Great Irish Heroes

Format: Hardback

From ancient times to the present day, Ireland has been laced with drama, intrigue, courage, passion and a vibrant narrative of heroes and villains, kings and rebels, artists and highwaymen, bishops and scientists. Now, in Great Irish Heroes, Sean McMahon compiles the definitive collection of the most admirable Irish men and women in history.

More than fifty figures astound us with their courage and their achievements. Beginning in the third century with the life and death Medb Queen of Connacht, it brings us right up a collection of key 1916 figures from the last century.

The profiles include saints and scholars, soldiers and statesmen, pirates and politicians, philanthropists and poets, meteorologists and mathematicians, founders and feminists, martyrs and survivors and bold Fenian men. From the proto¬typical hero-warrior Cú Chulainn, we stride down the ages and we meet a host of outstanding and sometimes unlikely heroes, like the sea-pirates, Granuaile and Anne Bonny; the philan¬thropists, Thomas John Barnardo and Kathleen Lynn; the frontline soldiers, Sarsfield, Eoghan Rua Ó Néill and Kit Cavanagh; wandering saints, Colum Cille and Brendan the Navigator, the former imposing on himself the bán-martra (‘white martyrdom’) of exile; statesmen like Grattan, O’Connell, Parnell, de Valera; the revolutionaries who made statesmanship possible, Henry Joy McCracken, Wolfe Tone, O’Donovan Rossa, Patrick Pearse, Terence MacSwiney, Tómas Mac¬Curtáin, Michael Collins and many more.

A whole host of legendary figures from the annals of Irish history comes to life in this beautifully-presented treasure which will make an ideal Christmas gift anyone interested in our extraordinary heritage.

About the Author

Sean McMahon was born in Derry in 1931 and he educated at St Derry's Columb's College and in Queen's University in Belfast. He returned to Derry to teach in St Columb's and taught Mathematics until his retirement in 1988.

During his teaching years he staged many productions of works by Shakespeare and modern dramatists both for St Columb's and for amateur theatre groups in Derry. He also wrote the lyrics for musical shows.

His literary career properly began with his anthology The Best from the Bell, which was followed by A Book of Iirish Quotations and Rich and Rare, an anthology of prose and verse. Over the past twenty years he has written and edited dozens of books, including biographies of Ulster writers Sam Hanna Bell and Robert Lynd, the bestselling A Short History of Ireland and books on all aspects of Irish life and culture, including A Short History of Ulster, The Island of Saints and Scholars and Irish Names for Children.