Bøger udgivet af New Island Books

'she is no small town, and this is no small story . . .'BASED ON THE POPULAR DUBLIN HISTORY PODCAST A companion to the hugely successful podcast of the same name by Donal Fallon, THREE CASTLES BURNING is an enjoyable wander through some of Dublin's less obvious but more interesting streets and roads such as Henrietta Street, Watling Street, Fownes Street and Kildare Road.On the Dublin streets we walk every day, there are hidden reminders of the lesser-known heroes and events that have contributed to the evolving story of our capital. The city's motto, 'the obedience of the citizens produces a happy city', may feel outdated and loaded today but the three burning castles of its ancient coat of arms have come to represent the indomitable spirit, creativity and vision that define this big town. Inspired by the No. 1 podcast, Three Castles Burning: A History of Dublin in Twelve Streetschampions the activists, workers, architects, poets, migrants, artists and merchants who have made and remade the city we know and love by going beneath the many layers of twelve key streets where they lived and worked. Because, in the city Joyce called the 'Hibernian Metropolis', the disobedience of its citizens is the cornerstone of its past, present and future.This combination of social, cultural, industrial and commercial, and political history, through the prism of the places where revolutions great and small were sparked, offers the reader a fresh and unexpected take on Ireland's capital city.

Over the last thirty years, the English Premier League has grown to become the richest and most popular league in football - and the Irish have been at the heart of its success since the very beginning.In exclusive interviews with thirty former and current players, and an in-depth analysis ofIrish players' involvement, Gareth Maher celebrates the astounding contribution that the Republic of Ireland has made to the most famous league in the world of sport.With insights from Seamus Coleman, John O'Shea, Niall Quinn, Shay Given, Jonathan Walters, Richard Dunne, Andrew Omobamidele and many more, Away Daysuncovers the good, the bad & the ugly of a league that has been home to almost two-hundred Irish players.This is the story of Ireland's impact on the Premier League as told through the experiences of the players who have lived through the title wins and the relegation scraps, the big-money moves and the cancelling of contracts, the villian's disdain and the hero's acclaim over three whirlwind decades.

Nuala O'Faolain's first memoir Are You Somebody? became a literary sensation and an international bestseller when it was first published by New Island Books in 1996. It launched a new life for its author, at a time when she had long since let go of expectations that anything new could dislodge patterns of regret and solitude.A pioneering work of literary memoir, Almost There opens at that moment when O'Faolain's life began to change. It tells the story of a life in subtle, radical, and unforeseen renewal. It is a tale of good fortune chasing out bad - of an accidental harvest of happiness. But it is also a provocative examination of one woman's experience of the 'crucible of middle age' - a time of life that faces in two directions, that forges the shape of the years to come, and also clarifies and solidifies one's relationships to friends and lovers, family and self.Nuala O'Faolain's final memoir, Almost There chronicles the pursuit of artistic and personal integrity, and what it is to be a woman in contemporary society, with the signature style and raw candidness of her personal writing.

In Heidelberg, Germany, over the course of a hot week in July, two gentle souls begin a prelude to love, testing the pull of romance against the weight of their family histories.After fifteen years in a relationship with a man she did not love, Ute Pfeiffer has returned from Ireland to find her father, Julius, in decline and her mother, Christa, more distant than ever. The last thing she needs is to fall for another Irishman. But when she sees Seanie Donnellan driving over a hen in her parents' yard, something seems to shift in her cautious heart.Ute has given up on love and Seanie has never really known it. He also knows nothing of her family's unspoken history during the war, nor how Ute muted this sadness with a sheltered life that she hated. But Seanie is a strange and charming young man with emotional aches of his own, confounding all of her expectations and daring her to hope for the first time.As her father returns to a kind of childhood, and her mother's longing spills over in the revelation of a family secret, Ute must decide if falling in love is something that happens to other people or if it's a choice only she can make.

