Search results for ""New Island Books""

St Patrick is one of the most famous saints of all time. Thousands of people with no direct Irish connection celebrate St Patrick’s Day, parading along the streets of New York, Boston, Chicago, San Antonio, Texas and Sydney, where St Patrick’s Day is a national holiday. These celebrations are the latest version of the cult of St Patrick, which has persisted in different forms since his death on 17 March, 462AD. But who was St Patrick, and how much of what we know about him is fact, how much legend? This book looks at the historical man and the evidence of his writings, the myths and the apocryphal stories, and describes the social changes that led in the 18th century to his emergence as a symbol of Irish nationalism. Patrick: From Patron Saint to Modern Influencer is a fascinating and lively portrait of the man who converted pagan Ireland to Christianity – a fresh, sometimes startling examination of the folklore and traditions that have developed around the saint through the ages. First published in 1989 in the UK and USA, this fully updated edition features new photographs and illustrations and will be an indispensable companion for anyone seeking to understand the role of St Patrick in forging modern Irish identity.

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Over the last thirty years, the English Premier League has grown to become the richest and most popular league in football – and the Irish have been at the heart of its success since the very beginning. In exclusive interviews with thirty former and current players, and an in-depth analysis of Irish players’ involvement, Gareth Maher celebrates the astounding contribution that the Republic of Ireland has made to the most famous league in the world of sport. With insights from Seamus Coleman, John O’Shea, Niall Quinn, Shay Given, Jonathan Walters, Richard Dunne, Andrew Omobamidele and many more, Away Days uncovers the good, the bad & the ugly of a league that has been home to almost two-hundred Irish players. This is the story of Ireland’s impact on the Premier League as told through the experiences of the players who have lived through the title wins and the relegation scraps, the big-money moves and the cancelling of contracts, the villian's disdain and the hero’s acclaim over three whirlwind decades.

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*One Dublin One Book choice for 2022* *Shortlisted for an Irish Book Award 2021* When Nora Barnacle, a twenty-year-old from Galway working as a maid at Finn’s Hotel, meets young James Joyce on a summer’s day in Dublin, she is instantly attracted to him, natural and daring in his company. But she cannot yet imagine the extraordinary life they will share together. All Nora knows is she likes her Jim enough to leave behind family and home, in search of a bigger, more exciting life. As their family grows, they ricochet from European city to city, making fast friends amongst the greatest artists and writers of their age as well as their wives, and are brought high and low by Jim’s ferocious ambition. But time and time again, Nora is torn between their intense and unwavering desire for each other and the constant anxiety of living hand-to-mouth, often made worse by Jim’s compulsion for company and attention. So, while Jim writes and drinks his way to literary acclaim, Nora provides unflinching support and inspiration, sometimes at the expense of her own happiness, and especially at that of their children, Giorgio and Lucia. Eventually, together, they achieve some longed-for security and stability, but it is hard-won and imperfect to the end. In sensuous, resonant prose, Nuala O’Connor has conjured the definitive portrait of this strong, passionate and loyal Irishwoman. Nora is a tour de force, an earthy and authentic love letter to Irish literature’s greatest muse.

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In Heidelberg, Germany, over the course of a hot week in July, two gentle souls begin a prelude to love, testing the pull of romance against the weight of their family histories. After fifteen years in a relationship with a man she did not love, Ute Pfeiffer has returned from Ireland to find her father, Julius, in decline and her mother, Christa, more distant than ever. The last thing she needs is to fall for another Irishman. But when she sees Seanie Donnellan driving over a hen in her parents’ yard, something seems to shift in her cautious heart. Ute has given up on love and Seanie has never really known it. He also knows nothing of her family’s unspoken history during the war, nor how Ute muted this sadness with a sheltered life that she hated. But Seanie is a strange and charming young man with emotional aches of his own, confounding all of her expectations and daring her to hope for the first time. As her father returns to a kind of childhood, and her mother’s longing spills over in the revelation of a family secret, Ute must decide if falling in love is something that happens to other people or if it’s a choice only she can make.

