An acclaimed singer/songwriter, he is proud of the way  he handled his difficult past: poverty in the 1950s Dublin slums and the brutality of the Artane Industrial School. He felt as though he had safely disposed of it all, until one night, while writing the powerful song that would launch his highly-praised album, 800 Voices ("A searing testament." —Irish Times), Danny's past crept back to haunt him. Confronted by forgotten memories of betrayal and abandonment, he was stunned to discover that his eight-year-old self was still trapped in a world he thought he had left behind.Although unnerved by his experience, Danny begins an arduous journey that leads him back to the streets of Dublin, the tenement slums, and, ultimately, the malice and mischief of the Artane playground. What he discovers with each twist and turn of his odyssey will forever change his life. Elegantly written, this is a brutally honest, often harrowing, depiction of a young boy's struggle to survive orphanage life, and stands as an inspiring testament to the healing power of music and love.

     The discovery of a body in a petrol station gives D.C.I. Marc Craig’s murder squad a challenging mystery to solve. Another death in Ireland’s North West looks unrelated, but the forensic evidence is not what it initially appears. Links begin to emerge between the two deaths, and set Craig on a pursuit unlike any he has faced before. Then an attack on someone close gives him a difficult question to answer: Is justice always what it seems? A Limited Justice. The First in The Craig Crime Series. Now complete the The Craig Crime Series: A Limited Justice The Grass Tattoo The Visitor The Waiting Room The Broken Shore The Slowest Cut The Coercion Key The Careless Word The History Suite The Sixth Estate The Sect The Keeper The Talion Code

    Written in an entertaining, educational and assessible style, this biography is an accurate and well-researched portrayal of the man.

    She is torn between Sean O’Hara – wanted by the police for something he didn’t do – and RAF radio engineer Sandy, serving in India.Pat is sensitive and thoughtful, and dreams of life beyond the Ulster Linen Works. When she is introduced to a dashing tenor, the possibility of a new life seems ever more real . . .Peggy, hot-headed and glamorous, loves her job in Mr Goldstein’s music shop on Royal Avenue, where she catches the eye of a Humphrey Bogart lookalike, but he isn’t all he appears . . .Sheila, the youngest, wants to stay on at school, but her family desperately need another wage. Above all, she longs to be treated like a grown up.Although they lead very different lives, the sisters share a passion for singing and when they are asked to join a new troupe of entertainers, Martha fears this will put them in temptation’s way. Can she hold her family together and keep her girls safe, even when the bombs begin to fall? The Golden Sisters, the fabulous sequel to Martha's Girls, is out now!

    Displaying a gift for storytelling and remembrance, Robinson reveals, in Everybody Matters, what lies behind the vision, strength, and determination that made her path to prominence as compelling as any of her achievements.Born in 1944 into a deeply Catholic family-the only girl among five childrenshe was poised to become a nun before finding her own true voice.Ever since, she has challenged convention in pursuit of fairness-whether in the Church, in government and politics, or in her own family.As an activist lawyer, she won landmark cases advancing the causes of women and marginalized people against the prejudices of the day, and in her twenty years in the Irish Senate she promoted progressive legislation, including the legalizing of contraception. She shocked the political system by winning election as Irelands first woman president in l990, redefining the role and putting Ireland firmly on the international stage. Her role as UN high commissioner for human rights, beginning in 1997, was to prove an even bigger challenge; she won acclaim for bringing attention to victims worldwide but was often frustrated both by the bureaucracy and by the willingness to compromise on principle, which reveal the deep and inherent barriers to changing the status quo. Now back in Ireland and heading her Mary Robinson Foundation-Climate Justice, she has found the independence she needs to work effectively on behalf of the millions of poor around the world most affected by climate change.Told with the same calm conviction and modest pride that has guided her life, Everybody Matters will inspire anyone who reads it with the belief that each of us can, in our own way, help to change the world for the better.

    While the teacher, the recluse, the advertising whizz-kid and the African woman and her young son run, rush, dart and dash, she knows for sure that she will never have anything worth dashing to. But sometimes all it takes is a little magic to bring people together. And, in Lavender Square, where the lavender grows in mysterious abundance and colours the air with a musky sense of love, magic is never very far away. The neighbours, who once passed each other by in detached universes, find themselves thrown together when they are obliged to take care of young Patrick Kimba. His mother is seriously ill and no one knows when or if she is ever coming home. At first they resist the tiresome interruption, until quite by accident Patrick’s dream of becoming a football star and finding his long-lost father becomes theirs, and their lives and heartaches become woven together in a new and unexpected pattern.

    

    Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly, his young assistant, Dr. Barry Laverty, and a host of other endearing and eccentric characters who make every day an experience.Patrick Taylor’s Irish Country novels captivate from the very first page—and leave you yearning to visit the Irish countryside of days gone by.Contained in this beautiful boxed set:An Irish Country Doctor Barry Laverty, M.B., can barely find the village of Ballybucklebo on the map when he first sets out to seek employment there. But Barry jumps at the chance to secure a position as an assistant in a small rural practice—that is until he meets is boss, Dr. Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly. An Irish Country Village Dr. Barry Laverty has only just begun his assistantship under the eccentric Dr. O’Reilly when the sudden death of a patient casts a cloud over Barry’s reputation. While he anxiously waits for the postmortem results, Barry must regain the trust of the village one patient at a time. An Irish Country Christmas Dr. Barry Laverty is looking forward to his first Christmas in Ballybucklebo, until he learns that his sweetheart, Patricia, might not be coming home for the holiday. But the young doctor has little time to dwell on romantic disappointments.

    It is conversational, and informal, and a little bit fun to read. It is about looking at things around you – past, present, and future – and asking the important questions. Perhaps the only really important question: Why? This is a book for all of us who are looking, searching for a way to plant our feet firmly on Irish ground, and take responsibility for what we are doing here, for our place in the big picture that is Ireland today.You don’t have to be Pagan, or New Age, or Magical, or Spiritual, to read this book. You don’t even have to be Irish. To get the full benefit, you do have to be open minded, willing to learn something about yourself, about Ireland, and maybe even about your place in this land. This is also a practical guide and a work book, and that is important to understand before you buy. There are more questions within these pages than there are definitive answers. Understand that this work is up to you, and nobody else will take responsibility for the work you need to be doing. There is genuine guidance though, some funny bits, and more than a couple of pokes and prods to help you on your way.Written by a woman of this land, called Witch by some, Druid by others, and Bean Draoí by herself, when she has to go by something other than “that O’Brien one”. Sharing experience and knowledge, and suggestions for how you might get to where you need to be – examining how things used to be done here, and what can be useful and relevant to us as we bring ourselves forward through our Irish Spirituality.

