Growing up in the Troubles: Máiría Cahill and Martin Doyle

Martin Doyle is Books Editor of The Irish Times, which he joined in 2007. He is a former Editor of The Irish Post, where he worked from 1992 to 2001. He is the author of Dirty Linen: The Troubles in my Home Place (Merrion Press, 2023) and edited A History of The Irish Post (London, 2000).

“Rough Beast is shocking, important and unputdownable.” Roddy Doyle.

The Number One Bestseller Rough Beast is Máiría Cahill’s harrowing story of her life and of what she went through at the hands of what is now Ireland’s largest and richest party. That story is told here for the first time in full detail and with unsparing honesty. It is a story of unimaginable trauma and political corruption. It brings to life a world of paramilitary secrecy and parallel laws, but above all it is the story of one young woman’s defiance of the power wielded by ex-gunmen inspiring fear and silence, and their influence over elected politicians. 

Máiría Cahill is a writer, a political opinion columnist, a media commentator, and a former Senator and Councillor. She currently writes for The Sunday Independent, and her writing has also appeared in The Belfast Telegraph, The Spectator, Fortnight Magazine and The Sunday Times. She presented a radio programme on community radio and worked voluntary for a community festival for ten years and is also a media commentator, appearing most frequently on the BBC’s Nolan show. She was born in West Belfast in 1981 and currently lives in Northern Ireland with her teenage daughter.