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Most of the books we've listed are in print and in paperback - those
that are out of print (o/p) should be easy to track down in secondhand
bookshops. Publishers follow each title; first the UK or Irish publisher,
then the US. Only one publisher is listed if the UK/Irish and US
publishers are the same. Where books are published in only one of these
countries, UK, IRE or US follows the publisher's name
History and politics
John Ardagh , Ireland and the Irish: Portrait of a Changing Society (Penguin).
Comprehensive and lively, this is an excellent anatomy of Irish society
and its efforts to come to terms with the modern world.
Jonathan Bardon , A History of Ulster (Blackstaff; Dufour). A
comprehensive account from early settlements to the current Troubles.
Brian Barton , A Pocket History of Ulster (O'Brien, Irish American Book
Co.). Accessible account of Northern Irish politics from the years prior
to Partition to the present day.
J.C. Beckett , The Making of Modern Ireland 1603-1923 (Faber; Trafalgar
o/p). Concise and elegant, this is probably the best introduction to the
complexities of Irish history.
David Beresford , Ten Men Dead (HarperCollins; Atlantic Monthly).
Revelatory account of the 1981 hunger strike, using the prison
correspondence as its basic material; a powerful refutation of the
demonologies of the British press.
Angela Bourke , The Burning of Bridget Clearly (Pimlico UK). Impeccably
researched account of nefarious goings-on in Tipperary in the 1890s,
describing the sensational case of a young woman supposedly taken by the
fairies, tortured and murdered, and the subsequent trial of her husband,
father, aunt and four cousins.
Terence Brown , Ireland: A Social and Cultural History 1922 to the
Present (HarperCollins; Cornell University Press). Brillantly perceptive
survey of writers' responses to the dog's breakfast made of
postrevolutionary Ireland by its leaders.
Max Caulfield , The Easter Rebellion (Gill & Macmillan; Roberts Rinehart
o/p). Recently revised account of the events of 1916, originally
published in 1963, brought to life with interviews with those involved.
Michael Collins , In His Own Words (Gill & Macmillan IRE). A collection
of extracts from the revolutionary's writings and speeches.
S.J. Connolly (ed), The Oxford Companion to Irish History (OUP). A
massive introduction to almost every aspect of Irish history.
Tim Pat Coogan , The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1969-1995 and the Search
for Peace (Arrow; Museum of Denver). The former Irish Press editor's
popular-history writing has many followers and his The IRA (Fontana;
Roberts Rinehart) is a contemporary classic. His earlier books on two
icons of modern Ireland, Michael Collins (Arrow; Roberts Rinehart o/p)
and De Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow (Arrow; Harper o/p), are
essential reading.
Sean Duffy , The Atlas of Irish History (Gill & Macmillan IRE). A good
introduction to Irish history, rich with maps, diagrams and drawings.
Peter Berresford Ellis , Hell or Connaught (Blackstaff; Dufour) and The
Boyne Water (o/p). Vivid popular histories of Cromwell's rampage and the
pivotal Battle of the Boyne.
Michael Farrell , Arming the Protestants: The Formation of the Ulster
Special Constabulary and the Royal Ulster Constabulary, 1920-1927 (Pluto
o/p; Longwood o/p). Farrell is a fine journalist and veteran of Northern
Ireland's civil rights campaigns. In Northern Ireland: The Orange State
(Pluto UK) he argues, as the title implies, from a Republican
standpoint; it's an occasionally tendentious but extremely persuasive
political account of the development of Northern Ireland.
Garret FitzGerald , All in a Life (Gill & Macmillan UK o/p). The first
former Taoiseach to write his memoirs has produced an extraordinary
book, characteristically frank, and full of detail on the working of
government.
David Fitzpatrick , Oceans of Consolation: Personal Accounts of
Migration to Australia . (Cork University Press; Cornell University
Press). Using over a hundred unedited letters largely written around the
1850s and 1860s, this book brings to life the experiences of loss and
longing of Irish emigrants to Australia.
R.F. Foster , Modern Ireland 1600-1972 (Penguin). Superb and provocative
new book, generally reckoned to be unrivalled in its scholarship and
acuity, although it has been criticized for what some feel to be an
excessive sympathy towards the Anglo-Irish. Not recommended for
beginners.
Kathleen Hughes and Ann Hamlin , The Modern Traveller to the Early Irish
Church (Four Courts Press IRE). The remains of monastic settlements are
found all over Ireland and this revised edition enhances the visitor's
appreciation by reconstructing the daily religious and secular life of
Ireland in the Early Christian Period; also includes a detailed list of
recommended sites.
Gemma Hussey , Ireland Today: Anatomy of a Changing State (Penguin o/p).