    Fully a quarter of its citizens either perished from starvation or emigrated, with so many dying en route that it was said, "you can walk dry shod to America on their bodies." In this grand, sweeping narrative, Ireland''s best-known historian, Tim Pat Coogan, gives a fresh and comprehensive account of one of the darkest chapters in world history, arguing that Britain was in large part responsible for the extent of the national tragedy, and in fact engineered the food shortage in one of the earliest cases of ethnic cleansing. So strong was anti-Irish sentiment in the mainland that the English parliament referred to the famine as "God's lesson." Drawing on recently uncovered sources, and with the sharp eye of a seasoned historian, Coogan delivers fresh insights into the famine's causes, recounts its unspeakable events, and delves into the legacy of the "famine mentality" that followed immigrants across the Atlantic to the shores of the United States and had lasting effects on the population left behind. This is a broad, magisterial history of a tragedy that shook the nineteenth century and still impacts the worldwide Irish diaspora of nearly 80 million people today.

    She's an imposter.Although training to be a druidess, Ciara secretly doubts the very gods she is to serve – a secret that means certain death if it's discovered.Ciara struggles to conceal her faithlessness from the elder druid in charge of her training but Ronan already suspects her. Then the High King’s druid receives a prophecy that circulates through Ireland. It predicts a strange man from across the sea whose knowledge of a foreign God will destroy the old gods.When Ciara sabotages a sacred ritual in the forest designed to repel this man called Patrick, her secret is out. And her life hangs in the balance.

    Chamber music. Post-War trauma. Is harmony possible?Thrust into a string quartet, crippled Irish cellist Lucy Straughan must choose between isolation and friendship.What has the morose, math-loving Lucy to offer? And will dainty Della Sotheby, hot-headed Pim Connolly and precocious Phoebe Raye ever accept her? But Lucy has more to give than she realises. Nor is she alone in her troubles. Meticulously crafted and true to life, A Distant Prospect is a heartwarming coming-of-age story set in nineteen twenties Sydney, Australia.

    The Coming Revolution An insight into the political thought of one of the main architects of the 1916 Rising and of Ireland's Proclamation of Independence Full description

    

    But the tale is relieved throughout not only by a pervasive black humour but by the emergence of love in all its various guises. When Bluebottle runs away from a religious institution to live on the streets of Dublin, he is taken in by Malcolm, an ageing sensualist with a penchant for young boys. When lust soon turns into full-blown sexual obsession, there follows the first of a series of increasingly violent encounters that lead relentlessly to bloody murder.

    

    Illustrated with over a hundred evocative and stunning photographs, we meet the people and the customs that are fast becoming a distant memory. Through their own words and memories, men and women from every corner of Ireland transport us back to a simpler time when people lived off the land and the sea, and when music and storytelling were essential parts of life. Vanishing Ireland brings together the stories of those who lived through Ireland's formative years. These poignant interviews and photographs will make you laugh and cry but, above all, will provide a valuable chronicle that connects twenty-first century Ireland to a rapidly disappearing world.

    . . Naturally, Shane MacGowan is the book's focus and fascination, a mixture of personal awfulness and great charm, but this isn't a biography of Shane (though his quote on the front is worth the money alone - 'It's just how I'd imagine I'd remember it') . . . Fearnely also makes sure that this is his book, with great honesty . . . In the end it is the I-was-there insights that make Here Comes Everybody such a good book . . . not just an essential purchase for Pogues fans, but for anyone interested in the reality of being in a band. And what a band.' - David Quantick, Word magazine'Fearnley's descriptions of Shane MacGowan, the front man of the Irish folk-rock band the Pogues, suppurate with pure deliciousness . . . By 1991, Fearnley 'had ended up hating' the 'Miss Havisham' figure who sat in a darkened hotel room, painting his face silver and refusing to go on stage - and yet his memoir is funny and affectionate, a cackling expectoration of a mad decade as part of the band . . . In his own way, MacGowan is the ideal protagonist - talented, inspired, and halitotic, but flawed. 'My dreams have featured Shane more often than my dad for some time now,' writes Fearnely, touchingly. Read it, and exhale.' --Camilla Long, Sunday Times'Fearnley is brilliant at conjuring the milieu from which the Pogues sprang, a lost, down-at-heel demimonde of King's Cross squats and housing association flats. If he can't or won't tell you why MacGowan's decline occurred, he describes it in harrowing detail: the screaming fits, the vomiting, his skin 'the colour of grout' . . .Fearnley's book fits perfectly with the Pogues: for all their earthiness, they were a band concerned with myths, from the Irish legends MacGowan's lyrics relocated to the back streets and pubs of north London to the persistent rock'n'roll fable of the damned, beautiful loser. There's nothing romantic about alcoholic self-destruction, as Here Comes Everybody makes clear, but a song as beautiful as A Pair of Brown Eyes can make you believe there is at least while it's playing. In the process, MacGowan became a mythic figure himself: a myth, despite the unsparing detail that Fearnley ends up burnishing.' --Alexis Petridis'If you think all rock-music memoirs are a mixture of PR fluff, second-hand observations and strategically selected memories, then Here Comes Everybody: The Story of The Pogues is the book to make you change your mind . . . That Fearnley hasn t been quarantined for writing such a warts-and-all tale says much about the band and the bond formed across 30 fractious years. A band of brothers to the very end, then, and with a fine, salty memoir to raise a glass to.' -- Irish Times'An enjoyable and charming read ... The book whizzes by in a blur of more gigs, more hits, more alcohol-fuelled triumphs and disasters. Fearnely is especially good on the band's eventful 1985 US tour ... Like the Pogue's best work, Here Comes Everybody is anything but streamlined and orderly, and its endless twists and turns pack a mightly wallop.' -- Sunday Business Post'A frank and funny account of wild times and shattered friendships by the folk-punk outfit's accordion player, James Fearnely. It kicks off as the rest of the group agree to throw out their shambolic frontman.' --Metro

    The book is written by Dylan Jones who has been given complete access, including behind the scenes at Glastonbury 2011.

