Irish Interest

Showing 33–48 of 125 results

Frog Routes, Polka-Dot Newts
€22.95
Description
Beneath our feet, in our hedgerows, trees and under our seas lies a complex community of beings that goes unseen and unheard by us humans. Soil is the stuff of life itself, bustling with microbes, fungi, beetles and earthworms that soften seeds, nurture saplings and provide all the potential for spring’s bounty. Ferns, primroses, wild violet and canopy leaves of overhead trees are the framework for the hidden power behind a butterfly wing or the singing of a wren.

Here, Anja Murray fills us with wonder for the wonderful world of Ireland’s wild plants and animals through the seasons. From fungi to the origins of feral pigeons, primroses to sea turtles, each piece contains elements of science, history and folklore. Witness the extraordinary mating rituals of frogs and hares.

Discover the incredible secret language of mice in their epic daily battle to survive and avoid capture with the swoop of the sparrowhawk.

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From Malin Head to Mizen Head
€22.95
The Sea Area Forecast is broadcast daily on RTE 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 as the Angelus.

Acting as a gentle morning wake-up call and a soothing bedtime lullaby, it transports us to faraway places and describes weather patterns we can’t comprehend. From Mizen Head to Malin, Valentia to Loop Head, and Carlingford Lough to Hook Head – rising or falling slowly, backing south-east to north-east or veering south-to-south-west – it has a unique language all of its own, but what does it all mean? Here, meteorologist Joanna Donnelly takes readers on a journey around Ireland’s Sea Area Forecast, visiting the places that are a familiar part of the daily broadcast and explaining its unique history, language and science.

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Gaeilge i mo Chroi
€19.95
Description

How do you feel about embracing Ireland’s native tongue? At odds after a tricky relationship at school? Maybeyou’ve given up, or don’t know where to start?Well, is fada an bóthar nach mbíonn casadh ann – long is the road that has no turn and, in this book, the road is about to turn. Molly Nic Céile – creator of social media sensation for Irish-language learners and lovers Gaeilge i Mo Chroí – invites us to connect with Irish in our hearts, as we set out on a journey of renewed pride sa Ghaeilge. Using seanfhocail agus scéalta, proverbs and stories, and with plenty of craic along the way – including the hilarious ‘if Irish were English’ approach to better understanding sentence structure – the book offers guidance on bringing Irish into our everyday lives, supported by useful word and phrase glossaries throughout.

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Gaeilge inar Saol – Irish in our Lives
€18.95
Description

‘I’d love to speak more Irish.’Sound familiar?Níl tú i d’aonar – you’re not alone. Irish is experiencing an exciting revitalisation, and it’s finding its voice sa saol laethúil – in everyday life – once more. Now, following the success of the award-winning Gaeilge i Mo Chroí, author Molly Nic Céile returns with Gaeilge inár Saol, a practical, empowering guide to bring Gaeilge into our lives gach lá le muinín – every day with confidence.

From life’s defining moments like saolú, pósadh agus bás – birth, marriage and death – to festivities like Nollaig and Oíche Shamhna, to everyday situations – texting friends, flirting or chatting sa teach tábhairne – here you’ll learn to weave Gaeilge naturally into your day. Full of simple tips and confidence-building exercises, Gaeilge inár Saol teaches us to bí glórach agus bródúil – loud and proud – and full of inspiration to join an athbheochan, the revival, and make Irish a living, breathing part of daily life.

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Good Mercy
€15.00
Story of the Troubles in Boyle.

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Great Hatred
€13.50
A gripping investigation into one of Irish history’s greatest mysteries, Great Hatred reveals the true story behind one of the most significant political assassinations to ever have been committed on British soil.

‘Heart-stopping . . . The book is both forensic and a page-turner, and ultimately deeply tragic, for Ireland as much as for the murder victim.‘ MICHAEL PORTILLO

On 22 June 1922, Sir Henry Wilson – the former head of the British army and one of those credited with winning the First World War – was shot and killed by two veterans of that war turned IRA members in what was the most significant political murder to have taken place on British soil for more than a century.

His assassins were well-educated and pious men. One had lost a leg during the Battle of Passchendaele. Shocking British society to the core, the shooting caused consternation in the government and almost restarted the conflict between Britain and Ireland that had ended with the Anglo-Irish Treaty just five months earlier.

