Showing 49–64 of 123 resultsSorted by latest
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€14.95
PJ Kirby and Kevin Twomey are two mammy’s boys from Cork who are always up for a skit. The I’m Grand Mamual is Kevin and PJ’s hilarious and heart-warming ode to their mammies, Phil and Nuala. Taking a different well-worn saying – such as ‘We haven’t died a winter yet’ and ‘Sure, who’d be looking at you anyway?’ – Kevin and PJ recount wild experiences from their lives – from coming out, holidays and money management to dating, hustling and sustainability – where the phrase has rung true, proving that ‘Mam always knows best.
With great humour and middling advice, The I’m Grand Mamual is a big-sisterly companion that proudly celebrates embracing yourself and the uniquely Irish mother-child relationship.
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€24.95
Fall in love with Ireland’s dramatic mountains and rugged coastline in 50 unforgettable hikes. Roz Purcell has been hiking the length and breadth of Ireland for years with her enthusiastic community The Hike Life, exploring the best of what the island has to offer. This book brings to life the beauty and majesty of hiking in Ireland along with practical advice, easy-to-follow route descriptions and a wealth of tips.
In it you’ll find: the ultimate fifty hikes to do on the island of Ireland, from rugged mountains to forest trails and cliff walks; the complete guide to everything you need for a safe and enjoyable hike; dozens of recommendations for pitstops and photo opportunities along the way to turn your hike into a full-day adventure; and breathtaking photography to inspire you to get out there and start hiking.
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€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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€19.95
The sea has always been a part of Nuala Moore’s life: her earliest memory is of jumping off her father’s fishing boat in Dingle Harbour and swimming back to shore. Since then, she’s swum in some of the coldest, most remote and dangerous waters in the world, from the Bering Strait to the Drake Passage. After years of marathon swimming, Nuala struggled to balance sacrifice and achievement.
Her work-life balance, coupled with caring for her father, forced a change in her pathway. She turned to ice swimming. For Nuala, these extreme situations offered freedom and a chance to find her true north.
Nuala believes that everyone is capable of greatness, whatever shape that might take. Limitless is her breathtaking memoir, detailing what goes through her mind when she’s in the water and how, when she returns home, she processes the fallout of pushing herself to the brink.
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€45.00
Every now and again I need to get down here, to get into the Diogenes tub, as it were, or the Colmcille beehive hut, or the Mossbawn scullery. At any rate, a hedge surrounds me, the blackbird calls, the soul settles for an hour or two . . .
For all his public eminence, Seamus Heaney seems never to have lost the compelling need to write personal letters. In this ample but discriminating selection from fifty years of his correspondence, we are given access as never before to the life and poetic development of a literary titan – from his early days in Belfast, through his controversial decision to settle in the Republic, to the gradual broadening of horizons that culminated in the award of a Nobel Prize and the years of international acclaim that kept him heroically busy until his death.
Editor Christopher Reid draws from both public and private archives to reveal this story in the poet’s own words. Generous, funny, exuberant, confiding, irreverent, empathetic and deeply thoughtful, the letters encompass decades-long relationships with friends and colleagues, as well as showing an unstinted responsiveness to passing acquaintances. Moreover, Heaney’s joyous mastery of language is as evident here as it is in any of his writing for a literary readership.
Listening to Heaney’s voice, we find ourselves in the same room as a man whose presence, when he lived, enriched the world immeasurably, and whose legacy continues to deepen our sense of what truly matters.
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€18.95
Alice celebrates the special moments and the everyday blessings of life. Come sit awhile with Alice Taylor. Take a little time out – to rest, to think, or just to be.
Life can race along at a fast pace, sometimes almost stampeding us along with it. What a pity not to slow down and take the time to enjoy little things, or simply doing nothing or chatting with a good friend. Sometimes Alice finds a comfortable place to sit, maybe a low wall, a garden seat or a grassy bank.
A place to let the mind calmdown and let thoughts drift. With this book she invites you to share the special moments of life.
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€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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€17.95
Not long before he died, Michael completed Michael Viney’s Natural World, which he described as ‘a personal popular narrative that gives a lot of my illustrations a further bit of life’. This highly visual publication contains over fifty of Michael’s meticulous illustrations in full colour, accompanied by a personal narrative full of keen insights and observations on nature, our relationship with nature, and a growing awareness of our vulnerability.
‘In the blunders of the Anthropocene, the era of human dominance,’ he writes, ‘we may not be “threatening the planet” – it will carry on without us – but we have affected the Earth’s systems in ways that make our own survival uncomfortable and insecure.’
The foreword is written by his longtime friend, the poet Michael Longley, with whom the Vineys shared this ‘soul-landscape’ for almost half a century. Longley writes of Viney, ‘Born to write, born to draw and paint, this deep-souled creator reconciled poetry and science.’
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€12.00
The Phoenix Park in Dublin holds a special place in the collective memory of Irish people. From the assassinations of 1882 and the destruction of several imperial monuments, to the arrival of Douglas Hyde as Ireland’s first president and Pope John Paul’s 1979 visit, it has been at the centre of Irish society for centuries. But the park is also part and parcel of daily life for many Dubliners – none more so than the Flanagan family, who have been lighting the gas lamps within its walls since 1890.
