Comedian PJ Gallagher announces new memoir about his chaotic life growing up in Dublin

Titled Mad House, the book is described as a “riotous story” of Gallagher’s early life, from his disinterest in school to embarking on his comedy career and keeping his “head above water”.

Sharing the news on social media, Gallagher said: “Big news. I’ve written a book. It’s called Mad House.”

Gallagher was born in a mother and baby home and arrived in Dublin at six-months old.

In the book, he describes his childhood growing up with the “local alcoholics in his parents’ northside pub”.

Gallagher says the chaos that reigned for the first ten years of his life was nothing compared to what happened when his parents lost the pub and his mother took in psychiatric patients from the local hospital to give them “care in the community”.

“Now it was a household of ten, PJ, his sister, his parents and six lost souls. Worst. Idea. Ever,” says the memoir.

Throughout the book Gallagher writes powerfully about mental health and his experience in a psychiatric hospital following his mental health struggles in 2021.

“Most surprising, to PJ more than anyone, is the prospect of becoming a dad in his late forties, when he always thought ‘family’ was a dirty word and avoided commitment,” says the book.

Mad House, published by Penguin Books Ireland, is available to preorder and will be out November 2