She recorded and performed with stars like Billie Jo Spears, Ray Lynam, Foster and Allen, Charley Pride, Big Tom and Brian Coll, shared festival line-ups with Tammy Wynette, Glen Campbell, Don Williams, Hank Locklin and many more and was awarded gold, silver and platinum discs. Yet, throughout her extraordinary career, she has never forgotten where she came from, and it is the love and inspiration of her husband, Tom, her close family and her worldwide fan base that have made her the warm and generous star we know and love. Here Philomena Begley takes us from her happy beginnings as a bread-man's daughter in Pomeroy through the devastating loss of her brother Patsy and the risks of touring Ireland at the height of the Troubles, right up to her fiftieth anniversary in show business in 2012 – her 'gold and silver days'.

She recorded and performed with stars like Billie Jo Spears, Ray Lynam, Foster and Allen, Charley Pride, Big Tom and Brian Coll, shared festival line-ups with Tammy Wynette, Glen Campbell, Don Williams, Hank Locklin and many more and was awarded gold, silver and platinum discs. Yet, throughout her extraordinary career, she has never forgotten where she came from, and it is the love and inspiration of her husband, Tom, her close family and her worldwide fan base that have made her the warm and generous star we know and love. Here Philomena Begley takes us from her happy beginnings as a bread-man's daughter in Pomeroy through the devastating loss of her brother Patsy and the risks of touring Ireland at the height of the Troubles, right up to her fiftieth anniversary in show business in 2012 - her 'gold and silver days'.

Country music fandom is at an all-time high in Ireland; social dancing has never been as popular. New artists, bands and venues proliferate; it seems each week 'Ireland's latest country sensation' is brought to the public's attention through the ever-widening media outlets populated by the genre. This book provides a comprehensive history of the genre looking at the artists and their music and seeking to contextualise the genre within the wider context of Irish culture. It demonstrates the significant role Ireland has played in the history and development of American country music and how, as an old classic country song says, the circle has remained unbroken. It also analyses the associated media, dance and social cultures. Irish country music is now a significant industry on a continuous upward curve. It earns a lot of money for a lot of people. It deserves a work of record. This book is the first of its kind. It is written in an easy to understand language to appeal to the widest possible demographic. It is also written from a neutral point of view but in a way that appeals to the fans of country and Irish music. Artists covered include Big Tom, Daniel O'Donnell, Nathan Carter, Philomena Begley, Susan McCann and Robert Mizell. The author is an established writer with extensive media experience including RTÉ Radio 1, TV3, Irish Independent, The Irish Times, New York Times, The Irish Post and a plethora of local and regional radio stations.

A tribute to Big Tom McBride, 'the Johnny Cash of Irish country music'. From labourer to music star, the journey of the singer who brought so much joy to fans at home and to emigrants abroad over five decades. Featuring never-before-published interviews with Big Tom and the country stars who loved him, as well as exclusive family photographs, this book is full of the characteristic wit and warmth of Ireland's greatest country music legend, Big Tom. Big Tom McBride was the original Irish country music star, who paved the way for today's new wave of artists. His unique voice and sincere delivery earned him the title The King of Irish Country. He was held in huge affection by many thousands of devoted fans, and was greatly loved and respected by his fellow musicians. Throughout Big Tom's music career, spanning five decades, he packed ballrooms and marquees the length and breadth of Ireland and Britain, with his band The Mainliners and later with The Travellers. His records sold by the tens of thousands, and he had numerous Top Ten hits. Legions of fans were transported by his beautiful singing, evoking an Ireland of a more innocent age. Many made the pilgrimage to the McBrides' home outside Castleblayney, County Monaghan, where they were greeted with genuine, warm-hearted hospitality. Tom Gilmore has interviewed family, friends and fans, as well as unearthing previously unpublished interviews with Big Tom himself. This book also features tributes to the music legend from luminaries of music, sport and politics.

The Little Book of Westmeath is a compendium of fascinating, obscure, strange and entertaining facts about County Westmeath. Here you will find out about Westmeath’s history and archaeology, its buildings and architecture, its culture and sport and its famous (and occasionally infamous) men and women. Through quaint villages and bustling towns, this book takes the reader on a journey through County Westmeatj and its vibrant past. A reliable reference book and a quirky guide, this can be dipped into time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the heritage and the secrets of this fascinating county.