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Following a car crash, for several seconds Dublin photographer Sean Blake is clinically dead but finds his progress towards the afterworld blocked by a haunting face he only partially recognises. Restored to a miraculous second chance at life – he feels profoundly changed. He is haunted by not knowing who he truly is because this is not the first time he has been given a second life. At six weeks old he was taken from his birth mother, a young girl forced to give him up for adoption. Now he knows that until he unlocks the truth about his origins, he will be a stranger to his wife, to his children and to himself. Struggling against a wall of official silence and a complex sense of guilt, Sean determines to find his birth mother, embarking on an absorbing journey into archives, memories, dreams and startling confessions. The first modern novel to address the scandal of Irish Magdalene laundries when it was published in 1994, A Second Life continued to haunt Bolger’s imagination. He has never allowed its republication until he felt ready to retell the story in a new and even more compelling way. This reimagined text is therefore neither an old novel nor a new one, but a completely ‘renewed’ novel, that grows towards a spelling-binding, profoundly moving conclusion.

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Marking the centenary of Ireland’s – and possibly the world’s – most famous novel, this joyful introductory guide opens up Ulysses to a whole new readership, offering insight into the literary, historical and cultural elements at play in James Joyce’s masterwork. Both eloquent and erudite, this book is an initiation into the wonders of Joyce’s writing and of the world that inspired it, written by Daniel Mulhall, Ireland’s ambassador to the United States and an advocate for Irish literature around the world. One hundred years on from that novel’s first publication, Ulysses: A Reader’s Odyssey takes us on a journey through one of the twentieth century’s greatest works of fiction. Exploring the eighteen chapters of the novel and using the famous structuring principle of Homer’s Odyssey as our guide, Daniel Mulhall releases Ulysses from its reputation of impenetrability, and shows us the pleasure it can offer us as readers.

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Shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards Irish-Published Book of the Year A TREASURE TROVE OF LETTERS TO AND FROM OUR NINE PRESIDENTS FROM 1938 TO THE PRESENT DAY With over 400 letters, memos, cards, telegrams, drawings, notes and photographs, The Presidents’ Letters reveals a personal and unexpected story of Ireland since the inauguration of our first president, Douglas Hyde. Most of these have never been published before and a handful have never been seen by the public. They are letters of congratulations, of resignation, of sympathy. A handwritten note from a president to a queen, a message sent to the moon, a fond farewell from a poet. There are letters of joy and loss, begging letters and threatening ones, sent from palaces, parliaments and prisons, from war zones, refugee camps and homeless shelters. Meticulously researched and hand-picked for this unique book, these correspondences bring to life our presidents, Áras an Uachtaráin and all those who have passed through its doors. The Presidents’ Letters is a beautiful homage to the art of the letter, exploring how each of our presidents defined their eras and how they strengthened the relationship between Ireland and all who identify as Irish. The book is divided into thematic sections, rather than separate chapters on the individual presidencies and featuring contributions in the form of one-page chapter introductions to contextualise the correspondence. Contributors include: David McCullagh | Rory Montgomery | Martina Devlin | Catriona Crowe | Samantha Barry | Joseph O’Connor | Harry McGee | Lise Hand | Justine McCarthy | Paul Rouse | Terri Kearney

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As we close out the decade of centenaries, and approach a re-appraisal of the Civil War our nation has never truly confronted, John Dorney’s engaging history of those years – now in paperback for the first time – is a must read. Within the space of just a dozen years, Ireland was completely transformed. From being a superficially loyal part of the British Empire, it emerged as a self-governing state. How and why did Ireland go from welcoming royalty in 1912 to independence in 1922? In this exciting new updated edition, drawing on new research and the most recent material in this field, John Dorney, historian and editor of The Irish Story website, examines the roots of the revolution, using the experiences of the men and women of the time.

