Irish Interest

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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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Translations of Seamus Heaney
€22.50
Heaney not only translated classic works of Latin and Old English but also poems from a great number of ancient and modern European languages, not least translations from the Old, Middle and Modern Irish of his homeland. The breadth and depth in evidence here is extraordinary – from monastic hymns and prayers, to the civic and familial tragedies of Sophocles and Kochanowski; from Virgil and Dante’s living underworld to the stark landscapes of Sweeney’s Ireland.

As editor, Marco Songzogni frames the translations with the poet’s own writings on his works. Collectively these bring us closer to an understanding of the genius for interpretation and transformation that distinguished Heaney as one of the great poet-translators of all time.

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Limitless
€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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The Letters of Seamus Heaney
€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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Come Sit Awhile
€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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Sacred Trees Of Ireland
€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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A Nation is Born
€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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A Whisper from Oblivion
€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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Poor
€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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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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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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The Turning Tide
€23.50
The Turning Tide is a hymn to a sea passage of world-historical importance. Combining social and cultural history, nature-writing, travelogue and politics, Jon Gower charts a sea which has carried both Vikings and saints, invasion forces and furtive gun-runners, writers, musicians and fishermen. The divided but interconnected waters of the Irish Sea – from the narrow North Channel through St George’s Channel to where the Celtic sea opens out into wide Atlantic – have a turbulent history to match the violence of its storms.

Jon Gower is a sympathetic and interested pilot, taking the reader to the great shipyards of Belfast and through the mass exodus of the starving during the Irish Famine in coffin boats bound for America. He follows the migrations of working men and women looking for work in England and tells the tales of more casual travellers: sometimes seasick, often homesick too. The Irish Sea is also a place with an abundant natural history.

The rarest sea bird in Europe visits its coasts in summer while the rarest goose wings in during winter. Jon Gower navigates waters teeming with life, filled with seals and salt-tanged stories and surveyed by seabirds. At a time when Irish affairs feel like they are building towards an historic crescendo, he tells the story of the people who have crossed these waters, and who live on their shores.

Lyrically written and deeply considered, this is a remarkable and far-reaching book.

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The Stolen Village
€14.95
In June 1631 pirates from Algiers and armed troops of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, led by the notorious pirate captain Morat Rais, stormed ashore at the little harbour village of Baltimore in West Cork. They captured almost all the villagers and bore them away to a life of slavery in North Africa. The prisoners were destined for a variety of fates — some would live out their days chained to the oars as galley slaves, while others would spend long years in the scented seclusion of the harem or within the walls of the Sultan’s palace.

The old city of Algiers, with its narrow streets, intense heat and lively trade, was a melting pot where the villagers would join slaves and freemen of many nationalities. Only two of them ever saw Ireland again. The Sack of Baltimore was the most devastating invasion ever mounted by Islamist forces on Ireland or England.

Des Ekin’s exhaustive research illuminates the political intrigues that ensured the captives were left to their fate, and provides a vivid insight into the kind of life that would have awaited the slaves amid the souks and seraglios of old Algiers. The Stolen Village is a fascinating tale of international piracy and culture clash nearly 400 years ago and is the first book to cover this relatively unknown and under-researched incident in Irish history. Shortlisted for the Argosy Irish Nonfiction Book of the Year Award.

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A Woman in Defence
€17.50
During her 31-year career as a soldier in the Irish Defence Forces, Karina Molloy achieved many firsts. First female to get promoted to Senior Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) rank. First to attempt the Army Ranger Wing selection course – Ireland’s SAS equivalent – when it was considered impossible for women.

And, to date, Karina has the most overseas service as a female senior NCO. But despite a pioneering career, she faced many setbacks in an institution rife with misogyny – from sexual assault to routine bullying to promotional glass ceilings. And yet she persevered.

From Lebanon to Eritrea to Bosnia, A Woman in Defence is the often shocking story of a determined soldier who forged her way in a man’s world, and who continues to fight to make the army a safer and more equitable place for women. What emerges is a damning expose of a venerable Irish institution which has failed to defend and protect its own.

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Irish Myths and Legends Vol.2
€22.95

Lady Augusta Gregory’s collection and translation of Irish folk legends brings, as Yeats observed, ‘Ireland’s gift of imagination to the world’.

Following on from the bestselling Irish Myths and Legends: Gods and Fighting Men, this second volume, originally titled Cuchulain of Muirthemne, tells of the brave exploits of Ireland’s answer to Achilles, the fearless Cuchulain and the Red Branch of Ulster, as well as the overpowering love of his wife Emer.

Forming part of the bedrock of Gaelic legend, and translated faithfully from the idiom of Irish oral storytellers, this new volume is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Gaelic culture.

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Memory

The Sligo Rape Crisis Centre deals with some of the most
difficult things that can happen to anyone. The trauma of
intimate violence can shake a person’s experience of being
to the core. The work of exploring this experience with a
view to living in a more comfortable way is a deeply healing
process. The therapist is there, present, as an authentic
witness. They can offer reflections on thoughts, feeling and
sensations, observed behaviours, expressions, and help
access the journey towards recovery.

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Liber