Ireland Memoir

Just who was Saint Patrick? Many know him as the figure behind the huge festival of fun and drinking that takes place every year on March 17. But look a little more closely and see that there is more to the patron saint of Ireland than meets the eye.

This anthology of popular American history presents the stories of nine incredible Irish immigrants as written by nine contemporary Irish-Americans. More than one in 10 Americans claims Irish ancestry and, with its celebrity contributors, Nine Irish Lives will have strong appeal for those listeners. It is also, though, a timely portrait of shared humanity. These are stories about immigrants - and in the tales of revolutionaries and visionaries, caretakers and unsung heroes, Nine Irish Lives reminds us of the values and the people that have shaped America.

James Joyce is the high priest of modernist writing who lived a life of endless sacrifice to literature, loaded with poverty and petty humiliations. He blazed the path of the writer as resolute individualist, rejecting all conformity and risking everything, even public shaming, in order to "communicate" over the supine body of language with his enthralled readers.

Bertie Ahern, three times Irish Taoiseach, is often described as an enigma. The Old IRA man's son who delivered peace in Northern Ireland. A working class boy responsible for the Celtic Tiger. An ardent nationalist admired by European leaders. Now in this frank and revealing autobiography, Ahern gives his own account of a remarkable political life and the personal story that accompanies it.

Irish singing star Daniel O'Donnell's mother, Julia, grew up on a remote island off the northwest coast of Ireland, going barefoot and doing hard labour as a child during the poverty-stricken 1920s. The hard work continued through her teenage years as she picked potatoes in the fields and travelled to Scotland to gut fish in the ports. After she married and settled in Kincasslagh, Julia's beloved husband, Francie, was forced to leave his family for months on end to work on farms, again in Scotland.

Eamonn Holmes is one of the most popular TV presenters in the UK. For twelve years he was the main anchor at GMTV drawing daily audiences of six million viewers. His humour, easy presenting style, and ability to think on his feet have earned him not only millions of fans but several industry awards. But success has come at a cost.

A tragic death, a murder trial and a 170-year-old mystery - but what really happened? Shortly after Maria Kirwan died in a lonely inlet on Ireland’s Eye, it was decided that she had drowned accidentally during a day spent with her husband on the picturesque island. This inquest verdict appeared to conclude the melancholy events that consumed the fishing village of Howth, Co Dublin, in September 1852.

In early 2018, Erin Darcy created an online art project, "In Her Shoes – Women of the Eighth", to safely and anonymously share private stories of the real and devastating impact of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of Ireland. In the five months leading up to the referendum on abortion, the project asked a simple question of undecided voters: put yourself in her shoes. Within weeks, Erin was receiving hundreds of stories from a broad spectrum of experiences of planned and unplanned terminations.

They take their rules as seriously on the Emerald Isle as anywhere else - especially when it comes to toasting bread.

As the train rattled westward on the outskirts of Dublin, James Berry didn’t stand out amongst his fellow passengers, but they couldn’t see the long, Italian silk rope coiled in the black leather bag by his side, nor the white cap and pinion straps, nor the revolver in his coat pocket. Galway, the winter of 1885. The violent murders of John Moylan, killed on a dark country lane, and Alice Burns, shot dead in the dining room of the Royal Hotel, have shaken the county. Now, following painstaking investigations and charged courtroom drama, justice beckons for the guilty parties.

This is the true story of an unknown American politician who played a critical role in ending centuries of conflict in Northern Ireland. Without the president's permission, and breaking every conventional rule about how to deal with terrorists, former congressman Bruce Morrison helped end a conflict that most observers thought would continue indefinitely.

The Wars of the Roses didn't start on the battlefield: Blood Roses traces it back to the beginning. Starting in 1245 with the founding of the House of Lancaster, Kathryn Warner follows a twisted path of political intrigue, bloody war, and fascinating characters over 200 years. From the Barons' Wars to the overthrowing of Edward II, Eleanor of Castile to Isabella of France, and true love to Loveday, Blood Roses reframes some of the biggest events of the medieval era—not as stand-alone conflicts, but as part of a long-running family feud that would have drastic consequences.

London is one of my most favorite cities, not only in Europe, but also in the entire world. And I love England and the rest of the U.K. as well. And while London is always exciting for me to visit, it is the whole of the United Kingdom that remains particularly etched in my memories.

Oliver Cromwell was an English army and statesman who led Parliamentary armies against King Charles I throughout the English Civil War. Why was he so hated by so many? And is this image of him historically correct? The reason why people thought he was so evil is because of his brutality against the Irish at that time. Several Irish and English scholars agree that Cromwell was too cruel in Ireland. Other academics accuse him of "ethnic cleansing", or the systematic expulsion of a certain ethnic population from a territory. Is this true? And why did he do this?

For Nick and Lesley Albert, swapping the hectic intensity of modern Britain for the peace of a tumble-down farmhouse in rural West Ireland was like a dream come true. But three years later, with the economy crashing and the house refurbishments unfinished, their plan for a tranquil life is falling apart. Are they in danger of replicating the very lifestyle they had hoped to escape, or can they get their lives back on track? Only time will tell.

Nick and Lesley Albert yearn to leave the noise, stress, and pollution of modern Britain and move to the countryside, where the living is good, the air sweet, with space for their dogs to run free. Suddenly out of work and soon to be homeless, they set off in search of a new life in Ireland, a country they had never visited. As their adventure began to unfold, not everything went according to plan. How would they cope with banks that didn’t want customers, builders who didn’t need work, or the complex issue of where to buy some chickens?

A hilarious tale of dogs, fogs, bogs and moving to Ireland. For many years, Nick and Lesley Albert had shared a dream of living far away from the stress of modern life, and when the opportunity arose, they jumped in with both feet. Almost overnight, they decided to move to beautiful County Clare, in the west of Ireland - a country they had never before visited. With little experience or money they set about renovating a derelict farmhouse and building a new life together.

When journalist and podcaster Liadán Hynes' marriage ended, it felt like a loss: of her best friend and of the happy ending she had envisaged on their wedding day. In the months that followed, she had to adjust to a different future - as a single mum juggling work and managing a home - without someone to share the ups and downs of the everyday. Here, in this honest, poignant and beautifully written memoir, she gives an account of her experience.

Few figures in Irish history are as well known as James Joyce. He was born into hardship in a country mired in political conflict, but rather than allow himself to get bogged down, he used his experiences to create some of the finest pieces of modernist literature to date.

Daughter of Laharna provides a glimpse of family life in Laharna Hotel, Larne, which was Patricia’s home for 24 years, and also details its history from 1833 to becoming the largest tour hotel in Ireland. Her father, George A. Beattie, was the resident manager of Laharna Hotel, Larne, from 1935, and in the Second World War, as part of essential services, looked after troop-feeding at Larne Harbour and later the American Officers' Club in the former Midland Hotel, Belfast.