A well-known Laois woman and advocate has announced the news of an exciting book deal with Merrion Press and Dubray Books.

Abbeyleix woman Emma Fogarty has been public in her battle with EB (epidermolysis bullosa) and is known for her activism with Debra Ireland.

The local woman recently made headlines for her €1 million fundraiser for the charity, with the help of her great friend actor Colin Farrell.

Her autobiography 'Being Emma' hits the shelves this week, and the Leinster Express / Laois Live is excited to share a brief snippet.

Pictured: Laois EB activist Emma Fogarty, pictured with her new autobiography

"Surprise!" Ms Fogarty shared on social media.

"Bet 'ye didn’t expect this! This is my story of #BeingEmma. EB is only part of who I am, it’s not all of me. So if you want to know who I really am. Well, all I can say is Happy Reading!" she shared.

"I hope you enjoy reading my book as much as I enjoyed writing it.  Thank you to Merrion Press  for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to achieve my life long ambition to tell my story," Ms Fogarty said.

"Also, thank you to Dubray Books for donating €2 to Debra Ireland for every book sold! Amazing! Enjoy," the activist turned author finished.

See the first sneak peek into Emma's book below. Copyright of Merrion Press.

"My mother tells me that when I was was born the room fell deathly silent. She knew something was wrong, but she didn't know what. Neither did the nurses, nor the doctor they rushed to find.

That silence didn't last because I began to cry, and my mother tells me I didn't stop at all. Because I was born in terrible pain.

My name is Emma Fogarty and I've just turned forty-one. I live in Abbeyleix, in a nice home with views of the fields, and I love my fashion, my shoes, my music and a glass of bubbly at any opportunity.

Oh, and I have a genetic skin condition called Epidermolysis Bullosa.

We shorten that mouthful to EB. What it means is that I'm missing the collagen that sits between the layers of my skin.

I'll explain it to you this way. Imagine that your skin is attached to your muscle with a sort of Velcro. Well, I don't have the Velcro at all and so there's nothing giving my skin any stick. The layers of my skin just float around on top of each other. Skin is fragile anyway, but with no collagen, if I get hit, my skin tears like paper.

And there is nothing anyone can do about it.

With my form of EB, both parents have to have a faulty gene to cause the condition. Of course, my parents didn't know that when their eyes met across a dance hall in Limerick, and they didn't know it when they married and when my mom was pregnant with me.

The first time they knew of it was when they were told what was wrong with their new baby. And it was a while before they heard the words 'Epidermolysis Bullosa' at all. The first thing said to them by the doctor was that I would not live a week.

Maybe the fact that I did survive the week, and the next one, and the year, and on and on, formed in me a sort of stubborn insistence that I would live and I would be happy. Because I am. I love my life and I love living every day of it, even the hardest ones.

And there are plenty of those.

You see, I have EB, but it is not me; EB is not who I am. EB is a condition I have. But I am not my skin. I am Emma. I am Catherine's sister, Pat and Malachy's daughter, Kim's friend I've got a life behind me and a life ahead of me. Just like you.

This is my story."

Longtime friend of Ms Fogarty, actor Colin Farrell, wrote a touching tribute in the autobiography's foreword.

"My friend Emma Fogarty is truly one of the most extraordinary women I have ever had the good fortune of meeting," Colin Farrell wrote.

"Emma's greatest defiance is not that she has lived to see her forty-first birthday, though doctors-as she was born said she would live only weeks. Her greatest defiance is her insistence on living a full and meaningful life. A life of adventure and joy," Mr Farrell penned.

"I'm so thrilled she has decided to share her story. It is a story not only of an individual's call to arms in the daily fight of having a warrior spirit trapped in a battle-broken body," he said.

"It is also a family story. Of her mother, Pat, and father, Malachy, and her sister, Catherine. The love they have shared. The triumph of that love through all the challenges that life has thrown in their shared path.

"[Emma is] one of the greatest teachers we have and if the reader can feel even an ounce of the wonder, the sorrow, the strength and hope that I have felt in knowing her, then they will walk away with a life enriched for the time spent in the company of this amazing woman," he finished.

'Being Emma: Living My Best Life with Butterfly Skin' hits the shelves on September 30, 2025.

Read Next: Laois EB activist Emma Fogarty delivers €1 million from Colin Farrell marathon fundraiser