Mary Lou McDonald is the bookies' favourite to be Ireland's next Taoiseach. She would be the first woman to reach the office, and the first Sinn Féin leader ever to enter government in the Republic of Ireland. But how did a quintessentially bourgeois woman become the leader of a political party with such recent links to terrorism?

This exhaustively researched biography unearths new details of her family background and her privileged education, as well as her initial foray into politics through the more traditional Fianna Fáil party. It explores her unusually late commitment to political life and traces her mysterious but meteoric rise through the ranks of Sinn Féin and her relentless drive to reach the top of the party.

Scrupulously fair and balanced, Mary Lou McDonald illuminates its subject's political awakening and her interactions with the hard men of the IRA, while posing important questions about the evolution and future of Sinn Féin.

[A] lively, punchy biography...Ross tells it crisply, bringing it all together and lacing the plot line of her career with interesting anecdotes and occasionally his own acerbic analysis. * Irish Times *
Ross has penned an engaging narrative of this chameleon's career so far. A fine achievement considering the party slammed every door it could in his face. * Irish Independent *
Extremely well-written...an ideal Christmas present for those interested in current affairs * Sunday Times (Ireland) *
Ross has done a thorough job... in which he articulates so well the doubts that will play in the mind of potential voters * Literary Review *

Shane Ross has been a stockbroker, a journalist, a politician and an author. He was Business Editor of the Sunday Independent for over sixteen years, and a member of the Seanad for 29 years before taking a Dáil seat in 2011. In 2016, he became Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, serving in government for over four years.