Irish Biography

A book about the implications of an unreformed Sinn Fein, still controlled by the rump of the IRA, entering into the government of the Republic of Ireland.

The Deep End by novelist Mary Rose Callaghan tells of growing up in Dublin from the mid-1940s in a once well-off family fallen on hard times and forced at times to struggle with extreme poverty.

In 1943, 32 Irish POWs refused a Gestapo request to work for Germany. They were sent to a labour camp, where they were starved, beaten and forced to dig the foundations for a Nazi super-structure. This is the gripping story of Harry Callan's capture, resistance and liberation and his quest to honour the forgotten heroes of Bunker Valentin.

A fascinating account of a community that searched for a new way of living in West Cork, Ireland.

In the storytelling style of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, an unforgettable story of an abandoned child, a search for a mother, and the uncovering of a national scandal in 1930s' Ireland.

Why did they call Glenn Gannon the ‘miracle man’? Because, unlike most of his contemporaries, Glenn survived an avalanche of adversity in a rollercoaster life and emerged to become a playwright, composer and actor on the silver screen. This amazing memoir, a cocktail of human horror laced with humour, sees Glenn eventually triumph against all the odds. It is a modern parable for the marginalised, a story full of hope, spirit and compassion told in a beautiful lyrical style.

A young Listowel girl who happens to impress the world famous industrialist JP Morgan, with her cooking skills, while working in a hotel in Waterville, County Kerry, has her life transformed. Kathy Buckley travels to America to cook for Morgan and many other high powered families, before reaching the high point of her culinary career when she became the cook for three Presidents in the White House.

A first-person saga, recounting one man's life but relating the experience of many. Mike Carney, the oldest living native Blasket Islander, left in 1937 to seek a better future in Dublin and eventually America. This memoir is the last of a long line of books written by Blasket Islanders, incl Tomas O'Crohan, Micheal O'Sulleabhain and Peig Sayers.