Rights Catalogue 2020 - MERRION PRESS - Irish Academic Press

Rights
Catalogue
  2020

  MERRION
   PRESS

MERRION
                        PRESS

Merrion Press was established in 2012 as the general interest
imprint of Irish Academic Press (est. 1974). It is one of the
fastest-growing imprints in Irish publishing, with almost 100
titles published so far, focusing on biography, memoir, pop-
ular history, current affairs, politics, art, and contemporary
Irish society.
  Particularly renowned for unflinching exposés on the
conflict and politics of the North of Ireland, Merrion
Press’s bestselling titles include Burned The Inside Sto-
ry of the ‘Cash-for-Ash’ Scandal and Northern Ireland’s
Secretive New Elite, Thatcher’s Spy: My Life as an MI5 Agent
Inside Sinn Féin, Charlie One, In the Name of the Son: The
Gerry Conlon Story, Belfast Days: A 1972 Teenage Diary,
and UVF: Behind the Mask.
  In 2018, Merrion launched a new fiction imprint, which now
features four compelling Irish novels that are surely destined
for the screen.

   For Rights Enquiries, contact Conor Graham, Publisher
                      T: +353 86 3870991
                  E: conor.graham@iap.ie

CURRENT AFFAIRS

BURNED
THE INSIDE STORY OF THE ‘CASH-FOR-ASH’
SCANDAL AND NORTHERN IRELAND’S
SECRETIVE NEW ELITE

Sam McBride

• MORE THAN 40,000 COPIES SOLD TO DATE

‘Burned is a compelling exposé of a system gone rotten
... McBride is a deft storyteller.’
RORY CARROLL, THE GUARDIAN

‘This is a magnificent book by one of Ireland’s finest jour-
nalists an absolute page-turner … the flames of BURNED
spare no one.’
SUSAN MCKAY, THE IRISH TIMES
                                                                PAPERBACK
‘This triumph of investigative journalism from one of the
UK’s most important reporters spares nobody.’                  OCTOBER 2019
PATRICK MAGUIRE, NEW STATESMAN
                                                               €18.95 / £16.99
One of the most shocking scandals in Northern Irish            9781785372698
political history: originally a green-energy initiative, the
Renewal Heat Incentive (RHI) or ‘cash-for-ash’ scheme
saw Northern Ireland’s government pay £1.60 for every            418 pages
£1 of fuel the public and commercial customers burned           234 x 156mm
in their wood-pellet boilers, leading to widespread
abuse and ultimately the collapse of the power-sharing
administration at Stormont.                                     RIGHTS HELD
                                                                   World
Revealing the wild incompetence of the Northern Ire-
land civil service and the ineptitude and serious abuses
of power by individuals at the head of the Democratic              AUDIO
Unionist Party, Burned is a riveting political thriller from     Rights sold
the journalist who covered the controversy for over two
years. This is the best-selling inside story of the shocking
scandal that brought down a government.

Sam McBride is the Political Editor of the Belfast News
Letter and the Northern Ireland political editor of the i
newspaper in London. He is a regular presence on re-
gional and national radio and television in the UK and
Ireland.

CURRENT AFFAIRS

THE ADOPTION MACHINE
THE DARK HISTORY OF IRELAND’S MOTHER AND
BABY HOMES AND THE INSIDE STORY OF HOW
TUAM 800 BECAME A GLOBAL SCANDAL

Paul Jude Redmond
• FIRST-HAND STORY OF ONE OF IRELAND’S MOST
SHOCKING AND SHAMEFUL SCANDALS
• THE DARK TRUTH OF CATHOLIC CONTROL IN IRELAND

‘Hard hitting and furious’
SUSAN MCKAY, THE IRISH TIMES

In May 2014, the Irish public woke to the horrific discov-
ery of a mass grave containing the remains of most 800
babies in the ‘Angels’ Plot’ of Tuam’s Mother and Baby
Home. What followed would rock the last vestiges of
Catholic Ireland, enrage an increasingly secularised
                                                                    PAPERBACK
nation, and lead to a Commission of Inquiry.
  In The Adoption Machine, Paul Jude Redmond,                      MARCH 2018
who was born in the Castlepollard Home, candidly re-
veals the shocking history of one of the worst abuses of
                                                                  €16.95 / £15.99
Church power since the foundation of the Irish State. A           9781785371776
dark shadow was cast by the collusion between Church
and State in the systematic repression of women and
the wilful neglect of illegitimate babies, resulting in the         290 pages
deaths of thousands.                                               228 x 152 mm
   Redmond’s exhaustive research that widened the
global media’s attention to all the homes and revealed
Tuam as just the tip of the iceberg. He further reveals            RIGHTS HELD
the vast profits generated by selling babies to wealthy               World
adoptive parents, and details how infants were volun-
teered to a pharmaceutical company for drug trials
without the consent of their natural mothers.                         AUDIO
                                                                  Rights available
The Adoption Machine exposes this dark history of
Ireland’s shameful and secret past, and the efforts to
bring it into the light. It is a history from which there is no
turning away.

Paul Jude Redmond was born in Castlepollard Mother
and Baby Home in 1964, and is Chairperson of the sur-
vivor umbrella group, the Coalition of Mother and Baby
home Survivors.

MEMOIR

BURNING HERESIES
A MEMOIR OF A LIFE IN CONFLICT, 1979-2019

Kevin Myers

• IRELAND’S MOST CONTROVERSIAL JOURNALIST TELLS
HIS SIDE OF THE STORY
• VIVID AND DRAMATIC STORIES FROM EUROPEAN
WAR ZONES, AS WELL AS HIS OWN PERSONAL JOUR-
NALISTIC CONFLICTS

In this remarkable sequel to his critically acclaimed
memoir Watching the Door, Irish journalist Kevin Myers
reflects on his roller-coaster career in the Irish media,
from the European conflicts he reported from to the
personal conflicts he fought.
   Fresh from the horrors of 1970s Belfast, Myers took a
job in 1979 with The Irish Times, and brilliantly evokes the     PAPERBACK
comical chaos of life in the smoky newsroom of Ireland’s
paper-of-record. Having taken over An Irishman’s Dia-
ry, Myers single-handedly pioneered the campaign to              APRIL 2020
rehabilitate the memory of the forgotten Irish soldiers of
the Great War, and in the process fell foul of the paper’s
                                                               €19.95 / £17.99
editor, the legendary Douglas Gageby. His reward was           9781785372612
plane tickets to more perilous assignments as Myers was
back in the frontline of European warzones, as commu-
nism collapsed and civil wars emerged.
                                                                 320 pages
  While Myers is at his brilliant best dodging bullets on       225 x 145mm
the battlefields of Tel Aviv, Beirut and Sarajevo, he also
keenly and unapologetically participates in the many            RIGHTS HELD
cultural conflicts erupting within a rapidly changing Ire-
land, as he opines on a broad spectrum of Irish life in            World
his inimitable prose and sardonic wit. This courageously
trenchant account of journalistic conflict and hubris also
forensically examines his very public fall from grace in
                                                                   AUDIO
2017, and his legal battle with RTÉ for a public apology.      Rights available
  Burning Heresies is a candid and eye-opening must-
read for anyone with even a passing interest in Irish life
and current affairs.

