Books Ireland

Jan 16, 2025 | booksirelandmagazine.com | John Kirkaldy

by John KirkaldyIan d’Alton’s Southern Irish Protestants: Histories, Lives and Literatures is an attempt to define and explain the status of Protestants within an independent Irish state. He sees a largely ‘confident minority’ and quotes approvingly a doggerel verse, written in 1907 by a Unionist in County Clare:I am only a poor West BritonAnd not of the Irish best;But I love the land of ErinAs much as all the rest.

Dec 8, 2024 | booksirelandmagazine.com | Kyle Chayka

I joined as a Bookseller/Barista in the Hampstead branch of Waterstones in 2016! I’d always loved books but hadn’t expected I was bookish enough to work for them. For the interview I’d been expecting a grilling on whether I’d read Ulysses or Canterbury Tales, but the manager just asked me what I was reading at that time and I told her I had just finished a really surreal book about Satan rocking up in Moscow accompanied by a gun-wielding, talking cat called Master and Margarita.

Nov 13, 2024 | booksirelandmagazine.com | Ruth McKee |Sam McBride

by Ruth McKeeThere’s a framed portrait of Seamus Heaney on the wall behind Conor Graham, Publisher at Irish Academic Press. It all started with Heaney, back in Maeve McGuckin’s English class at St Patrick’s College Belfast in the 1980s. ‘Maeve covered a lot of Heaney,’ says Graham, ‘and I was mesmerised. It all made sense—he was dealing explicitly and directly with what was happening.’Graham took Heaney seriously—’but school not so much,’ he says, with characteristic mischief.

Nov 6, 2024 | booksirelandmagazine.com | Rosemary Jenkinson

by Rosemary JenkinsonWhy on earth would any writer make the seismic leap from fiction to poetry? Fiction writers are expected to stay in their more lucrative lane, although it has to be said that short story writers are usually the poor relatives of the prose scene. However, there are plenty of successful novelists who genre-hop to poetry. Louis de Bernières and Colm Tóibínare two notable names to have migrated.

Oct 22, 2024 | booksirelandmagazine.com | Let’s Dance |Lucy Byrne

It’s Irish Book Week and all around the country bookshops are hosting events, readings, signings and more. Below you can find some of the new releases this month—but you can also search our database First Flush all the way back to 2021 where you can see all Irish-authored, Irish-interest and Irish-published books. Find your book at your local bookshop and support the work of our fantastic booksellers around Ireland—who offer a personal and online service to rival the commercial juggernauts.