Ireland Historical Fiction

It's the 1880s, and James and Mary McGrother's family has been divided by emigration, like many of their neighbors in the village of Blackrock in county Louth. The couple who survived the Great Hunger have had to watch more than half their family leave the parish. The responsibility to care for one another extends beyond blood or marriage ties for the McGrother family in New York, when a young Irishman goes missing in America. Back in Ireland, at a time when James and Mary least expect it, a family member returns - but not everyone is pleased with the reunion.

A Year of Broken Promises continues the story of James and Mary McGrother, a young Irish fisherman and his wife, who were the main characters in A Pocket Full of Shells. Even with the famine years behind them, tragedy and hardship does not stop. Promises made in good faith are broken along with the hearts of those making them. A solicitor, a constable, and a secretive organization all play parts in determining the fate of a young couple whose only desire is to provide for their family and live a simple life.

As the past catches up with Catherine, one of her sisters becomes a thorn in her side. To make life even more stressful for her, the young woman finds herself torn between two of the people she loves most in the world. As her husband, Patrick, does his best to provide for his young family, Catherine fears he is keeping secrets from her, possibly even more hurtful than the one she has concealed in her heart. While Patrick yearns for social change and a better future for his children, his wife is more concerned about the past and what damage it might cause.

When farmers cutting turf in an Irish peat bog make a grisly discovery, the perfectly intact body of a young woman with long red hair, archaeologist Cormac O'Callaghan and pathologist Nora Gavin are thrown together by their shared scientific interest in human remains. Because of the preservative effect of the bog, it is difficult to tell whether the body has lain there for two decades, two centuries, or two millennia.

Jack and Annie are on their third mission to find (and inspire!) creative people to bring happiness to others through the arts (Mozart and Louis Armstrong so far). Set in Ireland, in this story Jack and Annie meet an Irish girl and go on a magical adventure that changes the girl's life. She grows up to be Lady Gregory, who helped bring back the Irish legends, started a theater, and helped the Irish people regain both their heritage and their pride.

Treasure seeking explorers stumble upon an ancient tomb and unwittingly awaken a terrifying monster created long ago. The fate of the beloved Scottish Queen Mary, becomes mysteriously tied to this creature, and her death sets in motion events that will haunt villages along the coast of Ireland for centuries. Fast forward 88 years to 1852 in New York City. Two brothers, living very different lives, travel to Ireland due to their father’s death and discover the existence of the monster.

Arriving home from a pilgrim voyage, Sister Fidelma hears that her faithful Saxon companion, Brother Eadulf, is under sentence of death for murder. She hastens to the capital of Laigin, where he is being held, determined to appeal against the sentence. The crime took place at the abbey of Fearna, where Fidelma clashes with the sinister Abbess Fainder. The evidence against Eadulf seems overwhelming - can he actually be guilty? Will Fidelma's emotional involvement blind her in her desperate search for the truth?

In 1950s Dublin, life is hard and jobs are like gold dust. Nineteen-year-old Nell Flynn is training to be a nurse and planning to marry her boyfriend, Liam Connor, when her mother dies, leaving her younger sisters destitute. To save them from the workhouse, Nell returns to the family home - a mere two rooms at the top of a condemned tenement. Nell finds work at a biscuit factory and, at first, they scrape through each week.

Ireland. AD 672. The Feast of Beltaine is approaching, and the seven senior princes of the kingdom of Muman are gathering at Cashel to discuss King Colgú's policies. Just days before the council meets, Brother Conchobhar, the keeper of the sacred sword, is found murdered. Sister Fidelma and her brother, Colgú, fear that the killer had been trying to steal the sword that symbolises the king's authority to rule.

On a storm-driven night, wreckers drive a ship onto rocks off the coast of Ireland. An Abbess leading a pilgrimage is killed and the young religieuse with her abducted. An aging scholar is murdered in the Abbey of Ard Fhearta. Do these events have a connection? Sister Fidelma and Brother Eadulf go to Ard Fhearta to examine the mystery. But the abbey stands in the territory of the Uí Fidgente, enemies of Fidelma and her brother, the King of Cashel, and danger threatens Fidelma and Eadulf from the moment of their arrival. What is the link that connects the crimes?

