Search results for ""New Island Books""

Social media is a new type of public space that has revolutionised the way women express themselves, placing the power of representation in female hands like no technology before. But this increased visibility looks both ways, with the gazed upon also gazing back through platforms designed for judgement and surveillance. A man-made tool, social media is now deeply entwined with women’s lives in an always-on culture where new and intrusive forms of comparison, shaming and watchfulness are completely normalised and women’s bodies, minds and emotions are picked apart. While many are acutely aware of this ‘visibility trap’, taking ownership of it remains a minefield. In The Visibility Trap, Mary McGill blends feminism, media studies and lived experiences to explore the contradictions and dangers of online visibility for women, asking how we can build better, safer digital spaces for all. From current research to real-life testimonies, via the Kardashian Industrial Complex (KIC) to image-based sexual abuse — ‘revenge porn’ — and its belated criminalisation, she offers urgent and welcome insights into using social media more consciously, powerfully and positively. This is a must-read for anyone who loves or hates social media; for the guardians of future social media users and for anyone else who is still half-on, half-off this most twenty-first century of obsessions.

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When Raymonde Standún set about photographing the local people of the South Connemara Gaeltacht, she quickly sensed that here were stories to be told that lay beyond the reach of a camera: unique places; unique people; a nucleus of Irish culture, its language, music and dance. Voices of Connemara keeps this heritage alive in pictures as well as in the written word. Collected here are 51 interviews, among them: Martin Flaherty on the Black and Tans; Julia Greaney on the Fair Day at Spiddal; Cáit Nic an Iomaire on making her own wedding dress; and Festy Conlon on his father’s first fife. Set against Standún’s stunning images are stories of poitín for two bob, the baker’s island-delivery boat and the trials of line-fishing, alongside darker tales, still vibrant in the collective memory, of landlord brutality, famine and emigration. Edited by Bill Long, who also introduces the volume, here are the extraordinary voices of the ordinary people of Connemara, voices of the living as well as the dead.

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Proverbs are, however, much more than that. They are windows into our past, and a friendly nod from our ancestors. Sometimes they can remind us of our parents or grandparents as we once again hear their kindly voices speak to us in words of folk wisdom. This book offers mainly Irish folk proverbs, but there is also a selection from Irish literature, the Bible, and other languages.

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Filled with pathos and humour,Parcels in the Postis both a memoir of a loving household and snapshot of the fostering system in Ireland, from someone at the very heart of it all.

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Bestselling and award-winning Irish author, Nuala O'Connor, returns with the intimate and thrilling portrayal of the life of 18th-century Irishwoman, Anne Bonny.

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Tá Danny Ó Murchú ag dul le bualadh lena dheartháir Jimmy. Ní fhaca siad a chéile le níos mó ná fiche bliain. Ar an mbealach chuig an gcruinniú, is cuimhin le Danny na tréimhsí maithe agus na drochthréimhsí, an spraoi agus na troideanna – agus an t-achrann mór amháin a scar iad. An dtroidfidh siad arís nó an mbeidh siad ina gcairde mar ba ghnáth leo a bheith? Níl a fhios ag Danny. Danny Murphy is going to meet his brother, Jimmy. They haven't seen each other in over twenty years. On the way to the meeting, Danny remembers the good times and the bad times, the fun and the fights - and the one big row that drove them apart. Will they fight again or will they become the friends they used to be? Danny doesn't know.

