Mary Kenny was a founder-member of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement and has seen many shifts, changes and developments in women’s rights and the definition of feminism. Wise, witty, thought-provoking and provocative, Am I A Feminist? Are You? sums up a lifetime of experience.

Part testament, part memoir, part historical explanation – this is a personal appraisal of what feminism has meant, accomplished and prompted over the past five decades. There is light and shade: serious debates about serious subjects, from FGM and abortion to women soldiers and transgenderism – but also entertaining vignettes and anecdotes on the role of the bicycle, hair dye, and the sex revolution.

Praise for Mary Kenny

‘Kenny brings both compassion and a clear mind.’ – The Guardian

‘Honest, humorous and harrowing … one thing that never changed is her innate gift to write sharp, perceptive and clever prose.’ – Irish Mail on Sunday

About the Author

Mary Kenny is an Irish author, broadcaster, playwright and journalist. She is a regular columnist for the Irish Independent, and has written for the London Evening Standard, The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Mail and The Sunday Telegraph. Her books have focused on issues of social history, biography – and Ireland. For more on Mary’s writings see www.mary-kenny.com

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Privileged yet compassionate, charismatic yet flawed, Regency Buck, Irish landlord, West Indian plantation owner, Knight of St Patrick, Privy Counsellor, intrepid traveller, intimate of kings, emperors and despots, favoured guest in the fashionable salons of London and Paris, patron of artists and pugilists, founder of the Irish Turf Club, friend and fellow traveller of Lord Byron, treasure-seeker, spy, sailor and jailbird, as well as the father of fifteen children, the astonishing range and diversity of Sligo’s life is breathtaking.

From a youth of hedonistic self-indulgence in Regency England to a reforming, responsible, well-intentioned legislator and landlord, Sligo became enshrined in the history of Jamaica as ‘Emancipator of the Slaves’ and in Ireland as ‘The Poor Man’s Friend’ during the most difficult of times.

Eight years in the writing and sourced from over 15,000 primary contemporary manuscripts located by the author in private and public archives around the world, The Great Leviathan sheds new light on significant historical events and on the people who shaped them in Ireland, England, Europe and the West Indies during a period of momentous political turbulence and change.

About the Author

Anne Chambers is a biographer, novelist and screenwriter. Her books include Granuaile: Grace O’Malley – Ireland’s Pirate Queen, Eleanor, Countess of Desmond, La Sheridan: Adorable Diva, Ranji: Maharajah of Connemara, At Arm’s Length: Aristocrats in the Republic of Ireland and TK Whitaker: Portrait of a Patriot. Her books have been the subject of TV and radio documentaries for Discovery, the Learning Channel, the Travel Channel, RTÉ, Lyric FM and the BBC.

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Born in Slane, County Meath, in 1887, Ledwidge endured a childhood of poverty before leaving school at fourteen to work as a farm labourer, copper miner, road worker and union organiser. Throughout this time he produced an extraordinary body of exquisite lyric poetry.

He burst onto the literary scene just before the First World War, in which he served in a British Army uniform despite being a devoted and active Irish Nationalist, and was killed in Flanders. This led to decades of suspicion and neglect in some quarters before Alice Curtayne published her acclaimed biography of the poet in 1972, rightly restoring his reputation.

Detailing the remarkable life, loves and tragic death of an exceptionally gifted Irish poet, this classic biography also offers a memorable insight into the life and politics of Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century.

About the Author

Born in 1898, Alice Curtayne was both a novelist and historian, who wrote studies of Patrick Sarsfield and Oliver Plunkett, among others. It is, however, for collecting and preserving so much of the poetry of Francis Ledwidge that she is most remembered and cherished today. Married to author Stephen Rynne, she died in 1981.

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The Nazis believed that they could build a ‘miracle boat’ in this bunker: a new type of U-boat that could win the war for Germany. To achieve that goal, many thousands of slaves were worked to their deaths.Despite the savage regime to which they were subjected, and unlike some other Irishmen, they steadfastly refused all attempts by the SS to turn them into collaborators with the Third Reich.

In this engrossing and dramatic book, David Blake Knox explores the fascinating and tragic story of the hardship endured by these men, as well as the reasons why that narrative, like the men themselves, has been unjustly neglected.

Previously published as Suddenly While Abroad .

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Proverbs are, however, much more than that. They are windows into our past, and a friendly nod from our ancestors. Sometimes they can remind us of our parents or grandparents as we once again hear their kindly voices speak to us in words of folk wisdom.

This book offers mainly Irish folk proverbs, but there is also a selection from Irish literature, the Bible, and other languages.

Garry Bannister travelled to Russia at the end of the 1970s, where he helped to establish the first Department of Modern Irish at Moscow State University. He has devoted many years to studying the writings of Tomás Ó Criomhthain, the literary works of Pádraic Ó Conaire, and the development of modern Irish literature in the first half of the twentieth century. Amongst his many publications he has to his name a number of popular dictionaries.

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Irish Wolfhounds stalked through ancient Celtic mythology, while Kerry Beagles were among the victims of the Land War in the 1880s. Charles Stewart Parnell insisted that his Red Setter stay with him when he was on his death bed. During World War One, hundreds of Irish Terriers served on the front lines of the trenches. Michael Collins wanted to make the Kerry Blue the National dog of Ireland. The Glen of Imaal Terrier was deliberately bred to have a genetic defect, while the Irish Water Spaniel was reputed to be descended from the dobhar-chú – a Celtic spirit.