Journalist, broadcaster and novelist Kevin Myers wrote
for The Irish Times, The Spectator, Sunday Telegraph, Irish
Independent and The Sunday Times in a career that
spanned over thirty years. His first memoir, Watching the
Door: A Memoir, 1971–1978, was published in 2006.

MEMOIR

FRENZY AND BETRAYAL
THE ANATOMY OF A POLITICAL
ASSASSINATION

Alan Shatter
• ONE OF IRELAND’S MOST FAMOUS POLITICIANS
• SEARING ANALYSIS OF POLITICS IN THE AGE OF
POST-TRUTH MEDIA

‘Required reading …  a case study of how false narra-
tives can develop with lightning speed and become
widely accepted with devastating consequences for
those caught in the centre.’
STEPHEN COLLINS, THE IRISH TIMES

On 6 May 2014 two reports wrongly condemning the
conduct of Alan Shatter, the Minister for Justice, Equal-
ity and Defence, were delivered to government build-              PAPERBACK
ings in Dublin. Pressurised by Taoiseach Enda Kenny,
Shatter resigned from cabinet the next day, his career
in tatters. A frenzied media and political reaction to             MAY 2019
alleged bugging of the Garda Ombudsman Commis-                   €19.95 / £16.99
sion’s offices and an avalanche of allegations of Garda
corruption put Shatter in the eye of a storm. Damaged            9781785372377
by false narratives and political manoeuvring by Ken-
ny, Shatter, a TD for over thirty years, lost his Dáil seat in     450 pages
2016. Pilloried by opposition politicians, journalists and
commentators, Shatter was abandoned by his Fine                   234 x 156 mm
Gael party colleagues. From the penalty points contro-
versy, to the discovery of unknown phone tapping in               RIGHTS HELD
Garda stations, to the explosive Charleton Report, this
is the inside story of a cataclysmic period in Irish politics.       World
Compelling and sardonic, Frenzy and Betrayal is the
deeply disturbing story of how a dedicated, progressive
                                                                     AUDIO
Irish cabinet minister was falsely accused of wrongdo-           Rights available
ing and unjustly hounded from office in twenty-first-cen-
tury Ireland, and his traumatic five-year battle for vindi-
cation and the truth.

Alan Shatter is a former Irish Fine Gael politician who
served as Minister for Justice and Equality and Minister
for Defence from 2011 to 2014. He was a TD for the
Dublin South constituency from 1981 to 2002, and from
2007 to 2016.

MEMOIR

THATCHER’S SPY
MY LIFE AS AN MI5 AGENT INSIDE SINN FÉIN

Willie Carlin

• THRILLING TRUE STORY OF A SPY STILL ON THE RUN
• RECEIVED FERVENT UK & IRELAND MEDIA ATTENTION

‘Carlin’s story leaves the reader with a sense of the trag-
edy of those times and of the ways in which humanity,
peace and the common bonds of community were
betrayed against again and again, in political, physical
and spiritual terms.’
BECKY LONG, THE IRISH TIMES

Early one morning in March 1985, as he climbed the six
steps of Margaret Thatcher’s prime-ministerial jet on the
                                                                 PAPERBACK
runway of RAF Aldergrove, little did Willie Carlin know
the role Freddie Scappaticci played in saving his life.        SEPTEMBER 2019
So began the dramatic extraction of Margaret Thatch-            €16.95 / £14.99
er’s key undercover agent in Sinn Féin – Willie Carlin,         9781785372858
aka Agent 3007. For 11 years the former British soldier
worked alongside former IRA commander Martin Mc-
Guinness in the republican movement’s political wing             280 pages
in Derry. He was MI5’s man at McGuinness’s side and             234 x 156 mm
gave the British State unprecedented insight into the
IRA leader’s strategic thinking. When Carlin’s cover was
blown in mid-1985, thanks to one of his old MI5 han-            RIGHTS HELD
dlers being jailed as a Soviet spy, Thatcher authorised            World
the use of her jet to whisk him to safety. Incredibly, it
was another British ‘super spy’ inside the IRA’s secretive
counter-intelligence unit who saved Carlin’s life: Fred-           AUDIO
die Scappaticci, aka Stakeknife.                                 Rights sold
The Cold War meets Northern Ireland’s Dirty War in this
remarkable real-life story a man now doomed forever
to look over his shoulder…

Willie Carlin was born and raised in Derry. Joining the
British Army in 1965, he was recruited by MI5 in 1974 to in-
filtrate Sinn Féin and went on to become one of Britain’s
most valuable long-term agents in Northern Ireland.

MEMOIR

BELFAST DAYS
A 1972 TEENAGE DIARY

Eimear O’Callaghan

• POWERFUL EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT OF THE
BLOODIEST YEAR OF THE NORTHERN IRELAND TROUBLES
• DIARY OF STALWART BROADCASTER AND
JOURNALIST

‘Powerfully and touchingly conveys the destructive im-
pact of war on adolescents … an important contribution
to the documentary record of the conflict.’
THE IRISH TIMES

 Belfast 1972. It’s the bloodiest year of the Northern Irish
‘Troubles’ and sixteen-year-old Eimear O’Callaghan, a
Catholic schoolgirl in West Belfast, bears witness in her
new diary. What follows is a unique and touching per-
                                                                  PAPERBACK
spective into the daily life of an ordinary teenager com-
ing of age in extraordinary times. The immediacy of the          OCTOBER 2014
diary entries are complemented with the author’s ma-
ture reflections written forty years later. The result is poi-   €16.99 / £14.99
gnant, shocking, wryly funny and explicitly honest.              9781908928894

This unique book provides a powerful juxtaposition of              324 pages
the everyday concerns of a sixteen-year-old girl with
the unimaginable horror of a society slowly disintegrat-          212 x 141 mm
ing before her eyes, a seemingly inevitable descent
into a bloody civil war, fuelled by sectarianism, hatred          RIGHTS HELD
and fear.
                                                                     World
Written by an experienced broadcaster and journalist,
Belfast Days demonstrates how one person’s examina-
tion of her own ‘story’, upon rediscovering her 1972 di-
                                                                     AUDIO
ary on the eve of the publication of the Saville Report,         Rights available
provided her with a new perspective on one of the
darkest periods in twentieth-century history.

Eimear O’Callaghan is a former BBC news editor with
more than 30 years’ experience in journalism. While
most of her career was with BBC Northern Ireland, she
also worked with The Irish News and with RTÉ. She left
the BBC in 2010 to set up Leapfrog Communications,
and continues to work as a freelance writer.

