Despite his family’s strong republican ties and his own attempt to join the IRA, Hartnett shocked family and friends when he changed allegiance and joined the British Armed Forces. In 2001 Hartnett returns to his native Ireland, but this time as a member of the British Army’s most secretive covert counter-terrorist unit in Northern Ireland, Joint Communications Unit Northern Ireland aka JCU-NI, the FRU, 14 Intelligence Company, or simply ‘The Det’. For the next three years Hartnett is directly involved in some of the highest profile events of that period, from the arrest of John Hannan for the bombing of the BBC in London, to the tragic murder of David Caldwell; the prevention of the murder of Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair and some of the biggest blunders by British Intelligence in the history of the Troubles, including the true story behind the murders of Corporals Howes and Wood at an IRA funeral in 1988. ‘Charlie One’, the call sign for the most wanted targets of British Intelligence operations in NI, documents the journey of an Irish Republican serving in Britain’s most secretive counter-terrorism unit. Filled with roller coaster emotions and explosive revelations of British Intelligence covert capabilities and operations, Charlie One provides a truly unique, detailed and unbiased account of the secret war fought on the streets of Northern Ireland.

    Each of these tiny stories was inspired by an event, an overheard conversation, a piece of art or just a fleeting glance of something worth thinking about further.Collected in one volume, Carson's postcards present a panoramic view of contemporary Belfast -- its coffee shops, streets and museums and airports -- and offer it to the wider world. Even as they seem to spring from a writer's solitary perspective, taken together, these observations and their distribution speak of human connectedness. Like a pleasant surprise in the mail, this collection reminds us how many friendships are born and strengthened in a story shared.Illustrated by Benjamin Phillips.

    He is a brilliant kicker both from the hand and at penalty goals, a sublime organizer of play from the out-half position, and a cool head in the pressure-cooker of club and international rugby. The list of the Cork man's achievements goes on and on:  he is the leading points scorer in Irish rugby history, and one of the top ten in the world; the leading points scorer in the history of the Heineken Cup; and the first ever points and try scorer at the home of Gaelic sports, Croke Park. In his candid, illuminating autobiography, O'Gara tells the story of those many on-field successes, culminating in the glorious year of 2006 when his tactical prowess and will to win first helped guide Ireland to the Triple Crown in the Six Nations championship, then Munster to a memorable Heineken Cup victory over Biarritz at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. O'Gara kicked a perfect five out of five in the 23-19 win as Munster lifted the coveted trophy for the first time, sparking wild celebrations heard all the way back in Limerick and Cork. Yet as in any sporting career, there have been the setbacks as well, most notably Ireland's disappointing performance in the Rugby World Cup in France last year. O'Gara reveals what really went on in a divided dressing-room as a series of flat performances sent the Irish crashing out, while he personally had to deal with a series of front-page allegations about his private life. O’Gara has never been shy about the fact that he's fond of a drink and a bet, and he confronts his critics head on in this book. This is the unforgettable story of a rugby player at the top of his game, of a life lived to the full, and of a passionate and proud representative of the people of Cork and Ireland.

    But, beneath the cosy contentment of their lives lies tensions that threaten to erupt at any moment. Andrew, Laura's handsome brother, has just returned home from Crete with his bride in tow, the surprisingly timid Ruth, who is finding it hard to fit in with Andrew's overbearing mother, Cecily. And, to her increasing concern, Andrew doesn't seem to have his mind entirely on her... Laura is desperate to have a family, and can't understand why Donal doesn't seem to share her only wish. And the beautiful, glamorous Breffni, with her lovely husband, Cian, and the golden child, Polly, well, she has the greatest surprise in store...

    A novel of family, love, and learning to be kind to yourself by award-winning, bestselling Irish author, Aimee Alexander. Grace Sullivan flees Dublin with her two teenage children, Jack and Holly, returning to the sleepy West Cork village where she grew up. No one in Killrowan knows what Grace is running from - or that she's even running. She'd like to keep it that way. Taking over from her father, Des, as the village doctor offers a real chance for Grace to begin again. But will she and the family adapt to life in a small rural community? Will the villagers accept an outsider as their GP? Will Grace live up to the doctor that her father was? And will she find the inner strength to face the past when it comes calling? Season of Second Chances is a heart-warming story of friendship, love and finding the inner strength to face a future that may bring back the past. Perfect for fans of Call The Midwives, The Durrells, Doc Martin and All Creatures Great and Small. The villagers of Killrowan will steal into your heart and make you want to stay with them forever.

    edition. British publication by Hart-Davis, McGibbon Ltd ('76).-- A companion to The Best of Myles, Further Cuttings culls more scathing selections from "Cruiskeen Lawn", Flann O'Brien's column in the Irish Times written under the pseudonym Myles na Gopaleen.-- This volume covers the years 1947-1957 and finds O'Brien's alter ego clashing with the law on numerous charges, including larceny, using bad language, and marrying without the consent of his parents. It also includes several bizarre obituaries, witty criticisms of George Bernard Shaw, Sean O' Faolain, and other literary figures, the return of the preposterous "Brother", and the first article ever ascribed to Myles (published in 1940).

