Throughout the long centuries of human history is the want, and the need, to share information, to exchange ideas and for that knowledge and experience, for curiosity and learning, to be the basis of a civil society.In literature the ambition is much narrower. In order to be known, to be popular, you had to be published. And for that people had to know you existed and your ideas worth reading. Obviously for most of humanity’s time people couldn’t read and texts couldn’t be publishe...

Throughout the long centuries of human history is the want, and the need, to share information, to exchange ideas and for that knowledge and experience, for curiosity and learning, to be the basis of a civil society.In literature the ambition is much narrower. In order to be known, to be popular, you had to be published. And for that people had to know you existed and your ideas worth reading. Obviously for most of humanity’s time people couldn’t read and texts couldn’t be publishe...

The history of Ireland is mired in centuries of oppressive rule, struggles and poverty. Against this its landscape and people are a bright beacon of nature and humanity showing the very best of themselves.Ireland’s long rich history of literature is readily lauded all over the world. In its ranks of its women authors are the gloried and the famed but also many who shone but for a moment and others who found no attention from others but had the self-knowledge that their talents were...

Ethna Carbery (born Anna Johnston, 3 December 1866 21 April 1902) was an Irish journalist, writer and poet. She is best-known for the ballad Roddy McCorley and the Song of Ciabhán. Along with Alice Milligan she published two Irish nationalist magazines. In 1900 she was a founding member of Inghinidhe na hÉireann, the revolutionary women's organisation led by Maud Gonne. In 1901, she married poet and folklorist Séamus MacManus (18691960), and then took the pen name Ethna Carbery, to avoid con...

The history of Ireland is mired in centuries of oppressive rule, struggles and poverty. Against this its landscape and people are a bright beacon of nature and humanity showing the very best of themselves.Ireland’s long rich history of literature is readily lauded all over the world. In its ranks of its women authors are the gloried and the famed but also many who shone but for a moment and others who found no attention from others but had the self-knowledge that their talents were...

Throughout the long centuries of human history is the want, and the need, to share information, to exchange ideas and for that knowledge and experience, for curiosity and learning, to be the basis of a civil society.In literature the ambition is much narrower. In order to be known, to be popular, you had to be published. And for that people had to know you existed and your ideas worth reading. Obviously for most of humanity’s time people couldn’t read and texts couldn’t be publishe...

All too often the talents of women have been scorned, mocked and laughed at. In reality that was more usually by those who’s own talents were hardly fit to even grace their shadows.But society in general still connived and set women to one side in almost everything that men considered their rightful territory. And literature was one such territory. Remarkably resilient as well as talented these women strove to be published, to show themselves as equals. The results more often than ...

All too often the talents of women have been scorned, mocked and laughed at. In reality that was more usually by those who’s own talents were hardly fit to even grace their shadows.But society in general still connived and set women to one side in almost everything that men considered their rightful territory. And literature was one such territory. Remarkably resilient as well as talented these women strove to be published, to show themselves as equals. The results more often than ...

At 16, Martha collapses on the streets, suffering from starvation and exposure. She has reached rock bottom, but after Martha is taken to hospital, Lady Luck smiles kindly on her and she is given the opportunity to get off the streets for ever.Before long, Martha is on the way to leading the normal life she has so long dreamt of. She makes friends, begins to put the misery of her past behind her and even experiences her first taste of love.For her, love is a powerful feelin...

A stunning new voice reminiscent of Maggie O'Farrell and Jon McGregor, which has already been acclaimed by John Banville, Roddy Doyle and Anne Enright.GHOST MOTH will transport you to two hot summers, 20 years apart.Northern Ireland, 1949. Katherine must choose between George Bedford - solid, reliable, devoted George - and Tom McKinley, who makes her feel alive.The reverberations of that summer - of the passions that were spilled, the lies that were...

A "mordantly funny" novel set in a Dublin educational institution known as the Brothers of Godly Coercion School for Young Boys of Meager Means ( Publishers Weekly).Combining the spirit of Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim with a bawdy evisceration of hypocrisy in old-school Catholic education, The Brothers' Lot is a comic satire that tells the story of the Brothers of Godly Coercion School for Young Boys of Meager Means, a dilap...

The tragic tale of the sinking of the famine ship, the St. John in Massachusetts Bay in 1849. The Great Irish Famine drove huge numbers of Irish men and women to leave the island and pursue their survival in foreign lands. In 1847, some 200,000 people sailed for Boston alone. Of this massive group, 2,000 never made it to their destination, killed by disease and hunger during the voyages, their remains consigned to a watery grave. The sinking of the brig St. John off the coast of Massachuse...