Irish Non-Fiction

At his son's fifth birthday party, Joseph Maloney was alleged to have poisoned his wife. While awaiting trial in the psychiatric wing of a Rochester hospital, he escaped and vanished. Years later, a charming stranger calling himse…

The unheard voice of Seán Lemass - 22 hours of lost interviews reveal the private thoughts of Ireland's most transformative taoiseach. Lemass never left any papers or an autobiography. Instead, he gave 22 hours of interviews to an…

Cecily Gilligan has been researching the rich world of Irish folk cures for almost forty years and, given the tradition has largely been an oral one, has been interviewing a broad range of people from around the country who posses…

In the aftermath of the Rising an outpouring of poetry also expressed the shock and grief of literary figures such as Padraic Colum, Francis Ledwidge, Eva Gore-Booth, James Stephens, Dora Sigerson Shorter and Seán O’Casey. Rebels,…

In 1983 an off-duty prison officer was shot by the IRA in cold blood on a Dublin street. Over 40 years later, no one has been convicted of his murder. In this book, his son outlines why justice must be done.Brian Stack was the chi…

Dead as Doornails, first published in 1976, brings back into print a true classic of Irish memoir. Anthony Cronin’s account of life in post-war literary Dublin is as funny and colourful as one would expect from an intimate of Bren…

They may be coated in layers of myth and pious anecdote but dig deep enough and the pioneering leaders of Celtic Christianity are revealed as reassuringly human individuals, responding to their faith by deliberately living on the …

Writing well over a thousand years ago, the Celtic saints and their followers who penned them reflected not just the cares and concerns of their own times, but also gave voice to the universal human experience – the hopes, fears, …

No Irish sportsperson has had more written and said about him. None has had more of substance to say for himself. Across nearly four tumultuous decades, from callow teen prospect to grey bearded influencer, Roy Keane has transcend…

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…

BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR 2025 - AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDSA shocking true story of heartbreak and survival by Sarah Corbett Lynch, daughter of Jason Corbett - an Irish Times Number 1 bestseller and the subject of NETFLIX documentary A…

After hosting a birthday pub crawl across several historic real ale pubs in London, Thomas J. Vosper was inundated with requests from friends to make it a regular occurrence, he compiled handy guides that have taken social media b…

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…

Garry Bannister returns with another user-friendly guide for those of all ages who want to speak Irish with strangers, friends and family. Easy conversations in IrishPrepare for your Leaving Cert oralConversations in Ulster dialec…

Whether raising a glass or spinning a yarn, the Irish have long had a way with words - and this delightful volume celebrates that rich tradition. Packed with clever quips, classic one-liners, lyrical blessings and colourful anecdo…

In Ireland, the art of conversation / crua-chaint is highly valued. We like to 'put a skin on a story' / craiceann a chur ar scéal because words are not just words to us. They are alive, carrying echoes of where they’ve been and t…

Brimming with evocative quotes, intriguing facts and delightful trivia, this pocket-sized gem raises a glass to Ireland's legendary brew. The Little Guide to Guinness takes you on a fascinating journey through time - from the rema…

A hill that cars roll up. A bridge that plays music. A chair to cure madness.An underworld gateway. Bizarre foods, films, phrases and creatures. Welcome to weird Ireland.In a journey across the island, Brinsley McNamara - curator …

FOREWORD by former Ireland fly half Ollie Campbell. 'In a world going all too fast, Peter Bills has the time, the wit and the attention to detail for stories that would otherwise be lost. His is an easy style, a remembering of tim…

Tom Leahy hails from Ballythooly in North Cork. He is one of Ireland's most decorated Paralympians, winning a total of eight medals at the Paralympic Games. He is now a full-time artist, with his paintings appearing in many public…

Remarkably honest, brutally heroic and darkly humorous memoir following a devastating diagnosis of early onset Parkinson's disease. Twitch is a frank and funny memoir about picking up the pieces when personal tragedy hits. In 2021…

Acclaimed wildlife author Conor W. O’Brien travels the country in search of Ireland’s extinct wildlife and our greatest conservation success stories.

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…

SWERVE publishes vibrant and fresh writing and visual art from Ireland in both print and digital formats. We also invite international artists and writers to contribute.

Betsy Cornwell left home with her baby on his first birthday, checking into a hotel under a false name so her husband could not track them down. Over the long months of housing insecurity that followed, bouncing around cheap motel…

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…

A celebration of all things Irish, packed with quotes and trivia on folklore, history, celebrities and cultural highlights from the Emerald IsleWhy do we love Ireland? For some of us, it's the lush, green countryside. For others, …

The kitchen table is at the centre of Irish life - a place we gather in good times and bad, to find comfort, nourishment and good conversation. Eunice Power's My Irish Kitchen Table is a celebration of that space, and the role of …

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;…

In this sequel to the explosive bestseller Crooks, Paul Williams reveals the inside stories behind more of his biggest scoops. Beginning with a sex scandal that rocked the Catholic Church, Crooks 2 shows us the personal side of so…