Irish Politics & Current Affairs

1. The murderer and the Taoiseach

by Harry McGee

€12.99 €15.95

'An incredible and compelling story' MATT COOPER 'Gripping, unpretentious, brilliant and unputdownable' BUSINESS POST A Murderer. A Leader. The Scandal of an Era. In the summer of 1982, Irish aristocrat Malcolm Macarthur embarked on a brutal killing spree in a doomed plan to remedy his financial woes. Two weeks later, in a sensational turn of events, he was arrested in the home of Attorney General Patrick Connolly. The scandal attracted worldwide headlines and resulted in untold damage to then Taoiseach Charles Haughey. The words he used to describe the dark events - grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented - coined the era-defining phrase GUBU. Here, award-winning political journalist Harry McGee retraces the happenings of that long hot summer and beyond. From the cat-and-mouse game to track down an unpredictable killer to Macarthur's extraordinary capture, he considers both the life and psyche of a murderer, and that of the leading political figure of the time - a man similarly driven by greed, status and a sense of himself as existing above the law. Including previously unknown aspects of the trial and interaction with Malcolm Macarthur himself, The Murderer and the Taoiseach is a compulsive journey through tragedy and scandal. 'Brisk, illuminating, crackling with detail' TONY CONNELLY 'A brilliant account of shocking crimes and the dramatic political crisis they caused' DAVID McCULLAGH

2. How to fix Northern Ireland

by Malachi O'Doherty

€12.76 €15.95

'Deeply researched and often revelatory... variegated and sensitive' Literary Review It is twenty-five years since the Good Friday Agreement brought an end to the terrible violence that rocked Northern Ireland for decades. Yet, in this controversial and provocative new book, Malachi O'Doherty argues that it completely ignored the real reason behind the conflict and instead left a festering wound at the core of society. Part memoir, part history and part polemic, How to Fix Northern Ireland shows how the country's deep division is simply not about whether it should be governed as part of Ireland or as part of Britain - as presumed by the agreement - but rather is fundamentally sectarian, an inter-ethnic stress comparable to racism. O'Doherty reveals how the split between catholics and protestants continues to invade everyday life - from education and segregated housing, from street protests, bonfires and parades to the high politics of power sharing and Brexit - and asks what can be done to solve a centuries-old social rift and heal the relationship at the heart of the problem.

3. Cocaine cowboys

by Nicola Tallant

€15.99 €21.00

COCAINE COWBOYS tells the story of Ireland's love affair with cocaine since it first washed ashore on Cork's rugged coast to the billion-euro trade it has become. From Ireland's first cocaine lord and his attempts to establish a direct route from Miami to Dublin to the modern-day violence that led to the brutal dismemberment of teenager Keane Mulready Woods, the book will follow the stories and the increasing chaos that has engulfed those desperate for a slice of this modern day gold rush. Along the way it details how cocaine has woven bonds between high society and the underworld, tracing the deal that killed the model Katy French and detailing how the Kinahan Cartel and Ireland's one time richest and most influential family joined forces to wash dirty money. COCAINE COWBOYS is the definitive tale of the rise of Colombia's most famous export to become the drug of a nation.

4. The kidnapping

by Tommy Conlon

€16.99 €23.80

'Riveting . . . a triumph . . . intertwining personal narratives with wider themes of remembrance, loss, courage and blame' Gary Murphy, Irish Examiner November 1983. Early morning in suburban south Dublin. Businessman Don Tidey is snatched from his car and the IRA has its latest kidnap victim. Weeks later he is tracked down to an isolated Leitrim wood, but in saving Tidey's life a recruit garda and a soldier lose theirs. The Kidnapping is a brilliantly reported account of this landmark event by two accomplished journalists and Leitrim natives. Delving deep, they provide a chilling account of the lead-up to Tidey's abduction, the massive manhunt that followed, his bloody rescue, the botched attempts to capture his abductors and the devastating fall-out - personal and national - that followed. At the heart of The Kidnapping revealing interviews with Don Tidey - speaking about his experience in detail for the first time - and with the families of Garda Gary Sheehan and Private Patrick Kelly, provide a startling and moving testimony of the lasting impact of these traumatic events. It is both a gripping read and one that raises profound questions for today's Ireland. 'Vividly written, deeply insightful, extremely timely' Business Post 'A fascinating read . . . beyond that, it's an important document' Mick Clifford, The Mick Clifford Podcast 'A harrowing story . . . [but] an enjoyable book' Irish Mail on Sunday 'An important reminder of our imperfect, contentious past' Tommy Gorman, Irish Times 'Vivid . . . [shows] a deep understanding . . . insightful and emotional' Sunday Independent 'A major page-turner . . . fascinating' Nicola Tallant, Crime World podcast