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Tá an tUasal Ó Sé agus a mhadra dílis, Seoirse, ag dul amach ar cuairt ghairid chuig na siopaí. Tá dearmad déanta ag an Uasal Ó Sé ar a chuid eochracha, ach beidh Bean Uí Shé ann, mar a bhíonn sí i gcónaí, chun iad a ligean isteach. Ach ar an mbealach ar ais, tugann Seoirse faoi deara go bhfuil rud éigin amú – chas siad faoi dheis nuair ba chóir dóibh casadh faoi chlé, rud atá á dtabhairt níos faide ó bhaile. Chun rudaí a dhéanamh níos measa, tá an chuma air go mbeidh báisteach ann. Buaileann na seanchairde an bóthar ar thuras trasna Bhaile Átha Cliath agus trína gcuid cuimhní, atá, de réir cosúlachta, ag imeacht ceann ar cheann… 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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Insíonn Susan óg an scéal fíorspéisiúil tochtmhar seo faoin samhradh nuair a bhí sí ocht mbliana d’aois, agus nuair ba bheag nár bádh a deartháir Bruno san fharraige. D’éirigh léi snámh ar ais chuig an trá leis, áit ar éirigh sé an-tinn. Agus é san ospidéal, is minic a bhíonn Susan agus a deirfiúr leo féin. Seo scéal faoi athrú, fás agus dóchas atá á insint ag cailín óg nach dtuigeann cad atá ag tarlú. Tá téamaí éagsúla sa scéal; an gaol atá ag forbairt idir an triúr páistí, cineáltas strainséirí, an tacaíocht agus an grá i dteaghlach atá cabhair uathu agus atá ádhúil le teacht air. Young Susan tells this gripping and moving tale about the summer when she was eight years old, and her brother Bruno nearly drowns in the sea. She gets him back to shore where he becomes seriously ill. While he is in hospital, Susan and sister Peanut are often left alone. This is a story about change, growth and hope told through the eyes of a child who does not understand what is happening. It covers the developing relationship of the three children, the kindness of strangers, the support and love in a family that needs assistance, and is fortunate enough to find it.

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As a doctoral student at Trinity College Dublin, Darren Walton is trying to decode an elaborate conspiracy he stumbled across as an undergraduate. To do so he must locate an alternate Ireland named Camland, the existence of which is proven when he discovers a literary journal whose contents mirror his own past. With proof of his wild theories, Darren is sure academic fame is imminent. But for this he is willing to sacrifice not just his sanity and physical safety, but also his relationships with the ones who love him most. In breathless prose, Declan Toohey weaves a contemporary yarn of academic intrigue and youthful irreverence, sexual fluidity and neurodiversity. Experimental, trippy, hilarious, compassionate, Perpetual Comedown is a riotous reckoning in the construction of the self.

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Guardians of the Peace is a political history of the Irish police force, An Garda Síochana, from its foundation at the birth of the Irish State, through the Irish Civil War, the threat of the fascist ‘Blueshirts’, the continuing campaign of the IRA, de Valera’s entry into the Dáil in 1932 and the creation, effectively of his own police force – ’The Broy Harriers’ – through World War 2. As the author outlines in his insightful introduction, the story told in this book is part of a longer and wider narrative. But it is a story which still has relevance as Ireland moves, hopefully, to a new era of peace and stability. It is above all a chronicle of the idealism and the imperfections of ordinary men presented by history with the discharging of a rather extraordinary task. As the force approaches one hundred years since its founding, it is hoped that this history will evoke the ideals and the founding principles adopted in 1922 and perhaps help to re-interpret and re-apply them in a 21st Century context.