Beautifully designed new hardback edition of Lady Gregory's definitive collection of Irish myths and legends, focusing on the bold exploits of Cuchulain and the Red Branch of Ulster. Volume 2 of New Island's bestselling Irish Myths and Legends series.

A gorgeously produced homage to the art of the letter, comprising letters to and from the Presidents of Ireland.

Lady Augusta Gregory's Irish Myths and Legends, or Gods and Fighting Men as it was first titled in 1904, is an essential collection of Irish myths, legends and folk tales gathered by Gregory from Irish oral story tellers at the close of the nineteenth century.These epic tales are divided into two parts: the first charts the coming of the mythic Tuatha De Danaan to Ireland, the lives of Manannan and Lugh, and the tragedy of the Children of Lir. The second part follows the exploits and trials of Finn Mac Cumhal, the Fianna, Oisin, and the love story of Diarmuid and Grania.This is a timeless collection of Irish myths and legends - whimsical, tragic, astounding and ever familiar - borne through the centuries, and an essential part of Ireland's literary heritage.

Guardians of the Peace is a political history of the Irish police force, An Garda Siochana, from its foundation at the birth of the Irish State, through the Irish Civil War, the threat of the fascist 'Blueshirts', the continuing campaign of the IRA, de Valera's entry into the Dail in 1932 and the creation, effectively of his own police force - 'The Broy Harriers' - through World War 2.As the author outlines in his insightful introduction, the story told in this book is part of a longer and wider narrative. But it is a story which still has relevance as Ireland moves, hopefully, to a new era of peace and stability. It is above all a chronicle of the idealism and the imperfections of ordinary men presented by history with the discharging of a rather extraordinary task.As the force approaches one hundred years since its founding, it is hoped that this history will evoke the ideals and the founding principles adopted in 1922 and perhaps help to re-interpret and re-apply them in a 21st Century context.

This enchanting chronicle of life on the land follows the highs and lows of one year in the Irish countryside.

In the Ubari Sand Sea in 2011, during the First Libyan Civil War, a mysterious pilot falls from the sky - a sky devil - and is forever changed by the little boy who rescues him.One year later, in the town of Roseville, Louisiana, in the aftermath of economic crisis and corporate environmental damage, 10-year-old Lenny Lockhart is losing the people and things dearest to him. His only friends now are his plucky, elderly neighbour, Miss Julie, and the town's lonely librarian, Lucy Albert. Homeless and neglected, Lenny heads deep into the dark and unpredictable bayou, determined to conquer the sinkhole that is threatening to swallow his town. As time seems to be simultaneously slowing down and running out, is it really Lenny who needs saving, or the broken adults in his life?As these two timelines converge, Lenny tells a deeply affecting story of family and love, the ways we can be kind, and the power of one boy's imagination to heal and survive.

Not the Final Word publishes for the first time, in both Irish and English, the 1952 St Anne's Hospital recordings of Peig Sayers, made by a team from the Irish Folklore Commission.

Published for the first time in the Irish language, previous Open Door stories by literary superstars Roddy Doyle, Marian Keyes, John Connolly, Deirdre Purcell, Julie Parsons, Vincent Banville, Maeve Binchy and Patricia Scanlan have now been released in a special edition - as Gaeilge!

POEMS AND ILLUSTRATIONS INSPIRED BY LOCKDOWNBefore the COVID-19 global pandemic, Dubliner Jan was working as a freelance fashion stylist and creative director. Now, she is an experienced homeschool teacher, playground chaperone, cook, cleaner, fed-up walker and kitchen disco DJ. At the height of the restrictions, Jan's own internal dialogue finally tumbled onto the page. The result is this book of poems: raw, honest and funny observations on family and relationships, on feeling a bit crap and being perfectly imperfect.Jan's lyrical writings offer a fresh perspective on modern life, written with humour, heart and honesty.What Day Is It? Who gives a f*ck expresses all the rage, loss,fun and love that have stunned and occupied us since March 2020.