MEMOIR

CHARLIE ONE
THE TRUE STORY OF AN IRISHMAN IN THE
BRITISH ARMY AND HIS ROLE IN COVERT
COUNTER-TERRORISM OPERATIONS IN
NORTHERN IRELAND

Seán Hartnett
• BEST-SELLING TRUE THRILLER ABOUT BRITISH INTEL-
LIGENCE’S MOST CONTROVERSIAL OPERATIONS IN
NORTHERN IRELAND, TOLD FROM THE INSIDE

Seán Hartnett grew up in Cork in the 1970s where he
observed the worst of the northern Troubles with fasci-
nation. Despite his family’s strong republican ties and
his own attempt to join the IRA, Hartnett shocked family
and friends when he changed allegiance and joined
the British Armed Forces.                                        PAPERBACK
In 2001 Hartnett returns to his native Ireland, this time
as a member of the British Army’s most secretive covert        SEPTEMBER 2016
counter-terrorist unit in Northern Ireland, Joint Commu-        €14.99 / £12.99
nications Unit Northern Ireland aka JCU-NI, the FRU, 14
Intelligence Company, or simply ‘The Det’. For the next         9781785370854
three years Hartnett is directly involved in some of the
highest profile events of that period, from the arrest of
John Hannan for the bombing of the BBC in London, to
                                                                 200 pages
the tragic murder of David Caldwell; the prevention of          226 x 153 mm
the murder of Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair and some of the
biggest blunders by British Intelligence in the history of
the Troubles, including the true story behind the murders
                                                                 RIGHTS HELD
of Corporals Howes and Wood at an IRA funeral in 1988.              World
‘Charlie One’, the call sign for the most wanted targets
of British Intelligence operations in NI, documents the
                                                                    AUDIO
journey of an Irish Republican serving in Britain’s most          Rights sold
secretive counter-terrorism unit. Filled with roller coaster
emotions and explosive revelations of British Intelligence
covert capabilities and operations, Charlie One pro-
vides a truly unique, detailed and unbiased account of
the secret war fought on the streets of Northern Ireland.

Seán Hartnett was born in Cork in 1975. He joined the
British Army in 1998 and served for almost seven years
before moving abroad.

MEMOIR

CLIENT CONFIDENTIAL
SPOOKS, SECRETS AND COUNTER-
ESPIONAGE DURING THE CELTIC TIGER

Seán Hartnett

• EXPOSÉ OF BLUE-CHIP PARANOIA AND COUNTER
-ESPIONAGE IN THE BOARD-ROOMS OF CORPORATE
AND OFFICIAL IRELAND, AND BEYOND

Seán Hartnett left the British Army in 2005, operating as
a covert surveillance technician at JCU-NI, the top-se-
cret counter-terrorism unit in Northern Ireland. His expe-
riences were published in the bestselling Charlie One,
the book the British Ministry of Defence tried to ban. But
this wasn’t the end of Hartnett’s career in counter-espi-
onage. After operations in South Africa, Australia and
                                                              PAPERBACK
London, he arrived home to Ireland, just as the Celtic
Tiger was about to implode, but not before Hartnett           MARCH 2019
gets his hands dirty in the boardrooms of corporate and
official Ireland…                                            €14.95 / £13.99
                                                             9781785372100
Client Confidential is a shocking exposé of the clan-
destine activities that foreshadowed the worst finan-
cial crash in the history of the Irish state. Many of the      190 pages
country’s leading financial institutions and business fig-    215 x 135mm
ures began to see the cracks in the economy and their
paranoia rattled. Hartnett was called in to protect and
gather information – to carry out covert and counter          RIGHTS HELD
surveillance for blue-chip companies, semi-state bod-            World
ies, national sporting associations and convicted crim-
inals.
                                                                 AUDIO
In Client Confidential, Seán Hartnett lifts the lid on the   Rights available
worst excesses of the Celtic Tiger – the heart of corpo-
rate greed, corruption and ineptitude in Ireland is re-
vealed; the dark secrets never meant to see the light of
day, are finally exposed.

Seán Hartnett joined the British Army in 1998. He has
since worked as a security consultant and in commer-
cial espionage and counter-espionage. His first book,
Charlie One, was published by Merrion Press in 2016.

FICTION

NORTHERN HEIST
Richard O’Rawe

• DEBUT NOVEL FROM FORMER IRA PRISONER
• INTENSELY FILMIC THRILLER DRAWING ON REAL-LIFE,
BEHIND-THE-SCENES INTELLEGENCE
• TV SERIES CURRENTLY IN DEVELOPMENT

‘Northern Heist is the novel we have been waiting for …
stylish and insightful’
THE IRISH TIMES

‘The product of a rich imagination. Taking just a few de-
tails about the Northern Bank affair, O’Rawe has pro-
duced a cunningly plotted thriller that depicts a similar
crime from multiple perspectives.’
IRISH INDEPENDENT
                                                                 PAPERBACK

When James ‘Ructions’ O’Hare put together a crack              SEPTEMBER 2018
team to rob the National Bank in Belfast in December
2004, even he didn’t realise he was about to carry off          €14.95 / £12.99
one of the biggest bank heists in British and Irish history.    9781785371936
And he’ll be damned if the Provos are getting a slice
of it.                                                           262 pages
                                                                234 x 156 mm
In Richard O’Rawe’s stunning debut novel, as auda-
cious and well executed as Ructions’ plan to rob the
National Bank itself, a new voice in Irish fiction has been     RIGHTS HELD
unleashed that will shock, surprise and thrill as he takes         World
you on a white-knuckle ride through Belfast’s criminal
underbelly. Enter the deadly world of tiger kidnappings,
                                                                excl. Arabic
kangaroo courts, money laundering, drug deals and                   FILM
double-crosses.
                                                                 Rights sold
Northern Heist is a roller-coaster bank robbery thriller
with twists and turns from beginning to end.                       AUDIO
                                                               Rights available
Richard O’Rawe is the author of the best-selling books
Blanketmen: An Untold Story of the H-Block Hunger
Strike, Afterlives: The Hunger Strike and the Secret Offer
that Changed Irish History, and In the Name of the Son:
The Gerry Conlon Story.

