Irish Humor

Dame Edith Evans, Sir John Gielgud and Anthony Quayle perform a selection of 18th-century comedy.

I was an out-of-work rugby coach who was soon to be divorced. My old dear was sliding away in a nursing home in a certain suburb of West Dublin. And my old man had brought the country to the verge of, like, nuclear annihilation. And if that wasn’t bad enough, my teenage daughter was in love again. My sister-in-law was about to give birth to a baby that was possibly mine. And Castlerock College was about to go – I can’t even say the word – co-ed.

Listed in the BBC's "100 Novels That Shaped Our World", Psmith, Journalist takes Wodehouse's immaculate hero to the apparently dull city of New York, where he takes command of twee family periodical Cosy Moments, converts it to the yellowest of yellow journals, and embarks upon a crusade to unmask the owner of the notorious Pleasant Street tenements. But soon the staff of Cosy Moments find themselves dodging ambushes and assassination attempts, as the mysterious tenement owner tries to put them out of business - permanently; and war breaks out among New York's notorious street gangs.

Ireland’s Instagram sensation Meditations for the Anxious Mind takes us on a trip around Ireland of the likes you’ve never seen before, from the trolley-filled Liffey to the glamour of Navan. Why not go off the beaten track with Meditations for the Anxious Mind’s The Toxic Travel Guide and laugh your way around Ireland. We did the research so you don’t have to smell the bin juice.

Bishop's Point is about to face its biggest crisis since the distempered badgers attacked. Father O'Riley and Father O'Malley are all that stand in the devil's way. The forces of Hell descend upon the sleepy Irish town en masse, but they were not expecting the good fathers to lead a rebellion against them.

It’s Belfast in 2019 and despite more than 20 years of peace, scores of so-called peace walls continue to separate Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods. Jean Beattie’s grief turns to anger when police refuse to open the peace gate at the end of her street to allow her best friend’s funeral procession through to her church on the other side of the peace wall. The gate remains closed because local youths are recreational rioting. Comforted by her friends from the cross-community pensioners’ club, Jean vows the gate will be opened.

Janessa: I’ve been in love with Seamus since the day I met him, even though I’d been fourteen at the time. Now that I’m an adult, I’m ready to go claim my man. Maybe I was stupid thinking he’d wait for me, or maybe I just really wanted a fairytale ending. Seeing another woman in his arms hurt like hell, so I ran…straight into trouble.

The 2 Johnnies' massive success has taken them as far afield as Sydney, Compton and Abu Dhabi. But for them nothing compares to living in Ireland. And in C'Mere and I Tell Ya they dig into the tastes, habits and rites of passage that have made them who they are.

Tom Jones is a splendid Hogarthian panorama of 18th-century English life and morals, encompassing both city and country, and comprising some of the greatest comic characters in British literature. First published in 1749, it was an instant success and has gone on to become a classic of its genre. Quite simply, there has never been anything like it.

This is a story from the "Great Ghost Stories" collection.

If you love paranormals, westerns, and romance, then saddle-up and take a ride into Saguaro Gulch. Three women fed up with the hustle of Los Angeles take a leap of faith. They land in a world of rebellion and immortals. The first, they can do without, the last, they can’t resist. Ariana, Lynn, and Tess can’t turn down the steal of a deal on a dilapidated ranch in Saguaro Gulch, Arizona. The moving boxes are barely unpacked when visitors drop by. Three immigrant brothers from Ireland own the neighboring ranch named Vyro Creek. While Tess and Lynn are infatuated by the bachelors, Ari ...

Now includes the just-released short story A Backstitch in Spacetime! Derry girls, women, wee boys, hard men, they're all here in the these four stand alone short works from the Derry Women Series. Previously released as a short story (Table For Nine At Kebablicious), a novelette (The Way to A Man's Heart or Strange Things on Plates) and a novella (A Very Fionnuala Christmas) and A Backstitch in Spacetime, they are all together in one anthology. Laugh, wince, fume and cry at the antics of the impoverished Flood family with the mother, Fionnuala, who will stoop to the lowest depths to get ...

Can an earl train the woman of his dreams to become the perfect bride…for another man? When Kit Ramsey, the new earl of Kilgannon, arrives in Ireland to lay claim to his inheritance, the villagers believe the young nobleman is the miracle they’ve been praying for. But Kit isn’t interested in being anybody’s hero. All he wants is the chance to become his own man. But titles come with duty, and Kit quickly learns he hasn’t just inherited an earldom and a castle, but the guardianship of Mariah Shaughnessy, the spirited and beautiful baker of Inismorn…the beautiful baker he must ...

Karen can’t go on pulling stick-ups forever, but Rossi is getting out of prison any day now and she needs the money to keep Anna out of his hands. This new guy she’s met, Ray, just might be able to help her out, but he wants out of the kidnap game now the Slavs are bunkering in. And then there's Frank, the discredited plastic surgeon who wants his ex-wife snatched - the ex-wife being Madge, who just happens to be Karen’s best friend. But can Karen and Ray trust each other enough to carry off one last caper? Or will love, as always, ruin everything? Praise for THE BIG O: “Imagine ...

The ghost of Aiden's grandfather tells him to rescue his mother from a psychiatric facility. Aiden enlists the help of his brother and two of his grandmother's friends. Mystery, adventure, and the supernatural converge in this story of redemption. James Mulhern has published fiction in many literary journals and has received accolades. Several stories were selected for anthologies of short fiction. In 2013, he was chosen as a finalist for the Tuscany Prize in Catholic Fiction. In 2015, Mr. Mulhern was awarded a fully paid writing fellowship to Oxford University in the United Kingdom. That ...

Molly and her elderly neighbor butt heads about everything from snowflakes to God. Mr. Mulhern has published short stories in many literary magazines and received several awards. He was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

It's danger on the high seas for the Barnetts, but will it come from the authorities, Mother Nature or family Flood? In Wisconsin six years ago, Ursula Barnett accidentally committed a shocking crime. The statute of limitations is inching closer, and the police are circling in. Panicked, Ursula books herself and her American family passage on a budget centennial Titanic cruise, hoping to ride out the investigation and embark a woman redeemed. But lurking amongst the leaky walls of the Queen of Crabs is a danger worse than disgruntled, poorly-paid staff, bad food and terrifying onshore ...

Old friends meet up on a summer's evening at a Dublin restaurant. Both are now married with grown-up children, and their lives have taken seemingly similar paths. But Joe has a secret he has to tell Davy, and Davy, a grief he wants to keep from Joe. Both are not the men they used to be. Neither Davy nor Joe know what the night has in store, but as two pints turns to three, then five, and the men set out to revisit the haunts of their youth, the ghosts of Dublin entwine around them.

This book is a personally written account of Jimmy’s "50 Golden Years", in show business, from holiday camp Redcoat to Bluecoat then onto his first big break on television, (after many struggles), going on to headline for four of his own series for Central television in the 1980s with 'Royal Command Performances' and TV Variety shows in between, then his BBC Radio 2 series written by the great scriptwriter Eddie Braben in the 1990's which ran for five years called, 'Jimmy's Cricket Team'.

Father Hearty has a problem. The bishop has asked the parents not to take photos during the first holy communion ceremony at an Irish school. But many of the parents are worried that they won't be able to remember the day unless they have photos. What are they going to do? Father Hearty hopes to save the day by bringing in an expert. He asks Miss Aireefairee to come and teach the parents how to use the supercomputer that is the brain. Will that be enough to keep the cameras switched off?