When football players leave Ireland behind in the hopes of carving out a future in the professional game, they often end up plying their trade in the UK -competing for a chance in the Premier League, the Scottish Premiership, or the numerous leagues below them.For decades, this has been the most attractive and obvious career path for Irish players. But what of those players who ventured further afield in search of glory, adventure, or simply their next touch of the ball?Since the dawn of the men's professional game well over a century ago, and up to the more recent expansion of women's football, Irish players - and coaches too - have made their mark on clubs and nations around the world. For the first time, Emerald Exiles brings together the stories of these pioneering players, who pursue football wherever they can, venturing beyond tradition and navigating the personal and professional highs and lows that journey brings with it.Charting the careers of players and managers such as Liam Brady, Robbie Keane, Anne O'Brien, Stephanie Roche, Frank Stapleton and a host of others - and featuring exclusive first-hand interviews with numerous players, Emerald Exiles is a unique analysis of Ireland's mark on world football and the individual stories behind it.

After her father's death in exile, Antigone returns to Thebes determined to set the record straight and restore her father's reputation. Tracing the histories of Oedipus and his parents Laius and Jocasta, as well as the peripheral characters of the plays who had a central role in him fulfilling his destiny, Antigone's 'biography' causes us to re-evaluate the extent to which any of us can be entirely blamed for the actions by which we will be defined. Ending with Antigone making a conscious choice to reclaim her brother's corpse from the battlefield, an act of defiance which will guarantee her own death, the book ultimately meditates on the illusion of free will, and the warning that context is everything, I, ANTIGONE will be a major contribution to the reclaimed classics.

Caitriona Lally's sophomore novel centres around an outsider protagonist, Roy, an Irishman exiled from Ireland to Hamburg for unknown reasons. In his new, simple life he works as a cleaner at the Wunderland miniature exhibition where he is more comfortable meddling in the tiny scenes than he is in interacting with his co-workers and visitors to the museum.To Roy's almost total indifference, his sister Gert visits for a few days, the first of their family to do so since his exile, and she patiently and then not-so-patiently tries to talk to him and discover what really prompted his move away. But Gert is fighting her own demons, having checked out of her exhausting family life where she is losing herself in the face of her husband's deepening depression.Latent forces within brother and sister explode to force them to do something - anything - to change their stagnant and bewildering lives.

We Seldom Talk About the Past is John MacKenna's first selected collection of short stories, from a career spanning over three decades. The stories selected come from four collections of short fiction, and represent a culmination of MacKenna's work in a form of writing he has made uniquely his own. Often compared to John McGahern, and Raymond Carver, and deeply influenced by masters of the form like Chekov, MacKenna's stories focus on the quotidian truths of our lives, of the momentousness of small moments, of sexual desire and its intimate entanglement with the domestic, of deeply felt absences and social mores, and always at the heart of his work, the sense of place, often the rural, and the acute receptiveness of our lives to the places we inhabit.

Social media is a new type of public space that has revolutionised the way women express themselves, placing the power of representation in female hands like no technology before. But this increased visibility looks both ways, with the gazed upon also gazing back through platforms designed for judgement and surveillance.A man-made tool, social media is now deeply entwined with women's lives in an always-on culture where new and intrusive forms of comparison, shaming and watchfulness are completely normalised and women's bodies, minds and emotions are picked apart. While many are acutely aware of this 'visibility trap', taking ownership of it remains a minefield.In The Visibility Trap, Mary McGill blends feminism, media studies and lived experiences to explore the contradictions and dangers of online visibility for women, asking how we can build better, safer digital spaces for all. From current research to real-life testimonies, via the Kardashian Industrial Complex (KIC) to image-based sexual abuse - 'revenge porn' - and its belated criminalisation, she offers urgent and welcome insights into using social media more consciously, powerfully and positively. This is a must-read for anyone who loves or hates social media; for the guardians of future social media users and for anyone else who is still half-on, half-off this most twenty-first century of obsessions.