Wilson’s assassination triggered the Irish Civil War, which cast the darkest of shadows over the new Irish State. Who ordered the killing? Why did two English-born Irish nationalists kill an Irish-born British imperialist? What was Wilson’s role in the Northern Ireland government and the violence which matched the intensity of the Troubles fifty years later? Why would Michael Collins, who risked his life to sign a peace treaty with Great Britain, want one of its most famous soldiers dead, and how did the Wilson assassination lead to Collins’ tragic death in an ambush two months later?

Drawing upon newly released archival material and never-before-seen documentation, Great Hatred is a revelatory work that sheds light on a moment that changed the course of Irish and British history for ever.

‘McGreevy provides more than the anatomy of a political murder; in reconstructing this era of blood, poverty and wartime trauma, he also gives full expression to the terrible forces that WB Yeats once called the “fanatic heart” and the “great hatred”.‘ THE TIMES

‘Thoughtful and well-researched . . . an important and valuable addition to the library of the Irish Revolution.‘PROFESSOR DIARMAID FERRITER, University College Dublin

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Great Irish Wives
€19.95
Description

Throughout history, the stories of women’s lives and work have been overshadowed by those of men. Wives, especially, disappear, unacknowledged as patrons and champions of their husband’s work, as collaborators, muses, carers and managers of the family domain. 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.

The men in this book are household names, from Wolfe Tone and Daniel O’Connell to Oscar Wilde and BrendanBehan, and they all have one thing in common: they married women who enabled them to pursue their dreams,even if that meant courting death or outrage. Nicola Pierce tells the stories of these truly remarkable women

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Great Moments in Gaelic Football
€19.95
New, updated edition. Gaelic football is Ireland’s native sport. Fast, physical, athletic and driven by local and national rivalries, it is a unique part of our heritage.

Ray McManus and his team at Sportsfile are as passionate as all true sports fans, and have been taking photographs for over forty years. They have been at All Ireland finals, of course, but also at club matches throughout the land. With reminiscences from photographers and players alike, this book is a look back over the decades at the legendary players, matches and moments that have contributed to the narrative of one of the world’s most exciting sports.

A must for Gaelic Football fans wherever they are. First published in 2016, this edition includes the return to crowds at matches after the pandemic, Mayo ending Dublin’s historic run, and Tyrone’s ascent to the top step of the podium.

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Hagstone
€16.50
The sea is steady for now. The land readies itself. What can be done with the woman on the cliff?On a wild and rugged island cut off and isolated to some, artist Nell feels the island is her home.It is the source of inspiration for her art, rooted in landscape, folklore and the feminine. The mysterious Inions, a commune of women who have travelled there from all over the world, consider it a place of refuge and safety, of solace in nature.All the islanders live alongside the strange murmurings that seem to emanate from within the depths of the island, a sound that is almost supernatural – a Summoning as the Inions call it. One day, a letter arrives at Nell’s door from the reclusive Inions who invite Nell into the commune for a commission to produce a magnificent art piece to celebrate their long history.In its creation, Nell will discover things about the community and about herself that will challenge everything she thought she knew.Beautifully written, prescient and eerily haunting, Sinead Gleeson’s debut novel takes in the darker side of human nature and the mysteries of faith and the natural world.

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Hidden People
€12.00
Set against the dramatic landscape of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic coast Joe Mc Gowan’s stories in The Hidden People examine and illuminate the complexities and passions of family life, communities and the human heart. Ranging from the intricacies of village life in Cold War in Killawaddy to the thrilling climax of the story of an Irish emigrant in Vietnam, these tales reveal a sometimes whimsical, sometimes tragic, and always unequalled, insight into village life and the Irish character.

Joe McGowan is already renowned for his brilliantly researched books on folk history in the West of Ireland. In this collection he brings another dimension to his historical writing with a powerful and engaging perspective on life in rural Ireland.

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Hungry
€18.95
Hungry is the powerful new memoir from Number One bestselling author Katriona O’Sullivan – a raw, courageous exploration of survival, identity and the lifelong search for self-acceptance. Raised in a home marked by poverty, addiction and abuse, Katriona defied the odds: from teenage motherhood struggling with her own addictions to becoming a university professor and successful author. But beneath the achievements lay a more private struggle – with her body, her worth, and the unrelenting drive to be enough.