FICTION

TWO SOULS
Henry McDonald

• FIRST NOVEL BY LEADING GUARDIAN JOURNALIST
• TROUBLES NOVEL INFUSED WITH VIOLENCE, PUNK
MUSIC, DAVID BOWIE, AND A UNIVERSAL LOVE STORY
• FILM RIGHTS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE

‘There is a term sometimes used in Northern Ireland to
describe literature that merely trades in the tropes of
the Troubles: it’s called Troubles trash. Two Souls rum-
mages around in the rubbish but emerges with some-
thing rather strange and precious.’
IAN SANSOM, THE GUARDIAN

‘McDonald’s background in nonfiction gives this a grip-        PAPERBACK
ping verisimilitude, and there’s an energy to his prose
that makes Two Souls an exhilarating read’
ALEXANDER LARMAN, THE OBSERVER                               SEPTEMBER 2019
                                                              €16.95 / £14.99
Robbie McManus is tortured. His psychopathic comrade          9781785372575
‘Padre Pio’ McCann is never far from wreaking havoc,
his punk cousin ‘Rex Mundi’ has arrived from England
and is getting in the way, his father is imploring him to      272 pages
finish his A-levels and get the hell out of Belfast – and
then there’s Sabine, the mysterious loner in The Pound
                                                              234 x 156 mm
who shimmers on the dancefloor to David Bowie. Her
hair dyed black in a Cleopatra cut, she is a moving hi-       RIGHTS HELD
eroglyphic that Robbie is desperate to decipher.
                                                                 World
From the summer of 1978 to a frenzied Irish Cup Final
day nine months later, and to the paramilitary-stalked           AUDIO
Belfast streets of the late ’80s, threads collide in a
tense, thrilling denouement. At turns shocking and
                                                             Rights available
heart-breaking, Two Souls is a deeply affecting novel
that crackles and enthrals, tragically exposing human
nature’s futile efforts to make the right decisions and to
choose a life worth living.
Henry McDonald is a staff writer for The Guardian and
The Observer, and the author of eight critically ac-
claimed non-fiction books. He grew up in Belfast and
witnessed many of the key early events of the Troubles.

FICTION

TERRY BRANKIN HAS A GUN
Malachi O’Doherty

• FIRST FORAY INTO FICTION BY RENOWNED NI
JOURNALIST, WRITER AND BROADCASTER
• FILM RIGHTS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FOR THIS
THRILLING PAGE-TURNER

‘A masterly debut … This propulsive thriller speaks truth
to power in a forthright and necessary manner. Terry
Brankin may have a gun, but Malachi O’Doherty has a
powerful voice and he’s not afraid to use it.’
BERT WRIGHT, THE SUNDAY TIMES
                                                                  PAPERBACK
Terry Brankin loves his wife, but it’s a bloody nuisance
that a cold-case investigator is trying to pin him for a
long past IRA bombing that killed a young girl. His wife         FEBRUARY 2020
Kathleen can’t take it. He tells her that things were dif-
ferent then. She tells him he must confess. He’d only get
                                                                 €16.95 / £14.99
two years under the Belfast Agreement and she’ll stand           9781785373107
by him, but she leaves him to give him time to mull it
over.
                                                                   252 pages
But then Kathleen is attacked. Every house in the Brankin         234 x 156mm
property portfolio is petrol-bombed on the same night.
Something is going on that’s even bigger than they
reckoned. And Terry thinks it’s to do with the cold case,
                                                                   RIGHTS HELD
the bombing and the dead child. He reckons old friends                World
in the IRA are telling him to keep quiet. It’s time to talk to
old comrades. And Terry still has a gun.
                                                                     AUDIO
Fast-paced and thrilling, this powerful Troubles novel           Rights available
explores significant legacy issues of the northern con-
flict and how past deeds can never truly be forgotten

Malachi O’Doherty was born in Muff, Co. Donegal, and
grew up in Belfast. A regular contributor to BBC North-
ern Ireland and the Belfast Telegraph, he has written
numerous books, including Fifty Years On: The Troubles
and the Struggle for Change in Northern Ireland and
Gerry Adams: An Unauthorised Life. This is his first novel.

FICTION

KNOCKFANE
A NOVEL

Homan Potterton

• CONTEMPORARY TAKE ON THE CLASSIC IRISH NOVEL
• BY CELEBRATED IRISH CURATOR, ART HISTORIAN AND
WRITER

‘Absolutely terrific. Beautifully written and instantly en-
gaging story ... an exceptional literary accomplishment.’
MARY KENNY, IRISH INDEPENDENT

‘Clipping along like a well-sprung brougham on a coun-
try road  … Knockfane is a delicate work of art … A fine
and curiously engaging first novel from an author who           PAPERBACK
[has] evidently been reading Balzac, resonates with the
spirit of 19th-century French Realism.’                         WITH FLAPS
PETER MURRAY, IRISH ARTS REVIEW
                                                                 APRIL 2019
Ireland in the mid-twentieth century, and Julia and Lyd-
ia Esdaile live with their widowed father, Willis, at Knock-   €16.95 / £14.99
fane, a country house and farm where the Protestant            9781785372490
Esdaile family have lived for centuries. When Willis inex-
plicably banishes his only son and heir, Edward, he con-
cocts a complex plan to protect and preserve Knock-             270 pages
fane for succeeding generations. But time passes, and          225 x 145 mm
Willis dies, and soon his intentions are threatened by un-
foreseen events. Ultimately, it must fall to his daughters
– the headstrong, confident Julia and the quiet, reflec-        RIGHTS HELD
tive Lydia – to protect the Knockfane legacy.                      World
Suffused with gentle lyricism, this is an enthralling, ele-
gant drama that explores the complexities of family,               AUDIO
inheritance and legacy against the backdrop of the             Rights available
Ireland of its time. Knockfane is a Big House novel for a
new generation.

Homan Potterton was Director of the National Gallery
of Ireland (1980–8) and Editor of Irish Arts Review (1993–
2002). His memoir of growing up in County Meath, Rath-
cormick: A Childhood Recalled (2002), and its sequel
of his career in the London and Irish art world, Who Do I
Think I Am? (2017), were both critically acclaimed.

NATURE

IRELAND THROUGH BIRDS
JOURNEYS IN SEARCH OF A WILD NATION

Conor W. O’Brien

• SHORTLISTED FOR BEST IRISH-PUBLISHED BOOK IN THE
AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2019
• A WHIMSICAL MIX OF AUTHORTATIVE NATURE WRIT-
ING AND PAINTERLY TRAVELOGUE

‘Rich, fascinating and contextual fare’
IRISH INDEPENDENT

Twelve birds. One country. A wild Ireland waiting to be
discovered.
                                                               PAPERBACK
In Ireland Through Birds, Conor W. O’Brien takes the
reader on an ornithological adventure around Ireland           WITH FLAPS
in search of twelve of our rarest and most elusive birds.
Along the journey the author explores every kind of
landscape and habitat our island has to offer across
                                                             NOVEMBER 2019
all four seasons, from the remote isles of Donegal to the     €16.95 / £14.99
rugged mountains of Kerry and urban parks of Dublin.          9781785373053
Through it all, O’Brien is enchanted by calling corn-
crakes, mesmerised by hunting harriers, and chased by
angry skuas. It’s a journey through a staggering array         250 pages
of landscapes that’ll bring the reader face to face with      215 x 135mm
the rich history and stunning wildlife to be savoured
right on our doorstep. It explores the stories of the re-
markable birds that live here: the genius of the jay, the      RIGHTS HELD
sublime mimicry of the cuckoo, the nocturnal prowess              World
of the barn owl, while paying a moving, poetic trib-
ute to our natural heritage – and a warning about the
threats that face it.                                            AUDIO
                                                             Rights available
Ireland Through Birds is a unique blend of natural history
and travelogue, making it a great read for anyone with
an interest in Ireland’s natural world.

