Our book discoveries online are nudged, shaped, and predicted. So, how do we find books that we may not have already heard about?

Mercier Press. Based in Cork, has spent decades documenting, preserving and sharing Ireland’s multitude of voices. Curators as much as publishers.

If you’re searching for a new book, location does more than mark a spot — it’s a badge of authenticity. Mercier Press in Cork is more than a publishing office and bookshop. It’s a signal: these books come from within Irish life.

Mercier Press has direct access to lived Irish experience, real knowledge rooted in the cadence of greetings, the weight of old stories mixed with the briny air that comes from the Lee.

This rootedness has given rise to diverse authors. Think Theo Dorgan, traversing Cork and Paris in CAMARADE. Eugene Reavey and Ken Murray exploring the wounds of The Troubles in The Killing of The Reavey Brothers and forthcoming fiction from Carina McNally, Julie O’Leary Reilly, and Rebecca Murphy. Each book isn’t just Irish by label; Mercier Press is not an Irish imprint of a larger UK or USA Publishing house. It’s Irish by immersion, passed through the hands of a publisher deeply entangled in the life of the place for over 80 years.

The Irish publishers we work closely with are O’ Brien Press, Merrion Press, New Island, Lilliput Press, Skein Press, Bullaun Press, Little Island, Dedalus and literary journals such as The Stinging Fly and Banshee. Each publisher fills its own role in a much larger field. Our bookshelves are democratic: historical biography, fiction, poetry, sport, translated European thinkers and Irish language works.

The range of publications from these independent publishers speaks to our mutual philosophy: Irish culture isn’t a single voice, but a chorus. Tradition next to innovation. Legacy beside fresh takes. Translations find room among local histories, children’s literature and sporting memoirs.

We also love when Irish stories get translated into other languages, take John B. Keane’s SIVE, which is on the Irish Leaving Certificate curriculum; we had so many requests from Ukrainian students who were studying SIVE that Mercier Press and Literature Ireland have collaborated to co-publish Sive translated to Ukrainian as Сайв by Andriy Masliukh (Андрій Маслюх). This publication brings a significant work in Ireland’s theatrical canon directly to the Ukrainian community in Ireland. Mercier Press and Literature Ireland hope many new Ukrainian readers and Leaving Certificate students will engage with the play’s timeless characters and themes.

Buying Irish books used to be about finding the closest bookshop. Now there are many ways to find your next read. How do these books reach readers? Mercier Press takes a broad approach. Call it format inclusivity. Print, for those who love the heft and smell. Ebooks, for convenience and portability. And audiobooks, which nod to oral traditions, adding a new layer to familiar stories. Discover our new audiobooks wherever you buy audio, including The Ballycotton Job, perfect for history lovers who also enjoy a good adventure story. Jackie Loves Johnser OK? For gritty urban drama and Romantic Historical Fiction from the bad-ass pre-independence Ireland writer, Annie M. P. Smithson, who was the Maeve Binchy of her day.

Today’s readers now find the story where it fits best in their lives.

Mercier Press is rooted in Cork, but our books travel far, across Ireland and the UK, and out to the Irish diaspora worldwide. Does a book lose something when read in Sydney or New York? Or does it gain? Perhaps Irish stories are at their most Irish when shared abroad, carrying home to new places, starting new conversations anywhere the reader might be. Our catalogue supports this idea. Books like The Friendship Cup: Palestine to Ireland create bridges, linking Irish experience to global narratives. Translations bring in outside perspectives, opening dialogue between Irish life and the wider world and fostering empathy. We don’t just want to read Irish stories; we want to read stories that matter to Irish people. Take our latest publication, ‘Rotten Evidence’ by Ahmed Naji, the Egyptian writer’s prison memoir, is surprisingly relevant to anyone who’s watched the censorship of Belfast rappers Kneecap.

‘Is it worth reading?’
This question matters now more than ever. With endless options, serious readers want more than labels. They want books that provoke and inform. They want books that matter, books that challenge their thinking. They want to get lost in the story.

The most challenging issue now is the conflict between the algorithm and authenticity. Digital platforms suggest what you already like, sometimes endlessly looping. But real discovery? The joy of finding a book you never imagined? Go to your local bookstore and speak with a bookseller. We guarantee that you will find your next read, and it will be from an author you may have never heard of, curated by the bookseller exactly to your mood at that moment.

This challenge is sharpest with Irish published books, especially fiction and non-fiction, outside of the bestseller charts. Did you know that there is no Independent Bookshop data panel in Ireland at the moment? The Irish bestseller list in the weekly papers is tallied from a handful of bookstores. So, what are Irish people reading outside of Big Data? What books are selling in the smaller, independent bookstores? Big data doesn’t know, but we do. Algorithms surface the well-known titles, but miss the subtle, local, or quiet ones. That’s where publishers like Mercier Press play a crucial role, directing readers to what they might otherwise miss.

Our website and blog provide the context: why this book matters, what tradition it joins, what conversation it continues or disrupts. Discovery.

If you want to hear what Ireland is saying, Mercier Press is a strong place to start, whether you’re browsing their new bookstore in Cork or scrolling from abroad. In a world of algorithmic ‘recommendations’, human curation stands out.

So finding the best Irish books is as much about asking good questions as about knowing the right places to look. Look for the books and the publishers that show you why this story matters.