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This is a love story, set in the Irish literary world between 1986 and 2015. When they were first introduced by the poet Derek Mahon, Alannah Hopkin was an arts journalist turned full-time writer and Aidan Higgins, twenty-three years her senior, was a literary stylist, often cited as the heir to Ireland’s great Modernist tradition. They wrote steadily during their twenty-nine years together, but their careers could not have been more different: while Aidan focused on fiction and memoirs, Alannah prioritised work that paid the bills. This gave Aidan the most stable and productive years of his life. But as his eyesight failed and his memory began to fade, Alannah became his carer and had to fight to keep her own writing career alive. Drawing from diaries and notebooks, and correspondence with writers such as Samuel Beckett, Alice Munro and Harold Pinter, this is a unique record of a major Irish writer. From the joyful honeymoon years – filled with launches, festivals and visits to their Kinsale home by Richard Ford, Edna O’Brien and other literary legends – to the increasingly difficult years of Aidan’s decline, Hopkin tells their story candidly and without commentary. She shows us how, in spite of all, they remained the best of friends, in love until Aidan’s very last breath. A Very Strange Man is an exceptional piece of writing, objective and authoritative, personal, honest and moving.

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The making of Ryan’s Daughter in Dingle 1969 is shrouded in myth and sensational stories. Hollywood superstars in late-1960s Ireland, the Irish climate, the studio system and one of film’s greatest auteurs all combined into a troubled and fabled production. Fifty years on, Sunday Times journalist Paul Benedict Rowan reveals in fascinating detail why David Lean’s behemoth holds such a unique place in movie history, bringing together exclusive interviews with cast and crew, as well as many stills photographs taken on- and off-set. Rowan pieces all into a definitive rollercoaster account of the making of one of Lean’s last films.

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In early 2018, Erin Darcy created an online art project, In Her Shoes – Women of the Eighth, to safely and anonymously share private stories of the real and devastating impact of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of Ireland. In the five months leading up to the referendum on abortion, the project asked a simple question of undecided voters: put yourself in her shoes. Within weeks, Erin was receiving hundreds of stories from a broad spectrum of experiences of planned and unplanned terminations. By the time Ireland historically voted Yes to Repeal the Eighth on 25 May 2018, the page had gathered over 100,000 followers, was reaching over four million readers each week and had been featured by international news outlets. What began as a solo act of grassroots activism by a mother and an artist had unleashed a national conversation on human rights that would change Ireland forever. Where once there had been silence and shame, now there was honesty and empathy. For 43 per cent of voters, it was ‘stories in the media’ that influenced their decision to vote Yes. But for Erin Darcy, In Her Shoes was also a distraction from her own heartbreaking loss, loneliness and depression as she grieved her mother’s death and sought a community of her own. In time, it became an act of healing, as she connected with other women, mothers and campaigners who felt the same overwhelming need to do something. Here, In Her Shoes: Women of the Eighth reproduces thirty-two of those anonymous stories, representing the entire island of Ireland. Published with their authors’ consent and illustrated by Erin, they are powerful testimonies to storytelling as salvation from heartache, stigma and threat. Together, they record lived truths previously omitted from history and signal a monumental change in the social landscape of our country.

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Part of the Open Door series of short books for emerging readers. Mr Bolton and his faithful dog, George, are just popping down to the shops. He forgot his keys, but Mrs Bolton will be there to let them in like always. But on the way back, George notices something wrong - they turned right when they should have turned left, bringing them farther from home. To make things worse, it's beginning to look like rain. The old friends set off on a journey across Dublin and through their memories, which seem to be disappearing one by one...

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Find out what the gaeilgeoir means when he/she uses the Irish words for ‘nerdy’, ‘well-hung’, ‘effing and blinding’, ‘slimeball’ or ‘drop-dead-gorgeous’? It’s all there, with numerous entries under the letters C and F. Already a cult hit, Kiss My... will appeal to the Irish-language student and the open-minded traveller alike.

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Part of the Open Door series of short books for emerging readers. When twenty-something year old Lizzie inherits a crumbling mansion from her uncle, she moves to a remote village where the locals watch with bemusement as she struggles to renovate it. Under pressure from relatives to sell up and move out, Lizzie struggles to make ends meet. However, always at the back of her mind is her mother's sage advice that midsummer is a magical time of opportunity when anything could happen...

