No Borders: Playing Rugby for Ireland - New 2018 Grand Slam Edition (Behind the Jersey Series)


Tom English - 2015
    This is the ultimate history of Irish rugby - told, definitively, by the men who have been there and done it.

Crowded House: The Definitive Story Behind the Gruesome Murder of Patricia O'Connor


Frank Greaney - 2021
    It was the first of fifteen dismembered body parts belonging to retired hospital worker Patricia O'Connor.Kieran Greene, the father of three of Patricia's grandchildren, later handed himself in, confessing to beating her to death in the home they shared in what he said was an act of self-defense. He also confessed to dismembering her and disposing of her remains but later changed his story, implicating several members of Patricia's household, including her husband and daughter.In this nuanced and meticulous account of a deeply disturbing crime, journalist Frank Greaney, who covered every day of the shocking trial and conducted exclusive follow-up interviews with other members of Patricia's family, uncovers the story behind the gruesome murder of Patricia O'Connor, and looks at who Patricia really was.

Big Maggie


John Brendan Keane - 1969
    The dialogue crackles with hilarious, caustic putdowns as the indomitable Maggie deals with her feckless family and unwanted suitors. Everyone wants a part of Big Maggie and her property but she has other ideas.

Jackie Tyrrell: The Warrior's Code: My Autobiography


Jackie Tyrrell - 2017
    Kilkenny were beaten in that final by Tipperary but Tyrrell’s inner-most thoughts from his diary, both in the lead-up to, and after the game, provide the narrative to a compelling life story. His unique insights paint the picture of a relentless individual and a relentless team – the most successful side in the history of Irish male sport. The intrigue and aura around Kilkenny coach Brian Cody and his players was always heightened because very little ever emerged from the camp, or the dressing room. Now, for the first time, Tyrrell opens a unique window into the elite mindset and attitude which forged such unprecedented success. Tyrrell’s own journey is chronicled with brutal and unwavering honesty. The hurling legend’s constant drive to be a winner with his beloved county have pushed him towards breaking point many times. Tyrrell operates somewhere between obsessed and maniacal. On the pitch, he displayed the ruthless mentality of an assassin but behind it all, he had to conquer crippling self-doubt and fear. It took until his fourth successive All-Ireland final for Tyrrell to believe he had finally arrived as a senior inter-county hurler, going on to become one of the most feared and respected defenders in the game.

The Bloodied Field


Michael Foley - 2014
    That afternoon she went with her fiancée to watch Tipperary and Dublin play a gaelic football match at Croke Park. Across the city nine men lay dead in their beds after a synchronised IRA attack designed to cripple British intelligence services in Ireland. Trucks of police and military rumbled through the city streets as hundreds of people clamoured at the metal gates of Dublin Castle seeking refuge. Some of them were headed for Croke Park.Award-winning journalist and author Michael Foley recounts the extraordinary story of Bloody Sunday in Croke Park and the 90 seconds of shooting that changed Irish history forever. In a deeply intimate portrait he tells for the first time the stories of those killed, the police and military that were in Croke Park that day, and the families left shattered in its aftermath, all against the backdrop of a fierce conflict that stretched from the streets of Dublin and the hedgerows of Tipperary to the halls of Westminster.

Gangland


Paul Williams - 1998
    The book includes an account of the murder of the Irish crime reporter, Veronica Guerin.

Eclipsed


Patricia Burke Brogan - 1995
    It tells the woeful tale of a group of 'fallen' women who have had their babies snatched from them at birth to be given up for adoption, and their wretched lives of drudgery earning their keep in the laundry.

Charlie One: The True Story of an Irishman in the British Army and His Role in Covert Counter-Terrorism Operations in Northern Ireland


Sean Hartnett - 2016
    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.

Dead As Doornails


Anthony Cronin - 1980
    Anthony Cronin’s account of life in post-war literary Dublin is as funny and colourful as one would expect from an intimate of Brendan Behan, Patrick Kavanagh and Myles na Gopaleen; but it is also a clear-eyed and bracing antidote to the kitsch that passes for literary history and memory in the Dublin of today. Cronin writes with remarkable subtlety of the frustrations and pathologies of this generation: the excess of drink, the shortage of sex, the insecurity and begrudgery, the painful limitations of cultural life, and the bittersweet pull of exile. We read of a comical sojourn in France with Behan, and of Cronin’s years in London as a literary editor and a friend of the writer Julian Maclaren-Ross and the painters Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun. The generation chronicled by Cronin was one of wasted promise. That waste is redressed through the shimmering prose of Dead as Doornails, earning its place in Irish literary history alongside the best works of Behan, Kavanagh and Myles.

Hostages


Oisín Fagan - 2016
    My heart is broken and my failure is total.A bomb is born, lives and dies in a rural secondary school; Ireland becomes a dumping ground for corpses; one family’s genealogy begins in tragedy in 1574 and ends in something far worse in 2111; a strange tribal matriarchy on the banks of the River Boyne is threatened with extermination.Over the course of these stories, the world breaks down in an endless cycle of hunger, desperation, violence and domination, and we find a humanity left tender, collapsed, and full of a beautiful, primeval innocence.Fagan’s raw blend of verve, humour, imagination and warmth surges through these pages, revealing a world rendered both hopeful and disturbing, human and other, that is at once familiar and extraordinary.

The Mai


Marina Carr - 1995
    Robert, her cellist husband, has always felt stifled by The Mai's ideals of perfection. After seventeen years he leaves her, whereupon she sets about building a dream house in the hope that he will one day return to her. From her fairytale castle, The Mai waits by the window for her dark-haired prince to return. Set in the inspiring surrounds of the West of Ireland, on the banks of the legendary Owl Lake, we enter this world on the day of Robert's return after an absence of four years. In the midst of Mai's and Robert's troubled reunion are the idiosyncratic characters that comprise the family. Irreverent and unapologetic, the opium-smoking one-hundred-year-old matriarch, Grandma Fraochlan, presides over all. The "Spanish Beauty," as she is known, with her "ancient and fantastical memory" and mythical presence, reminds us that the past is looming ever present. Her daughters, Agnes and Julie, meddle in the affairs of their three nieces, with comical tenacity. Deeply theatrical and profoundly intense, THE MAI is an epic tale of love and loss, of elusive dreams shattered by vulgar but inescapable reality.

Season of Second Chances


Aimee Alexander - 2020
    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.

Ronan O'Gara: My Autobiography


Ronan O'Gara - 2008
    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.

Ourselves Alone - Acting Edition


Anne Devlin - 1986
    Book annotation not available for this title.

Putting Out the Stars: Three Young Couples Bound Together by Their Lives and Secrets They Share


Roisin Meaney - 2005
    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...