The Invisible Prison: Scenes from an Irish Childhood

Poet and broadcaster Pat Boran was born in 1963 and grew up, during the northern 'Troubles', in the southern Irish town best known as the home of Ireland's maximum security political prison.

Part memoir, part social history, part meditation on community itself, The Invisible Prison is a funny, moving, and by times heart-breaking look at Irish life, and Irish family life, and the energies and passions that animate it.

"An Extraordinary Tale of an Ordinary Childhood."
Des Kenny

"A writer of great tenderness and lyricism."
Agenda

Available in paperback or signed hardback.

Pat Boran was born in Portlaoise, Ireland in 1963 and currently lives in Dublin. Prior to taking over the running of the press in 2005, he had published four collections of poetry with Dedalus: The Unwound Clock (1990), which won the Patrick Kavanagh Award, Familiar Things (1993), The Shape of Water (1996) and As the Hand, the Glove (2001). His New and Selected Poems was reissued, with minor revisions, by Dedalus in November 2007. In addition to poetry he has published a collection of short stories, Strange Bedfellows (1991) and his short fiction titles for children include All the Way from China (1999) which was a finalist for the Bisto Book of the Year Award. His non-fiction titles include the writers' handbook The Portable Creative Writing Workshop and A Short History of Dublin. A former editor of Poetry Ireland Review and presenter of The Poetry Programme on RTÉ Radio 1, he has also edited Wingspan: A Dedalus Sampler (2006) and Flowing, Still: Irish Poets on Irish Poetry (2009). In 2007 he was elected to the membership of Aosdána and in 2008 he received the Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Poetry Award of the University of St Thomas, St Paul, MN.