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WINNER OF SPECIAL BOOK AWARD OF CHINA 2021 In 1318, the Irish Franciscan friar and explorer James of Ireland accompanied Friar Odoric of Pordenone to the Far East, thus becoming the first Irish person in China. Since then, encounters between the Irish and the people of China have proliferated: just as Ireland gained from the plant hunters of the late Qing dynasty, so China learned eagerly from the tactics of Irish cultural nationalism early in the twentieth century. Such fruitful exchanges were made possible by parallels in their historical development, as each grew – in only a few generations – from traditional agricultural societies into modern, globalized republics. Whether it is China’s ecstatic welcome of Riverdance, Kerrygold butter and the prose of James Joyce, or Ireland’s reinvention of itself through its culture and newly multicultural society, these essays demonstrate, often in surprising ways, just how each nation has helped transform the other. With a welcome message from the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, this collection of essays also celebrates four decades of Sino-Irish diplomatic relations.

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Every night during a year spent in lockdown, Dermot Bolger set out on long walks through deserted streets, armed only with a pen and paper. Bolger follows in the footsteps of the great Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa, using walks through his native city to allow his imagination free rein to revisit pivotal moments in his own life and speculatively meditate on the lives of others in a series of remarkable poems. The book starts with his parents honeymooning in a wartime Wicklow orchard and ends, eight decades later, as the poet dances with his partner in a Wicklow field. In between we encounter Nuala O’Faolain on a bicycle on Brooklyn Bridge; Grace Gifford Plunkett, defiant in her lonely final years; Herbert Simms, Dublin’s brilliant, tragically overworked housing architect; and Patricia Lynch, writing The Turf-Cutter’s Donkey in one room while her husband wrote communist tracts in the next. Interlaced with such real lives are imagined ones – a hardened criminal detailing prison life in haikus, a doppelganger exploring alternative pasts for the author. Taken together, these poems chart a dazzling constellation of experiences.

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A baby's body. The butcher who found it. His wife who won't talk to him. Her lady with a secret. The detective on their heels.

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WAY OUT WESTis a gentle coming-of-age story that will enthral with its texture and world-building, the many delicately and affectionately observed characters and its subtle reflections on trauma, loss and a hope that somehow renews.

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Stories from the lives of some of Ireland’s greatest sports stars. From the highs of lifting trophies and overcoming the impossible, to the lows of battling injury and facing defeat, these are inspiring stories written in plain English for emerging readers. Drawn from bestselling autobiographies and other first-hand accounts, the book features stories from: AP McCoy, Barry McGuigan, Bonnar Ó Loingsigh, Cora Staunton, Gavin Bazunu, Henry Shefflin, Katie Taylor, Keith Earls, Niall Quinn, Paul O’Connell, Philly McMahon, Ronnie Delany, Rosemary Smith, Sonia O’Sullivan and Valerie Mulcahy. An Open Door initiative, published in association with the National Adult Literacy Agency.

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New fiction by: Suad Aldarra Caleb Azumah Nelson Jan Carson Elaine Feeney Oona Frawley Sinéad Gleeson Anna Jean Hughes Caleb Klaces Naomi Krüger Henrietta McKervey Paul McVeigh Mary Morrissy Nuala O'Connor Chris Wright To live with dementia is to develop extraordinary and various new ways of being – linguistically, cognitively and practically. The storyteller operates similarly, using words and ideas creatively to reveal a slightly different perspective of the world. In this anthology of fourteen new short stories, commissioned by Jan Carson and Jane Lugea, some of the best contemporary writers from Ireland and the UK powerfully and poignantly explore the depths and breadth of the real dementia experience, traversing age, ethnicity, class and gender, sex and consent. Each writer’s story is drawn from their own personal experience of dementia and told with outrageous and dark humour, empathy and startling insight. Here are heroes and villains, tricksters and saints, mothers, fathers, lovers, friends, characters whose past has overshadowed their present and characters who are making a huge impact on the world they currently find themselves in. They might have dementia, but dementia is only a small part of who they are. They will challenge, frustrate, inspire and humble you. Above all, these brilliant pieces of short fiction disrupt the perceived notions of what dementia is and, in their diversity, honesty and authenticity begin to normalise an illness that affects so many and break down the stigma endured by those living with it every day. Find out more about the AHRC-funded research project based at Queen's University Belfast, from which this anthology has emerged: www.blogs.qub.ac.uk/dementiafiction/

