But when she was in her late twenties, she realized that she had a strong need to know the woman who had given birth to her. She was able to locate her birth mother, Sarah, and they developed a strong attachment.But Sarah set one painful condition to this joyous new relationship: she wished to keep it - to keep Caitriona - secret from her family, from her friends, from everyone.Who was Sarah, and why did she want to preserve a decades-old secret? An Affair with My Mother tells the story of Caitriona's quest to answer these questions, and of the intense, furtive 'affair' she and her mother conducted in carefully chosen locations around Dublin. By turns heartwarming and heartbreaking, An Affair with My Mother is a searing portrait of the social and familial forces that left Sarah - and so many other unwed Irish mothers of her generation - frightened, traumatized and bereft. It is also a beautifully written account of a remarkable relationship.'Caitriona Palmer has called out the false shame of her origins, with a kind of anguished courage that is incredibly moving. An Affair With My Mother is a forensic account of how it feels to be - in the interests of Catholic "respectability" - excluded from the facts of your own life. In its commitment to family love, to joy and truth, it is a gift.' Anne Enright, winner of the Man Booker Prize

    During a routine check-up, however, her doctor claims she has just a week to live, news that proves to be quite inconvenient, seeing as the beloved sister has one ambition in life: to be the oldest person in the world. At last count, she was the fifth. However, never one to admit defeat, Sister Agatha concocts a bold Plan B. Dusting off her passport, she decides to leave Irish shores for the first time in her very long life, and using the few days remaining, plans to travel across three continents and meet the only four people whose birthday cakes boast more candles than hers. And then, one by one, she intends on killing them. What the media is saying: "Domhnall [has] some mind...When they say 'comic thriller', this book does what it says on the tin...There is so much in it to enjoy...It works really, really well." ~ Gerry Kelly, Late Lunch, LMFM Radio Interview: http://utv.vo.llnwd.net/o16/LMFM/2016... • • • "A laugh-out-loud, globe-trotting adventure that is wildly unique with an enormous amount of heart. And despite Sister Agatha being a considerable 118 years of age, the naughty nun still has more energy than a school playground! One of the year's best débuts." ~ Jennifer Zamparelli, presenter of 2FM's Breakfast Republic

    Michael Collins, intelligence chief of the Irish Republican Army, creates an elite squad whose role is to assassinate British agents and undercover police. The so-called 'Twelve Apostles' will create violent mayhem, culminating in the events of 'Bloody Sunday' in November 1920.Bestselling historian Tim Pat Coogan not only tells the story of Collins' squad, he also examines the remarkable intelligence network of which it formed a part, and which helped to bring the British government to the negotiating table.

    He’s seventeen, I'm thirty-three. I was his teacher. I’d have killed myself by now if I was brave enough. I don’t think it would hurt the baby. His little heart would stop with mine. He wouldn't feel himself leaving one world of darkness for another, his spirit untangling itself from me.’Melody Shee is alone and in trouble. Her husband doesn't take her news too well. She doesn't want to tell her father yet because he’s a good man and this could break him. She’s trying to stay in the moment, but the future is looming – larger by the day – while the past won’t let her go. What she did to Breedie Flynn all those years ago still haunts her.It’s a good thing that she meets Mary Crothery when she does. Mary is a young Traveller woman, and she knows more about Melody than she lets on. She might just save Melody’s life.Donal Ryan’s new novel is breathtaking, vivid, moving and redemptive.

     'Quite simply, a wonderful book' (Hello magazine) Abby's memories are precious. Even though they're sometimes painful, she can't stop herself looking back, reliving the love of her life. Until a freak accident means that she could lose it all: every memory and experience she has ever had. Abby can't believe it. She feels fine. She is fine. How could she possibly forget all those moments that make her who she is? She's determined to fight it. So with the help of her friends and family, Abby makes a list of things she's always wanted to do. She's going to save her memory by having a wonderful life. First on the wishlist is the trip of a lifetime to New York City. And it's amidst the magic and romance of Manhattan that true love knocks on the door ... 'Be warned, you won't want to put it down' (Sunday World ) 'Blissfully escapist ... with a hint of mystery' (Marie Claire) ***Also published as BEFORE I FORGET***

    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.

