Cissie’s Abattoir
Eibhear Walshe

From childhood, Eibhear Walshe was drawn to his diminutive grandmother. She was a ray of light in the puddle-grey town of Waterford in the 1960s and 1970s. Eibhear’s personal voyage takes us through his childhood city but the most important character throughout is the fashion-conscious, poker-playing Cissie, his lively and witty little grandmother who taught him by example how to survive and prosper, and how to live with style and verve.

978-1848890091

PB
156 pp
198 x 128 mm
€9.99/£7.99
2009

Dan Donovan
An Everyman’s Life
Vera Ryan.

Published in association with Everyman Palace Theatre

Celebrates Corkman, Dan Donovan, whose life-story reflects the cultural history of Cork in the twentieth century. Vera Ryan’s interviews bring readers into Dan’s diverse world as teacher, actor, director, broadcaster, and major player in Cork’s artistic life. Epic events like the burning of the Opera House in 1955 and the saving of the Palace Theatre in the 1980s are vividly recalled.

978-1905172597

PB
220pp
216 x 138mm
€16.99/£12.99
2008
Black & white photos

Bargain Price!

Great Endeavour
Ireland’s Antarctic Explorers
Michael Smith.

The Irish have left an indelible mark in the most hostile territory on earth; Antarctica. It was the Irish who pioneered a route to the Antarctic and whose adventures 100 years ago gripped the attention of the world. Their contribution is now told in a single volume celebrating their amazing exploits. The earliest voyages to the Antarctic are saluted, with due consideration given to present-day adventurers who have taken up the torch. Quotations from first-hand accounts and photographs of the intrepid men, as well as the relics, medals, and sites, enhance the poignant text.

978-1-84889-023-7

Adventure/Travel
HB
340 pp
247 x 189 mm
€29.99/£26.99
NOT YET PUBLISHED: Due in October 2010

Heaps of Trouble
Emelyn Heaps.

Set against the lively backdrop of Everybody’s toyshop in Inchicore in Dublin, one word sums it up: trouble. But this vivid depiction of boyhood in the 1950s and 1960s, his parents mostly at loggerheads, especially his alcoholic father, as they bounced from sobriety to drunkenness, is never bitter. Emelyn does not ‘look back in anger’. Early schooldays at Goldenbridge Convent, injured at age ten in an explosion, which kills his beloved only sister, and going to court in search of ‘Compo’, are in turn distressing, sad and hilarious. Grief has its consolation when compo is in the offing. Description of this tragedy turning the family upside down is unflinching while mischief as a streetwise gurrier during his years at CUS School is wonderfully madcap. From the start to the heart-stopping finish after a summer working in St James Hospital, we are drawn into his triumphs and disasters with hilarity and sadness never far away. And then there is a love story.

978-1848890411

Memoir
PB
210 pp
198 x 128 mm
€12.99/£11.99
NOT YET PUBLISHED: Due in September 2010

In Search of Islands
A Life of Conor O’Brien
Judith Hill.

Conor O’Brien made history in 1925 having sailed around the world in his small yacht, Saoirse. But O’Brien wasn’t only a sailor. He climbed with Mallory, Young, Robert Graves and others. In 1914 he shipped guns to Ireland in his first boat, Kelpie, with Erskine Childers, yet served in the Royal Naval Reserve during the First World War. This biography records O’Brien’s eventful life as sailor and mountaineer, fiction and travel writer, designer of boats ands buildings, Irish nationalist and defender of Britain, and celebrated sailor.

978-1905172658

HB
200 pp
277 x 219 mm
€29.99/£19.99
2009
Colour and black & white photos

Jasper Wolfe of Skibbereen
Jasper Ungoed-Thomas.

Stories are still told about Jasper Wolfe in West Cork. Methodist, lawyer, T.D. and President of the Law Society, he led a remarkable and dangerous existence. After Easter 1916 he was appointed Crown Solicitor for the City and West Riding of Cork. He put the Crown case at the inquest into the murder of the Republican Lord Mayor of Cork, Tomás MacCurtain, and was soon a top target for the IRA.After the Civil War, he became a defence lawyer for dissident Republicans.

978-1905172719

HB
304 pp
234 x 156 mm
€22.95/£17.99
2008
Black & white photos

Bargain Price!

Make ’Em Laugh!
A Golden Age of Theatre
Declan Hassett.

Published in association with Everyman Palace Theatre
In the early twentieth century theatre was the great escape in Ireland, whether drama, pantomime, farce or musical. Here, playwright, author and critic Declan Hassett celebrates some of the great moments of theatre in Cork from the 1940s onwards. In conversation with him the stars themselves recall a golden age and bring to vivid life, from stage to page, many great moments and reflect on changing trends in theatre. With its photographs this evocative melange brings to life a period of rich creative energy.

978-1905172849

PB
304 pp
216 x 138 mm
€16.99/£12.99
2008
Black & white photos

Mouse Morris
His Extraordinary Racing Life
Declan Colley.

Shortlisted for the William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year Award 2008

Michael ‘Mouse’ Morris, third son of Lord and Lady Killanin, would never have been earmarked for a career in horse racing. A crushing fall sustained while riding in the Colonial Cup in Carolina marked the unravelling of his career as a jockey but propelled him into training. Mouse has trained an impressive list of big-race winners and speaks frankly of his wild ride on the racing rollercoaster, of days as a jockey, as a trainer, of financial hurdles, personal crises and tragedy.

978-1905172856

HB
216 pp
234 x 156 mm
€24.95/£19.99
2008
Colour and black & white photos

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