Conor W. O’Brien has been birdwatching in Ireland
from a very early age, and it is a passion that has since
taken him around the world. He’s a member of Bird-
watch Ireland and has presented at member meetings
of the Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT). This is his first book.

NATURE

A NATURAL YEAR
THE TRANQUIL RHYTHMS AND
RESTORATIVE POWERS OF IRISH NATURE
THROUGH THE SEASONS

Michael Fewer
Foreword by Eanna Ni Lamhna

• IRRESISTIBLE NEW NATURE BOOK FROM THE AUTHOR
OF THE BEST-SELLING CHILDREN’S BOOK NATURAMA
• DELICATELY ILLUSTRATED NATURE DIARIES TRACK THE
EXTRAORDINARY NATURAL WORLD ALL AROUND US
THROUGH THE YEAR

                                                                 PAPERBACK
In A Natural Year, critically acclaimed travel writer            WITH FLAPS
Michael Fewer celebrates the everyday wonder of Irish
nature in these beautifully written diaries, observed from
his homes in south Dublin and rural Waterford, in which
                                                                 MARCH 2020
he delights at the startling beauty and extraordinary           €18.95 / £16.99
complexity of the natural world through the tranquil            9781785373183
rhythms of the passing seasons.

Fewer’s infectious passion for his subject simply inspires       250 pages
our own observation, and suggests how careful study of          215 x 135 mm
the natural world around us can be a sure antidote to
the stresses of modern life.
                                                                 RIGHTS HELD
At a time when it’s essential for us to understand the cri-         World
sis that faces our wildlife and environment, we need to
know more about the natural world around us, the trea-
sures that are being needlessly lost, and the threat to             AUDIO
our very way of life. A Natural Year will open eyes and         Rights available
hearts to a greater understanding of the world around
us, and its innate beauty and fragility.

Michael Fewer combined architecture with academia
for many years before focusing on writing about history,
the environment, landscape, travel and walking. Author
of more than twenty books about walking and nature
in Ireland and over 400 articles, he is a regular Irish Times
columnist and broadcast contributor.

BIOGRAPHY

BUCK WHALEY
IRELAND’S GREATEST ADVENTURER

David Ryan
• FIRST BIOGRAPHY OF ONE OF IRISH HISTORY’S MOST
COLOURFUL BUT NEGLECTED CHARACTERS
• ONE OF THE INSPIRATIONS FOR PHILEAS FOGG IN
AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS

‘Tremendously researched and snappily written … Ryan
is a most reliable narrator, and Thomas Whaley is a thor-
oughly enjoyable and, dare one say, a rollicking good
read.’
IRISH INDEPENDENT

Thomas ‘Buck’ Whaley was one of the greatest ad-
venturers in Irish history. In 1788 he made an extraordi-
nary 10-month journey from Dublin to Jerusalem for a           PAPERBACK
wager of £15,000, equivalent to millions today. Nearly
shipwrecked in the Sea of Crete, he avoided a pirate
attack, was waylaid by bandits, and met an infamous
                                                              FEBRUARY 2019
Ottoman governor called ‘the Butcher’. On his return,         €16.95 / £14.99
he became an overnight celebrity before suffering a           9781785372292
catastrophic series of gambling losses that exiled him
first to continental Europe (where he tried to rescue
Louis XVI from the guillotine) and then to the Isle of Man.     272 pages
When he died aged 34 in 1800 he’d squandered an as-            215 x 135mm
tronomical £400,000 (around €100 million) ‘without ever
purchasing or acquiring contentment or one hour’s
true happiness’.                                               RIGHTS HELD
                                                                  World
In his lifetime, Ireland was about to erupt in rebellion;
France was on the brink of bloody revolution; and the
Ottoman Empire was creaking at the seams. Whaley                  AUDIO
lit up this volatile world like a fast-burning candle but     Rights available
retained his ability to recognise the absurdity of his own
actions and the world around him. Buck Whaley tells
the full story of his remarkable life and adventures for
the first time.

David Ryan was born in Galway and holds an MA in
history from NUI Galway. His first book, Blasphemers and
Blackguards: The Irish Hellfire Clubs, was published by
Merrion Press in 2012.

BIOGRAPHY

MARKIEVICZ
A MOST OUTRAGEOUS REBEL

Lindie Naughton

• COMPREHENSIVE BIOGRAPHY OF FEMINIST REVOLU-
TIONARY WHO WAS THE FIRST WOMAN ELECTED TO THE
BRITISH PARLIAMENT
• FEATURED ON BBC RADIO 4’S GREAT LIVES

Countess Constance Markievicz – one of the most re-
markable women in Irish history – was a revolutionary, a
socialist and a feminist, as well as an artist and writer. A
natural leader, “‘Madame”, as she was known to thou-
sands of Dubliners, took an active part in the 1916 Rising
and was one of the few leaders to escape execution.              PAPERBACK
Instead, she spent an arduous year in an English prison,
surrounded by murderers, prostitutes and thieves. Later,       SEPTEMBER 2018
during another stretch in prison, she would make history
as the first woman elected to the British Houses of Par-        €14.99 / £12.99
liament, and momentous event that is due to receive             9781785372216
widespread commemoration at the time of its cente-
nary in December 2018.
                                                                 350 pages
Lindie Naughton’s compelling biography sheds light on           213 x 138 mm
all facets of Markievicz’s life – her privileged upbringing
in County Sligo, her adventures as an art student in Lon-
don and Paris, her marriage to an improbable Polish             RIGHTS HELD
count, her political education, her several prison terms,          World
and her emergence as one of the pivotal figures in ear-
ly 20th century Britain and Ireland. Constance Markiev-
icz, a woman with a huge heart, battled all her adult              AUDIO
life to establish an Irish republic based on co-operation      Rights available
and equality for all. Her message is as relevant today
as it was a century ago.

Lindie Naughton is a Dublin-based journalist and writ-
er. Her books include Markievicz: Prison Letters & Rebel
Writings, Lady Icarus: The Life of Irish Aviator Lady Mary
Heath, Faster, Higher, Stronger: A History of Ireland’s
Olympians, Let’s Run: A Handbook for Irish Runners, and
How to Mow the Lawn: Gardening for Beginners.

