The O’Brien Press launched its first publication in November 1974. Me Jewel and Darlin' Dublin, written by Éamonn MacThomáis and published while the author was in jail, was an immediate success and has become a classic.

Full of historical facts, anecdotes and Dublin wit, this book evokes the spirit, the characters and colours, the sights, sounds and even the smells of old Dublin. With sections on markets, pawn shops, street characters, the Liberties, slang and wit of Dublin’s newspapers, the city’s history is traced right back to Brian Boru, the Huguenots, ‘the debtors’ prison', and Dublin's troubled history of risings and revolutions.