A well-regarded and invaluable source of information on Ireland's
changing identity by this ex-government minister.
Robert Kee , The Green Flag (Penguin; 3 vols). Scrupulous history of
Irish Nationalism from the first plantations to the creation of the Free
State. Masterful as narrative and as analysis.
Dáire Keogh and Nicholas Furlong (eds), The Women of 1798 (Four Courts
Press IRE). Women are often "hidden" in Irish history and this
collection of essays reasserts the vital role many played in the 1798
Rebellion, from Matilda Tone (wife of Wolfe) who redefined the role of
woman as patriot, to the Belfast revolutionary Mary Anne McCracken.
Christine Kinealy , This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine (Gill &
MacMillan; Roberts Rinehart o/p). Unravels fact from fiction through
systematic analysis of primary source material related to the Great
Famine.
F.S.L. Lyons , Ireland Since the Famine (HarperCollins UK). The most
complete overview of recent Irish history; either iconoclastic or
revisionist, depending on your point of view.
T.W. Moody and F.X. Martin (eds), The Course of Irish History (Mercier;
Madison Books). Highly readable collection of essays on many aspects of
Irish history.
R.J. Scally , The End of the Hidden Ireland: Rebellion, Famine and
Emigration (OUP UK). History revealing the strategies deployed by one
particular Roscommon peasant community in their struggle to avoid
eviction and emigration; this book also details their exploitation by
Irish Catholic middlemen.
David Sharrock & Mark Prendergast , Man of War, Man of Peace? The
Unauthorised Biography of Gerry Adams (MacMillan UK). Lengthy, detailed
account of the Sinn Féin leader's rise to prominence.
Cecil Woodham Smith , The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-1849 (Penguin). The
classic history of the Famine, superseded by recent research, but still
a superb and harrowing narrative.
A.T.Q. Stewart , The Narrow Ground (Blackstaff Press IRE). A Unionist
overview of the history of the North from 1609 to the 1960s, providing
an essential background to the current situation.
Ruth Taillon , Women of 1916 (Beyond the Pale IRE). Key documentation of
the part played by women in the struggle for independence.
Peter Taylor , Provos: The IRA and Sinn Féin (Bloomsbury), published in
USA as Behind the Mask (TV Books). Study of the historical development
of the Provisional IRA, including fascinating interviews with IRA
members.
Kevin Toolis , Rebel Hearts: Journeys within the IRA's Soul (Picador; St
Martin's Press). Highly acclaimed and topical account of what makes the
IRA tick by this journalist and screen-writer.
Gaelic tales
Kevin Danaher , Folk Tales of the Irish Countryside (Mercier IRE). The
best volume on fairy and folk tales, recorded with a civil servant's
meticulousness and a novelist's literary style.
Myles Dillon (ed), Irish Sagas (Mercier IRE). An excellent examination
of Cúchulainn, Fionn Mac Cumhaill, etc in literary and
socio-psycho-logical terms.
Seamus Heaney , Buile Suibhne ; in English, Sweeney Astray (Faber;
Noonday). A modern reworking of the ancient Irish saga of the mad king
Sweeney.
Pádraig Ó Conaire , Finest Stories (Poolbeg o/p; Dufour o/p). Ó
Conaire's dispassionate eye roams over the cruelties of peasant life.
Tomás Ó Criomhtháin , (sometimes Thomas O'Crohan), An tOileó in English,
The Islandman (OUP UK). Similar to Ó Conaire but non-fiction and, if
possible, even more raw.
Seán Ó Tuama and Thomas Kinsella , An Duanaire: Poems of the
Dispossessed (Dolmen o/p; University of Pennsylvania, o/p). Excellent
translations of stark Irish-language poems on famine and death. See also
Kinsella's translation of one of the earliest sagas, the Tá Bó Cúailnge
(OUP UK o/p).
Peig Sayers , An Old Woman's Reflections (OUP UK). Unfortunately,
Sayers' complacent acceptance of her own powerlessness is still held up
as an example to Irish schoolchildren. Still, in spite of itself, a
frightening insight into the eradication of the Irish language through
emigration, poverty and political failure. A funny deconstruction of the
Sayers style is Flann O'Brien's An Beál Bocht ; in English, The Poor
Mouth (HarperCollins; Dalkey Archive).
Alan Titley , A Pocket History of Gaelic Culture (O'Brien Press IRE).
Concise, witty and some-times irreverent analysis of the nature of
Gaelic culture, its survival in Ireland and lasting impact.
William Butler Yeats (ed), Irish Fairy and Folk Tales (Hippocrene Press;
Simon & Schuster). Yeats get all misty-eyed about an Ireland that never
existed.
