I received a free copy of this book from O’Brien Press in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a perfect read for anyone looking to learn a little bit more about Irish history - the names we learn in history books growing up, and the ones we don’t.

This book is both informative, and pretty funny, and some of the cheeky observations about certain people and the feelings about them in current Ireland had me chuckling a lot. The addition of some humourous illustrations were also great.

I personally would have liked a little bit more female figures, though I do understand that there’s not as much known about them, and this is stated in the book as well. But some figures like Kathleen Clarke (the first female Lord Mayor of Dublin) and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, a prominent Irish suffragette, and Winnie Carney, one of the last women to leave the GPO during the 1916 Easter Rising, were all missing and definitely deserved a place. Even Aoife MacMurrough could have received her own entry, apart from her brief mention in her father’s due to her marriage to Strongbow.