    With over 200 short and powerful lessons, Speak Irish Now will teach you the building blocks of Irish, and can be used for both self-study and group-study.Features include:- clear and friendly explanations- focused lessons to encourage regular study, even if you have little time- phonetics, to get you speaking right away- hundreds of examples - two glossaries (Irish to English & English to Irish)

    Proper order, too - except the lad was no rapist, and Webber knew it.’It’s 1914 and Liam Mannion is forced into exile for a crime he didn’t commit. He flees Balbriggan, the only home he has ever known and travels to England, where he enlists and endures the torment of trench warfare in France. Five years later he’s back in England, a changed man, living in the shadow of his battlefield memories. Liam finds work in a Manchester cotton mill but prejudice and illness soon see him destitute. Starving and desperate, he enlists in a new military force heading to Ireland - the Black and Tans - and is posted to the very town he fled as a youth.While he has been away Liam’s childhood friends have joined the republican cause, while his brother has allied himself to the Crown forces. Liam must wrestle with his own conflicted feelings about duty to the ruthless Tans and loyalty to his friends. The potent combination of ambition, patriotism and betrayal collide, forcing him to act as he comes face to face with the man who spread lies about him all those years before.

    

    Jane and Myles met eight years ago when they were both working in the UK. They spent summers working in restaurants by the sea in Cornwall so they could go surfing, and winters running chalets in ski resorts in the Alps. Eventually they felt the need to put some roots down so they took the plunge and opened their own place, Shells Café, in March 2010. And they haven't looked back since. It’s the perfect place for Jane and Myles to create great food and live the outdoor lifestyle they love. They use fresh organic seasonal produce – vegetables from the bountiful Irish soil, and fish from the wild Atlantic. From foraging on the beach to creating the perfect picnic to making homemade Baileys, The Surf Café Cookbook focuses on locally-produced food that’s unpretentious and tasty. It’s food for sharing with friends and family, around the kitchen table or on a beach blanket thrown on the sand. It’s contemporary Irish cooking with a soupçon of salty air. And the Surf Café Cookbook is more than just a cookbook, it also includes all sorts of useful tips ranging from how to gut a fish to making crafty home accessories for special occasions. This is coastal living at it’s best – cooking, eating and living the Irish way. In this book Myles and Jane want to share their food adventures with you.

    Full description

    That's because the real thing is much subtler and more delicious than any platter of overcooked corned beef and mushy cabbage could ever be. Real Irish food is brown soda bread so moist it barely needs the yolk-yellow butter; fragrant apple tarts with tender, golden crusts; rich stews redolent of meaty gravy and sweet carrots; crisp-edged potato cakes flipped hot from a skillet directly onto the plate. Forget meatloaf or mac and cheese - this stuff is the original comfort food."Real Irish Food" is the first comprehensive cookbook to bring classic Irish dishes to America with an eye for American kitchens and cooks, and with tips and tricks to help reproduce Irish results with American ingredients. Transform plain white fish by baking it with grated sharp cheese, mustard, and crumbs. Discover that celery takes on new life when sliced, simmered in chicken stock, and served in a lightly thickenedsauce.From hearty roasts to innovative vegetable dishes, from trays of fresh-baked scones to rich, eggy cakes, and from jams bursting with tart fruit to everything you can do with a potato, there's no food so warm and welcoming, so homey and family-oriented, so truly mouthwatering as real Irish food.

    It's a life-affirming tale of rediscovering lost values and cherishing loved ones and the communities we live in.

    Gore-Booth rejected her aristocratic heritage, choosing to live and work among the poorest classes in industrial Manchester. Her work on behalf of barmaids, circus acrobats, flower sellers, and pit-brow lasses is traced in this book. During one impressive campaign, Gore-Booth orchestrated the defeat of Winston Churchill. Gore-Booth published volumes of poetry, philosophical prose, and plays, becoming a respected and prolific author of her time and part of W.B. Yeats' literary circle. The story of Gore-Booth's life is captivating. Her close bond with her sister, an iconic Irish nationalist, provides a new insight into Countess Markievicz's personal life. Gore-Booth's life story vividly traces her experiences of issues such as militant pacifism during the Great War, the case for the reprieve of Roger Casement's death sentence, sexual equality in the workplace, and the struggle for Irish independence.

    It explores the intriguing breadth and depth of a committed therapeutic relationship, in the search of self-understanding and self-love. And it gives brave voice to the fragile nature of humanity, standing witness to an ‘ordinary’ experience of the ‘Troubles’, to the human impact of terrorism and political war.

    The problem is, she won't have him. But Jack has always loved a challenge and the intriguing woman from Oz is one he cannot resist.Harbouring the sting of another man’s betrayal, Kate is certain she wants nothing to do with love and nothing to do with Jack O’Reilly. But when naked torsos, Mother Nature and dysfunctional umbrellas start plotting against her resolve, she realizes the charms of an Irishman are going to be hard to resist.

    But bound by her wallflower personality and unruly looks, she fails to make any connection with Patrick.While Patrick is away on a long-term medical mission trip, crossing off days until the annulment, Rylee is determined to change—both inwardly and outwardly—to win the affections of her husband. Battling rumors and echoes of her past, she wins over Patrick's family and friends with her amiable personality and perpetual state of embarrassment.Patrick returns home to find his wife transformed into a beautiful, confident woman. When he realizes that God's arrangement of the marriage was intentional and permanent, Patrick begins to see his wife in a different light.But as their feelings develop, their relationship is continually derailed by Rylee's unusual habits and stubborn pride. As Rylee's good-natured presence begins to change the lives of the McLellans, they are also determined to conquer Rylee's inhibitions and alter her eternity.Patrick's protection turns to affection, but Rylee's past threatens to collide with her future. You won't want to miss Patrick and Rylee McLellan fight to discover The Dublin Destiny in this captivating tale of secrets, romance, forgiveness, and divine love.

