Around Ireland saunas have become new hubs of community as thousands of
people are being drawn to the powerful forces of fire, water, steam and sweat.
Sweathouse threads together the 3,000-year-old tradition of sauna in Ireland and
reveals for the first time how this ‘new craze’ is a forgotten Irish legacy,
smouldering just below the surface, waiting for its moment to catch fire again.
Combining in-depth research with personal experience, Cooney crawls inside
enigmatic stone sweathouses in search of their long-held secrets, and traces
Ireland’s extraordinary role in the spread of sweat-bathing across the world. She
travels around Europe to wild and magical saunas, bringing home their deep
expertise on how to get the best physical, mental and spiritual benefits from
each sweat session.
Sweathouse includes a county-by-county guide to Ireland’s mobile saunas and
cold plunges, where you can bask in the heat and then revel in the truly clarifying
effects of an icy dip.
This is a powerful human story that connects us to each other and to our past.
It will leave you longing for the profound release of a sweat, the quiet, healing
stillness of a simple, life-affirming shared ritual.