NORA-An Ordinary Girl from Inchicore is a poignant memoir of growing up in Inchicore, Dublin in the 1940's and 50's. With humor and pathos Nora tells of the day-to-day drama in a large Catholic family and the interaction with her nine siblings. She tells of the discipline in an all-girl Catholic school and the kindness and sometimes cruelty of the good nuns. Nora takes us with her through the streets of her beloved Dublin as she cycles to work or takes the bus into town. We absorb the unique atmosphere-the sights, the smells and the colorful speech of Dubliners. We go dancing with her in "The Golden Years" of ballroom dancing and follow her romance with a handsome student from Trinity College. We hear of the adoption of a baby and the circumstances that led her to immigrate to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Later we join Nora in England where her plans to marry her student prince go awry. We follow her to Toronto, Canada where she meets and falls in love with her life partner, Frank. NORA-An Ordinary Girl from Inchicore will delight those who love all things Irish and who believe the Irish are the most fascinating people on earth.

This fascinating history looks at how the lives of ordinary Dubliners were affected by these three major events Why did so many working-class Dublin men join the British Army? How did the city's 92,000 Protestants fare in this turbulent time? Dubliners fought on both sides in the Easter Rising. What were their motivations? How did Sinn Féin and the Catholic Church marginalise Labour in the battle for political control of the city after the Rising? Why did so many Dubliners benefit from the British war effort, especially tenement families and working women? Pádraig Yeates discusses each of these in detail and also looks at how the population fed itself during hard times, the impact of the war on music halls, child cruelty, prostitution, public health and much more. The Dublin as we know it was shaped in these years. And this captivating book takes you back to those times to shine a new light on the city today.

This book examines the phenomenon of the independent politician, believed to be extinct in most political systems. It is very much alive and well in Ireland, and has experienced a considerable resurgence in recent years. Independents won a record number of seats in 2016 and had three ministers appointed to cabinet. This presence is very unusual from a comparative perspective, and there are more independents in the Irish parliament than the combined total in all other industrial democracies. The aim of this book is to explain this anomaly, how and why independents can endure in a democracy that is one of the oldest surviving in Europe and has historically had one of the most stable party systems.

From the internationally acclaimed, bestselling novelist -- his first ever non-fiction book: a poignant, illuminating journey through a century of modern Ireland as told through the eyes of his parents. Ita Doyle: “In all my life I have lived in two houses, had two jobs, and one husband. I’m a very interesting person.” Rory and Ita tells -- largely in their own words -- the story of Roddy Doyle’s parents’ lives from their first memories to the present. Born in 1923 and 1925 respectively, they met at a New Year’s Eve dance in 1947 and married in 1951. Marvellous talkers, with excellent memories, they draw upon their own family experiences (Ita’s mother died when she was three -- “the only memory I have is of her hands, doing things”; Rory was the oldest of nine children, five of them girls); and recall every detail of their Dublin childhoods -- the people (aunts, cousins, shopkeepers, friends, teachers), the politics (both came from Republican families), Ita’s idyllic times in the Wexford countryside, and Rory’s apprenticeship as a printer. When Roddy’s parents put down a deposit of two hundred pounds for a house in rural Kilbarrack, on the edge of Dublin, Rory was working as a compositor at the Irish Independent. By the time the first of their four children was born, he had become a teacher at the School of Printing in Dublin. Then, their home began to change (“Kilbarrack wasn’t a rural place any more”) along with the rest of the country, as the intensely Catholic society of their youth was transformed into the vibrant, complex Ireland of today. Rory and Ita’s captivating accounts of the last century, combined with Roddy Doyle’s legendary skill in illuminating ordinary experience, make a story of tremendous warmth and humanity. This magnificent book is not only a biography of, but also a love letter to Roddy’s parents, Rory and Ita.

The Irish Citizen Army (ICA) was born from the Dublin Lockout of 1913, when industrialist William Martin Murphy ‘locked out’ workers who refused to resign from the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, sparking one of the most dramatic industrial disputes in Irish history. Faced with threats of police brutality in response to the strike, James Connolly, James Larkin and Jack White established the ICA in the winter of 1913. By the end of March 1914, the ICA espoused republican ideology and that the ownership of Ireland was ‘vested of right in the people of Ireland’. The ICA was in the process of being totally transformed, going on to provide significant support to the IRA during the 1916 Rising. Despite Connolly’s execution and the internment of many ICA members, the ICA reorganised in 1917, subsequently developing networks for arms importation and ‘intelligence’, and later providing operative support for the War of Independence in Dublin. The most extensive survey of the movement to date, The ‘Labour Hercules’ explores the ICA’s evolution into a republican army and its legacy to the present day.

Major Haig ordered them to 'prepare to fire', whereupon they the fired indiscriminately, point blank, at the people in the street. Four people were killed and thirty-seven wounded. All Ireland seethed with indignation . . . '&newpara;This new edition of Dublin's Fighting Story with an introduction by Diarmaid Ferriter features stories and reports from every aspect of the War of Independence, from the formation of the Fianna Éireann and the Volunteers, through the Great Dublin Strike and Lock-out in 1913 and the 1916 Rising to the death of Seán Treacy in a bloody street shoot-out, the triumph and tragedy of Bloody Sunday and the burning of the Customs House. Dublin's Fighting Story offers the perspective of the eye witnesses and fighting men themselves to the struggle for independence in Dublin.