Irish Non-Fiction

In the twenty-first century there are two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland, and two very different heads of state represent the populations of Ireland and Northern Ireland respectively: the elected presidency of the republic…

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 Chief-of-Staff and second-in-command to James Connolly in th…

I have become the common myth. Mother. The sleepy hum of early memories.The smell of shampoo, of Olay, of lavender. The feeling of safety. The absence of fear.When poet Alice Kinsella becomes a mother, she finds herself utterly lo…

By turning off the main highway and discovering old routes, some of which have been travelled for thousands of years, you will see Ireland in an entirely different way. Follow the Old Road will take you on a tour of a variety of p…

After a forty-year career in the gardaí Christy Mangan knows how hard it is to solve a murder. Now, in Cracking the Case, he takes a deep dive into how investigations are run.The book includes infamous and iconic cases such as tha…

Laura de Barra, queen of the home hack, is here to help you shop for, care for and repair your clothes. New or vintage, online or high street – Laura has the tips that will ensure you buy right to begin with and maintain well for …

The first volume of Tim Robinson's Connemara trilogy, Listening to the Wind, covered Robinson's home territory of Roundstone and environs. The Last Pool of Darkness moves into wilder territory: the fjords, cliffs, hills and island…

In its landscape, history and folklore, Connemara is a singular region: ill-defined geographically, and yet unmistakably a place apart from the rest of Ireland. Tim Robinson, who established himself as Ireland's most brilliant liv…

In this gripping memoir, Eamonn Mallie takes us on an extraordinary journey through his life as a journalist in Northern Ireland. From the frontlines of the Troubles to the corridors of power, Mallie’s fearless reporting and unrel…

Irish fairy tales and legends are full of enchantment, brave deeds and lost loves. Told from generation to generation, they are as fascinating now as they were to their original listeners. This wonderfully rich and varied collecti…

Niall Mac Coitir brings to life the myths, legends and folklore associated with native Irish trees, much of which persists to this day. Two main themes emerge: the tree as a market of important places such as royal sites or holy w…

Cork has long been an important hub for international trade, including the lucrative transatlantic routes. This wealth is reflected in the city's fine architecture, which boasts a wide variety of styles, from Neoclassical to Gothi…

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…

In Money Made Easy, Paul Merriman, founder of financial advisory service askpaul, presents practical advice that will transform your relationship with money. With easy-to-follow insights and tips on: how to change your mindset whe…

When Karina Molloy took early retirement from the Irish army in 2012, she left behind a trailblazing career spanning over three decades.For the first woman to ever reach the Senior Non-Commissioned Officer rank, however, that trai…

In the early 1870s, an Irish cop named Thomas Byrnes developed new ways to catch criminals. Yet as policing became ever more specialised and efficient, crime itself began to change. Robberies became bolder and more elaborate, murd…

When Kerri and her partner M moved to a small, remote railway cottage in the heart of Ireland they were looking for a home, somewhere to stay put. What followed was a year unlike any other. Cacophony of Bone maps the circle of tha…

The Sea Area Forecast is broadcast daily on RTÉ radio at 6 a.m. and midnight. Foretelling fair days or fierce storms coming in across our seas, it has become a national institution - its hypnotic, rhythmic language as reassuring a…

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…

"There followed a blue flash accompanied by a ver y bright magnesium-type flare … Then came a frighteningly loud but rather flat explosion, which was followed by a blast of hot air … All this was followed by eerie silence..." This…

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…

Six years after the National Gallery of Ireland was opened in 1864, the Governors and Guardians, at the suggestion of the then Director of the Gallery, Henry Doyle, decided to form a collection of Irish National Portraits. The imp…

From the author of the bestselling Motherfoclóir, Non-fiction Irish Book of the Year. What do we talk about when we talk about Irish? When we talk about saving or supporting a language do we mean the musical combination of syllab…

Have the craic while creating over 6 million uniquely Irish insults to mock the eejits in your life without causing ructions. Has an awful shitehawk ever tried to get smart with ye? Is some useless yoke always wrecking your head? …

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.

Marking the centenary of Yeats’s Nobel Prize, a timely guide to the work of Ireland’s national poet and the changing Ireland he lived through.

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…

RTÉ Radio 1’s Sunday Miscellany is an Irish institution, a programme that has provided comfort, joy and entertainment to hundreds of thousands of listeners for over half a century. Arranged in calendar months and spanning the seas…

In every province and county in Ireland, GAA grounds are cornerstones of culture and community. They are imbued with history and their terraces echo with the sounds of decades, even centuries, of spirited sporting battles. In this…

Join photographer George Munday on a tour around the eccentric, beautiful, bizarre and eye-catching follies that decorate our island. Ireland possesses a wealth of follies - picturesque buildings erected to commemorate loved ones,…