    Together, they tell the story of Irish emigration - of those who went and those who were left behind. Crossing oceans and spanning decades, Murphy's three plays cover the period from the Great Hunger of the nineteenth century to the 'new' Ireland of the 1970s, exploring what we mean when we call a place 'home'.Conversations on a Homecoming: County Galway, 1970s. Even the humblest of small-town pubs can be a magnet for dreamers. Michael, after a ten-year absence, suddenly returns from New York and has a reunion with old friends, in that same pub 'The White House'.A Whistle in the Dark: Coventry, 1960Irish emigrants, the uprooted Carney family, adapt aggressively to life in an English city.Famine: County Mayo, 1846In Glanconnor village in the west of Ireland, the second crop of potatoes fails. The community now faces the real prospect of starvation.With an introduction by Dr Patrick Lonergan, NUI GalwayDruidMurphy, presented by Druid in a co-production with Quinnipiac University Connecticut, NUI Galway, Lincoln Center Festival and Galway Arts Festival, marks a major celebration of one of Ireland's most respected living dramatists and toured Ireland, London and the US in 2012.

    Hauntingly evocative photographs of houses ravaged by time and abandonment.

    Hunger strikes, riots, power cuts, a homophobic serial killer with a penchant for opera, and a young woman's suicide that may yet turn out to be murder: on the surface, the events are unconnected, but then things--and people--aren't always what they seem. Detective Sergeant Duffy is the man tasked with trying to get to the bottom of it all. It's no easy job--especially when it turns out that one of the victims was involved in the IRA but was last seen discussing business with someone from the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force. Add to this the fact that, as a Catholic policeman, it doesn't matter which side he's on, because nobody trusts him, and Sergeant Duffy really is in a no-win situation. Fast-paced, evocative, and brutal, The Cold Cold Ground is a brilliant depiction of Belfast at the height of the Troubles--and of a cop treading a thin, thin line.Audio CD is 10 hours and 3 minutes long.

    They killed 15 men, women and children – the country’s most devastating massacre of civilians since the Nazi Blitz. Nevertheless, the innocent victims were to become the forgotten victims of a dirty war. British Government, military and RUC police sources immediately stated that the bombing was an IRA “own-goal” even though the full weight of evidence, including a witness who saw the bomb being planted, proved otherwise. As the families buried their loved ones, the State drip-fed black propaganda into the intelligence stream and the media. Since then the families have fought tirelessly and constitutionally to clear their names. For many, the McGurk’s Bar Massacre was a turning point in the conflict.CIARÁN MacAIRT’s grandmother, Kitty Irvine, was one of those murdered in the bar that night. His meticulous research over many years has uncovered historic documents, hidden in archives, which lay bare collusion and cover-up by the State. It is a paper trail that goes to the highest levels of the Government, police and military. His research has featured in many TV and radio programmes and in 2011 he presented his testimony to the powerful US Helsinki Commission on Capitol Hill, Washington DC.

    which represent the distillation of the experience of a funny, witty, wise and passionate observer of the bright tapestry of Irish life. This is a collection to prize. All human life is here, and Keane tells its story in an astonishing procession of remarkable characters and in rare humorous glimpses of his own career. There are more shades to John B. Keane's humour than there are colours in the rainbow. Compassion, shrewdness and a glorious sense of fun and roguery are evident in this collection, which brings together John B. Keane's tales. A fitting tribute to John B. Keane, for decades Ireland’s favourite storyteller, this winning short story collection typifies the late author’s folkloric imagination and storytelling arts.

    The novels, set mainly in 7th century Ireland, also include a great deal of history, which is not surprising given that the author is actually Peter Berresford Ellis, a noted Celtic historian. Some of the essays analyze aspects of the novels, focusing especially on the protagonist and her partner in detection and, ultimately, husband, Brother Eadulf. Other essays place Fidelma and the novels within the tradition of detective fiction. Still others explore the historical, intellectual, spiritual and geographical contexts for her labors. Also included are accounts of the author's career, the International Sister Fidelma Society, and the biennial Sister Fidelma conferences held in Cashel, Ireland.

    Following on from the bestselling success of How to Be Irish, David Slattery has penned Poet, Madman, Scoundrel: 189 Unusual Irish Lives, another witty and insightful book about the Irish, this time looking at the famous, infamous and not-so-famous (but very interesting) characters in Irish history.Taking history on his own terms, but with rigorous research, David brings together a collection of characters from across the centuries, including magicians, soldiers, sailors, scientists, writers, highwaymen, saints, actors, sportspeople and rebels.Every character earns his/her place in this surprising and amusing book that gives a fresh take on classroom Irish history.The result is a humorous and intriguing romp through the centuries.

    The treacherous coastline and ice waters of the Atlantic did not sit comfortably with the stereotype of surfing as the favoured pastime of the bronzed and privileged. But with the discovery in the past few years of the gargantuan Aileen’s wave at the Cliffs of Moher and other heavy waves, the Irish coast has become one of the worst kept secrets in world surfing.In Cliffs of Insanity, the Irish Times sportswriter Keith Duggan tells the story of a dedicated group of surfers in County Clare whose lives revolve around the pursuit of Ireland’s wildest waves. The book traces the evolution of Fergal Smith, the young Mayo man whose intuition for big waves has earned him a serious reputation and explores the world of Mickey Smith, the roving Cornish man who discovered Aileen’s and whose breathtaking surf photography has caught the Irish landscape in an entirely new and original light.Bitter cold days, broken bones, busted boards, scars, near drownings and countless hours in the freezing water trying to read the ocean is the price they pay for those few transcendent seconds when they master a wave.Cliffs of Insanity is about the importance of pursuing what matters in life but it is also about community and friendship, and the passionate pursuit of a way of life that flies in the face of everything championed in Ireland over the last decade.

    A novelist that no one reads, Clive Drayton has decided to set aside literary fiction and write a bestseller. Easy, right? But there are choices to be made. What sort of story should it be? A thriller, of course. About a convoluted and compelling terrorist plot, and the copper who must stop it. And the target? Well, it's London, it's 2012 - what do you think the target is? What could possibly go wrong? Ridgway gives us a comic and cautionary tale about a man who tries to make it all up, and about the risk of being believed.

