Showing results by narrator "Ruairi Conaghan" in All Categories

1994, the summer of the ceasefire. In the Northern Irish border town of Cross, after decades of violent activity protesting British rule, a community plays out its end game. Francie, a principled elder of the cause, has authorised the murder of a policeman – his teenage henchmen are triumphant at pulling it off. In the town square, the Widow Donnelly protests because her son has gone missing.

Detective Finnegan Beck is called to a crime scene - a remote house near the rural Irish town of Cross Beg - where a dog lies whimpering beside his beloved owner’s body. At first it looks like a burglary gone wrong. But Beck spots something his colleagues didn’t. The victim, Eddie Kavanagh, was wearing his smartest clothes. He’d brushed his hair. And, on closer inspection, a small velvet box containing an engagement ring is discovered in his pocket, along with a letter to a nameless woman, which seems to suggest she’s in danger.

Professor Luke O’Neill has become one of the most well-known and trusted voices of Ireland’s COVID-19 pandemic. A world-renowned immunologist, he was thrust into the spotlight as the media and public desperately grappled to make sense of a crisis that saw the country grind to a halt. In these high-octane diaries, Professor Luke reveals what life was like behind the scenes.

Show Me the Science asks questions like, do we have control over our lives? Can we escape working in terrible jobs? Why do we need vaccinations? Are men’s and women's brains different? Will we destroy the planet? – and encourages children to apply a scientific mindset in attempting to answer them.

Five kids with one dream: to become the greatest sports stars in the world! Follow Kim as she trains to be the best at her favourite sport: rugby! Kim has been at the best – and most mysterious – sports academy in the world for a few months now. She and the rest of her class were selected because they all shared a determination and willingness to improve. Now the gang are on their way to Japan for the rugby World Cup – but they’re going to need some more teammates.

Joe knows he has no chance of catching the mysterious scout’s eye - he loves football, but he’s the worst player in his club. Despite this, he’s whisked away to a remote island and teamed up with four other kids: Kim, Craig, Ajit and Jess. There’s more to this island than meets the eye: Joe learns it is home to the world’s greatest Sports Academy. With the help of eccentric, genius coaches, he and his new friends are gradually transformed into serious players in their own sports. But the Academy’s secrets are wanted by many others.

Recently widowed, Rebecca Parcell is too busy struggling to maintain her farm in Morristown to give a fig who wins the War for Independence. But rumors are spreading in the winter of 1780 that she's a Loyalist sympathizer who betrayed her husband to the British-quite a tidy way to end her disastrous marriage, the village gossips whisper.

Stephen Dedalus is a boy on the edge of transformation—questioning his strict Irish Catholic upbringing, the confines of his family, and the weight of tradition. As he comes of age, his inner world brims with restless ambition and a desire to escape conformity through the power of art. In this bold, lyrical, and deeply introspective novel, James Joyce traces Stephen’s journey from obedient child to fiercely independent thinker, exploring the messy, passionate formation of an artist's identity in a world that demands obedience.

The Garden is not thriving. In fact, it is withering away. Once a little orchid haven, now after the worst hurricane ever seen in Florida, it is wrecked greenhouses, creeping mangroves and dangerously idle men. So when Romeo, an expert breeder of the lucrative ghost orchid, arrives from Honduras, keeper of the Garden, Blanchard, and his Irish right-hand man, Swallow, believe the winds of fortune are blowing their way. But Romeo is not who he seems, and Swallow can't shake the feeling that the newcomer will threaten his position in the Garden's flimsy hierarchy.