'Don't mind me, I'm only your mother.'World-renowned for her unique perspective on life, there is no-one quite like the Irish Mammy. From the weather to your choice of clothing the quintessential Irish Mam has something to say on every subject.'You're making a holy show of yourself.''It's all fun and games until someone has their eye out.''Don't make me come up there!'This handy collection of Mammyisms will ensure you are never without an Irish Mammy's words of wisdom.
Everything you don't want foreigners to know about how we celebrate Christmas in Ireland. We can't be doing with Calling Birds, French Hens or Partridges in Pear Trees: but if it's Annuals, The Dinner, The Big Shop or The Wexford Carol you're looking for, you've come to the right book! Christmas Party, The /kris-muss par-tee, thuh/ proper noun. annual knees-up The one night of the year when employees get to tell their boss exactly how they feel as they strut their stuff on the dancefloor. There's nothing quite like scrolling through jobs.ie while nursing the hangover from hell.
The Irish are world masters at talking. The magic behind our silky, colourful (and non-stop) stories is a little thing called 'blarney', or 'the gift of the gab'. But what is it, you ask, and how can you get some for yourself? The hilarious A Big Pile of Blarney takes you through the history of Blarney Castle and the legend of the world-famous Blarney Stone (not to mention the famous lips that have puckered up to it). By the time you've finished reading, you too will be overflowing with beguiling blarney know-how and mellifluous oratorical magnetism!
The deadliest ever dictionary of Irish slang! Can you tell your cute hoors from your chancers, or your gougers from your gurriers? Do you know a slapper, a snapper, a shaper or a sleeveen when you see one? No? Well, that's coola boola, because we've put together the most massive, mighty and manky collection of Irish slang in history, or at least in donkey's years. So stop acting the maggot and give it a lash! 'Side-splitting ... Irish Slang's the business!' The Sun
A charming ne’er-do-well returns to his haunted Irish hometown to uncover the truth about his mother in this “supernaturally skilled debut” (Vanity Fair) and turns the town—and his life—upside down. Having been abandoned at an orphanage as a baby, Mahony assumed all his life that his mother wanted nothing to do with him. That is, until one night in 1976 while drinking a pint at a Dublin pub, he receives an anonymous note implying that she may have been forced to give him up. Determined to find out what really happened, Mahony embarks on a pilgrimage back to his hometown, the rural village of Mulderrig. Neither he nor Mulderrig can possibly prepare for what’s in store… From the moment he arrives, Mahony’s presence completely changes the village. Women fall all over themselves. The real and the fantastic are blurred. Chatty ghosts rise from their graves with secrets to tell, and local preacher Father Quinn will do anything to get rid of the slippery young man who is threatening the moral purity of his parish. A spectacular new addition to the grand Irish storytelling tradition, Himself “is a darkly comic tale of murder, intrigue, haunting and illegitimacy…wickedly funny” (Daily Express).
... 90% of your sick days happen to be Monday. The other 10% are Tuesdays after bank holidays ... You've been to a funeral of someone whose name you didn't know ...It's not a fizzy drink. It's a 'mineral' So how Irish are you? Check out this book of Irish-isms to see just how 'green' you really are! Humorous and fun, this book combines some of the classic Irish quirks with the more recent additions of what it means to be Irish!
A heart-warming and hilarious family memoir of growing up as one of eleven siblings raised by a single dad in Northern Ireland at the end of the Troubles. Séamas O’Reilly’s mother died when he was five, leaving him, his ten (!) brothers and sisters, and their beloved father in their sprawling bungalow in rural Derry. It was the 1990s; the Troubles were a background rumble, but Séamas was more preoccupied with dinosaurs, Star Wars, and the actual location of heaven than the political climate. An instant bestseller in Ireland, Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? is a book about a family of loud, argumentative, musical, sarcastic, grief-stricken siblings, shepherded into adulthood by a man whose foibles and reticence were matched only by his love for his children and his determination that they would flourish. “In this joyous, wildly unconventional memoir, Séamas O'Reilly tells the story of losing his mother as a child and growing up with ten siblings in Northern Ireland during the final years of the Troubles as a raucous comedy, a grand caper that is absolutely bursting with life.”―Patrick Radden Keefe, NYT bestselling author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain One of NPR’s Best Books of the Year
