We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland by Fintan O’Toole
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
NEW YORK TIMES • 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
The Atlantic: 10 Best Books of 2022
Best Books of the Year: Washington Post, The New Yorker, Foreign Affairs, New Statesman, Chicago Public Library, Vroman’s
“ike reading a great tragicomic Irish novel.” ―James […]
Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story by Bono
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • Bono—artist, activist, and the lead singer of Irish rock band U2—has written a memoir: honest and irreverent, intimate and profound, Surrender is the story of the remarkable life he’s lived, the challenges he’s faced, and the friends and family who have shaped and […]
Dirty Laundry by Disha Bose
GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • “A twisty tale of murder and love gone wrong, rife with bone-chilling revelations . . . This is a riveting debut, and Disha Bose is a writer to watch.”—Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Mother May I
She was the perfect wife, with […]
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION
“Brilliant, beautiful, heartbreaking.”—J.Courtney Sullivan, New York Times Book Review
“TRESPASSES vaults Kennedy into the ranks of such contemporary masters as McCann, Claire Keegan, Colin Barrett, and fellow Sligo resident, Kevin Barry.”—Oprah Daily
Set in Northern Ireland during the […]
Homesickness by Colin Barrett
The second book from the “exact and poetic” (New York Times) author of critical smash Young Skins, winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35, Homesickness is an emotionally resonant and wonderfully wry collection that follows the lives of outcasts, misfits, and malcontents from […]
Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan
In 1973 Moll Gladney goes missing from the Tipperary hillside where she was born. Slowly her parents, Paddy and Kit, begin to accept that she’s gone forever. But she returns, changed, and with a few surprises for her family and neighbours.
Nothing is ever the same again for the Gladneys, who learn […]
The Victory of Sinn Fein by P.S. O’Hegarty
A valuable first-hand account of the tumultuous events in Ireland from 1916 to 1923, written from a now almost forgotten viewpoint – that of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. O’Hegarty’s heroes were Arthur Griffith, the founder of Sinn Fein, and Michael Collins.
June 3 – Whiskey Academy 2023
Class is back in session, and we’re starting with a pop quiz! In 2023, the Whiskey Academy at the Kansas City Irish Center takes a broader look at whisk(e)ys.
Our guest presenter, Tom Oothoudt, the founder of Whiskey Tom Foolery, will lead us through a blind tasting of six whisk(e)ys. With […]
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both […]
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, […]
Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? by Séamas O’Reilly
After the untimely death of his mother, five-year-old Séamas O’Reilly and his ten siblings were left to the care of their loving but understandably beleaguered father. In this thoroughly delightful memoir, we follow O’Reilly and the rest of his rowdy clan as they learn to cook, clean, do […]
Snow by John Banville
The year is 1957 and the Catholic Church rules Ireland with an iron fist. Strafford—flinty, visibly Protestant, and determined to identify the murderer—faces obstruction at every turn, from the heavily accumulating snow to the culture of silence in this tight-knit community. As he delves further, he learns the Osbornes are not at […]
Thin Places: A Natural History of Healing and Home by Kerri Ní Dochartaigh
Kerri ní Dochartaigh was born in Derry, on the border of the North and South of Ireland, at the very height of the Troubles. She was brought up on a council estate on the wrong side of town—although for her family, and many […]
Holding Her Breath by Eimear Ryan
When Beth Crowe starts university, she is haunted by the ghost of her potential as a competitive swimmer. With her Olympic dreams shattered after a breakdown, she is suddenly free to create a fresh identity for herself outside of swimming. Striking up a friendship with her English major roommate, Beth […]
Walking with Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne
As a young boy growing up in the outskirts of Dublin, Gabriel Byrne sought refuge in a world of imagination among the fields and hills near his home, at the edge of a rapidly encroaching city. Born to working class parents and the eldest of six children, he harbored a childhood […]
Belfast Girls by Jaki McCarrick
Escaping the Irish famine in 1850 five young women seek passage on a ship to Australia. For many of the ‘orphan girls’ on board, the voyage offers a fresh start. But some girls find they cannot escape the memory of the lives they’ve left behind – and that the closer they get […]
A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa
A true original. In this stunningly unusual prose debut, Doireann Ni Ghriofa sculpts essay and autofiction to explore inner life and the deep connection felt between two writers centuries apart. In the 1700s, an Irish noblewoman, on discovering her husband has been murdered, drinks handfuls of his blood […]
In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World by Pádraig Ó Tuama
There’s an old Irish proverb: ‘It is in the shelter of each other that the people live’. In this book much-loved poet, storyteller, theologian and speaker Pádraig Ó Tuama applies ideas of shelter and welcome to journeys of life, using poetry, story, biblical reflection […]
Milkman by Anna Burns
In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes ‘interesting’. […]
The Story We Carry in Our Bones: Irish History for Americans by Juliene Osborne-McKnight
From 3800 B.C. to the twentieth century, this comprehensive history examines the course of Irish-Americans. Celtic legends, the evolution of Christianity, the coming of the Vikings, and the time of the Tudors are just some of the topics covered in these pages. Juilene […]
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hunting Party.
The bride – The plus one – The best man – The wedding planner – The bridesmaid – The body
On an island […]
Apeirogon by Colum McCann
From the National Book Award–winning and bestselling author of Let the Great World Spin comes an epic novel rooted in the unlikely real-life friendship between two fathers.
Bassam Aramin is Palestinian. Rami Elhanan is Israeli. They inhabit a world of conflict that colors every aspect of their lives, from the roads they are […]
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
Frances is a coolheaded and darkly observant young woman, vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. Her best friend is the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi. At a local poetry performance one night, they meet a well-known photographer, and as the girls are then gradually drawn into […]
The Commitments (1991)
Jimmy Rabbitte aspires to manage the world’s greatest band, with only one music in mind: soul. By advertising for applicants in a newspaper and asking around to promising acquaintances, Jimmy holds auditions at his parents’ home and assembles a band together.
Director: Alan Parker
Starring: Robert Arkins, Johnny Murphy, Andrew Strong
You’ll watch the movie at […]
The Secret of Kells (2009)
Magic, fantasy, and Celtic mythology come together in a riot of color and detail that dazzle the eyes in a sweeping story about the power of imagination and faith to carry humanity through dark times. In a remote medieval outpost of Ireland, young Brendan embarks on a new life of adventure […]