5. We don't know ourselves

by Fintan O'Toole

€13.92 €17.40

The #1 Irish Times bestseller WINNER of the An Post Irish Book Awards 'A clear-eyed, myth-dispelling masterpiece' Marian Keyes 'Sweeping, authoritative and profoundly intelligent' Colm Tóibìn, Guardian 'With the pace and twists of an enthralling novel' Irish Times 'Evocative, moving, funny and furious' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times 'An enthralling, panoramic book' Patrick Radden Keefe 'A book that will remain important for a very long time' An Post Irish Book Award We Don't Know Ourselves is a very personal vision of recent Irish history from the year of O'Toole's birth, 1958, down to the present. Ireland has changed almost out of recognition during those decades, and Fintan O'Toole's life coincides with that arc of transformation. The book is a brilliant interweaving of memories (though this is emphatically not a memoir) and engrossing social and historical narrative. This was the era of Eamon de Valera, Jack Lynch, Charles Haughey and John Charles McQuaid, of sectarian civil war in the North and the Pope's triumphant visit in 1979, but also of those who began to speak out against the ruling consensus - feminists, advocates for the rights of children, gay men and women coming out of the shadows. We Don't Know Ourselves is an essential book for anyone who wishes to understand modern Ireland.

6. An Irish Atlantic Rainforest H/B

by Eoghan Daltun

€26.60

On the Beara peninsula in West Cork, a temperate rainforest flourishes. It is the life workof Eoghan Daltun, who had a vision to rewild a 73-acre farm he bought, moving therefrom Dublin with his family in 2009. An Irish Atlantic Rainforest charts that remarkable journey. Part memoir, partenvironmental treatise, as a wild forest bursts into life before our eyes, we're also invitedto consider the burning issues of our time: climate breakdown, ecological collapse, andwhy our very survival as a species requires that we urgently, and radically, transform ourrelationship with nature. This is a story as much about doing nothing as taking action - allowing natural ecosystemsto return and thrive without interference, and in doing so heal an ailing planet.Powerfully descriptive, lovingly told, An Irish Atlantic Rainforest presents an enduringpicture of the regenerative force of nature, and how one Irishman let it happen.

7. Never better

by Tommie Gorman

€22.40 €28.00

Money is handy for doing messages' was a phrase the young Tommie Gorman heard from his father, growing up in Sligo in the 1960s. Struggle was never far away but their household had a surplus of love and warmth. From modest beginnings as a local reporter at the Western Journal, where his deadlines were dependent on the bus schedule, Tommie landed at RTÉ, taking up the post of North-West correspondent in 1980. Over the next four decades he became a familiar presence in Irish homes, known for his coverage of Europe and Northern Ireland, as well as his unforgettable interviews with controversial figures including Gerry Adams, Roy Keane, Ian Paisley and Arlene Foster. While revelling in his life as a journalist, he was also coping with the cancer diagnosis he received in 1994 and seeking ways to access life saving treatments for patients who shared his rare form of the disease. In this insightful and generous book, Tommie takes readers behind the scenes and shares some of his memories from Sligo to Stormont, via Brussels and Sweden, as he recounts forty extraordinary years of Irish history from his front-row seat and looks at what may lie ahead for the island.

8. Irish Defence Forces 1922 2022 H/B

by Eoin Kinsella

€30.00

Tracing their history to the foundation of the Irish Volunteers in 1913, the Irish Defence Forces have undergone significant transformation in the century since the foundation of the Free State. Plunged immediately into a civil war, the path to a modern professional force during the 1920s and 1930s was rarely smooth, with progression hampered by internal dissent, political manoeuvrings, and limited financial investment. The difficulties of creating and maintaining a force capable of defending the neutrality of a small island nation, with a geopolitical and strategic importance that belied its size, were brought home during the Second World War/Emergency. The state's adherence to its policy of neutrality created new opportunities following accession to the United Nations in 1955, with the Defence Forces emerging as a vital element of Ireland's international relations. Beginning in 1958 and in every year since, members of the Forces have served overseas on UN peacekeeping missions, and later with EEC/EU military operations. At home, the Forces' duties in aid of the civil power became ever more vital with the outbreak of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland in 1969, inaugurating a new era of security operations along the border, while in recent decades the Defence Forces have been confronted with a number of challenges, both internal and external. This richly illustrated book explores the landmark successes and achievements, struggles, and missteps of the Defence Forces over the past century. Highlighting the men and women of all components of the Forces-Army, Air Corps, Naval Service, and Reserve-and their operational roles both in Ireland and internationally.,