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In the Ubari Sand Sea in 2011, during the First Libyan Civil War, a mysterious pilot falls from the sky – a sky devil – and is forever changed by the little boy who rescues him. One year later, in the town of Roseville, Louisiana, in the aftermath of economic crisis and corporate environmental damage, 10-year-old Lenny Lockhart is losing the people and things dearest to him. His only friends now are his plucky, elderly neighbour, Miss Julie, and the town’s lonely librarian, Lucy Albert. Homeless and neglected, Lenny heads deep into the dark and unpredictable bayou, determined to conquer the sinkhole that is threatening to swallow his town. As time seems to be simultaneously slowing down and running out, is it really Lenny who needs saving, or the broken adults in his life? As these two timelines converge, Lenny tells a deeply affecting story of family and love, the ways we can be kind, and the power of one boy’s imagination to heal and survive.

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When football players leave Ireland behind in the hopes of carving out a future in the professional game, they often end up plying their trade in the UK –competing for a chance in the Premier League, the Scottish Premiership, or the numerous leagues below them. For decades, this has been the most attractive and obvious career path for Irish players. But what of those players who ventured further afield in search of glory, adventure, or simply their next touch of the ball? Since the dawn of the men’s professional game well over a century ago, and up to the more recent expansion of women’s football, Irish players – and coaches too – have made their mark on clubs and nations around the world. For the first time, Emerald Exiles brings together the stories of these pioneering players, who pursue football wherever they can, venturing beyond tradition and navigating the personal and professional highs and lows that journey brings with it. Charting the careers of players and managers such as Liam Brady, Robbie Keane, Anne O’Brien, Stephanie Roche, Frank Stapleton and a host of others – and featuring exclusive first-hand interviews with numerous players, Emerald Exiles is a unique analysis of Ireland’s mark on world football and the individual stories behind it.

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New updated edition of the seminal work by Catherine Dunne, which charted the multifarious lives of the London Irish, in all their variety and colour, now with a brand new foreword by Diarmaid Ferriter. Before the 'Ryanair Generation', leaving home was for good. Half a million Irish men and women left these shores in the nineteen-fifties, forced by decades of economic stagnation to make their lives elsewhere. For many of these emigrants, mostly young and unskilled, Britain was their only hope of survival. Abandoned by the Irish state, this forgotten generation went in search of employment and security, the dignity of a future that was denied them at home. For many of these youthful emigrants, exile held the promise of adventure and excitement, freedom from the oppressions of De Valera's Ireland. Yet no two emigrant experiences were the same. In a series of compelling interviews, 'honest, angry, and funny', these vibrant voices reflect the diversity of lives lived away from the homeland, an unconsidered people's struggle to plant new lives in an alien soil.

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We Seldom Talk About the Past is John MacKenna’s first selected collection of short stories, from a career spanning over three decades. The stories selected come from four collections of short fiction, and represent a culmination of MacKenna’s work in a form of writing he has made uniquely his own. Often compared to John McGahern, and Raymond Carver, and deeply influenced by masters of the form like Chekov, MacKenna’s stories focus on the quotidian truths of our lives, of the momentousness of small moments, of sexual desire and its intimate entanglement with the domestic, of deeply felt absences and social mores, and always at the heart of his work, the sense of place, often the rural, and the acute receptiveness of our lives to the places we inhabit.

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In 2013, Úna-Minh Kavanagh, a young journalist and content creator, was racially abused and spat upon in Dublin’s city centre. Having dealt with racism throughout her young life, this proud Kerrywoman had finally had enough. In the days that followed, she took to Twitter to call out the ‘land of a thousand welcomes’ for its naivety and cowardice in dealing with racism. The incident was widely shared in the media and her story went viral. But Úna-Minh’s story actually begins in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 1991, when she was adopted at just three days old by a single woman from Kerry. Raised in a loving, Irish-speaking home by her mother and grandfather, Úna-Minh was instilled with an enduring sense of her multi-faceted Irish identity. In her first book, she writes honestly and humorously about tackling racism, language elitism and online trolls and the joy of turning her love of the internet, video games and accessible Irish-language content into a healthy work/life balance. Sprinkled throughout with Úna-Minh’s own #FrásaAnLae, Anseo is the heartwarming story of a diverse and contemporary Irish life.

