tír, slí na síochána. Má bhí uaireanta ann nár tugadh cluas dóibh…

Seán French was first elected to Cork Corporation in January 1920 with a paltry 73 first preference votes. In the turbulent period that followed he was arrested in September 1922 and served 13 months in Newbridge Internment Camp a…

Ireland is known worldwide as a country that produce emigrants. The existence of the Irish diaspora' is the subject of this fifth instalment of the 'Irish perspectives' collaboration between Pen and Sword and History Ireland. From…

For the Love of Ireland's Buildings takes us on a tour of our built heritage, from ancient monuments to Modern architecture. For over fifty years the iconic Roadstone Calendar celebrated Ireland's architectural treasures and trium…

Simms and his team’s meticulous work are proof positive that well-built social housing can add immensely to the tone and style of a city. His work remains a touchstone and an inspiration.

The Irish Civil War ended in 1923. Eighty years on, documentary-maker Tom Hurley wondered if there were many people left from across Ireland who experienced the years 1919 to 1923, their prelude and aftermath. In early 2003, he re…

Often imitated but never equalled, John Breslin and Sarah-Anne Buckley are back with the third instalment of their bestselling Old Ireland in Colour series. Beloved by Irish readers at home and abroad, for this new volume the auth…

At the Dublin Matrimonial Court in the blistering summer heat of 1876, mother of three, 43-yeard old Catherine Louisa Moore, Lady Mount Cashell, sits alone in an all-male courtroom of 'gentlemen'. Her husband, Captain Richard Spre…

John McGahern is consistently hailed as one of the finest Irish writers since James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. This volume collects some of the witty, profound and unfailingly brilliant letters that he exchanged with family, friend…

An ancient island with a romantic history and lush green landscape, Ireland's culture stretches back to the time of St Patrick and the first Christian monks and includes the Norman invasion, clan wars, mass emigration and partitio…

St Patrick is one of the best-known and best-loved saints in the world. His life and legacy is deeply ingrained in Irish history and society, as the annual 17 March celebrations in Ireland and across the globe show. Northern Irela…

At last, Celtic civilization receives a worthy tribute: a gallery of full-color paintings representing culture from ancient artifacts (pagan and Christian) to the contemporary artistic renaissance now underway. The beautiful and m…

On 22 June 1922, Sir Henry Wilson - the former head of the British army and one of those credited with winning the First World War - was shot and killed by two veterans of that war turned IRA members in what was the most significa…

Tom Crean is one of the most iconic figures in Irish history. Born in 1877 in County Kerry, he enlisted in the Royal Navy at the age of sixteen, the start of a career that would bring him to the most extreme environments on Earth.…

The gripping story of the tumultuous destruction of the Irish country house, spanning the revolutionary years of 1912 to 1923 During the Irish Revolution nearly three hundred country houses were burned to the ground. These "Big Ho…

This book situates the history of Trinity College Dublin within the great upheavals and changes that were taking place in Ireland and the wider world in the transformative period between 1912 and 1923. The period saw Trinity and i…

"This book is my attempt to get to know my Uncle Dennie, born in the Mealagh Valley, Bantry in 1901, died in Dublin 1967. The child raised by his grandparents. The older brother who was a sort of uncle to his 16 younger siblings. …

In this fascinating sequel to the ground-breaking publication of Broad Church in 2019, A Broad Church 2 reveals the true history of the Provisional Republican movement in the south of Ireland in the cataclysmic decade of the 1980s…

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 Queen at Buckingham Palace as a debutante in 1958. She trained at Oxfor…

Death is a whisper in the Anglo-Saxon world. But on a remote island, off the coast of County Mayo, it has a louder voice. The local radio station runs a thrice-daily roll-call of the recently departed.The islanders keep vigil with…

The Civil War in Kerry was more brutal, divisive, violent and protracted than in any other county leaving physical, psychological and emotional scars which have lasted for generations. No Middle Path tells the story of this most t…

The focus of this book is an utterly neglected, important figure from the period leading up to the foundation of the Gaelic League and the early years of that movement, Pádraig Ó Laoghaire (1870–1896) from the Béarra Peninsula in …

From near Bantry to Inchigeelagh, on to Macroom, Dripsey and Coachford, all the way north to Millstreet and almost as far as Mallow. Like anywhere else in Cork and Ireland for that matter it’s dotted with murder. Some murders are …

Serial winners and glorious losers, heroes andvillains, trailblazing women, role models and rogues,all are here; so too are audacious sporting founders,enduring legends and forgotten or overlookedgreats. Through a selection of six…

A fascinating history of Irishmen, woven through the clothes they wear. Taking the clothes they wore as a starting point, Paul Galvin skilfully weaves together a collection of stories of Irish men who defined the culture and mood …

n the early 1970s, Sir Maurice Oldfield of the British Secret Service, MI6, embarked upon a decade-long campaign to derail the political career of Charles Haughey. The English spymaster believed Haughey was a Provisional IRA godfa…

With over 400 letters, memos, cards, telegrams, drawings, notes and photographs, The Presidents' Letters reveals a personal and unexpected story of Ireland since the inauguration of our first president, Douglas Hyde. Most of these…