9. Yank P/B

by John Crawley

€15.26 €16.95

April 1975. A young Irish-American from New York is on a mission to enlist in an elite unit of the US Marine Corps. His goal: to receive the most intensive military training possible, and then move to Ireland to join the IRA and fight to end British occupation. In this powerful and brutally honest memoir, John Crawley details the gruelling challenges of his Marine Corp boot camp; after moving to Dublin to join the IRA Crawley, now known with the movement as ‘The Yank’, is sent to Boston to work with notorious American mobster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger to amass an illegal shipment of weapons. Ordered to return to Ireland with the arms, Crawley is then captured on the Marita Ann gun running trawler off the Kerry coast, imprisoned, and upon release became one of the masterminds behind an operation to knock out London's electrical system. Crawley is blisteringly candid about those he worked with, including fascinating portrayals of IRA leader Martin McGuinness, and of the psychopathic Whitey Bulger. Crawley is unflinching in his commentary on IRA leadership and their tactics, and through it all comes the steadfast voice of a man on a mission, providing an evocative and passionate account where that mission led him and why. To this day, he remains committed to the establishment of all-Ireland Republic

10. United nation

by Frank Connolly

€15.29 €16.99

One hundred years after the Anglo-Irish Treaty and partition, after 30 years of Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement and Brexit, the debate on Irish unity has intensified. But what could a united Ireland look like, and what would it mean for those both north and south of the border? In this meticulously researched book, Frank Connolly interviews people from all sides, and presents his conclusions as to how and whether a united Ireland could create a viable, vibrant new country. United Nation is a timely look at the possibility of an integrated and united Ireland.

11. The last Irish question

by Glenn Patterson

€23.80

A view of the south of Ireland - political, social, geographical - through the eyes of a liberal northern protestant being asked to rejoin it. 'A pleasure to read... Incisively mixing memoir, reportage and analysis' Daily Mail 'Discursive, humane and meticulously attentive to verbal nuances that can spell a world of meaning' Irish Examiner 'Patterson's travels provide humorous asides, telling insights and sobering pessimism' Irish Independent The reunification of Ireland, which in 1998 seemed to have been pushed over the far horizon as an aspiration, has returned with a vengeance. Brexit calls into question the British commitment to Northern Ireland and threatens its economy. There has been a surge in support for Sinn Féin in the South, a party pushing relentlessly for a poll on the future of the border. If Sinn Féin enters the government of the Republic, as seems inevitable in the coming years, this issue will move even higher up the agenda, with who knows what consequences north of the border. In The Last Irish Question , Glenn Patterson travels the country, looking at this place he is being asked to join and which a significant number of people in the North have spent a very long time shunning. Most of the South is terra incognita to them (as it is to many people who live in Dublin). There have been countless books describing and travelling through Ulster, but never one that turns its gaze the other way. Brilliantly witty and alarmingly topical, this is a social, political and geographical view of the South of Ireland, as well as a journey of discovery for a quizzical Northerner being asked to rejoin it.

12. A United Ireland

by Kevin Meagher

€11.59 €14.50

For over two centuries, the ‘Irish question’ has dogged UK politics. Though the Good Friday Agreement carved a fragile peace from the bloodshed of the Troubles, the Brexit process has shown a largely uncomprehending Britishaudience just how uneasy that peace always was – and thrown new light on Northern Ireland’s uncertain constitutional status. Remote from the British mainland in its politics, economy and cultural attitudes, Northern Ireland is, in effect, in an antechamber, its place within the UK conditional on the border poll guaranteed by the peace process. As shifting demographic trends erode the once-dominant Protestant–Unionist majority, making a future referendum a racing certainty, the reunification of Ireland becomes a question not of if but when – and how. In this new, fully updated edition of A United Ireland, Kevin Meagher argues that a reasoned, pragmatic discussion about Britain’s relationship with its nearest neighbour is now long overdue, and questions that have remained unasked (and perhaps unthought) must now be answered.

