Irish Non-Fiction

ver the years, the GAA and its people have weathered many storms. But whenever there's a threat, this is when the GAA comes together to look after their own. AFTER THE STORM: How the GAA Found New Hope tells the story of the bigge…

For over 130 years the GAA has been at the heart of Irish life. Now, in The People's Games, John Scally tells the compelling stories of the men and women behind the rich history of Gaelic Games. Since the introduction of televisio…

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…

Memoir Of An Irish Jew is the story of Lionel Cohen, who was born in 1922 into a Jewish family in Cork. Lionel served in the Irish Army, the British Merchant Navy, the Israeli Army and in the fledgling Israeli Merchant Navy. He re…

This is the gripping inside story of Ireland's bankrupt billionaire, Sean Quinn, who went from rags to riches before gambling it all on Anglo-Irish Bank shares and became the world's biggest personal loser of the economic collapse…

THE PHENOMENAL MEMOIR OF A NATIONAL TREASUREAfter Kellie Harrington won gold at the Tokyo Olympics, the Irish public recognized her as not merely a sporting hero, but a deeply inspirational human being. Now, Kellie tells the story…

A poignant and introspective memoir from Irish journalist and broadcaster Charlie Bird. In 2021, Charlie Bird was diagnosed with motor neurone disease - a man whose voice was so synonymous with his career faced losing it completel…

John Redmond and Edward Carson remain two of the biggest names in modern Irish history. At the peak of their careers as senior members of the British parliament, they were locked together in combat over Home Rule. Divided by the u…

Memoirs can be boring, covering the same old ground, telling essentially the same old stories. Not this one. Herbie Brennan began a lifelong career as a writer at the age of 18. He worked as a journalist, a magazine editor, an adv…

Set around a small family farm on the edge of a bog, a few miles from the river Shannon, Minor Monuments is a collection of essays unfolding from the landscape of the Irish midlands. Taking in the physical and philo- sophical powe…

When they were in their twenties, Niall Williams and Christine Breen made the impulsive decision to leave New York City and move to Christine's ancestral home in the town of Kiltumper in rural Ireland. In the decades that followed…

In 2019, Gwen Wilkinson set herself the challenge of building a canoe and paddling it the length of Ireland, along a network of inland waterways. She set out from the shores of Lough Erne and navigated a 400km journey to the tidal…

From war to revolution, famine to emigration, The Darkness Echoing travels around Ireland bringing its dark past to lifeIt's no secret that the Irish are obsessed with misery, suffering and death. And no wonder, for there is darkn…

Forestry in Ireland has never been so contentious. It is the subject of protests outside parliament and angry call-in radio shows. Over the last century the area of Irish woodland has increased tenfold, mostly through the planting…

Full-colour, handy guide to more than 50 of the most popular film and TV locations in Ireland. Striking images and detailed descriptions allow for a comprehensive guide to Ireland's most recognisable filming sites in a convenient,…

For decades the British and Irish had 'got used to' a situation without parallel in Europe: a cold, ferocious, persistent campaign of bombing and terror of extraordinary duration and inventiveness. At the heart of that campaign li…

Claire Walsh spent her twenties living the life she thought she was supposed to live, all the while playing hide and seek with depression. As a result, the road to recovery was the only travelling she did. Aged 32, single and livi…

Stories from the lives of some of Ireland’s greatest sports stars. From the highs of lifting trophies and overcoming the impossible, to the lows of battling injury and facing defeat, these are inspiring stories written in plain En…

Explore new places with handy pocket maps from Collins. Handy full-colour map of Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way with a high level of detail. Clear mapping of the full 2500 km (over 1500 miles) route, showing the road network and plac…

Every day a beloved father dies. Every day a lover departs. Every day a woman turns forty.All three happening together brings a moment of reckoning. Medieval historian Elizabeth Boyle made sense of these events the best way she k…

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…

For over thirty years, David McDonald worked in Ireland's biggest prisons. This is his story. As a young officer, McDonald got a baptism of fire in Mountjoy. In 1989 it was a chaotic, pungent and overcrowded place, and the approac…

Ireland in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was not a good place to be a woman. Among the wave of emigrants from Ireland to North America were many, many young women who travelled on their own, hoping for a better life…

Lydia Little tells the story of her extraordinary brother, Fergus O’Farrell, by bringing the reader through an intimate, raw account of his wake and funeral – all the while carrying the secret of how he really died. Fergus was the…

Daragh Fleming’s honest portrayal of mental health, wellbeing and recovery opens with a quote from Seneca, Moral Letters that states: ‘I will keep constant watch over myself.’ Throughout Fleming’s ‘Lonely Boy’, loss, friendship an…

Diary of An Activist is a social activism memoir journeying through vegetarianism, anti-nuclear and CND protests, feminist and queer activism, lesbian parties, coming out and becoming a parent. It features quirky Cork locations li…

Mountaineering Ireland is delighted to announce that Irish Peaks, our new guide to hillwalking on Ireland’s highest mountains, is now available direct from Mountaineering Ireland. Irish Peaks is a large-format book, celebrating Ir…

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 …

In A Natural Year, critically acclaimed travel writer Michael Fewer celebrates the everyday wonder of Irish nature in these beautifully written diaries, observed from his homes in south Dublin and rural Waterford, in which he deli…

Twelve birds. One country. A wild Ireland waiting to be discovered. In Ireland Through Birds, Conor O'Brien takes the reader on an ornithological adventure around Ireland in search of twelve of our rarest and most elusive birds. A…