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NEW PAPERBACK EDITION 2015 saw the publication of The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers, edited by Sinéad Gleeson. The Long Gaze Back was widely acclaimed and went on to win Best Irish-published Book of the Year 2015 at the Irish Book Awards. More importantly, it sparked lively discussion and debate about the erasure of women writers from the literary canon. One question kept arising: where was the equivalent anthology for women writers from the north? The Glass Shore, compiled by award-winning editor, broadcaster and critic Sinéad Gleeson, provides an intimate and illuminating insight into a previously underappreciated literary canon. Twenty-four female luminaries — whose lives and works cover three centuries — capture experiences that are both vivid and varied, despite their shared geographical heritage. Unavoidably affected by a difficult political past, this challenging landscape is navigated by characters who are searingly honest, humorous and, at times, heartbreakingly poignant. The result is a collection that is enthralling, stirring and quietly disconcerting. Individually, these intriguing stories make an indelible impact and are cause for reflection and contemplation. Together, they transgress their social, political and gender constraints, instead collectively presenting a distinctive, resolute and impassioned voice worthy of recognition and admiration. Featuring stories by: Rosa Mulholland, Erminda Rentoul Esler, Sarah Grand, Alice Milligan, Eithne Carbery, Margaret Barrington, Janet McNeill, Mary Beckett, Polly Devlin, Frances Molloy, Una Woods, Sheila Llewellyn, Linda Anderson, Anne Devlin, Evelyn Conlon, Mary O’Donnell, Annemarie Neary, Martina Devlin, Rosemary Jenkinson, Bernie McGill, Tara West, Jan Carson, Lucy Caldwell and Roisín O’Donnell.

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Duine de shárscéalaithe na Gaeilge In Eanáir 1952, sé bliana sula bhfuair Peig Sayers bás, thionscain Coimisiún Béaloideasa Éireann agallaimh léi agus í in ospidéal Naomh Anna, Baile Átha Cliath. Bhí Peig thar a bheith sásta labhairt lena cuairteoirí a raibh Gaeilge Chiarraí ar a dtoil acu agus seanaithne aici orthu. Foilsítear den chéad uair in Níl Deireadh Ráite na hagallaimh sin mar aon le réamhrá tathagach, tráchtaireacht agus aistriúchán Béarla ar an iomlán. Cuireann Peig i láthair anseo seanscéalta idirnáisiúnta, scéal Fiannaíochta, finscéalta taistealacha, seanchas stairiúil agus sísheanchas, roinnt paidreacha, agus tá cúpla léaráid óna mac, Mícheál Ó Gaoithín, mar anlann leo. Léiríonn na taifeadtaí a bua mar scéalaí oilte, a hacmhainn grinn, a móreolas ar scéalta traidisiúnta agus a cumas máistriúil á gcur i láthair trí shúile mná. Buanaíonn an saothar seo ionad Pheig mar dhuine de shárscéalaithe na Gaeilge agus cinntíonn sé go bhfuil a cuid scéalaíochta le háireamh ar scoth na healaíne béil sa tír seo. Among the first rank of Irish storytellers In January 1952, six years before she died, Peig Sayers was interviewed by a team from the Irish Folklore Commission in St Anne’s Hospital, Dublin. She was more than happy to be recorded, and pleased to be visited by old friends, all of whom spoke fluent Kerry Irish. In Not the Final Word these interviews are published for the first time, in both Irish and English, along with a substantial introduction and detailed annotation. Here Peig tells her versions of international folktales, a Fenian tale, some prayers, migratory legends and historical and supernatural lore, illustrated in paintings by her son, Mícheál Ó Gaoithín. She emerges as a warm and authentic storyteller, with a ready sense of humour, a deep knowledge of traditional narrative and highly skilled in its presentation. This collection reaffirms Peig Sayers’s position in the first rank of Irish storytellers and firmly establishes her tales in the canon of Irish oral literature.

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Lady Augusta Gregory’s Irish Myths and Legends, or Gods and Fighting Men as it was first titled in 1904, is an essential collection of Irish myths, legends and folk tales gathered by Gregory from Irish oral story tellers at the close of the nineteenth century. These epic tales are divided into two parts: the first charts the coming of the mythic Tuatha De Danaan to Ireland, the lives of Manannan and Lugh, and the tragedy of the Children of Lir. The second part follows the exploits and trials of Finn Mac Cumhal, the Fianna, Oisin, and the love story of Diarmuid and Grania. This is a timeless collection of Irish myths and legends - whimsical, tragic, astounding and ever familiar - borne through the centuries, and an essential part of Ireland's literary heritage.