13. The best Catholics in the world

by Derek Scally

€11.59 €14.50

The Number One Bestseller Shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards 2021 'A great achievement . . . Brilliant, engaging and essential' Colm Tóibìn 'At once intimate and epic, this is a landmark book' Fintan O'Toole When Dubliner Derek Scally goes to Christmas Eve Mass on a visit home from Berlin, he finds more memories than congregants in the church where he was once an altar boy. Not for the first time, the collapse of the Catholic Church in Ireland brings to mind the fall of another powerful ideology - East German communism. While Germans are engaging earnestly with their past, Scally sees nothing comparable going on in his native land. So he embarks on a quest to unravel the tight hold the Church had on the Irish. He travels the length and breadth of Ireland and across Europe, going to Masses, novenas, shrines and seminaries, talking to those who have abandoned the Church and those who have held on, to survivors and campaigners, to writers, historians, psychologists and many more. And he has probing and revealing encounters with Vatican officials, priests and religious along the way. The Best Catholics in the World is the remarkable result of his three-year journey. With wit, wisdom and compassion Scally gives voice and definition to the murky and difficult questions that face a society coming to terms with its troubling past. It is both a lively personal odyssey and a resonant and gripping work of reporting that is a major contribution to the story of Ireland. 'Reflective, textured, insightful and original ... rich with history, interrogation and emotional intelligence' Diarmaid Ferriter, Irish Times 'An unblinking look at the collapse of the Church and Catholic deference in Ireland. Excellent and timely' John Banville, The Sunday Times 'Engaging and incisive' Caelainn Hogan, author of Republic of Shame 'Remarkable ... Essential reading for anyone concerned about history and forgetting' Michael Harding 'Fair-minded ... thoughtful' Melanie McDonagh, The Times 'Very pacey and entertaining ... and it changed how I regard Ireland and our history for good. Fantastic' Oliver Callan 'Original, thought-provoking and very engaging' Marie Collins 'A provocative insight into a time that many would rather forget' John Boyne 'Challenging' Mary McAleese 'Explores this subject in a way that I've never seen before' Hugh Linehan, Irish Times

14. Social Capital TPB

by Aoife Barry

€13.99 €21.00

A David and Goliath story about Ireland’s role as prime real estate for the world’s largest tech multinationals, and the considerable impact it has had on us as individuals.Since the arrival of Google to Dublin’s docklands in 2003, Ireland has experienced a ‘tech sprawl’, with some of the world’s largest social media multinationals like Facebook and Twitter following suit –all taking full advantage of Ireland’s attractive corporate tax rate.Their presence has changed the landscape of Ireland significantly, both physically and economically: pressed up against the sleek, gargantuan offices of these tech firms are some of Dublin’s oldest communities, inhabited by the dedicated users of the products these companies are touting.But the promises of opportunity and enterprise initially posited by Ireland’s policy-makers haveexposed infrastructure and legislation woefully underprepared to keep up with the rate of expansion of the tech giants. With over 75% of the population using social media sites, and an increase in online harassment, trolling and misinformation campaigns, how do we live offline if they live next door?In The Tech Dilemma, investigative journalist Aoife Barry does a deep-dive into the butterfly effect thepresence of these tech companies has had on the nation and exposes the real-life consequences it has had on us as individuals.

15. Radicals & Realists

by Lila Haines

€28.00

From the nationalist, unionist and Labour traditions of pre-partition Ireland to the parties that have contested elections in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, 'The Political Parties of Ireland' is the first book to feature all Irish political parties. In addition to charting the successes and setbacks of the major parties, which are featured in the order in which they were founded, Lila Haines also reflects on how smaller parties have influenced the direction of political travel. Drawing widely on original sources, contemporary journalism, political memoirs, respected historians as well as accounts by key backroom participants, Lila Haines reveals the power struggles and collaborations, splinters and mergers, and the ideals and deals that changed Ireland.

16. Little republics

by Adrian Duncan

€15.00

Bungalow Bliss, first published in 1971, was a book of house designs that buyers could use to build a home for themselves affordably. It first appeared two years before Ireland was to join the EEC as a self-published catalogue by Jack Fitzsimons from his Kells Art Studios in County Meath. He and his wife designed and collated it and printed it locally. Fitzsimons sold these books out of his car to newsagents, petrol garages and bookshops. Over the course of thirty years, Fitzsimons sold over a quarter of a million copies of his catalogue. The first edition contained twenty designs - the final edition contained two hundred and sixty. This guidebook of how to build your own home radically transformed housing in Ireland. Now, for the first time, author and structural engineer Adrian Duncan looks at the cultural impact that Bungalow Bliss and the accessible bungalow design had on the housing market, the Irish landscape, and on the individual families who made these bungalows their homes.

17. A state of emergency

by Richard Chambers

€10.99 €13.99

The incendiary untold story of Ireland's response to the most significant public health emergency of the past century, woven from a wealth of original research and dozens of interviews with ministers, politicians, public health experts, essential workers, and ordinary people on whom the crisis exacted a personal toll. Ranging from the halls of Government Buildings, where a new Cabinet riven by personal acrimony found itself beset by a series of unprecedented crises, to the frontlines of the containment effort itself, where medical practitioners and the communities they serve were pushed to breaking point, A Year Unlike Any Other is a landmark work of investigative journalism and the defining account of an extraordinary time in Irish history.