Here, historian Donal Fallon speaks to brothers Frank and James Flanagan, lamplighters of the park, to give us a snapshot of a fading tradition, and a unique history of one of Ireland’s most beloved places. With stunning photographs, historical events and personal stories, The Lamplighters of the Phoenix Park shines a light on the park at the centre of our national identity, through the prism of this singular family, whose histories have been intertwined for more than 150 years.
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€17.95
Trees mirror in many ways the life cycle of human beings: they are born from seed, they breathe and drink, they grow to maturity, reproduce and eventually die from age or disease. Their branches, roots and the veins of their leaves resemble human blood vessels, and certain species even ooze a reddish, blood-like sap when damaged. From ancient times, people appreciated the spiritual value of trees, singling out individual trees for special veneration. In Ireland the roots of tree worship reach deep into pagan Celtic religion and spirituality.
Christine Zucchelli looks at these trees, from Fairy Thorns to Rag Trees, from Mass Bushes to Monument Trees. This fascinating exploration of their stories and legends reveals their spiritual, social and historical functions from pagan times to the present.
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€19.95
Uncover the secrets of our island in this engrossing look at magical landmarks across the country.
Travelling province by province through Ireland, Manchan outlines the stories most closely associated with each site, focussing on a specific beast or creature from legend and highlighting a magical word or phrase in Irish alongside.
Discover the dobharchu or water hound of Achill Island; the enchanted sow Cailcheir of Sligo’s Keash Caves; the Burren’s ollpheist or great serpent; the Caoranach or hairy worm of Lough Derg; the one-eyed salmon of Ballyshannon; and the man wolves of Ossory, County Kilkenny, amongst many others.
This stunning gift book is a feast for the eyes for Manchan fans of all ages.
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€23.95
A Nation Is Born celebrates a formative period in the history of the Irish state: the fifteen years during which we emerged from the rubble of wars and violence and set up as a fledgling country while establishing a diplomatic presence on the world stage.
The photos presented here have been painstakingly hand-colourised by photographer John O’Byrne, infusing energy into this often-overlooked time: the election of the country’s first governments; the mammoth Shannon hydroelectric scheme; a stunning Eucharistic Congress; scenes of cottage industry and rural Irish life; and ending with the uncertain rumblings of war in Europe.
With over 150 photographs gathered from archives around the country, accompanied by insightful and accessible commentary by historian Michael B. Barry, A Nation Is Born brings a fresh perspective on our history and our past to life in a compellingly real way.
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€23.95
The follow-up to The Pawnbroker’s Reward, his bestselling 2021 novel, Declan O’Rourke’s second instalment sees the inhabitants of Macroom and its surroundings landed squarely into the eye of the storm that is 1847, during Ireland’s Great Famine. After the landslide of their descent through 1846, Padraig and Cait Ua Buachalla awaken on the outskirts of Macroom to a new year fraught with the worst of weather, worse luck and a new level of problems that compound their desperate struggle to survive. In the heart of town, in the absence of her husband the pawnbroker, Paulellen Creed struggles to stay afloat.
Follow this heart-wrenching story of tragedy and human beauty as, through the voices of Macroom in 1847, we hear a whisper from oblivion.
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€16.50
As the middle of five kids growing up in dire poverty, the odds were low on Katriona O’Sullivan making anything of her life. When she became a mother at 15 and ended up homeless, what followed were five years of barely coping.
This is the extraordinary story – moving, funny, brave, and sometimes startling – of how Katriona turned her life around. How the seeds of self-belief planted by teachers in childhood stayed with her. How she found mentors whose encouragement revived those seeds in adulthood.
Katriona is now an award-winning lecturer whose work challenges barriers to education. Poor is her stirring argument for the importance of looking out for our kids’ futures. Of giving them hope, practical support and meaningful opportunities.
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€22.95
A fascinating new book celebrating Ireland’s rich tradition of folk cures, medicines and charms.
It’s said that almost everyone in Ireland, particularly in rural communities, will know of someone with a ‘cure’. It might be for the mumps, a stye in the eye, or a sprain. Indeed the author of Cures of Ireland, Cecily Gilligan was herself cured of jaundice and ringworm by a ‘seventh son’ in her local Sligo during her childhood.
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 possess these mystical cures, and those who have benefited from their gifts. One has a cure for eczema that comprises herbal butter balls, another ‘buys’ warts from the sufferer with safety pins. There are stories of clay from graves with precious healing properties and pieces of cords from potato bags being sent across the world to treat asthma.
While the Ireland of the twenty-first century continues to develop at lightning speed, there is something deeply comforting and reassuring in the fact that these ancient healing traditions, while fewer in number, do survive to this day.
Cures of Ireland is an exquisite book that will be treasured by many generations to come.
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€50.00
Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann – Musicians and Senior Ceili Band Winners 1951-2021
Philip Duffy is uniquely qualified to perform this invaluable task of chronicling the history of ceili bands. His own musical ability, his longstanding involvement in ceili bands, his vast experience of performance in Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann, and his deep understanding of the traditional music community at home and abroad all contribute to the depth and empathy of this book.
‘On the Night’ will be enjoyed by many different readers – the family member who wants to learn about their sibling or parent or relation who played with a band from the beginning; the local music enthusiast tracing the evolution of their favourite ceili band; the student of ethnomusicology intent on working out the origins and development of ceili music performance and competition; and the current ceili band members seeking to understand the heritage that has been handed down to them and who now play their own part in gifting this unique native art form on to the next generation.