    Chained by hidden pleasures of of the flesh. Is Shannon strong enough to conquer the bonds of desire, or will she submit to the lust that lies within?Shannon's life is turned upside down after a band of Vikings kidnap her from her village. She is whisked away into a world of forbidden desire filled with danger and mystery. She decides to do whatever it takes to find her way back home--even sacrifice her virginity. After a handsome Viking beds her, she is torn between submitting to her enemy or finding a way to get back home. Strange things start happening when Gunnar Ravenshield returns to Dublin with his new captive. After discovering she bears the mark of Freya, goddess of love and war, he is determined to unlock the meaning of an ancient prophecy that promises power and riches. He will not rest until Shannon, the Valkyrie of Fire, is his--body and soul.

    It’s the tale of a bouncer who can’t figure out how to relate to his gay son and how if affects his increasingly violent behaviour on the door.HARD ROCK was published online at ThugLit and again in The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime, volume 8. A rude rock and roll romp that gets sick fast. Narrated by a second rate rock star that dives in way too deep with an adventurous groupie.NOTHING BUT TIME was first published at Tony Black’s Pulp Pusher website. The terrified narrator tries to work his way up the prison hierarchy in a bid to make it through his stint without getting shanked. DAY-TRIPPING is a brand new story, never before published. The oddest couple since The Odd Couple do breakfast with a difference. Can stoner Mattie convince straight-laced James that it’s a good idea to experiment with psychedelics on a Tuesday morning?SWING is also a brand new, previously unpublished story. Conor (AKA Swinger) knows better than most just how cruel kids can be. His parents cause him grief when word gets out that they’re swingers. Conor quickly discovers who his real friends are when the fists start flying in the schoolyard

    There he meets an old woman who invites him to join her for lunch, and he gradually becomes enchanted by the spirits of previous inhabitants.His luck changes from the first day he sets foot in the flower-filled gardens of the cottage, and although he doesn't realise it, his life will never be the same again. On each visit, he finds himself transported back to another time, where he seems to lose control over his mind and body to another person from the past - the iconic Michael Collins.He becomes friendly with the landlord of the pub where he has taken a room, and with his magical change of luck, the customers all flock around him like bees settling on honey-dew. Even the landlord's wife and daughter are enamoured with him! His business luck changes and all seems wonderful for him, but the magic at the cottage keeps drawing him back.The day comes, when he has an opportunity to find true happiness with the girl of his dreams.

    Building a portfolio of tradable goods and services and steadily raising the level of investment in these activities, has generally defied the best policy efforts - in particular, bringing investment ratios on par with East Asian averages has presented the greatest challenge. Hence the search is on for growth recipes not so tightly bound to investment, to manufacturing activities, and to the export of manufactured products. In casting around for such recipes validated by demonstrated results, the experience of economies which have relied more on other drivers of growth - human capital and knowledge - is highly attractive. Finland and Ireland are among the tiny band of small nations that grew rapidly for well over a decade by achieving the maximum mileage from an adequate investment in physical assets and by harnessing the potential of human capital and technologies. Singapore combined high investment with a comprehensive and complementary strategy of building high quality human and knowledge assets. This approach enabled the three countries to diversify much faster into higher tech manufactures and tradable services and profit from globalization. The approach adopted by these three countries may be of greater relevance in the highly competitive global environment of the early 21st century because it does not necessarily assume heroic levels of investment. Moreover, it may be better tailored to the opportunities for middle and lower middle income economies threatened by the middle income trap and seeking growth rates in the 6 percent range, and for the smaller, late starting, low income countries with youthful, rapidly increasing populations that need to grow at high single digit rates in order to create enough jobs and to double per capita incomes in 10 years.

    Previous studies of the subject have pointed to the left wing of the IRA as the prime instigator of the movement. Here, socialist republicanism is examined in detail from the perspective of the Labour movement alongside the IRA and other republican groups for the first time. The result is an enlightening account of the many connections and alliances that existed between republicans, socialists, communists, and others. The reader is provided with a narrative that explains the many twists and turns in both mainstream and radical Irish politics of the period. *** "...Grant's study does contain some very useful detail regarding the fissiparous world of Irish socialist republicanism. Its best sections deal with the early twentieth-century socialist republicanism of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU); and the book's most useful contribution is to focus our attention on the details of organized labor in these years, in relation to socialist republicanism." - Irish Literary Supplement, Vol.34, No.1, Fall 2014Ã?Â?Ã?Â?

    As it discusses Tait as filmmaker and writer in the context of mid-20th-century Scottish culture, this account offers valuable insights into her writing processes and how these might have translated into her film work. With poetry that is generous and independent in its vision of the world, this book will appeal to anyone interested in the crossovers between literature and film.

    Paddy grew up in a small thatched house without running water or electricity, near the village of Daingean in County Offaly. It was a time when the social life in the Irish countryside often took place around the hearth fire, where stories were told and music was played. Paddy relates stories of thatching the house with his father, the ringing of the big pig, the boys' National School, turf cutting, a ghostly confrontation and the Banshee. His colourful autobiography introduces readers to the many interesting characters who shaped Paddy's own perception of Irish life and culture. Written in an easy-going, storytelling style, the book is for anyone interested in Irish traditional music and life in rural Ireland in the mid-20th century. There's a particular emphasis on Paddy's own development as a traditional musician and the experience of growing up within the music.

    But little can he realize the evil that the music conjures up.

    Detective Conor Horgan arrives at the scene where his investigation reveals the shadowy world of a secret group bent on retribution and justice for victims of abuse in the Catholic Church. He teams up with reporter Anne O’Gorman, and together, they pursue the case and each other. The Catholic Church in Ireland is at the epicenter of a scandal revolving around pedophile priests who practice their perversion undaunted by the glare of media, the silence of the Vatican, and even the bureaucratic red-tape of government agencies charged with protecting the innocent. Finbar, haunted by memories of abuse when he was an altar boy, turns to a group called Dies Irae for emotional and legal help. Stymied by inaction and cover up, the group ultimately turns to violence and murder as their only recourse. This timely and fast paced thriller is set in the harsh environment of western Ireland, where the innocent become suspect. Skillfully written with an intricately interwoven mix of characters, Claddagh Pool takes us on a page turning adventure. This story will plunge you back into the Ireland we all love. We follow Conor and Anne and their passion through landscapes dotted with wild sheep, the wind swept barren rocks of the Twelve Bens, and the stone-walled roads of Connemara as they expose the evil deeds of a few and give hope to those who are left behind.