In this fiercely honest memoir, she interrogates how trauma, class and gender shape the way women see themselves – and how society teaches them to measure their value. Told with stunning courage and vulnerability, Hungry is both a personal reckoning and a powerful reclaiming of body, voice and self. It is one woman’s story – and a rallying cry for every woman who has ever felt she had to shrink to survive.

‘Soaring with compassion, intelligence and hard-won wisdom. Ireland’s most important contemporary voice.’LOUISE KENNEDY, author of Trespasses’Amazing. I couldn’t put it down.’ELAINE FEENEY, author of As You Were’Every woman needs to read this book. Every man needs to read this book.’EDEL COFFEY, author of In Her Place’

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I Loved Him From the Day He Died
€9.95
Description

‘I wanted him to be someone he wasn’t. I wanted me to be someone I wasn’t.’A stunning new book from the number one bestselling, award-winning author of All the Things Left Unsaid and Staring at Lakes. To mark his 70th birthday Michael Harding travelled to Spain and walked the Camino de Santiago.

Yet, as he set off on his pilgrimage, he found he wasn’t alone. Accompanying him on his 126-kilometre walk in theheat of the Spanish sun was the ghost of his long-dead father, a distant and aloof figure whom he lost when he was only twenty-two years old. Here, with searing honesty and beautifully wrought prose, Harding examines how this man, who had diedalmost half a century ago, could have had such a profound effect on the writer’s life.

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I Will Be Good
€18.50
Meet Peig McManus, an unforgettable Dublin character whose story will make you laugh and cry. Her memoir of a 1940s’ childhood is recounted with candour and wit, as she describes her early years in the last of the city’s tenements, under the shadow of the Second World War. Even in the midst of sorrow, as the ravages of poverty and tuberculosis prevailed, there was always singing and laughter.

Peig recalls happy family gatherings in their tenement rooms before their way of life was shattered when the slums were cleared, making way for the migration of inner-city families to Dublin’s new suburbs. Peig learned early about class distinction, chastity and shame, and fought against social prejudice to become one of Ireland’s foremost campaigners for educational reform. But a quiet sorrow lay at the heart of her life, one which could not be hidden forever.

Now, in her eighties, Peig shares her story: an inspiring journey through the trials and triumphs of a remarkableIrish woman who refused to do what she was told.

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In My Own Words
€24.95
Born in Sligo into a family of travelling entertainers, Sandy Kelly has become one of the top musical performers in Ireland. Sandy was co-opted into the family variety show from an early age. As a teenager she sang on the social club circuit in the UK, playing an ever more prominent role.

When she returned to Ireland, she developed initially as a pop performer before following her instincts and concentrating on a music career. Her landmark 1989 recording of the Patsy Cline hit ‘Crazy’ led her to perform on stages all over the world, including the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and the lead role in Patsy – The Musical in London’s West End. But the music industry can be a tough place.

Sandy has dealt with prejudice and financial pressures. Alongside the glamour of show business, she has experienced the heartaches of divorce, family illness and death, and faced the challenges of raising a daughter with special needs. Sandy has stood strong at the heart of Ireland’s music scene for over four decades.

Here, for the first time, she recounts the highs – and lows – of a lifetime in music, in her own words.

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In Nearly Every House
€20.00
This book contains biographies along with
black and white photographs featuring
over one hundred traditional musicians
from counties Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon
and Mayo. Through the author’s unique
personal and musical connection to the
musicians of the North Connacht region,
he uses a conversational interview style to
draw out their stories, revealing both the
individual and collective experience within
that tradition.

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Ireland in Iceland
€25.00
In this richly illustrated journey, Manchán Magan traces the forgotten presence of the Irish in Iceland; monks and migrants, storytellers and shapeshifters who helped shape a land we’ve long imagined as purely Norse.

Through language, lore, place names, DNA, and landscape, Magan uncovers the traces of Gaelic life woven through Iceland’s sagas and stones. With curiosity and care, this book reveals how two island nations, once deeply connected, share more than we’ve been taught to remember. Ireland in Iceland offers a new perspective on ancestry, belonging, and the lasting traces of culture carried across oceans.

Ireland in Iceland is the second in a series of illustrated books Manchán is publishing with Mayo Books Press, exploring cultural similarities and resonances between Ireland, India, Iceland, and the Aboriginal cultures of Australia. Ireland in Iceland is illustrated by Aodh Ó Riagáin/ Oreganillo.

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