Books published by publisher Poolbeg Press

The Hill of Tara was first inhabited by Stone Age people and the amazing passage tomb they made there is still to be seen. Later Tara became the home of the High Kings of Ireland. On its summit stands the Stone of Destiny. No-one could become High King unless the stone roared its approval and when it roared the sound was heard everywhere in Ireland! The story of Tara is the story of Ireland.

Easter 1916. The Great War rages in Europe with two hundred thousand Irishmen fighting in the British Army. But a small group of Irish nationalists refuse to fight for Britain and strike a blow for Irish freedom. Caught up in the action in Dublin, is twelve-year-old Molly O’Donovan.Her own family is plunged into danger on both sides of the conflict. Her father, a technical officer with the Post Office dodges the crossfire as he tries to restore the telegraph lines while her wayward brother runs messages for the rebels. Molly a trained First Aider, risks her own safety to help the wounded on both sides.As violence and looting erupts in the streets of Dublin alongside heroism and high ideals, Molly records it all. The Proclamation at the GPO, the battle of Mount Street, the arrival of the British Troops. But will Molly’s own family survive and will she be able to save her brother?This is her diary.

Grace Tynan’s life seems to be perfectly satisfactory: a career in property, two strapping sons and a solid marriage to Ewan, a man who writes advertising jingles for a living. But when she starts shoplifting streaky rashers in a desperate bid for cheap thrills, she realises that something is seriously wrong. Grace gets a wake-up call when twenty-year-old Adam, recently arrived from Tasmania, smooth-skinned and tanned, knocks the side-mirror off her BMW with his anti-nuclear placard. Anxious friends soon notice a change – Grace gives up work, dinner parties and, alarmingly, stops highlighting her hair. But will she really swap her cosy life for a college dropout with a mission to save the world?

This is the story of the amazing Constance Gore~Booth who was born into a wealthy Anglo-Irish family and grew up enjoying painting, hunting and parties. She was even presented at court to Queen Victoria, and marries Casimir Markievicz, a Polish count she met in Paris. But later Con joined the fight for Irish freedom. She fought in the Easter Rising 1916 and afterwards she was sentenced to death but, because she was a woman, she was imprisoned for life instead. She felt that she had done what she was born to do. But Con was later released and found her battle were only just the beginning......

The year is 1848. It is a time when magic and ghosts exist.Four Magnificent Children are captured by Badblood’s Circus.Theo can look into your eyes and reveal your secret thoughts, which come out of his mouth like a swarm of bees.Ginny has a bird called Blue living inside her. Her ribs are woven together to form a birdcage. Blue perches on a swing made from one of her ribs.And the Thought-reading Twins, Archie and Millie Luxbridge, have an extraordinary ability to read each other’s minds.They become stars of the circus but are unaware that Badblood has a dark and secret plan.One hundred years later the children’s ghosts appear on an island off the coast of Ireland where a boy called Rua befriends them. Rua discovers that a terrible fate awaits them and, in a desperate race against time, he struggles to learn how they may be saved.

Football mad, twelve- year- old Dan is a trusted messenger for Ireland’s rebel leader, Michael Collins. He promises his cousin Molly to never fire a gun, but after the dramatic events of ‘Bloody Sunday’ in Croke Park, he is pulled deeper into the struggle. Hunted by a vengeful Intelligence Officer, Molly and Dan are forced to flee Dublin. On the run, they meet Flying Columns and narrowly escape death as Cork burns.When a plot is discovered to de-rail the Treaty negotiations, Dan is sent with a vital message to London. Talent spotted by a famous English coach, he is offered a lucrative football contract that would take his family out of poverty. But as the rebel Irish leaders try to reach a deal with the British government, Dan is forced into dangerous play with his deadly enemy. Will he save the day and can the leaders bring peace to Ireland?

Life sucks for twelve-year-old Irish-American Ava when she is dragged to Dublin by her mother during her parents’ bitter break-up. She is bullied at her new school and her only friend is moody teenage neighbour Mal, who has secrets of his own. But when Ava finds an emerald and a bundle of old letters in the attic, she is plunged into a historical mystery linking the missing Crown Jewels of Tsarist Russia to the heart of Ireland’s bloody Civil War in 1922. Who was the author of the letters – young medical student Molly O’Donovan? Why did her brother Jack the Cat smuggle the jewels from the United States? And did her football-mad cousin Dan make it through the seaborne invasion of the south to put down the rebels?Through the eyes of Molly, Ava encounters the death of Michael Collins, deadly ambushes in Kerry and the tragic fate of former comrades. As Ava learns about the tragedy of the Civil War, she is forced to confront the conflict in her own life. Can the journey into the past help her to learn the importance of reconciliation and new beginnings?

Easter 1916. The Great War rages in Europe with two hundred thousand Irishmen fighting in the British Army. But a small group of Irish nationalists refuse to fight for Britain and strike a blow for Irish freedom. Caught up in the action in Dublin, is twelve-year-old Molly O’Donovan. Her own family is plunged into danger on both sides of the conflict. Her father, a technical officer with the Post Office dodges the crossfire as he tries to restore the telegraph lines while her wayward brother runs messages for the rebels. Molly a trained First Aider, risks her own safety to help the wounded on both sides. As violence and looting erupts in the streets of Dublin alongside heroism and high ideals, Molly records it all. The Proclamation at the GPO, the battle of Mount Street, the arrival of the British Troops. But will Molly’s own family survive and will she be able to save her brother? This is her diary.

Where did it all begin, the struggle of these ten women for Irish freedom?What made them support the Rising in 1916?The answer lies in their childhoods.A skating accident, a Fenian nanny, the loss of a parent, poverty, tales of the Famine, a close friendship, and a sense of exile - such were the early experiences that formed them and made them what they were: brave, adventurous and ready to risk their lives!

There are thousands of religions in the world. All are paths human beings follow to live good lives, and to reach out to the external spirit we call 'God'. However, religions differ in what exactly they imagine this spirit to be and how we human beings can become one with it.In this book we take a look at six of the largest religions in the world can learn what they have in common, so that hopefully we may all understand each other and learn to live in peace, side by side.