    For I saw Fionnuala,"The Gem of the Roe," "The Flower of Sweet Strabane,"when a girl reached down into a freezer binto bring up my double scoop of vanilla.-"White Shoulders"Seamus Heaney has called his colleague Paul Muldoon "one of the era's true originals." While Muldoon's previous book, The Annals of Chile, was poetry at an extreme of wordplay and formal complexity, Hay is made up of shorter, clearer lyric poems, retaining all of Muldoon's characteristic combination of wit and profundity but appealing to the reader in new and delightful ways. His eighth book, it is also his most inviting-full of joy in language, fascination with popular culture, and enthusiasm for the writing of poetry itself. This is the first of his books to really capture the effect of America on his poetic sensibility, which is like a magnet for impressions and the miscellany of the culture.

    It seems very remote to Miranda Martin, who thinks of nothing but the future during the Indian summer. Then Andrew, her officer brother, comes home, bringing eccentric, likeable Harry. As the summer fades, the scene is set for tragedy.

    As Ireland stands on the brink of political crisis, Europe plunges headlong into war. Among the thousands of Irishmen who volunteer to fight for the British Army is Stephen Ryan, a gifted young maths scholar whose working class background has marked him out as a misfit among his wealthy fellow students. Sent to fight in Turkey, he looks forward to the great adventure, unaware of the growing unrest back home in Ireland. His romantic notions of war are soon shattered and he is forced to wonder where his loyalties lie, on his return to a Dublin poised for rebellion in 1916 and a brother fighting for the rebels. Everything has changed utterly, and in a world gone mad his only hope is his growing friendship with the brilliant and enigmatic Lillian Bryce. "The Soldier's Song "is a poignant and deeply moving novel, a tribute to the durability of the human soul.

    The poems also address gender inequality and our inharmonious relationship with the natural world. A poem on Lilian Bland – the first woman to design, build and fly her own aeroplane – celebrates the audacity and ingenuity of a great Irish heroine. Elsewhere, explorers in Greenland set foot on a fjord system accessible to Europeans for the first time in millennia as a result of global warming. But if life is fragile then its traces are persistent, insistent, and in ‘Articulation’ we are invited to stop and wonder at the reconstructed skeleton of Napoleon’s horse, Marengo, ‘whose very hooves trod mud at Austerlitz’, suspended in time ‘for however long he lasts before he crumbles’.

    Coxcomb was the least he said: The solid man and the coxcomb.

    A couple drive out to the hills in a last-ditch effort to save their marriage. A horse crashes a house party. Set on an imagined island off the west coast of Ireland, John Patrick McHugh’s debut collection of stories draw a complete community of characters – misdirected, posturing and self-deceiving. But in his fidelity to and compassion for their faults, McHugh embeds us in the moments on which these lives twist and turn, probing unflinchingly what most of us would rather ignore. Pure Gold heralds the arrival of a vibrant new literary voice.

    

    DanDan is struggling with the death of his ex, Lucy is drinking way too much and Steph has become closed off. A weekend away is just what they need. They travel out to Rockadoon Lodge, to the wilds in the west of Ireland. But the weekend doesn't go to plan. JJ is more concerned with getting high than spending time with them, while Merc is humiliated and seeks revenge. And when their elderly neighbour Malachy arrives on their doorstep in the dead of night with a gun in his hands, nothing will be the same again for any of them . . .Honest, moving and human, Rockadoon Shore is a novel about friendship and youth, about missed opportunities and lost love, and about the realities of growing up and growing old in modern-day Ireland. Highly energetic and tensely humorous, it heralds a new and exciting voice in contemporary Irish fiction.

    About to turn 30, like many her age, Ellen had left the Church a long time ago, but she had never stopped believing in and talking to God. Now, she suddenly realized she wasn't quite ready for this statement to be true, however much of a contradiction it seemed to present with some of her most strongly held views.Abandoning the Church had been an act of protest, a form of punishment. However, she began to wonder: who had really lost the most? Why should those who did the damage to the Church get to keep it and all its good bits, like going to Mass for the ritual and the community, having a clear guide for living a better life, and the comfort of believing it's not the end when somebody dies?But how could she ally herself to an institution she doesn't entirely agree with? In her first book, Ellen tries to figure out how much she really wants to go back to the Church, and if it is even the right thing to do. A stunningly intelligent and thoughtful debut work of non-fiction.