BIOGRAPHY

THE SALAMANCA DIARIES
FATHER MCCABE AND THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR

Tim Fanning
• DRAMATIC AND VIVID EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF
THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
• UNIQUE INSIGHT INTO LIFE IN SPAIN BEFORE,
DURING AND AFTER THE CIVIL WAR

‘Fanning’s vividly written account of the extraordinary
life of Fr McCabe is a fascinating contribution to both
Spanish and Irish history.’
PAUL PRESTON

In July 1936, an army-led coup against the democrat-
ically elected republican government ushered in the
Spanish Civil War. Fr Alexander J. McCabe was rector
of the Irish College in Salamanca when General Fran-
cisco Franco seized power a few months later and
                                                                   HARDBACK
established his GHQ in the medieval city. McCabe re-
corded the arrival of the nationalist war machine in his         SEPTEMBER 2019
diaries, vividly documenting the horror of the repression
and his encounters with Franco, Nazi officers and dip-
                                                                  €19.95 / £17.99
lomats, British and American spies and journalists, and           9781785372773
adventurers and charlatans from around the world who
flocked to Salamanca. He also observed the implosion
of General Eoin O’Duffy’s ill-fated Irish Brigade, first as        250 pages
one of its chaplains and later mediating between the              234 x 156 mm
nationalist high command and O’Duffy. He unsuccess-
fully attempted to dissuade a disillusioned O’Duffy from
returning to Ireland with the Irish Brigade in 1937.
                                                                    RIGHTS HELD
                                                                       World
Historian Tim Fanning uses McCabe’s diaries to provide        excl. Spanish language
a fascinating account of life in Spain before, during and
after the war, as well as McCabe’s memories of grow-
ing up in Ireland at a time of momentous change. This                AUDIO
is the troubling and enthralling story of an eyewitness          Rights available
to one of the most tragic episodes in twentieth-century
European history.

Tim Fanning is a writer and historian with a particular
interest in Spain and Latin America. He has written two
critically acclaimed books, and he is also a contribu-
tor on Spanish and Latin American subjects to The Irish
Times and Sunday Independent.

BIOGRAPHY

PSYCHIATRIST IN THE CHAIR
THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY OF ANTHONY CLARE

Brendan Kelly & Muiris Houston
• THE FIRST AND OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY OF THE MUCH-
LOVED PSYCHIATRIST, WRITER, AND BROADCASTER
ANTHONY CLARE (1942-2007)
• IN THE PSYCHIATRIST’S CHAIR RAN ON BBC RADIO 4
FROM 1982 TO 2001

Born in Dublin in 1942, Anthony Clare was the best-
known psychiatrist of his generation. His BBC Radio 4
show, In the Psychiatrist’s Chair, which ran from 1982 to
2001, brought him international fame and changed the
nature of broadcast interviews forever. Famous inter-
viewees included Stephen Fry, Anthony Hopkins, Spike
Milligan, Maya Angelou and Jimmy Saville, each of
whom yielded to Clare’s inimitable gentle yet probing
style.
                                                                 HARDBACK

Clare made unique contributions to the demystification         SEPTEMBER 2020
and practice of psychiatry, most notably through his
classic book Psychiatry in Dissent: Controversial Issues in
                                                                €29.95 / £19.99
Thought and Practice (1976). This book, the first, official     9781785373299
biography of this much-loved figure, examines the man
behind these achievements: the debater and the doc-
tor, the writer and the broadcaster, the public figure           300 pages
and the family man. Using extensive public and family           234 x 156 mm
records, we ask: Who was Anthony Clare, really? Were
there just one Anthony Clare, or many? What drove
him? And what is to be learned from his life, his career,       RIGHTS HELD
and his unique, sometimes controversial legacy to our              World
understanding of the mind?

This is the remarkable story of a remarkable person.               AUDIO
                                                               Rights available
Brendan Kelly is Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity College
Dublin, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of
Law and Psychiatry and author of Hearing Voices: The
History of Psychiatry in Ireland (IAP, 2019). Muiris Houston
is a medical journalist and health analyst with The Irish
Times, Adjunct Professor of Narrative Medicine at Trini-
ty College Dublin, and Writer-in-Residence at Evidence
Synthesis Ireland, at the National University of Ireland,
Galway.

BIOGRAPHY

IN THE NAME OF THE SON
THE GERRY CONLON STORY

Richard O’Rawe
FOREWORD BY JOHNNY DEPP
• THE STORY OF THE MAN BEHIND THE DANIEL
DAY-LEWIS FILM IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, BY A
LIFE-LONG FRIEND AND CONFIDENTE

‘This book is a tour de force … a chronicle of the tri-
umph of the human spirit over extreme adversity. It is a
story of hope. It is the story of a man I loved and would
have taken a bullet for.’
JOHNNY DEPP

London, 19 October 1989. An electrified young man
bursts out of the Old Bailey and declares his innocence
to the world. Gerry Conlon has just won his appeal for the
1974 Guildford pub bombing. After fifteen years in pris-       PAPERBACK
on, freedom beckons. Or does it? Following his release,
Conlon received close to one million pounds from gov-
ernment compensation, movie and book deals; he ran           SEPTEMBER 2017
in the same circles as Johnny Depp, Daniel Day-Lewis,        €17.99 / £15.99
and Shane MacGowan. Conlon seemed to have it all.
Yet within five years he was hooked on crack cocaine         9781785371387
and eating out of bins in the backstreets of London. Be-
yond the elation of his release was the awful descent          232 pages
into addiction, isolation and self-loathing.
                                                              225 x 150 mm
But this is a book about the resilience of the human spir-
it. What emerges from the darkness and the addiction          RIGHTS HELD
is Gerry Conlon the pacifist; the man who came to be
recognised around the world as a campaigner against              World
miscarriages of justice. In the Name of the Son also re-
veals damning new evidence of statement tampering
by the authorities which would’ve cleared Conlon at
                                                                 AUDIO
the initial trial.                                           Rights available
Richard O’Rawe and Gerry Conlon grew up together
in Belfast – they were life-long best friends. O’Rawe is a
former Irish republican prisoner and was a leading fig-
ure in the 1981 Hunger Strike in the H Blocks of the Maze
prison. He is the author of the best-selling book Blan-
ketmen: An Untold Story of the H-Block Hunger Strike,
Afterlives: The Hunger Strike and the Secret Offer that
Changed Irish History, and novel Northern Heist.

ART

DARK BEAUTY
HIDDEN DETAIL IN HARRY CLARKE’S STAINED GLASS

Lucy Costigan & Michael Cullen

• HUGE RESURGENCE IN INTEREST IN CLARKE’S WORK
IN RECENT YEARS, THANKS TO THESE AUTHORS
• FEATURING PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED IMAGES
• 300+ COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHS
                                                                  HARDBACK

Dark Beauty focuses on the minute detail in Harry               SEPTEMBER 2019
Clarke’s stained-glass windows, particularly in the bor-         €35.00 / £29.99
ders and lower panels of his work.
                                                                 9781785372339
Clarke’s brilliance as a graphic artist is clearly visible in
his book illustrations, which are imbued with precise at-
                                                                  228 pages
tention to intricate designs, and he applied the same
lavish focus to every facet of his stained glass.                232 x 192mm
The title ‘Dark Beauty’ refers to the duality of Clarke’s        RIGHTS HELD
work that sees delicate angels juxtaposed with maca-                World
bre, grotesque figures, and represents the partially hid-
den details that dwell in the background of his windows
– motifs, accessories, flora, fauna and diminutive char-            AUDIO
acters – which may be missed in light of the dominance          Rights available
of the central subjects.

