Showing 257–272 of 714 resultsSorted by popularity
Diplomat Jack Lennon is posted to Spain in 2008 as the wheels are coming off the Spanish – and Irish – property boom. On the trail of a missing Irish government minister Jack encounters a coterie of property magnates, former celebrities, desperate bankers the remnants of Ireland’s ‘wine-geese’ and Franco’s Spain.
Twenty-two-year-old teacher Stephen Daly cannot wait to start dating women, drinking copious amounts of alcohol and living life to the full. He had lived at home during his college years and missed out on much of the student experience. He was usually tucked up in his bed while his classmates partied endlessly in student haunts or made out in grotty little flats. Now that he had graduated and secured his first teaching job, he is determined to start a more carefree life and escape the sadness in his background.
This children’s book is based around helping children cope with feelings of anxiety that they may or may not even be aware of. It combines stories which revolve around feelings that all children can connect with, fun exercises focusing on the breath, which is one of the most important things when anyone is experiencing anxious or panicked feelings, and lastly – illustrations with join the dot pictures behind each illustration for every child to finish off the section with. It has something for every child’s interests, while leading back to the same outcome for all – well being. It is my utmost wish for young children to be able to break the stigma of feeling ashamed or embarrassed about the feelings they are experiencing for whatever reasons that may be.
Age: 3-9
How can we be good ancestors?
From the first seeds sown thousands of years ago, to the construction of the cities we still inhabit, to the scientific discoveries that have ensured our survival, we are the inheritors of countless gifts from the past. Today, in an age driven by the tyranny of the now, with 24/7 news, the latest tweet, and the buy-now button commanding our attention, we rarely stop to consider how our actions will affect future generations. With such frenetic short-termism at the root of contemporary crises, the call for long-term thinking grows every day – but what is it, has it ever worked, and can we even do it? In The Good Ancestor, leading public philosopher Roman Krznaric argues that there is still hope.
From the pyramids to the NHS, humankind has always had the innate ability to plan for posterity and take action that will resonate for decades, centuries, even millennia to come. If we want to become good ancestors, now is the time to recover and enrich this imaginative skill. The Good Ancestor reveals six profound ways in which we can all learn to think long-term, exploring how we can reawaken oft-neglected but uniquely human talents like ‘cathedral thinking’ that expand our time horizons and sharpen our foresight.
Drawing on radical solutions from around the world, Krznaric celebrates the innovators who are reinventing democracy, culture and economics so that we all have the chance to become good ancestors and create a better tomorrow.
The principal characters who lead us through that world are ordinary human beings like ourselves: Winston Smith and Julia, whose falling in love is also an act of rebellion against the Party. Opposing them are the massed powers of the state, which watches its citizens on all sides through technology now only too familiar to us. No-one is free from surveillance; the past is constantly altered, so that there is no truth except the most recent version; and Big Brother, both loved and feared, controls all.
Marie Phelan was born in County Galway, has lived in the UK and now lives in County Wexford. She combines photography with painted backgrounds that draw out and enhance the characteristics of her home-grown flowers and plants. She has an Associate distinction from the Irish Photographic Federation, is a member of Wexford Camera Club and exhibits regularly in Wexford, for example during the opera festival and at the Wexford Arts Centre cafe. As an enthusiastic gardener she has her pick of subject material, and with an eye to future images, grows unusual and colourful plant varieties. Her painted backgrounds are achieved using watercolour and mixed media. While a background is ‘oozing and in a state of flux’, she judges the moment to place her flower or plant, and captures it with a macro lens.
Size -12mm x 12mm
Greeting cards – prints taken from original felted art pieces
Alison Hunter is an artist from Sligo, Ireland. Alison’s work is inspired both by the Irish built and natural landscape. She is drawn to exploring everyday objects and instilling new life into them through the use of traditional and contemporary techniques. Found broken tableware is a source of inspiration for Alison as it acts as a reminder of the Irish vernacular heritage and past. By creating a new function for the plate as an art piece, old memories are preserved in the process while new memories take root in its new form.
“I create art works through the interpretation and re-imagining of patterns on found plates. Building on its original form and exaggerating elements, I combine contrasting textures of found plate pieces and soft wool fibres using traditional wet felting and contemporary needle felting techniques”
She also creates a series of original landscapes and seascapes, Irish wildlife insect collection and abstract pieces using Irish tweed and wool
Alison exhibits her work nationally. In 2016 her work was selected for the RDS Design and Craft Awards Exhibition, Dublin, Ireland. She holds a BA (Hons) Degree in Heritage Studies and a Diploma in Textiles and is a member of both the Design & Craft Council of Ireland and Made in Sligo.
