A fave
Our Facebook group has 2,190 members. It was starting to feel like all of them had something to say when we asked them a question: What’s your favorite Irish book? We expected a healthy response, but nothing like the torrent of recommendations that came flooding our way. If you’re looking for some great Irish-themed reads for your stay in North Wildwood (or wherever your family summer migration pattern dictates), we have a ton of suggestions.
Before we boil things down—and that’ll be hard, because there were so many ideas—we invite you to join the group on Facebook. If you aren’t a regular visitor, you’re missing out.
Here’s some of what our Facebook pals recommended. (We won’t be able to include them all.)
First off, there was a lot of agreement around certain books, and certain authors. Not surprisingly, books by the prolific Roddy Doyle made the cut.
Thomas Ivory’s favorites: The Barrytown Trilogy, which included “The Commitments,” “The Snapper,” and “The Van.” They’re all hilariously irreverent tales of the
Rabbitte family of Barrytown, a North Dublin working class suburb. If you’ve seen any of the movies based on the books—”The Commitments” being the best-known—you know what we’re talking about. As great as the movies were, the books are so much better and grittier. “Not sure if they’re my favorites,” Tom says, “but they’d be good beach reading.”
Tom also recommended anything by Sebastian Barry. “A Long Long Way” and “The Secret Scripture,” for two.)
Tom O’Malley and Rosie McGill also recommended a Doyle masterwork—a bit on the serious side, but equally gritty, the brilliant “A Star Called Henry.” Laura McPhail also recommended anything by Doyle.
A couple of books by Frank McCourt, not surprisingly, also made the cut: his masterwork, “Angela’s Ashes,” and the later “Teacher Man.” Of the latter, Mary Beth Bonner Ryan says: “I laughed so hard, he tells some of his experiences as teacher and the journey he took from Ireland to America. Very good light read, perfect for a nice summer read!”
One surprise: A few of our friends highly recommended a book about Ireland written by an author who is most decidedly not Irish: the historical novel “Trinity,” following the lives of Catholic and Protestant families, and the tensions that arise from long-simmering religious and political differences. The author is Leon Uris.
Says Kevin Quigg: “Even though Leon Uris is American, I read the novel in Ireland while staying in the area where the story took place.”
Brendan O’Neill also recommended “Trinity.”
If you’re looking for something lighter (MUCH lighter) many of us recommended an incredibly silly book, “Round Ireland With a Fridge,” by Brit comedian Tony Hawks. It just goes to show the lengths to which people will go to win a bar bet. We’ll leave it at that. I loved it, my Irish Philly partner in crime Denise Foley loved it, and so did Rich McEntee:
“”Round Ireland with a Fridge” was ferkin hilareous, I recommend it to everyone. not sure it should be read in public though, unless you are very not-shy about busting out in laughter.”
Kathleen Madigan had so many recommendations, it’s probably a good thing we posted the question on Facebook, and not Twitter:
“Here are a few: 1- “The House on a n Irish Hillside” by Felicity Hughes-McCoy. It is a true story about rediscovering one self though simplicity; 2- “Ireland” by Frank Delaney; 3- The series by Patrick Taylor. I have read “Irish Country Doctor”, “Irish Country Village”, Irish Country Christmas”, and “Irish Country Girl”. I am now starting on “Irish Country Courtship”. There are also others in the series I haven’t read yet; 4- “When Ireland Fell Silent” by Harolyn Enis. Have tissues for this one.”
A pile of recommendations, too, from Anne Torpey Smith, leading off with McCourt’s seminal work: “”Angela’s Ashes” still has to be my all-time favorite Irish book. I recently read “A Week In Winter” by Maeve Binchy and enjoyed that. Also Tess Gerritsen’s “The Bone Garden” appealed to me in two ways—being of Irish descent and as a nurse. One character was a poor female Irish immigrant in Boston. One aspect of the story was the fate of many poor women dying from “childbirth fever”, before the simple step of washing one’s hands between deliveries became commonplace for doctors and nurses.”
Runa lead singer Shannon Lambert-Ryan chimes in with a travelogue that makes you believe lovers (she and her spouse Fionán de Barra) can truly be star-crossed: “Lonely Planet Ireland 1999—A picture of Fionán busking on Grafton Street was in the book. I must have seen that picture a hundred times from when I took it on my first trip to Ireland in March 1999 before I met him in 2006! Who knew I would wind up marrying that guy in the picture!”
We could go on, but we’re running out of room. OK, yes, we know this is a blog, and you really can’t ever run out of room, but still … start with this bunch, and then visit us on Facebook to see the rest.
And you can continue the discussion here by adding your comments.