The authors spent many years photographing Clarke’s
windows in Ireland, England, America and Australia,
and the resulting 60,000 photos have been carefully
whittled down to 300 glorious images. Dark Beauty will
provide lovers of Clarke’s stained glass with the oppor-
tunity to view previously obscured or unnoticed details
in all their unique beauty and inspire their own travels to
view Clarke’s work.

Lucy Costigan and Michael Cullen are from Wexford.
Their previous collaboration, Strangest Genius: The
Stained Glass of Harry Clarke, was shortlisted for Best
Irish-Published Book of the year by the Irish Book Awards
in 2010 and for Book of the Decade by Dublin Book Fes-
tival in 2016.

HISTORY

IRELAND’S CALL
IRISH SPORTING HEROES WHO FELL IN THE
GREAT WAR

Stephen Walker

• POPULAR SPORT & WW1 HISTORY, BY AN AWARD-
WINNING BBC JOURNALIST AND BESTSELLING AUTHOR

Ireland’s Call follows the fascinating stories of 40 Irish-
men who swapped the sports field for the battlefield
– household names who gave up their careers to vol-
unteer for war. Using letters, memoirs and newspaper
reports, it features the stories of international footballers,
rugby players, cricketers, GAA stars, athletes and hock-
ey players, whose lives ended in the mud of the Somme,
the despair of Ypres and the heat of Gallipoli.

Stephen Walker’s charming yet poignant stories include
                                                                   PAPERBACK
an Irish athlete who competed in the 1908 London Olym-
pics, and follows the remarkable journey of two GAA              SEPTEMBER 2015
players who starred in All-Ireland Finals and later died
at the Western Front. We hear of characters such as the           €19.99 / £17.99
exceptionally talented Harry Sloan, the Irish football in-        9781785370182
ternational who was the first to score at the newly built
Dalymount Park; Basil Maclear, the rugby centre, who
capped 11 times for Ireland and captained Munster                  256 pages
when they played the All Blacks in 1905; Irish internation-       225 x 155 mm
al cricketer and President of the IRFU, Frank Browning,
who went on to set-up the “Rugby Pals” Battalion based
in Lansdowne Road; the first Irish golfer to win prize mon-        RIGHTS HELD
ey at the British Open; the first schoolboy to play rugby             World
for Ireland, and the story of Barney Donaghey from Der-
ry who played for Man Utd, Burnley, Celtic, Hibs, Belfast
Celtic and Glentoran, and who was ultimately killed at               AUDIO
the Battle of the Somme. A century on, their sacrifice           Rights available
is finally recorded in this unique and moving chronicle.

Stephen Walker is an award-winning BBC journalist and
one of Northern Ireland’s best-known broadcasters.
His first book, Forgotten Soldiers: The Irishmen Shot at
Dawn, was shortlisted for the 2007 Irish Non-Fiction Book
of the Year. His second book, Hide and Seek: The Irish
Priest in the Vatican, who Defied the Nazi Command,
was published in 2011 and was an Irish Times Best Seller.

HISTORY

BIRTH OF THE BORDER
THE IMPACT OF PARTITION IN IRELAND

Cormac Moore

• MOST COMPREHENSIVE ACCOUNT TO DATE OF THE
TRUE IMPACT OF THE PARTITION OF IRELAND ON ALL
ASPECTS OF LIFE AND SOCIETY
• CENTRAL TO THE ONGOING IRISH DECADE OF
COMMEMORATIONS

The 1921 partition of Ireland had huge ramifications for
almost all aspects of Irish life, and was directly responsi-
ble for hundreds of deaths and injuries, with thousands
displaced from their homes and many more forced
from their jobs. Two new justice systems were created;
the effects on the major religions were profound, with          PAPERBACK
both jurisdictions adopting wholly different approach-
es; and major disruptions were caused in crossing the          OCTOBER 2019
border, with invasive checks and stops becoming the
norm.                                                          €22.95 / £19.99
                                                               9781785372933
And yet, many bodies remained administered on an
all-Ireland basis. The major religions continued as all-Ire-
land bodies. Most trade unions maintained a 32-coun-             300 pages
ty presence, as did most sports, trade bodies, charities        234 x 156 mm
and other voluntary groups. Politically, however, the
new jurisdictions moved further and further apart, while
socially and culturally there were both differences and         RIGHTS HELD
links between north and south that remain to this day.             World
Very little has been written on the actual effects of par-
tition, the-day-to-day implications, and the complex               AUDIO
ways that society, north and south, was truly and mean-        Rights available
ingfully affected. Birth of the Border: The Impact of Par-
tition in Ireland is the most comprehensive account to
date on the far-reaching and enduring consequences
of the partitioning of Ireland.

Cormac Moore is a Dublin-based historian. He has
published widely on Irish history, including The GAA V
Douglas Hyde: The Removal of Ireland’s First President
as GAA Patron (2012) and The Irish Soccer Split (2015).

HISTORY

THE IRISH CIVIL WAR
LAW, EXECUTION AND ATROCITY

Seán Enright

• VOLUME III IN ENRIGHT’S POPULAR HISTORY SERIES
OF THE IRISH REVOLUTION & CIVIL WAR ~ CENTENARY
OF THE IRISH CIVIL WAR IS IN 2022
• NEW MATERIAL FROM IRISH MILITARY ARCHIVES
ILLUMINATES DARK LEGACY OF THE CIVIL WAR

During the Irish Civil War, eighty-three official executions
were carried out, including four prisoners who had not
even been tried or convicted of any charge. These ex-
ecutions brought the Civil War to an end. After the war,
the trial records were destroyed and for decades the
execution policy became a bitter memory that was                 PAPERBACK
rarely discussed. In this ground-breaking work, the third
volume of his popular legal analysis of the Irish revo-
lution and civil war, Seán Enright pieces together the          AUGUST 2019
whole grim story.                                              €18.95 / £17.99
                                                               9781785372537
The government relied on the national army to fight
the war and implement policy, but the national army
was new; it lacked uniforms, guns and discipline. More           200 pages
than 125 further prisoners were killed in the custody of
                                                                234 x 156 mm
the state: they were kidnapped and shot, or shot at the
point of capture. ‘Shot while trying to escape’ became
a depressingly familiar press release. These men were           RIGHTS HELD
killed because they were anti-Treaty fighters, because             World
they were suspected of involvement, or simply because
they were sympathetic to the anti-Treaty cause.
                                                                   AUDIO
In the struggle to survive, the new state turned a blind
eye and the rule of law simply evaporated. Featuring
                                                               Rights available
new material from the Irish Military Archives, The Irish
Civil War: Law, Execution and Atrocity examines the
dark legacy of this chaotic and bitter conflict.