Six of Ireland’s nine native breeds of dog are now considered vulnerable to extinction, but they are an integral part of our cultural narrative and have added both to our social history – and to our happiness.

About the Author

David Blake Knox received his PhD at Cambridge University. He worked as a TV producer for RTÉ in Dublin, the BBC in London and the HBO in New York. While at RTÉ, he devised and produced the cult Nighthawks TV series, and was a director of TV production. He founded Blueprint Pictures in 2002, which specialises in Arts and Entertainment programmes. He is the author of two other books, Ireland and the Eurovision and Hitler’s Irish Slaves (New Island, April 2017).

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Dublin’s social history, as seen through the eyes of these historians, is to be found hidden in the small details everywhere, from the design of its shopfronts to the graffiti scribbled on the walls of its pubs.In this beautifully illustrated paperback, Sam McGrath, Donal Fallon and Ciarán Murray bring the best of their hugely popular blog Come Here To Me: Dublin Life & Culture to a new audience.

Bringing a fresh, new perspective to their historical snapshots of the life of Dublin city, the authors have written a number of new articles for this publication. The book also features new images, alongside its healthy dose of bizarre and wonderful tales of Dublin’s hidden history.

Praise for Come Here To Me!

‘The book is a treasure trove of surprising facts…Dubliners and visitors alike will enjoy flicking through its pages….Featuring beautiful archive photos, it’s the perfect gift for anyone who wants to know about Dublin’s history from a different perspective.’ – Sunday World 

‘The CHTM bloggers have hit upon a simple truth: their stories are our stories, and our stories are theirs’
– Dublin Review of Books

‘One of the most intriguing books written about Dublin’s social history. Come Here to Me! – Dublinese for “listen to this” – takes a sideways look at the capital.’ – Irish Independent

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Spanning self-help, humour, biography, history and a little bit of spirituality, here is a wonderful example of Mary Kenny’s signature wit, talent and charm.

Mary Kenny is an Irish author, broadcaster, playwright and journalist. She is a regular columnist for the Irish Independent, and has written for the London Evening Standard, The Times, The Guardian, and The Daily Telegraph. She was a founding member of the Women’s Liberation Movement and has published many books of both fiction and non-fiction.

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Here, he recalls his early days as a drag princess and model in Swinging London, partying the likes of Judy Garland, Noël Coward and David Bowie; being heckled by one of the Kray twins – and snogging Danny La Rue. He also remembers grey 1980s’ Ireland, shocking the country with its first adult panto, and losing friends to the Aids epidemic. Then there’s his 1990s’ renaissance, ‘doing time’ with Paul O’Grady and Daniel Day Lewis, and opening Mr Pussy’s world-famous Café De Luxe with Bono.

Full of hilarious celebrity yarns, sequinned characters like the remarkable Stella Minge, and a lot of shameless name-dropping, Mr Pussy is the story of a legendary, ground-breaking entertainer, full of pathos, charm and wit.

 Alan Amsby (aka Mr Pussy) was born in London and performed a popular drag act before moving to Ireland in the late 1960s. The subject of a Gavin Friday song and a regular feature on television in the 1980s and ’90s, Mr Pussy remains one of the most outrageous characters in Irish entertainment.

David Kenny is a journalist, TV presenter, author and songwriter. His best-selling books include Erindipity, The Little Buke of Dublin, The Press Gang and The Splendid Years.

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To mark the 25th anniversary of the Irish Writers Centre, Beyond the Centre: Writers in their own Words is a landmark anthology of essays by some of Ireland’s foremost contemporary writers, specially commissioned and edited by Declan Meade, publisher of The Stinging Fly.

By turns provocative, poignant, and practical, these candid accounts touch on various themes such as the craft of writing, the Irish literary scene through the decades, the struggle to make a living, and other snapshots of the writing experience. And controversy is never far from the surface – social class, diversity, gender, exclusion, nationalism, eremitism and ego all make spiky, colourful appearances.

Diverse and engaging, many pieces are also deeply personal, with honest and humorous anecdotes, offering an uncommon and revealing look into the lives and perspectives of contemporary Irish writers.
Here are their successes as well as their setbacks; the trials and the triumphs; the demands and rewards that writing affords. Beyond the Centre reveals the dedication and courage that define the writing life.

With essays by:
Kevin Barry, Pat Boran, Evelyn Conlon, Sarah Clancy, Dominique Cleary, Martina Devlin, Rob Doyle, Anne Enright, Mia Gallagher, Jack Harte, Anne Haverty, Lia Mills, Catherine Phil MacCarthy, Thomas McCarthy, Lisa McInerney, Belinda McKeon, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Joseph O’Connor, Mary O’Donnell, Mary O’Malley, Sean O’Reilly, Ian Sansom, Peter Sirr, Gerard Smyth, Alan Titley

Declan Meade is the founding editor and publisher of The Stinging Fly magazine and commissioned this collection of essays as part of the Irish Writers Centre’s 25th anniversary celebrations.

The Irish Writers Centre has long been a hub of literary activity, supporting established and aspiring writers throughout Ireland from its base in 19 Parnell Square, Dublin.
www.irishwriterscentre.ie

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