Tales of passion and romance, love on the battlefield, affairs kept secret on pain of death ... From the bride who married in a prison cell, to the leader caught in a love triangle, to the revolutionaries who did their loving on the run, the romantic lives of Ireland's most famous characters have been predictably turbulent. Some Irish lovers have shocked a nation and brought down governments, some have produced the world's most beautiful poetry, some have reached across oceans - not to mention deep divisions at home - to find love. Marian Broderick views historical Irish romances through a contemporary lens, from the legendary lovers of prehistory to more modern convention-defying pioneers. The greatest Irish romances from history. With chapters on Inspirations, Love & War, Love Across the Divide, Secrets & Scandals and When Love Goes Wrong, among others, Marian Broderick tells of the men and women whose passions drove them to be together: often in the face of society, family, and even their own safety. From the legendary Deirdre and Naoise to WB Yeats and Maud Gonne, Charles Stuart Parnell and Katherine O'Shea to Hilton Edwards and Micheal MacLiammoir, romantic Ireland is far from dead and gone!

From patriots to pirates, warriors to writers, and mistresses to male impersonators, this book looks at the unorthodox lives of inspiring Irish women. In times when women were expected to marry and have children, they travelled the world and sought out adventures; in times when women were expected to be seen and not heard, they spoke out in loud voices against oppression; in times when women were expected to have no interest in politics, literature, art, or the world outside the home, they used every creative means available to give expression to their thoughts, ideas and beliefs. In a series of succinct and often amusing biographies, Marian Broderick tells the life stories of these exceptional Irish women.