The Garden is dying. Once an Edenic orchid farm, it has been decimated by the worst hurricane in Florida's living memory. Its glasshouses are shattered, the surrounding mangroves encroach, and its men are dangerously idle. When Romeo - an expert breeder of the endangered ghost orchid - arrives from Honduras, boss Blanchard and his Irish lieutenant, Swallow, believe their fortunes are on the rise.Romeo may not be all he seems though, and Swallow can sense the newcomer shaking the Garden's creaking hierarchy. The ghost orchid they seek is infamously rare, a delicate and wildly valuable species, hidden deep in the treacherous cypress swamps of the Fakahatchee Strand. To capture the ghost, Blanchard and Swallow must strike a deal with Logan, a dangerously unpredictable member of the local Seminole tribe, whose wounded pride, and simmering web of violence threaten to uproot any hope of success. As Blanchard's obsession distracts him from what is truly precious, Swallow's long-buried traumas will test his ability to stop lust, betrayal and death from engulfing the Garden.Paul Perry's first solo novel tells of smothering power, loyalty and agency thwarted by the tragic patterns of memory and behaviour. The Garden is a modern fable, and a warning against trespassing upon nature in the name of profit.

Michael O'Loughlin was seven years old when the Irish trade union movement replaced its headquarters, Liberty Hall - the starting point of the 1916 Rising - with Ireland's first skyscraper. This bold, seventeen-storey Liberty Hall expressed an aspiration towards the modernity which its builders envisaged as the birthright of future generations. Since then, as one of Dublin's most iconic buildings, Liberty Hall has cast a personal and political light on the lives of citizens passing below, and formed the backdrop to O'Loughlin's earliest childhood memories.In this remarkable new book - a highly original fusion of poetry, visual images and prose memoirs - Liberty Hall becomes both a real and imaginary space, a physical building and a state of mind in which to be free; a place where the boundaries between verbal and visual, poetry and prose, past and present, city and suburb, local and global, all become fluid. It is a book of numerous journeys: the ritualised crossing of the Liffey from North to South and back again; travels around European cities; and into O'Loughlin's own family history in the first difficult century of the Irish state. He explores the emotional weather through memory, cinema and architecture, arriving in the end at Liberty Hall.

Comprising four long stories - 'The Becker Wives', 'The Joy Ride', 'A Happy Death' and 'Magenta' - this collection is one of Lavin's most celebrated. Together, these stories capture the frustrations and grace of characters struggling to free themselves in places that are often hostile to their desires: a new bride coming home to her husband's prim family, two butlers taking a rare opportunity to go out drinking, a woman pleading with her dying husband to repent, and a young housekeeper whose fortunes seem to have suddenly changed.For the first time in decades, and with a foreword by Christine Dwyer Hickey, the Modern Irish Classics series brings this vital collection to a new generation of readers.

Following a car crash, for several seconds Dublin photographer Sean Blake is clinically dead but finds his progress towards the afterworld blocked by a haunting face he only partially recognises. Restored to a miraculous second chance at life ΓÇô he feels profoundly changed. He is haunted by not knowing who he truly is because this is not the first time he has been given a second life. At six weeks old he was taken from his birth mother, a young girl forced to give him up for adoption. Now he knows that until he unlocks the truth about his origins, he will be a stranger to his wife, to his children and to himself.Struggling against a wall of official silence and a complex sense of guilt, Sean determines to find his birth mother, embarking on an absorbing journey into archives, memories, dreams and startling confessions.The first modern novel to address the scandal of Irish Magdalene laundries when it was published in 1994, A Second Life continued to haunt BolgerΓÇÖs imagination. He has never allowed its republication until he felt ready to retell the story in a new and even more compelling way. This reimagined text is therefore neither an old novel nor a new one, but a completely ΓÇÿrenewedΓÇÖ novel, that grows towards a spelling-binding, profoundly moving conclusion.