The O’Brien Press

‘Dream big. You can’t put a limit on your dreams because nothing is impossible.’ Katie Mullan, Ireland Hockey Captain

Are you ready to be inspired?

Open this book and discover a world of courage, bravery and adventure.

Adventurers, explorers, inventors, dreamers.... for a small country Irish people have had a huge impact internationally. From helping street children in India, to saving Jewish children during World War II and exploring new worlds, their reach has been world-wide. From Michael Collins to Rosie Hackett, Lady Gregory to Tom Crean, this book celebrates the brave and daring Irish.

Be inspired by some of Ireland’s most daring and fearless men and women.

Sarah Webb is a children’s author who combines writing with schools visits, reading and giving workshops at festivals, and teaching creative writing. She has won two Irish Book Awards for her children's books (for A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea and Blazing a Trail), as well as the Children’s Books Ireland Award for Outstanding Contribution to Children’s Books, awarded in 2015. Sarah worked for many years as a children’s bookseller and was writer in residence for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in 2016/2017: she is currently the Children’s Literary Advisor to Listowel Writers’ Week. For more, visit www.sarahwebb.info

a companion publication to the fantastic Blazing A Trail … vivid portraits by Graham Corcoran … Sarah Webb’s accessible prose delivers key and fun facts. This title is a great addition to school bookshelves with lots of scope for further reading and project-based work … discover … be inspired

InTouch Magazine

incredible true-life stories … concise one-page biographies of well-known and lesser-known figures from all walks of Irish history and contemporary life, from revolutionaries like Pádraig Pearse and Elizabeth O’Farrell to rock-stars like Bono and Hozier. However, it is the lesser-known stories - like that of American Civil War soldier Albert DJ Cashier and adventurer Madam Dragonfly - that really sing. Graham Corcoran’s chiselled portraits dominate suggestive background landscapes, which use a few key details to support Webb’s pithy prose’ 

Irish Times

amazing lives that will inspire young dreamers … provides plenty of inspiration for the country’s next generation of movers and shakers

Evening Echo

Teaching Resources: free to view and download

• Download Teaching Guides: Teaching guide to the book by Nicola Heaney