Fierce Love is a compelling and candid biography of Cork-born theatre pioneer (1918-2006) Mary O'Malley, founder-director of Belfast's Lyric Players Theatre from 1951 to 1981.

Fierce Love, a scholarly work, is sourced from production notebooks and copious correspondence held in NUI Galway, measuring for the first time the achievements of a controversial and resourceful woman swimming against the tide of populism and sectarianism to establish an independent academy for actors and artists in a tireless quest for imaginative freedom and excellence.