Peppa and George are going to Ireland for an Irish-dancing festival! But when the band forget their instruments, will Peppa and her family be able to save the day?
This brand-new story features a glittery cover and is the perfect introduction to Ireland for little Peppa fans.
Dublin, 1918. In a country doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city centre, where expectant mothers who have come down with an unfamiliar flu are quarantined together. Into Julia’s regimented world step two outsiders: Doctor Kathleen Lynn, on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.
In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over the course of three days, these women change each other’s lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.
England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner.
As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour. Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army.
Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him?
With The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage.
Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020; Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2020;
‘Mantel has taken us to the dark heart of history … and what a show‘ The Times
‘This diary chronicles the turning of my world, from spring to winter, at home, in the wild, in my head.’
Evocative, raw and lyrical, this startling debut explores the natural world through the eyes of Dara McAnulty, an autistic teenager coping with the uprooting of home, school, and his mental health, while pursuing his life as a conservationist and environmental activist. Shifting from intense darkness to light, recalling his sensory encounters in the wild – with blackbirds, whooper swans, red kites, hen harriers, frogs, dandelions, Irish hares and more – McAnulty reveals worlds we have neglected to see, in a stunning world of nature writing that is a future classic.
Meet Maud: a guinea pig who inexplicably wears a judo suit – and not everyone understands or approves. When Maud is thrown into a new and confusing situation, it takes brave decisions and serendipitous encounters for her to find her place and embrace her individuality. The charming characters of Magenta Fox, whose work is evocative of Raymond Briggs and Janet Ahlberg, perfectly offset Zadie and Nick’s warm, wry prose.
Weirdo is an endearing story about the quiet power of being different by two veteran writers, and introduces an exciting debut illustrator. Together they have created a picture book that adults and children alike will treasure.
This is it. The key to happiness is recognising that, yes, this is it. You’re all you have to work with and this moment is the only one you have any control over.
It took a while for Conor Creighton to understand this powerful concept. But once he did, his life changed forever. Conor Creighton came out of the womb chewing his fingernails.
A chaotic childhood saw his default mode set to ‘generally miserable’, so he left home at 17, vowing never to return. The ensuing decades of disorder resulted in chronic anxiety. At rock bottom, he signed up for a ten-day silent meditation retreat.
It was hell. His legs ached. His butt felt like it was on fire.
His mind threw at him a never-ending collage of regrets, wants and realisations. Then, suddenly, for the first time in nearly twenty years, he felt calm as relief and, eventually, joy washed over him. He learned that meditation has just one goal: to recognise that this is it.
There is nothing else. No desire to get anywhere or change or improve anything. When Conor stopped trying to get somewhere or ‘be someone’ and realised that this, and this alone, is it, his anxiety abated, he learned to like himself and he discovered that he might even be happy.
By remembering that ‘this is it’ in uncomfortable times and in comfortable times, your life can become a lot like meditation. In this highly entertaining, refreshingly honest memoir and meditation guide, you’ll discover how. ‘Conor is Ireland’s answer to Sam Harris.
This book will you teach you truly life-altering wisdom that has stood the test of both time and science in the most hilarious, relatable and heart-warmingly welcoming way.’ Daniella Moyles ‘I love Conor’s way of sharing the magic of contemplation and meditation. In a world filled with distraction and noise Conor reminds us to slow down and come back to ourselves. This Is It takes a practical approach to meditation and contemplation in what can feel like an overwhelming world.’ Pat Divilly ‘Other worldly and painfully, beautifully Irish all at one.
Like poetry and philosophy read by your brother’s best friend who has been around the world and come back to serve you everything you’ve forgotten you already know. I adore this book and Conor.’ Angela Scanlon
Description
From Chris Haughton comes a funny, suspenseful and keenly observed cautionary tale about pushing boundaries and indulging your more mischievous, cheeky side (when nobody is looking). Three little monkeys, and their big monkey, are sat high up on their branch in the forest canopy. “Ok, monkeys! I’m off,” says the big monkey.
“Now remember. Whatever you do, do NOT go down to the mango tree. There are tigers down there.” Mmm …
mangos! think the little monkeys. They LOVE mangos. Hmm …
maybe … maybe they could just look at the mangos? That’d be ok, right?
Description
Gordon is back for more mayhem and mischief in the second book in the laugh-out-loud Gordon’s Game series!__________Gordon D’Arcy – the only kid at school with a Six Nations medal hidden under his pillow! Though helping Ireland to win the Grand Slam feels like it was just a dream. Now, he’s been given a brand new challenge – the chance to play for Leinster. After learning so many lessons playing for Ireland – including how to make a complete eejit of himself in front of millions of people – fitting in at Leinster should be a breeze.