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Richard O’Rawe was a senior IRA prisoner in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh Prison. One of the ‘Blanketmen’, he took part in the dirty protests that led to the hunger strikes of the early 1980s. In Blanketmen, O’Rawe gives his personal account of those turbulent times that saw British and Irish governments entering unprecedented negotiations with the IRA Army Council and the prisoners themselves. Passionate, disturbing and controversial, this remains a landmark book in the cruel history of Northern Ireland. After ten years, and the release of historical state and personal papers, Richard O’Rawe’s assertions in Blanketmen have been vindicated. He has been married to Bernadette for forty years, has three grown-up children, and still lives in west Belfast.

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Part of the Open Door series of short books for emerging readers. Sixteen-year-old Miriam gets her first summer job at an all-in holiday resort in North County Dublin. When she arrives she meets Marie-Claire, and finds a friendship that will change her life forever. Narrated by a grown-up Miriam, Heart of Gold explores the nature of growing up, friendship and betrayal.

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Bannister is back! The author of the bestsellingProverbs in IrishandWhat's That as Gaeilge?returns with another indispensable guide to the Irish language. This comprehensive compendium includes a thematic index and lists of synonyms and antonyms.

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An anthology of 70 tiny plays from Fishamble theatre company, providing an invaluable resource of four-minute plays for actors, directors, students, and teachers.

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Baile Átha Cliath, sa bhliain 1972. Déagóirí is ea Ruaidí agus Pancho, a rugadh is a tógadh i gceantar an Phoirt Thuaidh. Tá Ruaidí ag barr an ranga, agus tá sé sármhaith ag an mata. Bua eile ar fad atá ag Pancho – suimeanna airgid a aimsiú, seachas suimeanna a dhéanamh. Tá tuismitheoirí Ruaidí i mbun an Chomhair Chreidmheasa áitiúil. Bíonn athair Pancho i mbun drabhláis i dtithe tábhairne na cathrach gach lá pá. Tá difear lá agus oíche idir saol na mbuachaillí, ach is dlúthchairde iad mar sin féin. Lá, agus é ag seachadadh nuachtán mar is gnách, siúlann Ruaidí isteach san áit a ndearnadh robáil. Is amhlaidh a bhris gadaithe isteach i dteach ‘chailleacha an Phoirt Thoir’, beirt deirfiúracha aosta. Ach d’fhág na gadaithe airgead ina ndiaidh. Tá rogha mhór le déanamh ag Ruaidí agus Pancho... The city is Dublin, the year is 1972. Redser and Pancho are two teenagers from the North Wall. Redser is top of the class, especially good at maths. Pancho's knack is for finding money, not adding or subtracting it. Redser's parents run the local credit union. Pancho's dad runs riot in the city pubs on pay day. The boys' worlds could not be further apart. Yet the pair are the best of friends. One day, on his regular paper round, Redser stumbles upon the aftermath of a crime. Two elderly sisters, 'the East Wall witches', have been burgled. But the robbers haven't taken all the money. Redser and Pancho are about to face their biggest dilemma ever...