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An instant classic, The Long Gaze Back, edited by Sinéad Gleeson, is an exhilarating anthology of thirty short stories by some of the most gifted women writers this island has ever produced. Featuring: Niamh Boyce, Elizabeth Bowen, Maeve Brennan, Mary Costello, June Caldwell, Lucy Caldwell, Evelyn Conlon, Anne Devlin, Maria Edgeworth, Anne Enright, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Norah Hoult, Mary Lavin, Eimear McBride, Molly McCloskey, Bernie McGill, Lisa McInerney, Belinda McKeon, Siobhán Mannion, Lia Mills, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Kate O’Brien, Roisín O’Donnell, E. M. Reapy, Charlotte Riddell, Eimear Ryan, Anakana Schofield, Somerville & Ross, Susan Stairs. Taken together, the collected works of these writers reveal an enrapturing, unnerving, and piercingly beautiful mosaic of a lively literary landscape. Spanning four centuries, The Long Gaze Back features 8 rare stories from deceased luminaries and forerunners, and 22 new stories by some of the most talented Irish women writers working today. The anthology presents an inclusive and celebratory portrait of the high calibre of contemporary literature in Ireland. These stories run the gamut from heartbreaking to humorous, but each leaves a lasting impression. They chart the passions, obligations, trials and tribulations of a variety of vividly-drawn characters with unflinching honesty and relentless compassion. These are stories to savour.

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Adapted from his extraordinary autobiography, Angels of Divine Light (Transworld, 2010), for the Open Door series of short books for emerging readers, Aidan Storey recalls how the presence of Angels sustained him through years of great turmoil. As he recalls the sexual and mental abuse he suffered in primary school, and the dark days of depression that followed, he describes how the Angels, through the power of angelic healing, taught him how to bring light and love into his life and the lives of many others. Profoundly moving, this is an inspiring story of hope and forgiveness, and a testament to the healing power of Angels that will stay with you for ever.

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Nuala O’Faolain’s first memoir Are You Somebody? became a literary sensation and an international bestseller when it was first published by New Island Books in 1996. It launched a new life for its author, at a time when she had long since let go of expectations that anything new could dislodge patterns of regret and solitude. A pioneering work of literary memoir, Almost There opens at that moment when O’Faolain’s life began to change. It tells the story of a life in subtle, radical, and unforeseen renewal. It is a tale of good fortune chasing out bad – of an accidental harvest of happiness. But it is also a provocative examination of one woman’s experience of the ‘crucible of middle age’ – a time of life that faces in two directions, that forges the shape of the years to come, and also clarifies and solidifies one’s relationships to friends and lovers, family and self. Nuala O’Faolain’s final memoir, Almost There chronicles the pursuit of artistic and personal integrity, and what it is to be a woman in contemporary society, with the signature style and raw candidness of her personal writing.

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SHORTLISTED for The Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award 2021 ‘An ambitious and vital novel with an epic sweep: a complex, timely story about liberty, equality, identity. [...] This book is an act of salvage, performed with great skill: cleanly written, sharp-eyed, undeceived.’ — Hilary Mantel In a London graveyard in 1857, Harriet Small is approached by a stranger, an unwanted intruder who insists that she hear him out . . . in the will of a woman she only barely remembers, Harriet has been left an unusual collection of papers: her father’s True Narrative of his life after escaping slavery and his journey into the heart of revolutionary Ireland. Nearly sixty years earlier, in the aftermath of Lord Edward FitzGerald’s death and disgrace in the 1798 Rebellion, his sister, Lady Lucy, had commissioned Harriet’s father, Tony Small, to write about his life as Edward’s manservant in the form a ‘slave narrative’. But Lucy’s real motivation was to restore Edward’s reputation and her family’s fortune. What emerges from ‘Faithful’ Tony’s pages – at first unsure but later confident in his words – is a complex, co-dependent and sometimes turbulent friendship between the two men. Edward is everything Tony is not: beloved by a large family and carelessly sure of his privileged place in the world. With Edward, Tony hopes to begin a new life – to belong – only to find himself a stranger in a strange land who often comprehends better than his employer the racism, privilege and power that drive the inequalities of their time. As historical events gallop towards their devastating conclusion, Tony learns that the sacrifices to be free are never-ending. And as difficult and heartbreaking as it is to read her father’s story, Harriet comes to realise there is more than one way to be free. From war in South Carolina to genteel drawing rooms in Kildare, from the discomfort and boredom of Antigua to the snow-covered nothingness of Canada, the slave-owning territories along the Mississippi to a printing house in Hamburg and the colonial politics of London to the intrigue and simmering resentments of Dublin, Words to Shape My Name is about hope, failure and resilience, an adventurous novel of great intelligence and awareness that will resonate today.

