Island Books imprint: 183 books

Up until the late sixties in Ireland, thousands of young children were sent to what were called industrial schools, financed by the Department of Education, and operated by various religious orders of the Catholic Church. Popular belief held that these schools were orphanages or detention centers,...

Mike Milotte’s damning exposé of Church-State collusion in banishing thousands of vulnerable ‘illegitimate’ children from Ireland in the 1950s and 60s was first published to critical acclaim in 1997, and quickly achieved iconic status. For this updated and expanded edition the author has added...

The Lockout, the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War. Events we hear a lot about packed into just a very few years, barely over a decade. But what did they mean, what forces gave rise to them, how did Ireland go from welcoming royalty in 1912 to independence in 1922? In this exciting...

Did you ever hear that telling a nightmare makes it fade away? It doesn’t. Not here anyway. Welcome to the Nightmare Club’s Halloween Sleepover. You might not last till morning. When Dolly goes off to Irish College, she leaves her brother Sandy in charge of Princess Snowflake. But the thing about guinea pigs is that you kind of need to feed them. Or else…

From Ireland, England, France, Austria, Greece, Turkey and Italy to America and the West Indies, overflowing with historic events, from the French Revolution to the Great Irish Famine, with a cast of the famous and infamous, Howe Peter Browne, 2nd Marquess of Sligo, lived life to the absolute limits. Privileged...

Hard Border goes to the very roots of the Irish boundary where, after decades of division and conflict, a fragile peace has prevailed since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Post-Brexit, it will re-emerge as the only land frontier between the United Kingdom and the European Union*.* In...

In this entertaining and engaging book, Frank Hopkins delivers an episode from Ireland's history for every single day of the year, including 29 February. Some are surprising, some sensational and others sad, but they are always fascinating. The Whiteboys, the Ribbonmen, the Invincibles, the cat o'nine...

An entertaining exploration of the truth behind European stereotypes.' - The Irish Times From the bailouts to the Euro-crisis, from the rise of Frau Merkel to the dalliances of the French presidents, Connelly does a brilliant job skewering the lies and truths of European stereotypes. A lot has happened...

Peter Neill's The Once and Future Ocean aspires to do nothing less than transform our relationship with the world's most promising and imperiled natural element: the ocean and the inter-connected cycles of water, essential for all aspects of human survival in the 21st century. A successor to the...

Prowling the streets, bedrooms, parks and schoolyards of a grubby uncertain city, where madness lurks just under the skin, men, women and those in-between enter an unsettling dance of encounters. There’s Maisie, perfect on the inside and out, a right Primcess™ – but what’s it going...

A history book that looks at things from a different angle! Come Here To Me discusses everything from punk music and stand-up comedy venues to pirate radio stations and drug use in Dublin city. It talks about fire-fighters, newspaper boys, street gangs, gay bars and footballers, as well as our changing...

Welcome to the Nightmare Club, the sleepover that is definitely not for wimps. Annie Graves is your host, and she only invites guests who can tell really creepy stories. You’ve heard of Dr Frankenstein, right? Freaky guy who cobbled together a MONSTER out of bits of people – spare parts, you might...

Did you ever hear that telling a nightmare makes it fade away? It doesn’t. Not here anyway. Welcome to the Nightmare Club’s Halloween Sleepover. You might not last till morning. Glen is a nasty little boy who always moans and lies. After a strange encounter in the woods, he suddenly disappears,...

Young Irelanders is an exciting anthology of short stories that will open your eyes and soul to a new and continually evolving Irish literary scene, featuring a selection of Ireland's most gifted and daring contemporary short-fiction writers: Rob Doyle, Sheila Armstrong, Alan McMonagle, Roisín O'Donnell,...