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Shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards Irish-Published Book of the Year A TREASURE TROVE OF LETTERS TO AND FROM OUR NINE PRESIDENTS FROM 1938 TO THE PRESENT DAY With over 400 letters, memos, cards, telegrams, drawings, notes and photographs, The Presidents’ Letters reveals a personal and unexpected story of Ireland since the inauguration of our first president, Douglas Hyde. Most of these have never been published before and a handful have never been seen by the public. They are letters of congratulations, of resignation, of sympathy. A handwritten note from a president to a queen, a message sent to the moon, a fond farewell from a poet. There are letters of joy and loss, begging letters and threatening ones, sent from palaces, parliaments and prisons, from war zones, refugee camps and homeless shelters. Meticulously researched and hand-picked for this unique book, these correspondences bring to life our presidents, Áras an Uachtaráin and all those who have passed through its doors. The Presidents’ Letters is a beautiful homage to the art of the letter, exploring how each of our presidents defined their eras and how they strengthened the relationship between Ireland and all who identify as Irish. The book is divided into thematic sections, rather than separate chapters on the individual presidencies and featuring contributions in the form of one-page chapter introductions to contextualise the correspondence. Contributors include: David McCullagh | Rory Montgomery | Martina Devlin | Catriona Crowe | Samantha Barry | Joseph O’Connor | Harry McGee | Lise Hand | Justine McCarthy | Paul Rouse | Terri Kearney

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Forestry in Ireland has never been so contentious. Over the last century the area of Irish woodland has increased tenfold, mostly through the planting of imported conifer species; government policy is to plant more trees to supply industry and to tackle climate change, both urgent priorities. But there has been a backlash from farmers, local communities, environmentalists and EU regulators. The rate of planting has plummeted. And up to one-third of new plantations in Ireland are failed forests that should never have been planted in the first place. How did we end up in this peculiar situation? Island of Woods traces the history of Irish forests over the last 10,000 years. It explains why Ireland lost so much of its forest cover, before a burst of tree-planting over the last few decades. It examines the state of Irish forestry today and sketches a way forward for our woods that balances commercial, environmental and social goals – a vision of a different type of forestry that could transform the Irish landscape and re-establish a genuine tree culture in the country. This engaging examination of Irish woodlands relates historical events to present-day concerns and controversies, drawing out crucial themes that continue to shape the Irish landscape.

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From Ireland, England, France, Austria, Greece, Turkey and Italy to America and the West Indies, overflowing with historic events, from the French Revolution to the Great Irish Famine, with a cast of the famous and infamous, Howe Peter Browne, 2nd Marquess of Sligo, lived life to the absolute limits. Privileged yet compassionate, charismatic yet flawed, Regency Buck, Irish landlord, West Indian plantation owner, Knight of St Patrick, Privy Counsellor, intrepid traveller, intimate of kings, emperors and despots, favoured guest in the fashionable salons of London and Paris, patron of artists and pugilists, founder of the Irish Turf Club, friend and fellow traveller of Lord Byron, treasure-seeker, spy, sailor and jailbird, as well as the father of fifteen children, the astonishing range and diversity of Sligo’s life is breathtaking. From a youth of hedonistic self-indulgence in Regency England to a reforming, responsible, well-intentioned legislator and landlord, Sligo became enshrined in the history of Jamaica as ‘Emancipator of the Slaves’ and in Ireland as ‘The Poor Man’s Friend’ during the most difficult of times. Eight years in the writing and sourced from over 15,000 primary contemporary manuscripts located by the author in private and public archives around the world, From Rake to Radical sheds new light on significant historical events and on the people who shaped them in Ireland, England, Europe and the West Indies during a period of momentous political turbulence and change.