    The stories contained in the collection are an eclectic selection of pieces which vary from traditional literary fiction to magic realism and subtle experiments with the short story form. They deal with the theme of legacy; the achievements, issues and problems this generation has inherited from the previous. Disillusioned street preachers, adulterous grocery shoppers, robotic brothers and child burglars are all given voice to express their experiences of life in contemporary Northern Ireland as Carson blurs the line between social commentary and modern parable.

    It forms a sequel to Sean O Tuama and Thomas Kinsella's pioneering anthology, An Duanaire 1600-1900 / Poems of the Dispossessed (1981), but features many more poems in covering the work of 26 poets from the past century. It includes poems by Padraig Mac Piarais and Liam S. Gogan from the revival period (1893-1939), and a generous selection from the work of Mairtin O Direain, Sean O Riordain and Maire Mhac an tSaoi, who transformed writing in Irish in the decades following the Second World War, before the Innti poets - Michael Davitt, Liam O Muirthile, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Cathal O Searcaigh, Biddy Jenkinson - and others developed new possibilities for poetry in Irish in the 1970s and 80s. It also includes work by more recent poets such as Colm Breathnach, Gearoid Mac Lochlainn, Micheal O Cuaig and Aine Ni Ghlinn. The anthology has translations by some of Ireland's most distinguished poets and translators, including Valentine Iremonger, Michael Hartnett, Paul Muldoon, Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, Bernard O'Donoghue, Maurice Riordan, Peter Sirr, David Wheatley and Mary O'Donoghue, most of them newly commissioned for this project. Many of the poems, including Eoghan O Tuairisc's anguished response to the bombing of Hiroshima, 'Aifreann na marbh' [Mass for the dead] have not previously been available in English. In addition to presenting the some of the best poetry in Irish written since 1900, the anthology challenges the extent to which writing in Irish has been underrepresented in collections of modern and contemporary Irish poetry. In his introduction and notes, Louis de Paor argues that Irish language poetry should be evaluated according to its own rigorous aesthetic rather than as a subsidiary of the dominant Anglophone tradition of Irish writing. Irish-English bilingual edition co-published with Clo Iar-Chonnachta. Leabhar na hAthghabhala is pronounced Lee-owr-rr ne

    Written with the authentic voice of a child, this snapshot of his young life unfolds in a series of stories evoking the innocence of childhood, family dynamic and tensions, street friendships and characters, the onset of civil strife, and a family protecting itself from conflict, with CS gas coming in through the door and tracer bullets flying past the windows. The book centres on Tony’s father, Patrick – a legend in his son's eyes and a man who struggles to raise a family through bitter years of economic inactivity. It beautifully and movingly portrays the relationship between Tony and the father he adores, yet slightly fears, as events, both within the family and on the streets, unfold and fuse together. The burgeoning chaos of conflict finds its way into his life through the death of a friend under an army truck and more horrifically, directly into the Doherty household. Described as 'a treasure', it draws the reader into a child's world, his innocent view of the harsh reality of life and the horrifying events unfolding around him. It has bags of humour and paints a picture of a lost world of children running wild in play, unsupervised by or worried over by adults. The book is also very moving, to the point of provoking tears at the end.

    Between them lies the Easter Rising, when Irish republicans took up arms against British rule and changed the course of their country’s history forever. For though the resistance failed, it failed gloriously; the rebels were no longer a group of cranks and troublemakers in the public eye, but martyrs and national heroes, their example set the way for others and their mission lived on through the century to come. But what sort of country did the Rising create? And how does post-1916 Ireland compare with the aspirations of the rebellion’s leaders, the hopes of Thomas MacDonagh and John MacBride, of James Connolly and Patrick Pearse?One hundred years later, Tim Pat Coogan offers a personal perspective on the Irish experience that followed the Rising. He charts a flawed history that is marked as much by complacency, corruption, and institutional abuse as it is by the building of a nation and the sacrifices of the Republic’s founding fathers.