Having spent thirty-five years committed to Irish politics, Ruairi Quinn has now written about his own journey - a journey that has taken him to the heights of power as Labour's first ever Minister for Finance and Leader of the Labour Party. From his days as a student radical, Ruairi captures the events that have taken Ireland into the twenty-first century - the economic and political crises of the 1980s, the fall of the Iron Curtain and the rise of the EU. A new decade saw the revolutionary presidential election of Mary Robinson, the birth of the euro and the emergence of the Celtic Tiger and Ireland's dramatic economic success. Victories, defeats, triumphs and betrayals are all revealed as his career coincides with the remarkable social and economic transformation of Ireland. In his straight-talking, no-nonsense style, Ruairi Quinn offers a unique insider's view into the cut and thrust of Irish political life. Straight Left is an honest, revealing and engrossing account of the great highs and bitter lows of political life from one of Ireland's best known and influential political voices.