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‘Ach cérbh í Peig Sayers?’ Níorbh í in aon chor an tseanbhean ologónach í ar chuir na glúnta de dhaltaí scoile aithne uirthi. Is léir ó chuntais uathu siúd arbh eol dóibh í gur bhean ghrámhar thuisceanach í a raibh acmhainn grinn inti; bean a fuair blas ar ghal tobac agus ar bhraoinín fuisce, agus a bhí oilte ar chraiceann a chur ar scéal. Saolaíodh Peig i nDún Chaoin i gCo. Chiarraí i 1873. Thug sí bua na scéalaíochta léi óna hathair agus tugadh a sárchuimhne agus an lé a bhí aici le comhluadar faoi deara go luath. Phós sí iascaire ón mBlascaod agus chaith sí saol cruógach i dteaghlach líonmhar ag déanamh cúraim don seisear leanbh léi a mhair. Tugann Labharfad le Cách le chéile den chéad uair na taifeadtaí a thóg an BBC agus RTÉ uaithi i 1946, 1947 agus 1953, mar aon le haistriúcháin Bhéarla orthu. Léiríonn siad fairsinge repertoire Pheig idir scéalta cráifeacha, paidreacha, scéalta rómánsacha, scéalta faoin osádúr agus cuntais ar an saol a caitheadh tráth ar an oileán ach go bhfuil a chuimhne ag dul i léig anois. ‘Who was that Peig Sayers?’ She was anything but the maudlin and old-fashioned Peig remembered by generations of school children. From the descriptions of those who met her, the real Peig emerges as a warm, wise and humorous woman, with an addiction to tobacco, a fondness for a sup of whiskey and a mastery of the art of ‘spin’. Born in Dún Chaoin in County Kerry in 1873, Peig learned the art of storytelling at her father’s knee, and quickly became known for her sociable nature and excellent memory. Marrying a fisherman from the Great Blasket, she enjoyed a full life with a large extended family and the care of her six living children. I Will Speak to You All collects, for the first time, in both Irish and English, the recordings made by the BBC and RTÉ of Peig Sayers in 1946, 1947 and 1953. They illustrate Peig’s repertoire, ranging from religious stories and prayers to humorous, romantic, even supernatural tales, as well as descriptions of an island life that is passing from living memory.

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POEMS AND ILLUSTRATIONS INSPIRED BY LOCKDOWN Before the COVID-19 global pandemic, Dubliner Jan was working as a freelance fashion stylist and creative director. Now, she is an experienced homeschool teacher, playground chaperone, cook, cleaner, fed-up walker and kitchen disco DJ. At the height of the restrictions, Jan’s own internal dialogue finally tumbled onto the page. The result is this book of poems: raw, honest and funny observations on family and relationships, on feeling a bit crap and being perfectly imperfect. Jan’s lyrical writings offer a fresh perspective on modern life, written with humour, heart and honesty. What Day Is It? Who gives a f*ck expresses all the rage, loss,fun and love that have stunned and occupied us since March 2020.

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After her father’s death in exile, Antigone returns to Thebes determined to set the record straight and restore her father’s reputation. Tracing the histories of Oedipus and his parents Laius and Jocasta, as well as the peripheral characters of the plays who had a central role in him fulfilling his destiny, Antigone’s ‘biography’ causes us to re-evaluate the extent to which any of us can be entirely blamed for the actions by which we will be defined. Ending with Antigone making a conscious choice to reclaim her brother’s corpse from the battlefield, an act of defiance which will guarantee her own death, the book ultimately meditates on the illusion of free will, and the warning that context is everything, I, ANTIGONE will be a major contribution to the reclaimed classics.

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Sequel to the bestselling Butcher Boy, Francie Brady is back! Francie Brady, the broken Butcher Boy, leads a busy life in Fizzbag Mansions, where he was incarcerated five decades ago after the mistake with Mrs Nugent. Still obsessed with the comic books of his childhood, he has found a new vocation – as a publisher of his very own magazine, The Big Yaroo, and Francie throws himself into its production, working to a deadline in more ways than one. Along the way, he remembers Da, Uncle Alo, Joe Purcell and his beloved Ma, and wrestles a desire to escape his past with the world’s need for him to exorcise his childhood demons. As Francie is drawn even further into the dark world of his own mind, the line between reality and delusion ceases to mean anything. Uproariously funny, terrifying and profound, this is the swansong of one Irish literature’s most enduring characters.

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The history of the Middle Ages [in Ireland] is so neglected that the only figure of renown is Strongbow, the man who led the Norman Invasion of Ireland in the twelfth century … There is little written about the lives of majority of men, who held no title or land, and even less about women … Indeed, so neglected are these people in history that many of the stories and people recounted … haven’t been heard of in centuries. In a society born of conquest, beset with famines and plagues, and where the staples of life were everything from spies and corruption to witch trials and warfare, life in medieval Ireland was seldom dull. In Life in Medieval Ireland, Finbar Dwyer offers a unique portrait of life as it was lived in medieval Ireland. Against the backdrop of what was often a violent and chaotic period of history, Dwyer explores the personal stories of those whose recollections have been preserved, finding in them continual relevance and human interest.

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