    A sharp and bloody engagement followed, as the men of the 36th Battalion undertook a vital seize and hold operation. The objective was a railway tunnel, a crucial approach to Elizabethville held by mercenaries and Katangese Gendarmerie. Irishmen under Irish command under a United Nation’s mandate on foreign soil went on the offensive. Intensive fighting followed.Fatalities were inflicted and suffered. The Irish assault was met with heavy machine-guns and fierce mortar fire. The Irish were severely tested but triumphed. ‘A’ Company 36th Battalion served with the United Nations’ forces in the Congo, Central Africa, during the period of December 1961 to May 1962. Following the hostilities of December, including the famous Battle of the Tunnel, 14 members were awarded Distinguished Service Medals, including two posthumously. As a result ‘A’ Company 36th Battalion became the most decorated company in the history of the Irish Defence Forces. This is their remarkable story.

    Maurice Coakley focuses on key elements that contributed to Ireland’s development, examining its bloody and violent incorporation into the British state, its refusal to embrace the Protestant Reformation and failure to industrialise in the 19th century. Coakley considers the crucial question of why Ireland’s national identity has come to rest on a mass movement for independence.Cutting through many of the myths – imperialist and nationalist – which have obscured the real reasons for Ireland's course of development, Ireland in the World Order provides a new perspective for students and academics of Irish history.

    She's an American professional genealogist who's trying to forget hers. But what's the real reason that keeps bringing them together?Synopsis:The Celtic Tiger is losing its fangs, so journalist Dillon Carroll must rent his farm in the Gaeltacht. The worsening exchange rate depletes the budget of genealogist Lana Pedersen, so the baby-boomer backpacker breaks into a vacant farmhouse for shelter. After the Irishman discovers the American at Drumcarroll, their tangent lives catalyze the chemistry between their beleaguered bodies and stormy spirits. Dillon stalks Lana with the drive of an investigative reporter; Lana attempts to counter Dillon’s obsessions; compel her emotions to conform to her faith; deal with unfathomable feelings about Drumcarroll farm; flirt with a dairy farmer possessing unusual avocations; and mentor a troubled teenager. Set amid the social controversies of contemporary Ireland, Irish Firebrands portrays psychological crises shattering the bedrock of beliefs and belonging.Terrible questions - tragic secrets. Touched by madness - torn by vows. Fleeing the past - fearing the future. A quest for deliverance - and evocative evidence that love is eternal.... (New Standard International Edition.)

    The material contained in this publication which includes recorded sound, photographs and manuscript transcriptions is drawn from National Folklore Collection/Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann in University College Dublin. It is edited by Ríonach uí Ógáin and Tom Sherlock and published by Comhairle Bhéaloideas Éireann.A number of illuminating aspects of popular tradition are addressed such as the connection between the supernatural and excellence in the performance of music and song, the dangers inherent in engaging with the fairies, the fear of abduction or loss, benign supernatural encounters, the existence of otherworldly creatures such as the banshee or the leprechaun and the physical landscape as perceived in inherited oral knowledge. There are encounters that reflect the blending of Christian and non-Christian ideas. This is a book for both the general reader and scholars of folklore.The inclusion of contemporary performers alongside older archival material is testament to the fact that the National Folklore Collection continues to grow and remains the most important repository of Irish vernacular culture.The songs, music and lore contained in this publication are the foundation stone upon which the book rests and this material reflects the circumstances, hopes, anxieties, fears, beliefs, modes of entertainment and sometimes the sense of mischief of Irish people, both urban and rural. The selected examples are illustrated with numerous black and white photographs many of them taken by the original collectors. There can be little doubt that the full spectrum of human experience is better comprehended with an understanding of traditional lore and belief. The Otherworld: Music & Song from Irish Tradition addresses an important aspect of that human experience and seeks to encourage just such an engagement.

    More practically the ability to read a map might have proved helpful. The tourist office in Ireland has all their paths clearly marked. You can’t go wrong if you follow that little yellow man. Or can you? As British ex-patriate Kerry Dwyer leads Bertrand, her trusting French husband, astray once more, they reminisce and reflect upon accents and accidents, family and friends, love and what it means to be alive. Bertrand doesn’t mind getting lost – he loves Kerry all the more for going off the beaten track.This is a book about ramblings in Ireland. Walk with Kerry and Bertrand and follow where your thoughts lead you.

    Additionally, it highlights the various cultural policies and points of view concerning the promotion of artistic heritage in Europe. The most emblematic European museums are presented along with some well-kept and fascinating secrets, such as in Nicosia of Cyprus and Sofia in Bulgaria.

    Ireland has become the target of Robert deBruce’s ambition to create a ‘Celtic Empire of the West’.Moynagh is a Gaelic community living precariously between Gael and Gall. Their crannog settlement is home to Cormac MacLochlain whose friend Father Robert, the saintly Crusader priest from St John’s, encourages him to dream of a new country embracing the best of English and Gaelic culture.This dream confronts the harsh realities of medieval Ireland and men like Myles deCogan who executes Gaelic clansmen on suspicion that they are responsible for raids on his Morgallion caput. This sparks retaliation, putting Moynagh’s people into the front line of conflict. He destroys Moynagh, prompting Cormac and his companions to join in raids against the English presence in Ireland.Edward deBruce invades to claim the Irish High Kingship and sweeps through Ireland. After the defeat of the English at Kenlys, Cormac meets Niamh. As war, mayhem and famine rage throughout the land, there is little time for romance or dreams. The action reaches Kilnamanagh before climaxing in Morgallion where the battle for a shared peaceful future is fought.Morgallion is a story of resistance, survival, love; and the ability of all that is best in the human spirit to overcome obstacles.