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Following the success of her lockdown collectionWhat Day Is It? Who Gives a F*ck,Jan Brierton returns with anew collection of 52 poems that riff on menopause, midlife, the mental load, friendships, relationships, loss and self-acceptance.

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Amidst the moments of seismic change in LGBTQ history in Ireland lie the stories of ordinary people, who did extraordinary things to change queer Ireland and Irish culture.

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Eason Favourite Book of the Year 2022 ‘she is no small town, and this is no small story . . .’ BASED ON THE POPULAR DUBLIN HISTORY PODCAST A companion to the hugely successful podcast of the same name by Donal Fallon, THREE CASTLES BURNING is an enjoyable wander through some of Dublin's less obvious but more interesting streets and roads such as Henrietta Street, Watling Street, Fownes Street and Kildare Road. On the Dublin streets we walk every day, there are hidden reminders of the lesser-known heroes and events that have contributed to the evolving story of our capital. The city’s motto, ‘the obedience of the citizens produces a happy city’, may feel outdated and loaded today but the three burning castles of its ancient coat of arms have come to represent the indomitable spirit, creativity and vision that define this big town. Inspired by the No. 1 podcast, Three Castles Burning: A History of Dublin in Twelve Streets champions the activists, workers, architects, poets, migrants, artists and merchants who have made and remade the city we know and love by going beneath the many layers of twelve key streets where they lived and worked. Because, in the city Joyce called the ‘Hibernian Metropolis’, the disobedience of its citizens is the cornerstone of its past, present and future. This combination of social, cultural, industrial and commercial, and political history, through the prism of the places where revolutions great and small were sparked, offers the reader a fresh and unexpected take on Ireland's capital city.

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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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When Ronan Smith was in his twenties, his father, the theatre impresario Brendan Smith, developed obvious signs of early onset Alzheimer’s disease but steadfastly refused to acknowledge it. Brendan ran the Olympia Theatre and had founded the Brendan Smith Academy of Acting and the Dublin Theatre Festival. A theatre and film actor, Ronan later became a producer and manager, and part of the worldwide phenomenon of Riverdance. It fell to Ronan to protect his father, and eventually, as Brendan’s condition became more challenging, to commit him into care, a traumatic but pivotal event in their father-son relationship. So in 2014, when Ronan himself was diagnosed with the same illness, he knew exactly what the coming years would hold. But, unlike his father, Ronan chose to face his future positively, turning from work towards family, improving his diet and advocating for the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. In doing so, Ronan’s radically different approach to this all-too-common disease has significantly changed the narrative around it in Ireland. Written in real time, If Memory Serves Me Wrong is a rare first-hand account of the experience of being both a family carer and of living with dementia. It is also a heartrending, sometimes harrowing and very often humorous memoir about the power of love in facing an uncertain future.