Sister Fidelma has been sent by her brother, king of Cashel, to Laisre, chieftain of Gleann Geis - the 'forbidden valley' - to negotiate permission to build a Christian church and school in his territory, replacing the pagan Druidic sanctuaries. Laisre is known to be hostile to the new religion, and Fidelma knows her mission will be no easy task. Entering Gleann Geis with the Saxon Brother Eadulf, she comes across the naked, slain bodies of thirty-three young men, positioned in a sunwise circle.

A reckless warrior, Kieran Broderick was half-Irish, yet bound to fight for the English crown. So when King Henry decreed that he take an Irish wife to quell rebellion there, he had little choice. Newly dubbed the earl of Kildare, Kieran travels to Langmore Castle, seat of the lawless O'Shea family, to choose a bride. When he picks Maeve, a fetching lass who seems sweetly submissive, he soon learns she's a fiery, clever woman. When she refuses to allow him into her bed or her heart, he finds himself fighting the most daunting battle of his life.

The Abbey of Imleach, in the southwest Irish kingdom of Muman, now rivals Armagh as the centre of the faith in Ireland. For the founder of the abbey was none other than St Ailbe, the man who brought Christianity to Muman, converted its king and baptised him at Cashel in AD448. But now, calamity has struck the community of the abbey. Not only has an elderly monk suddenly disappeared, but the holy relics of St Ailbe have also vanished. These sacred relics are not just the concern of the abbey's community but are a priceless icon and political symbol of the entire kingdom....

A servant has been murdered and the baby in her charge abducted. Fidelma of Cashel has solved even more horrendous crimes in her career as an advocate of the ancient Brehon Courts of Ireland. But this case is different. For both Sister Fidelma and her companion, Brother Eadulf of Saxmund's Ham, the case is unique because of the personal emotions involved. The baby who has been abducted is their own son. What is the motive for their crime? Could someone seeking vengeance on Fidelma and Eadulf have done the deed? They have made a lot of enemies in their pursuit of justice.

When Sechnussach, High King of Ireland, is found dead in his bedchamber with his throat cut, all clues seem to suggest an all-too-obvious prime suspect. Dubh Duin, the chieftain of the clan Cinél Cairpre, was found with the murder weapon in his hand when the High King's guards entered the royal chamber, before taking his own life. The Chief Brehon of Ireland asks Sister Fidelma to investigate and find out what possible motives could have driven Dubh Duin to assassinate the High King.

In mid-nineteenth-century Ireland, a small girl arrives on the same dock her mother departed from six years earlier. Laoise Hogan is alone, traumatized, and bearing letters from her mother addressed to the man who abandoned them. Sir Lucius O’Brien, 5th Baronet, 13th Baron Inchiquin, is summoned to Dublin by an orphan society. He finds himself face to face with a small girl whose haunted face looks eerily similar to his brother's.

For centuries the Túatha Dé Danann lived in peace on an island where time flowed more slowly and the seasons were gentle - until that peace was shattered by the arrival of invaders. The Gaels, the Children of Milesios, came looking for easy riches and conquest, following the story of an island to the west where their every desire could be granted. They had not anticipated that it would already be home to others, and against the advice of their druids, they began to exterminate the Túatha Dé Danann.

Inspired by the true story of Sheila's grandmother, The Woman on the Bridge is a riveting novel of love, rebellion and families torn apart by war. Dramatic, shocking, and full of insight into women's lives, this is a powerful, haunting and unforgettable listen.

AD 664: Sister Fidelma finds herself in the seaport of Genua, en route from Rome back to her native Cashel. Her old teacher, Brother Ruadán, lies dying in the abbey of Bobium - an isolated abbey in a disturbed country where even the Christians are in bloody conflict with one another and the worship of the pagan gods often prevails. Fidelma is determined to see Brother Ruadán before he dies. But from the moment she enters the beautiful valley of the Trebbia, there is danger on every side.

Born into a respected Irish-Anglo family in 1860, Charles loves his native land and its long-suffering but irrepressible people. As a healer, he travels the countryside dispensing traditional cures while soaking up stories and legends of bygone times - and witnessing the painful, often violent birth of land-reform measures destined to lead to Irish independence. At the age of 40, summoned to Paris to treat his dying countryman - the infamous Oscar Wilde - Charles experiences the fateful moment of his life.