    The arrival of the first of over 200 IRA members into the Dispersal System challenged a penal environment devised to cope with a relatively small number of long-term criminal inmates and inspired a range of Home Office reforms. The republicans exacerbated tensions within the limited range of facilities suitable for 'Category A' prisoners and played leading roles in the major Hull Riot of 1976, as well as numerous other confrontations. Special Category draws upon unprecedented access to participants in order to detail and analyze the phenomena of the IRA in English prisons. Extensive new information is presented on IRA activities within the Dispersal System, not least planning and participation in riots, protests, legal challenges, escapes (successful and unsuccessful), and violent actions. Day-to-day factors - such as interaction with British prisoners, family visits, education, 'ghosting, ' and attitudes towards prison staff - are documented in depth. Extensive use has been made of private collections of correspondence and papers, state archives, political prints, and international media reports. Account is taken of the perspective of the Home Office and British government, based on declassified documents, memoirs of key protagonists, and official records of parliamentary business. The attitude of the Irish government is also assessed. The book also draws upon unprecedented access to participants. Over 120 ex-prisoners, republican activists, members of prisoner support organizations, and prisoners' relatives have gone on the record. It is the single most authoritative and comprehensive history of any aspect the political prisoner experience in the modern Troubles

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    Also includes unique clarification by the Editor on Points of Interest, and expansions throughout the text, as well as linked Table of Contents, Chapter connections back to the Table of Contents, Formatting and Layout Improvements.But what of the Stories?From dirty footed heroes, to weasels who say thank you, a journey with the fairies to rescue (or kidnap, depending on your point of view) a daughter of the King of France, dancing corpses, boiling a head until the ears drop off, an awfully polite giant who happens to be the son of the Old God Balor, a pope with a surprisingly Irish accent, and making babies with a single kiss - this collection of Irish Gaelic Folk stories has it all. Add to this the meticulous collection, translation and explanation of a man famed for his Irish language expertise and passion (who later became the first President of Ireland); and the skilled, careful compilation, editing, and formatting by an established current authority on Irish Heritage, which brings this invaluable Irish Research resource right into the modern digital publishing age. Now we have an accessible, pleasant to read and easy to understand, treasure trove of Irish Stories.Are you interested in Irish history, heritage, folklore, and language? Are you sick of having to trawl through badly formatted versions of the old texts just to find the bit you want? Or do you just love a good oul story, told in a way that the Irish do best? If the answer to any of that is Yes, then this book (and the Irish Research Series) is for you. Enjoy!~~~Originally collected and translated by Douglas Hyde (1890).Original Foreword by Alfred Nutt (1910)Compiled, edited and formatted by Lora O'Brien (2012). Annotated sections on the Irish Research Series, and a Bio of Douglas Hyde added to this edition. Some Notes from the Editor through the text.

    It has a remarkable ability to change the sound of a vowel. As a result of its use, Irish has ten vowel sounds and not five! Words change meaning entirely with the application of a fada on one of the vowels e.g éire - ireland and eire - burden! Rossa and Belfast author Mícheál Ó Domhnaill have compiled a dictionary which explains all about the fada and lists words that change meaning with the application of one or more fadas!!Adorned with cartoons and phrases to illustrate the remarkable fada throughout, the book is at once light yet serious!

    Taking you through a cooking year month by month, this title provides the author's recipes that include dinner party menus for special occasions; monthly soup, salad, sandwich and vegetable specials from her restaurant; and cakes for occasions such as Mother's Day, Easter and Christmas.

         Ireland's economic collapse hit with bewildering speed and cut deep into many lives. At a time when we most needed leadership, our politicians let us down, telling us we were all to blame for the recession and that we just needed to suffer a little pain to make everything right again. It was a Big Lie.     This book offers an alternative view to the official cover story of austerity. It's about the great majority of us who weren't gambling with our future. It's about what's being done to us, who is doing it and why. It's also about who benefits from this and who gets it in the neck. And what we might do about that. Gene Kerrigan delves deep into the muddy waters of the boom and crash, the chaos in the banks, the intervention by the troika and the erosion of democracy. He looks at how the Dáil and the media became full of mindless free market cheerleaders, how the country became laden down with unregulated bankers, and how the government acquiesced in imposing a destructive programme of austerity on the Irish people. Meanwhile, the elites in our society wrap the green flag around themselves, calling for sacrifice and patriotism, while they hold on fiercely to every perk and privilege. It's time to tell the truth.

    

    Even in the modern world, old legends dating as far back as the days of the ancient Gaelic tribes, the carvers of the ogham stones, retain their power and resonance, and in this book they are gathered together in a collection of tales from across the county.Included are the tales of the legendary figures of Aoife and Strongbow, St Declan and the three river goddesses, together with stories of some of the less well-known characters such as Petticoat Loose, whose ghost is said to still roam the county, and the Republican Pig, who was unfortunate enough to become caught up in the siege of Waterford.In this vivid journey through Waterfords folklore, local storyteller Anne Farrell takes the reader to a place where legend and landscape intertwine.

    In 1937 Ernest Guinness presented Luggala to his youngest daughter, Oonagh—one of the three famous “Golden Guinness Girls”—following her marriage to the fourth Baron Oranmore and Browne. Oonagh described Luggala as “the most decorative honey pot in Ireland” and made it the centre of a dazzling social world that included peers, painters and poets, journalists and junkies, scholars and socialites. In the late 1960s she passed the estate to her son, the Hon Garech Browne, founder of Claddagh Records, who has not only maintained but surpassed his mother’s gifts both for hospitality and for bringing together a wide range of creative talents. Luggala Days celebrates both the unique beauty of this place and the many celebrated names irresistibly drawn there, from writers like Brendan Behan, Robert Lowell, Seamus Heaney, and Ted Hughes, to actors and directors such as John Hurt, Daniel Day-Lewis, and John Boorman, and above all musicians, including The Chieftains, Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, Bono, and Michael Jackson. All of them have succumbed to the enchantment of days passed at Luggala.

    People and place, sport and identity are at the heart of this book, telling the story of how the GAA has left a unique imprint on every Irish county and Irish communities overseas.