Seán Enright is a Circuit Judge and the author of The
Trial of Civilians by Military Courts: Ireland 1921 (2012),
Easter Rising 1916: The Trials (2014), and After the Rising:
Soldiers, Lawyers and Trials of the Irish Revolution (2016).

HISTORY

A BROAD CHURCH
THE PROVISIONAL IRA IN THE REPUBLIC OF
IRELAND, 1969–1980

Gearóid Ó Faoleán
• EXPOSES THE TRUE EXTENT OF SUPPORT FOR
MILITANT REPUBLICANISM IN THE REPUBLIC OF
IRELAND DURING THE TROUBLES
• ACCOUNTS FROM FORMER IRA VOLUNTEERS
DIVULGE THAT EVERY IRISH POLITICAL PARTY AIDED
AND SUPPORTED THE PROVISIONAL IRA

This groundbreaking book is the first to detail, with startling
new revelations, just how integral the Republic of Ireland
was to the Provisional IRA’s campaign at every level. The
sheer level of sympathy and support that existed for mil-
itant republicanism in Southern Irish society demonstrates
that the longevity of the ‘Troubles’ was due in large part to
                                                                   PAPERBACK
this widespread tolerance and aid.
                                                                   MARCH 2019
No Irish political party was without members who aided
the Provisional IRA in their early years of their campaign,       €19.95 / £17.99
as former IRA volunteers attest to in interviews and pre-         9781785372452
viously unpublished accounts of training camps in the
Republic. Juried courts for IRA suspects were phased
out as both juries and judges were regularly acquitting             272 pages
republicans in cases of blatant IRA activity, and juries of-       226 x 153 mm
ten celebrated with or congratulated the defendants:
in discussion with the British government Taoiseach Jack
Lynch even named judges who were deemed overly                     RIGHTS HELD
sympathetic to the IRA.                                               World
The extent of activity, training, financing, armed robber-
ies, demonstrations and goodwill for the IRA in the Irish             AUDIO
Republic is rarely if ever acknowledged in Irish main-            Rights available
stream media or the education curriculum. A Broad
Church: The Provisional IRA in the Republic of Ireland,
1969–1980 will dramatically change that view forever.

Gearóid Ó Faoleán was awarded a PhD in Modern Irish
History from the University of Limerick in 2014 and cur-
rently works in scholarly publishing in London. He is a
member of the Oral History Network of Ireland and The
Irish Association of Professional Historians.

HISTORY

UVF
BEHIND THE MASK

Aaron Edwards

• A THRILLING ‘TRUE CRIME’ ACCOUNT OF THE UVF
• HIGH-PROFILE INTERVIEWS WITH SENIOR LEADING
MEMBERS OF THE UVF AND THEIR LOYALIST RIVALS
• NEW REVELATIONS ON THE SHANKILL BUTCHERS

‘Great historians are good storytellers and Aaron Ed-
wards belongs in this class. His account of the modern
UVF’s history is told without embellishment. Facts are
carefully woven into the troubles’ historical tapestry.’
MARTIN DILLON

This is the gripping new history of the Ulster Volunteer
Force from its post-1965 incarnation to the present day.         PAPERBACK
Aaron Edwards blends rigorous research with unprece-
dented access to leading members of the UVF to un-
earth the startling inner-workings of one of the world’s          JUNE 2017
oldest and most ruthless paramilitary groups.
                                                                €19.99 / £17.99
Through interviews with high-profile UVF leaders, such          9781785370878
as Billy Mitchell, David Ervine, Billy Wright, Billy Hutchin-
son and Gary Haggarty, as well as their loyalist rivals
including Johnny Adair, Edwards reveals the grisly de-
                                                                 420 pages
tails behind their sadistic torture and murder techniques       225 x 150 mm
and their litany of high-profile atrocities: McGurk’s Bar,
the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, the Miami Show-
band massacre and the Shankill Butchers’ serial-killing
                                                                 RIGHTS HELD
spree, amongst others. Edwards’ life and career has led             World
him to the centre of the UVF’s long, dark underbelly; in
this defining work he offers a comprehensive and au-
thoritative study of an armed group that continues to               AUDIO
play a pivotal role in Northern Irish society.                  Rights available
Aaron Edwards is a Senior Lecturer in Defence and In-
ternational Affairs at the Royal Military Academy, Sand-
hurst. He is the author of several books, including A His-
tory of the Northern Ireland Labour Party (2009), Mad
Mitch’s Tribal Law: Aden and the End of Empire (2014),
and the forthcoming Merrion Press title, Agents of Influ-
ence: Britain’s Secret Intelligence War Against the IRA
(autumn 2020).

HISTORY

AGENTS OF INFLUENCE
INSIDE BRITAIN’S SECRET WAR AGAINST THE IRA

Aaron Edwards

• NEW INSIGHTS INTO SPYMASTERS BEHIND THE
SCENES, THEIR STRATEGIES AND TACTICS, AS WELL AS
THE CAPTURE OF THE M60 GANG, TARGETED KILLINGS
IN DERRY, LOUGHGALL AND GIBRALTAR, SECRET TALKS
BETWEEN THE IRA AND THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT, AND
THE CAPTURE OF THE IRA’S SOUTH ARMAGH SNIPER.

Recruited by British Intelligence to infiltrate the IRA and
Sinn Féin during the height of the Northern Ireland Trou-
bles, they were Agents of Influence. With codenames
like INFLICTION, STAKE KNIFE, 3007 and CAROL, these
spies played a pivotal role in the fight against Irish terror-     PAPERBACK
ism. Now, for the first time, some of these agents have
emerged from the shadows to tell their compelling sto-
ries. Agents of Influence takes you behind the scenes of         OCTOBER 2020
the secret intelligence war which helped bring the IRA’s         €19.95 / £16.99
armed struggle to an end.
                                                                 9781785373411
Historian Aaron Edwards, the critically acclaimed au-
thor of UVF: Behind the Mask, explains how the IRA was             300 pages
penetrated, with explosive new revelations about the
hidden agendas of leading figures like Martin McGuin-             234 x 156mm
ness, Denis Donaldson and Freddie Scappaticci, and
how British Intelligence was able to read the minutes of          RIGHTS HELD
the IRA’s top-secret meetings before they were distrib-
uted to its membership.                                              World
With new insights into the spy masters behind the scenes,
their strategies and tactics, and Britain’s international
                                                                     AUDIO
intelligence operations in Europe, Libya and the United          Rights available
States, Agents of Influence offers a rare and shocking
glimpse into the hidden world of secret agents during
the vicious decades of the Troubles.

Aaron Edwards is a Senior Lecturer in Defence and In-
ternational Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sand-
hurst. He is the author and editor of several books, in-
cluding Mad Mitch’s Tribal Law: Aden and the End of
Empire and UVF: Behind the Mask.

MERRION PRESS

          www.merrionpress.ie
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            /MerrionPress
MERRION
 PRESS      /merrion_press

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Newbridge, Co. Kildare, Ireland
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