50^th Anniversary Edition 

A beautifully presented and attractively laid out commemorative edition, with new introductions by Ivan O’Brien, MD of The O’Brien Press and best-selling author Dónal Fallon.

The very first book published by The O’Brien Press in 1974 celebrates fifty years in print.

The O’Brien Press launched its first publication in November 1974. Me Jewel and Darlin' Dublin, written by Éamonn MacThomáis and published while the author was in jail, was an immediate success and has become a classic. Full of historical facts, anecdotes and Dublin wit, this book evokes the spirit, the characters and colours, the sights, sounds and even the smells of old Dublin. With sections on markets, pawn shops, street characters, the Liberties, slang and wit of Dublin’s newspapers, the city’s history is traced right back to Brian Boru, the Huguenots, ‘the debtors’ prison', and Dublin's troubled history of risings and revolutions.

Celebrating fifty years of Me Jewel & Darlin’ Dublin – and of The O’Brien Press.

Many books have been written about various aspects of Dublin, but none has captured the atmosphere of the living city so well as Me Jewel and Darlin' Dublin

MacThomáis makes the city sing with his uncanny ear for the voices and sounds that give it its uniqueness. A book to treasure.

those yet to engage with the book are in for a treat, as it is a truly unique piece of writing, in the mould of James Joyce and Flann O’Brien

Éamonn Mac Thomáis takes us on a colourful romp across the city - north, south, east and west and across the river Liffey - telling us many intimate stories about the history, the characters and the places they inhabited. The written material is greatly enhanced by the great variety of illustrations in the book, particularly the line drawings by Michael O’Brien … full of human interest, anecdotes and colour which more than justifies the publication of its 50th anniversary edition, hopefully to be enjoyed, as it was by me, by many present and future generations’ 

Éamonn MacThomáis (13 January 1927–16 August 2002) was an author, broadcaster, historian, Irish Republican, advocate of the Irish language and lecturer. He presented his own series on Dublin on RTÉ during the 1970s and was well known for guided tours of and lectures on his beloved Dublin. He is buried in Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery. Michael O'Brien was born in 1941 and founded The O'Brien Press in 1974, and developed it to become Ireland's leading independent book publishing company for adults and children. As an artist he illustrated several of our early publications, including Me Jewel and Darling Dublin, as well as books on Rathgar/Churchtown and Tallaght. He died in July 2022. DONAL FALLON is a lecturer and historian based in Dublin. Co-founder of the popular social history website ‘Come Here To Me’, his previous publications include The Pillar: The Life and After Life of the Nelson Pillar (New Island, 2014). He is currently completing a PhD on republican commemoration and memory in 1930s Ireland.