    New childcare text that positions diversity and equality as an integral part of early childhood care and education for students, trainers and practitioners in Ireland.Presents up-to-date examples of innovative practice,developed by the eist project, the Equality & DiversityEarly Childhood National Network (EDeNn), and gatheredfrom early childhood settings and learners in Ireland.Examples and cases framed by theoretical considerationsand insights into international work.Supports the implementation of Siolta (2006), Aistear(2009) and the Diversity and Equality Guidelines forChildcare Providers (2006 OMC) with particular focus onidentity and belonging and anti-discriminatory practice.Divided into four sections:Diversity is real - and so is exclusion:Presents a framework for what adults need to know toproactively address diversity beyond culture, andcontextualises children's stories in legislation, policy andpractice.(Re)thinking early childhood care and educationOffers several theoretical perspectives on diversity andequality in early childhood.Walking the walk: insights into Irish ECCE practice, withspecific reference to diversity and equalityProvides insights into existing and innovative practices inthe Irish ECCE sector, demonstrating that change foradults and children is possible.Roadmap to equality: conclusions andrecommendations for policy, professional developmentand practice in the Irish ECCE sectorDraws on the discussions, examples and insights of theprevious sections and proposes recommendations forsteps to be taken by policy-makers, trainers, educatorsand practitioners in early childhood settings and servicesin Ireland.Supports the implementation of Siolta (2006), Aistear (2009) and the Diversity and Equality Guidelines for Childcare Providers (2006 OMC), with particular focus on identity and belonging and anti-discriminatory practice.Provides up-to-date examples of innovative practice developed by the eist project and the Equality & Diversity Early Childhood National Network (EDeNn), and gathered from early childhood settings and learners in Ireland.Presented in four sections:Diversity is real - and so is exclusionIntroduces a framework that can be used to address diversity beyond culture, and contextualises children's stories in legislation, policy and practice.Re-thinking Early Childhood Education and CareOffers several theoretical perspectives on diversity and equality in early childhood.Voices from the sectorProvides insight into existing and innovative practices in the Irish ECEC sector, while demonstrating that change for adults and children is possible.Roadmap to equalityProposes recommendations for steps to be taken by policy-makers, trainers, educators and practitioners in early childhood settings and services in Ireland.WRITTEN FOR: Childcare courses at FETAC Level 6Early childhood education courses at degree levelMontessori coursesPrimary teacher education coursesSocial care courses

    In the years after the 1998 Real IRA bombing of Omagh, which killed 29 people, violent dissident Republican groups have re-emerged as a major security threat to a region that has been denied peace, stability, and prosperity for toolong.Those responsible have many names. They are breakaways, splinter factions, spoilers, and residual terrorists. The Real IRA, Continuity IRA, and �glaigh na h�ireann are only some of the groups now responsible for a growing wave of bombings, shootings, threats, and intimidation across NorthernIreland. Commonly known as the dissidents, these are the rejectionists for whom there seems to be no negotiated settlement, no peace deal, no consensus solution that will convince them to accept the will of the majority of the people on the island of Ireland.Divided We Stand: The Strategy and Psychology of Ireland's Dissident Terrorists presents the results of meticulous research conducted by the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at the Pennsylvania State University. Since 2007, John Horgan, Director of the center, has led aresearch project to monitor the activities of Ireland's new terrorists. Drawing on one of the largest open-source militant databases ever assembled, Divided We Stand describes the activities, histories, motivations, psychology, and strategy of the small, dynamic, and rapidly evolving splintergroups that continue to erode peace, stability, and normalization in Northern Ireland.

    Sweeping through Ireland it decimated the population, killing over a million people and forcing twice that number to emigrate to Britain, North America and other parts of the world in sailing ships like the Jeanie Johnston. Constructed in Quebec in 1847 the ship made 16 voyages from Tralee across the North Atlantic, conveying over 2,500 Irish emigrants to the United States and Canada without a single loss of life. Commemorating the Famine, the replica was built in Kerry and launched in May 2000. From 2002 to 2008 she sailed around Ireland, to Britain, France, Spain and to the USA and Canada. The author's striking photographs are enhanced by a comprehensive historical background written by Helen O'Carroll, Curator of Kerry County Museum and the original researcher for the project.

    From the debates of the 1950s that were strikingly similar to what we face today--struggles against bankruptcy, emigration and abuse of power by the State--through the wars in the 70s and 80s about divorce, abortion and to the Jacobean dramas surrounding the fall of Haughey in the 1990s, this book finally traces the fall of the first Republic via the tragic-comic denouement of the Cowen era and the first breaths of hope provided by a new administration.John Drennan captures the fascinating story of Ireland's evolution in the seven decades since the end of the war and encapsulates the culture that shaped these moments of national drama.

    Well-informed and imbued with stories from around the globe, the book is written in a very accessible style, highlighting the author's obvious love for these boats. It is a pioneering piece of work that throws new light on an ancient Irish craft. An overview of the history of the Boyne currach and related skin boats is followed by a how-to guide with instructions on how to build your own currach, including the materials needed, where to source them, and how to master the age-old techniques of weaving and binding. With so few currach-makers left in the world, the author hopes to preserve this craft for generations to come. The final section of the book details the Newgrange Currach Project. This project is a unique attempt by the author - an expert currach-maker - to recreate the currach used by the builders of the Newgrange passage tombs. At 34 ft. long, this wicker currach represents an incredible feat of boat engineering and a piece of living history. On completion, it will embark on a journey retracing (in reverse) the voyage believed to have been made by the Neolithic tomb-builders, from Newgrange to northern Spain. *** " Gibne reveals that 'by learning how to make these boats and by visiting the homes of the men and women who had based their lives around the River Boyne, I have crafted this voyage into the story of a civilization.' Readers quickly understand that they are in the hands of an eloquent scribe as well as a master craftsman. This splendid (36-foot Newgrange Currach) project delivers a powerful cultural tribute to prehistoric people's desires and hopes to learn, explore, and better their lives in new lands." - The Celtic Connection, March 2013 *** " Gibne's relationship to the Boyne currach is akin to devotion and his charismatic and almost evangelical writing shows this throughout the book." - International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. XXV, No. 1, June 2013

    They came back to a country where jobs were scarce, commemoration was a divisive issue, and the public had little understanding of the veteran's experiences. Even worse, an estimated 5,000 deserters from the Irish army faced potentially severe punishment when they returned home. Based on interviews with surviving veterans and drawing on a wide array of archival sources, Returning Home explores how Irish ex-servicemen coped with the difficult task of re-integration into Irish civilian society. The book details their impact on government policy, their economic difficulties, struggles with psychological problems, the vexed issue of Remembrance, and the treatment of deserters from the Irish forces. Returning Home makes an important contribution to how we view Ireland's connection to the Second World War. In June of 2012 Irish Minister for Justice Alan Shatter confirmed that 5,000 troops will be officially pardoned by the State for fighting with the Allies. Campaigners are hopeful that the Irish parliament will issue an apology to the men as well, many of whom were blacklisted and denied state jobs when they returned home.