The Irish do death differently. Funeral attendance is a solemn duty - but it can also be a big day out, requiring sophisticated crowd control, creative parking solutions and a high-end sound system. Despite having the same basic end-of-life infrastructure as other Western countries, Irish culture handles death with a unique blend of dignified ritual and warm sociability. In Sorry for Your Trouble, Ann Marie Hourihane holds up a mirror to the Irish way of death: the funny bits, the sad bits, and the hard-to-explain bits that tell us so much about who we are. She follows the last weeks of a woman's life in hospice; she witnesses an embalming; she attends inquests; she talks to people working to prevent suicide; she follows the team of specialists working to locate the remains of people 'disappeared' by the IRA; and she visits some of Ireland's most contested graves. She also explores the strange and sometimes surprising histories of Irish death practices, from the traditional wake and ritual lamentations to the busy commerce between anatomists and bodysnatchers. And she goes to funerals, of ordinary and extraordinary people all over the country - including that of her own father. 'I had joined a club,' she writes, 'the club of people who have lost someone very close to them.' And then, with her family, she sets about planning a funeral in the middle of a pandemic. Sorry for Your Trouble sheds fresh, wise and witty light on a key pillar of Irish culture: a vast but strangely underexplored subject. Rich, sparkling and eye-opening, it is one of the best books ever written about Irish life. ___________________________ 'A beautiful, insightful reflection on a very, very peculiar country's approach to the oddest experience of them all' RYAN TUBRIDY 'Hugely moving and illuminating. All of life, somehow, is here' TANYA SWEENEY, IRISH INDEPENDENT 'Moving, comforting and funny' BUSINESS POST

A DIRECTORY ONLY OF COUNTRY MUSIC ARTISTS AND THEIR NOSTALGIC BACKING GROUPS FROM THE 1920s TO THE PRESENT

Nathan Carter has become Ireland's biggest country music star. He is heralded by many as reviving the country music genre and bringing it into the mainstream. He has sold out venues across the UK and Ireland, has landed his own primetime show, and is loved and respected by legions of fans across Ireland. But how did a lad from Liverpool accomplish all this before the age of 27? In his revealing and inspirational autobiography, Nathan reminisces about his music filled childhood, and growing up in Merseyside with his Liverpool-Irish family. From his first taste of showbiz at the tender age of four, to his success on the north of England club circuit and his subsequent relocation to Donegal, Nathan explores the twists of fate that took him to chart success and to become Ireland's adopted poster boy for country music.

Born in Sligo into a family of travelling entertainers, Sandy Kelly has become one of the top musical performers in Ireland. Sandy was co-opted into the family variety show from an early age. As a teenager she sang on the social club circuit in the UK, playing an ever more prominent role. When she returned to Ireland, she developed initially as a pop performer before following her instincts and concentrating on a music career. Her landmark 1989 recording of the Patsy Cline hit 'Crazy' led her to perform on stages all over the world, including the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and the lead role in Patsy – The Musical in London's West End. But the music industry can be a tough place. Sandy has dealt with prejudice and financial pressures. Alongside the glamour of show business, she has experienced the heartaches of divorce, family illness and death, and faced the challenges of raising a daughter with special needs. Sandy has stood strong at the heart of Ireland's music scene for over four decades. Here, for the first time, she recounts the highs – and lows – of a lifetime in music, in her own words.

Combining the razor-sharp wit of writer Declan Lynch with illustrations and contributions from Father Ted co-creator Arthur Mathews. Since Declan Lynch and Arthur Mathews first shone a light into this darkest corner of the darkest living room in all of Ireland over a decade ago, things have actually got worse for that almost-forgotten species we call the Poor Ould Fellas - impossible though it seems. Further confined to their unhappy dwelling places by the drink-driving laws, a new range of challenges have emerged to torment them in a baffling post-analog world, where emails seek to release them from the few remaining shillings that weren't stolen by bankers during the crash. Now they must negotiate a universe full of new words (falafel, bitcoin, Spotify) and concepts (texting, sexting, going away for the weekend, composing a tweet, growing a beard, online banking) that mean absolutely nothing to them. Notes from a Lost Tribe is a hilarious road map through a world of forgotten men and their equally forgotten dogs, who ask for so little - yet it is denied them. And still ... somehow ... inexplicably ... they go on.