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The New Frontier is a landmark publication of writing from the Irish Border, composed of non-fiction, fiction and poetry – it is a chorus of voices from some of the island’s greatest writers, that conveys in its multiplicity the true meaning of our border. At a time when the division of our shared island has once again become an international concern, the Border now a threshold between Europe and the United Kingdom, The New Frontier seeks to explore the meaning of this partition in the 21st century for those people that inhabit that divide. This collection of writing ultimately poses the question: What does it mean to be Irish, Northern Irish, or British in the modern age, and what does it mean to live on a threshold between a kingdom and a republic? The New Frontier will undoubtedly become a key cultural and literary touchstone. This anthology considers the border, and our historical divisions, through literature, by inviting writers from border areas to respond imaginatively and instinctively. By writing the land, writing the body, writing the lived experiences of this complex and misunderstood part of Ireland, The New Frontier looks to reclaim the border region from decades of misinterpretation and misunderstanding. Featuring writing from: Conor O’Callaghan, Darran Anderson, Garrett Carr, Luke Cassidy, Nidhi Zak, Kerri ní Dochartaigh, Michael Hughes, Séamas O’Reilly, Pat McCabe, Lias Saoudi, Maureen Boyle, Emily Cooper, Dean Fee, Jill Crawford, Annemarie ní Chuirrean, Peter Hollywood, John Kelly, Michelle Gallen, Marcel Krueger, Eoghan Walls, Orla McAlinden, Bronagh McAtasney, Mícheál McCann, Jess McKinney and Maria McManus

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Caitríona Lally’s sophomore novel centres around an outsider protagonist, Roy, an Irishman exiled from Ireland to Hamburg for unknown reasons. In his new, simple life he works as a cleaner at the Wunderland miniature exhibition where he is more comfortable meddling in the tiny scenes than he is in interacting with his co-workers and visitors to the museum. To Roy’s almost total indifference, his sister Gert visits for a few days, the first of their family to do so since his exile, and she patiently and then not-so-patiently tries to talk to him and discover what really prompted his move away. But Gert is fighting her own demons, having checked out of her exhausting family life where she is losing herself in the face of her husband’s deepening depression. Latent forces within brother and sister explode to force them to do something – anything – to change their stagnant and bewildering lives.

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The Garden is dying. Once an Edenic orchid farm, it has been decimated by the worst hurricane in Florida’s living memory. Its glasshouses are shattered, the surrounding mangroves encroach, and its men are dangerously idle. When Romeo – an expert breeder of the endangered ghost orchid – arrives from Honduras, boss Blanchard and his Irish lieutenant, Swallow, believe their fortunes are on the rise. Romeo may not be all he seems though, and Swallow can sense the newcomer shaking the Garden’s creaking hierarchy. The ghost orchid they seek is infamously rare, a delicate and wildly valuable species, hidden deep in the treacherous cypress swamps of the Fakahatchee Strand. To capture the ghost, Blanchard and Swallow must strike a deal with Logan, a dangerously unpredictable member of the local Seminole tribe, whose wounded pride, and simmering web of violence threaten to uproot any hope of success. As Blanchard’s obsession distracts him from what is truly precious, Swallow’s long-buried traumas will test his ability to stop lust, betrayal and death from engulfing the Garden. Paul Perry’s first solo novel tells of smothering power, loyalty and agency thwarted by the tragic patterns of memory and behaviour. The Garden is a modern fable, and a warning against trespassing upon nature in the name of profit.

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A widow spends weeks haunting a cemetery, desperate to track down an unknown woman who keeps leaving flowers on her husband’s grave; A daughter searches a foreign city for her father, trying to understand why he disappeared forty-five years ago; A former gay lover of Roger Casement stands among the crowds at his state funeral in 1965, paying silent homage to the closeted world they were forced to inhabit at the dawning of the Irish State. A writer at a book launch comes face to face with the person secretly responsible for his success. In his first collection of short stories, Dermot Bolger peers under the veneer of our lives, exploring the secrets that bind families together, or tear them apart, creating worlds where people find that nothing is truly certain. There are always truths just beyond reach that would make sense of their lives, if they only know how to unlock them.

