Irish Historic Biography

Beautifully crafted with fact and fiction both playing their role, The Sailor and the Seamstress is a tender tale of joy and sorrow, life and loss and a courage and strength that endures no matter what.

The unheard voice of Seán Lemass - 22 hours of lost interviews reveal the private thoughts of Ireland's most transformative taoiseach

This book addresses the dearth of information about the life and music of the twentieth-century Irish composer, Ina Boyle. . .

Dead as Doornails, first published in 1976, is widely considered a defining classic of Irish literary memoir. Anthony Cronin’s account of life in post-war literary Dublin is as wry, funny and colourful as one would expect from an intimate of Brendan Behan, Patrick Kavanagh and Flann O’Brien

The execution of IRA leader Rory O’Connor on 8 December 1922, along with Liam Mellows, Dick Barrett and Joe McKelvey, marked a bitter turning point in the Irish Civil War and remains one of the most infamous episodes in modern Irish history.

When James Ryan finally retired from public life in 1969, the then Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, observed that Ryan’s life ‘could well provide material for an absorbing and exciting book’. It has taken some time for such a work to emerge, but this book finally gives recognition to James Ryan and his role in the making of independent Ireland.

Drawing on extensive documentary research, Parnell’s Other Island uncovers the complex interplay between Parnell’s Irish nationalism and his life within British society. It argues that his years in England, at once a source of inspiration, conflict, and tragedy, were as vital to his political formation as his Irish roots. 

This fully-illustrated and authorised history marks 50 years of Ireland’s most ground-breaking and successful theatre company. Founded in 1975, Druid is a touring theatre company, anchored in the West of Ireland and looking to the world.

A nostalgic look back at stories that mattered through correspondence with the iconic Gay Byrne radio show.

The two opposing political figures that shaped Irish life in the 1980s and beyond. In the 1980s, Irish politics was dominated by a fierce rivalry between Charles J. Haughey and Dr Garret FitzGerald, both leaders of their respective parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

AN POST BOOK AWARDS. SHORTLISTED FOR HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025

Fifty years on from the Miami Showband Massacre, their bass player, Stephen Travers, faces his trauma to reconnect with his younger self.

Great Irish Wives shines a spotlight on ten such wives: Matilda Tone, Mary O’Connell, Constance Wilde, Charlotte Shaw, Emily Shackleton, Annette Carson, Sinéad de Valera, Margaret Clarke, George Yeats and Beatrice Behan.

AN POST BOOK AWARDS. WINNER OF THE HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025

A gripping deep-dive into the legacy of Sir Hugh Tudor, Churchill’s trusted military man who oversaw the violent repression of Irish revolutionaries through the notorious Black and Tans.

This tells the story of Captain Connie Mackey, Defender of Ireland's Alamo, at the siege of the Republican held Strand Barracks in Limerick during the Irish Civil War in 1922.

In 1994, Mary Attenborough’s life is upended when her partner Michael Gallagher is arrested, accused of playing a role in the IRA mortar attack on Heathrow Airport. Unbroken is the gripping true story of a couple whose love endured under the most unthinkable circumstances.

In the late 1980s Horslips lyricist and drummer Eamon Carr began his journalistic career by conducting interviews with an eclectic mix of famous people. Pure Gold is a treasure trove of conversations that will remain with the reader long after the book is closed.

The unforgettable story of Ireland’s greatest unsung hero, Tom Crean, in graphic novel form. Tom Crean, the teenage son of a poor Kerry farmer, ran away from home in 1893 to seek adventure, and became a major figure in three pioneering expeditions to the unexplored Antarctic.

An Irishman’s Story of Survival on the Death Railway.

Ballybunion to the River Kwai is the remarkable story of Don Kennedy’s harrowing experience as an Irish prisoner of war under the Japanese from 1942–45. 

An Aran Keening commemorates both the immortality of youth, in all its courage, folly and quick tenderness of heart, and the passing of a world.

'The men who have gone before us have left us a heritage to be proud of; and we feel our own contribution has been for the good.' Seamus Murphy, from the preface to Stone Mad.