Gill Books: 392 books

‘When we strove to blot out the stain of slavery and advance the rights of man,’ President Obama declared in Dublin in 2011, ‘we found common cause with your struggle against oppression. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and our great abolitionist, forged an unlikely friendship right here...

During the German occupation of Rome from 1942 to 1944, Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty ran an escape organisation for Allied POWs and civilians, including Jews. Safe within the Vatican state, he regularly ventured out in disguise to continue his mission, which earned him the nickname 'the Pimpernel of...

For almost forty years, Fr Sean McManus has been at the heart of the Irish American campaign to pressurise the British government regarding injustice in Northern Ireland. This is a deeply personal account of how his lone voice mainstreamed Northern Ireland on Capitol Hill, after the Catholic Church...

High risk, adrenaline rushes, extreme weather, knife-edge decisions, rivalries and challenges in the toughest environment are all in a day's work for exceptional Irish sailor, Damian Foxall. Ocean Fever traces his early years as a restless teenager and description of his successes and failures on many teams lifts the lid on this toughest of sports.

Daniel O’Connell – ‘The Liberator’ – lived a big, great and graphic life. Born in Kerry in 1775, he witnessed some of the most pivotal events in European history: the Penal Laws, the French Revolution, the 1798 Rebellion and the Great Famine. In his struggle for Catholic emancipation, O’Connell...

This inspiring story of Ernest Shackleton, whose men called him 'The Boss', involved four expeditions to Antarctica between 1901 and 1922. His incredible adventures included a breathtaking march to within a few miles of the South Pole and the amazing saga of hardship and survival on the famous Endurance expedition. * Also by Michael Smith: Tom Crean, Ice Man.

The story of the remarkable Tom Crean who ran away to sea aged 15 and played a memorable role in Antarctic exploration. He spent more time in the unexplored Antarctic than Scott or Shackleton, and outlived both. Among the last to see Scott alive, Crean was in the search party that found the frozen body. An unforgettable story of triumph over unparalleled hardship and deprivation.

Patronising advice by a doctor at a retirement course to ‘walk a couple of miles a day’ challenges architect Sean Rothery to take a proper walk and so, at the age of sixty-five, he sets out to walk the GR5, the Grande Randonée Cinq. From the steely grey North Sea to the intense blue Mediterranean,...

The story of Oscar Wilde and his extraordinary family is a remarkable one. His parents, the brilliant Sir William and flamboyant Lady Jane, also led amazing lives and experienced triumph and tragedy. His wife Constance Wilde had to change her name and live in exile until her death. An epic family...

The pub has been at the centre of Irish life for centuries. It has played many roles: funeral home, restaurant, grocery shop, music venue, job centre and meeting place for everyone from poets to revolutionaries. Often plain and unpretentious, it is a neutral ground, a leveller – a home away from...

Stand on any street in Dublin and one is confronted with history. Behind the façades of the ten buildings featured here is the story of Dublin, bringing to life key events and characters from the past. The buildings include: Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin’s oldest church; Dublin Castle, the colonisers’...

Ryan's Daughter, winner of two Oscars, was a very successful film that lured Michael Tanner to the Dingle Peninsula. He researched this story by focusing on identifying locations and interviewing local people involved in the film's shoot. The result is an unvarnished account of the troubled shooting...

Lady Gregory, Abbey Theatre founder and patron of W. B. Yeats, writer and daughter of a Galway landowner, became a key figure in the Irish Revival. This new biography investigates Augusta Gregory’s varied relationships and the contradictions and achievements of her life. This portrait of a fascinating...

Between 1917 and 1981, 22 Irishmen died on hunger strike. Now, for the first time, the stories of the hunger strikers are chronicled in one book, bringing to light previously hidden histories. From the deaths on hunger strike of Thomas Ashe in 1917 and Terence MacSwiney in 1920, while imprisoned by...