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The Best of Benedict Kiely is a treasure trove of his best and most acclaimed stories, published to mark the centenary of the birth of this great twentieth-century Irish writer. Many of these stories were originally published in The New Yorker before appearing in four collections over a 24-year period during the writer’s lifetime. They are quintessential Kiely; superbly crafted, mingling song, anecdote, myth, history and a powerful sense of place into an allusive storyline. They show Kiely’s supreme gift in recording the feeling of lived life, pulsing with joys, disappointments and the accidental and deliberate digressions along the way. Colum McCann has observed in Kiely’s work that ‘… there is really no such thing as an end, because the stories keep unfolding and influencing’ and these classic Kiely stories, published together for the first time, will linger with the reader, young or old, long after the final sentence.

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These stories, rich with the passion and drama which characterises all of Walter Macken’s writing, were conceived by the author as a thematic collection, providing a stunning evocation of the life and people of Galway in the 1940s. They document a time and place, yet they also have a timeless appeal in their portrayal of the people of the city whom Macken knew and loved so well. Full of insight and humour, they do not romanticise the past; rather they celebrate the qualities of ordinary people in their struggles with poverty, with political conservatism and with the sea, ever-present elements in the life of the city of the tribes. Walter Macken has long been one of Ireland’s most popular writers. A novelist who defined in fiction the world of the ‘plain people’ of the west of Ireland, he was a master of the short story. First published posthumously in 1997, these magnificent stories are now brought back to life in the Modern Irish Classics series.

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Adam Palmer, determined to defy God in revenge for his detention in an asylum, embarks on a personal quest to destroy his soul, inflicting small sustained acts of cruelty and violence on those around him. His long-suffering wife, Kathleen, struggles to maintain her self-respect in the face of her husband’s gaslighting. Among the most elusive of Norah Hoult’s works, Farewell Happy Fields was published in 1948 and, like many of her books, was promptly banned in Ireland. A dark comedy full of acerbic wit, it brings searing insight into a lost post-war generation of lower-middle-class women and men as they deal with shame, financial insecurity and emotional poverty. Back in print for the first time in decades, New Island is delighted to bring this startling modern Irish classic to a new generation of readers.

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Garda Inspector Michael McLoughlin is trying to enjoy his retirement – doing a bit of PI work on the side, meeting up with former colleagues, fixing up a grand old house in a genteel Dublin suburb near the sea. Then he discovers the body of his neighbour, a retired judge – brutally murdered, shot through the back of the neck, his face mutilated beyond recognition. McLoughlin finds himself drawn into the murky past of the murdered judge, which leads him back to his own father’s killing, decades earlier, by the IRA. In seeking the truth behind both crimes, a web of deceit, blackmail and fragile reputations comes to light, as McLoughlin’s investigation reveals the explosive circumstances linking both crimes – and dark secrets are discovered which would destroy the judge’s legendary family name.

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What's That as Gaeilge? will help you to express in Irish the most common idioms in everyday English. The Irish equivalents suggested in this phrasebook are colourful and exciting, many with cultural, mythological and philosophical significance and even a few emerging from the Gaelscoileanna ‘newspeak’. They will improve and enrich your spoken Irish skills for an upcoming oral examination or if you simply want to make your written and spoken Irish a tad more colloquial. This book is ideal for anyone interested in the beauty, flavour and rhythm of the living, modern language.

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An intimate human study and subtle portrait of a country in flux from New Island author Dermot Bolger. While a floundering Irish government clings to its illusion of power as an international troika waits in the wings, Martin, a mid-ranking civil servant, finds himself alone in a Beijing hotel: a superfluous accessory in a delegation accompanying a Minister to China. A cat-and-mouse encounter with a Chinese masseuse draws Martin into a world beyond his experience, forcing him to confront the gap between the chameleon face of someone at work and the reality when everything is stripped bare, with nowhere left to hide from the anxieties, longings and contradictions in his head. The Fall of Ireland is a subtle meditation on the thin line between illusion and actuality: a study of a homesick man in the gilded cage of a luxury hotel, trying to unravel which elements of his life are real and which are subconscious deceptions.

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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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