Andy Nicholls is known to every football intelligence officer in Britain. For twenty-five years, he was one of the most active hooligans in the country, a leading figure among the violent followers of Everton FC Classified as a Category C thug, the worst kind, he amassed more than twenty arrests and has been deported from Belgium, Iceland and Sweden. His terrace fanzine was closed down by the authorities and he was banned from every ground in the UK. Revealing the truth behind the vicious knife attacks of the so-called County Road Cutters and the bitter Merseyside and Manchester rivalries that left scores injured, SCALLY caused a storm of controversy on first publication. It is widely acknowledged as the most revealing, most shocking book ever written about soccer gang culture.
Andy Nicholls, a streetwise Evertonian with a wicked sense of humour, caused a furore with the hardback release of Scally, and this mass-market edition is set to sell even better. As a category C football hooligan - the highest rating of the National Football Intelligence Unit - Nicholls was involved in some of the most notorious clashes of the past 30 years. His remarkably candid autobiography recounts everything from his involvement with such gangs as Kelly's Heroes, the Snorty Forty, the Country Road Cutters, to his appearance on the front page of The Sun.
Andy Nicholls, a streetwise Evertonian with a wicked sense of humour, caused a furore with the hardback release of Scally, and this paperback edition is set to sell even better. As a Category C football hooligan - the highest rating of the National Football Intelligence Unit - Nicholls was involved with some of the most notorious clashes of the past 30 years. His remarkably candid autobiography recounts everything from his involvement with such gangs as Kelly's Heroes, the Snorty Forty, the Country Road Cutters, to his appearance on the front page of The Sun.
THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER Shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards 2021 'A great achievement . . . brilliant, engaging and essential' Colm Tóibín 'At once intimate and epic, this is a landmark book' Fintan O'Toole When Dubliner Derek Scally goes to Christmas Eve Mass on a visit home from Berlin, he finds more memories than congregants in the church where he was once an altar boy. Not for the first time, the collapse of the Catholic Church in Ireland brings to mind the fall of another powerful ideology - East German communism. While Germans are engaging earnestly with their past, Scally sees nothing comparable going on in his native land. So he embarks on a quest to unravel the tight hold the Church had on the Irish. He travels the length and breadth of Ireland and across Europe, going to Masses, novenas, shrines and seminaries, talking to those who have abandoned the Church and those who have held on, to survivors and campaigners, to writers, historians, psychologists and many more. And he has probing and revealing encounters with Vatican officials, priests and religious along the way. The Best Catholics in the World is the remarkable result of his three-year journey. With wit, wisdom and compassion Scally gives voice and definition to the murky and difficult questions that face a society coming to terms with its troubling past. It is both a lively personal odyssey and a resonant and gripping work of reporting that is a major contribution to the story of Ireland. 'Reflective, textured, insightful and original ... rich with history, interrogation and emotional intelligence' Diarmaid Ferriter, Irish Times 'An unblinking look at the collapse of the Church and Catholic deference in Ireland. Excellent and timely' John Banville, The Sunday Times 'Engaging and incisive' Caelainn Hogan, author of Republic of Shame 'Remarkable . . . Essential reading for anyone concerned about history and forgetting' Michael Harding 'Fair-minded . . . thoughtful' Melanie McDonagh, The Times 'Very pacey and entertaining . . . and it changed how I regard Ireland and our history for good. Fantastic' Oliver Callan 'Original, thought-provoking and very engaging' Marie Collins 'A provocative insight into a time that many would rather forget' John Boyne 'Challenging' Mary McAleese 'Explores this subject in a way that I've never seen before' Hugh Linehan, Irish Times
"As soon as you hear that Granny is unwell, you decide to cheer her up with a basket of tempting delicacies. But to get to Granny's cottage, you have to pass through the dreaded Grimmwood Forest, rumored to be inhabited by dragons, wizards, ogres and a Granny-eating wolf! Will you stop for a chat with the mysterious Keeper of Castle Groan? Will you remark, 'What big teeth you have, Granny!' as you approach her bed, or will you keep your distance? Only you can choose, because you are the central character of the story. But beware! Each Magic Road has many paths and they don't all lead to a happy ending! You might be the hero of the hour, or wolf fodder! Never mind - whatever your fate, there's always another chance on the Magic Road." - Back wrapper.
Many thousands of Irish peasants fled from the country in the terrible famine winter of 1847-48, following the road to the ports and the Liverpool ferries to make the dangerous passage across the Atlantic. The human toll of "Black '47," the worst year of the famine, is notorious, but the lives of the emigrants themselves have remained largely hidden, untold because of their previous obscurity and deep poverty. In The End of Hidden Ireland, Scally brings their lives to light. Focusing on the townland of Ballykilcline in Roscommon, Scally offers a richly detailed portrait of Irish rural life on the eve of the catastrophe. From their internal lives and values, to their violent conflict with the English Crown, from rent strikes to the potato blight, he takes the emigrants on each stage of their journey out of Ireland to New York. Along the way, he offers rare insights into the character and mentality of the immigrants as they arrived in America in their millions during the famine years. Hailed as a distinguished work of social history, this book also is a tale of adventure and human survival, one that does justice to a tragic generation with sympathy but without sentiment.