Fiction
Peter Ackroyd , The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde (Penguin UK) Witty
re-creation of the lift of the tragic, abused artist in exile; a
superbparody and an absolute must for anyone so familar with Wilde's
epigrams, they wish he'd written more.
John Banville , The Nowton Letter (Minerva; David R. Godine); The Book
of Evidence (Picador; Waner); Ghosts (Picador; Vintage); Athena
(Picador; Vintage); The Untouchable (Picador; Vintage). Five novels from
first-rate Irish novelist, including his 1989, Booker Prize nomination.
The Book of Evidence , a sleazy tale of a weird Dublin murder. The
Untouchable is a superb fiction based on the life of Anthony Blunk, full
of deception and treachery. Banville's talents show no sign of waning in
his most recent novel Eclipse (Picador), in which an actor plays out his
own psychological crisis by a return to his childhood home.
Leland Bardwell , The House (Brandon Books o/p; Longwood o/p); There We
Have Been (Attic; In Book o/p). Quirky, bleak prose, often dealing with
domestic violence, male cruelty, drink and poverty; but funny too, in a
black way.
Sebastian Barry , The Whereabouts of Eneas Mc Nulty (Picador; Penguin.
Tremendously moving, tragic account of one of Barry's ancestors who
fought for the British in both world wars, and the life he then had to
lead as consequense.
Colin Bateman , Cycle of Violence; Divorcing Jack, Of Wee Sweetic Mice
and Men (all HaperCollins; Arcade); and Empire State (HarperCollins;
Acacia). Sparkling and increasingly fast-paced tales of violence and men
in crisis by one of the North's most successful novelists.
Samuel Beckett , More Pricks Than Kicks (Calder; Grovel): Beckett
Trilogy, including Molloy, Malone Dies and THE Unnable (Calder, Grove)
Beckett's early short stories, grotesque tales set around the eccentric
character of Belaccqua Shuah, were followed by his wonderful and
increasingly bleak trilogy of breakdown and glum humour.
Brendan Behan , Borstal Boy (Arrow; David R. Godline). Behan's gutsy
roman á clef about his early life in the IRA and in jail.
Dermot Bolger , The Journey Home (Penguin UK). Dublin unforgettbly
imagined as both heaven and hell. A Second Life (Penguin UK) is an
assured novel about a man who, miraculously given a second chance at
life, sets out to find out the truth about his adoption. Father Music
(Flamingo; HarperCollins). Dublin's criminal underworld is the setting
for this psychological thriller.
Elizabeth Bowen , The Death of the Heart (Penguin; Anchor) and The Last
September (Vintage). The former is a finely tuned tale of the anguish of
unrequited love, generally rated as the master piece of this obliquely
stylish writer. In the latter, the immense political change of 1920s
Cock forms the setting for a tale of an upper class woman's coming of
age; now a film by Neil Jordan.
Clare Boylan , Home Rule (Abacus UK); Room For a Single Lady (Abacus
UK); Holy Pictures (Abacus UK) and Nail on the Head (Penguin o/p; Viking
o/p). A rising star of contemporary lrish fiction, her Room for a Single
Lady features 1950s Dublin and a cast of eccentric lodgers.
Philip Casey , The Fabulists (Lilliput; Serif). Deftly woven tale of
love and storytelling; a fine first novel. The Waer Star (Picador UK) is
a similarly compassionate novel about a group of people rebuilding their
lives in postwar London.
Seamus Deane , Reading in the Dark (Vintage). A turbulent
semi-autobiographical tale set in Derry in the 1950s and 1960s, full of
ghosts, fear and political enmities.
J.P. Donleavy , The Ginger Man (Abacus; Atlantic Monthly). Outlandish
exploits of a consummate bounder; semi-autobiographical; banned in
lreland for some time.
Emma Donoghue , Stir-fry (Penguin; Harper o/p). Well-wrought love story
from young lrish lesbian writer. Hood (Penguin; Alyson). Painful and at
times funny story about overcoming bereavement.
Roddy Doyle , Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (Minerva; Penguin). Hilarious and
deeply moving novel of Dublin family strife that won the Booker Prize in
1993. The earlier Barrytown Trilogy , including The Commitments, The
Snapper and The Van (Vintage; Penguin), is lighter and funnier and made
Doyle's reputation. In The Woman Who Walked Into Doors (Minerva;
Penguin), Doyle shifts to the darker theme of domestic violence, while A
Star called Henry (Jonathan Cape; Penguin) is an irreverent romp through
early twentieth-century lrish history.
Maria Edgeworth , Castle Rackrent (OUP). Best of the "Big House" books,
in which Edgeworth displays a subversively subtle sympathy with her
peasant narrator. Would have shocked her fellow aristos if they'd been
able to figure it out.
Anne Enright , The Portable Virgin (Vintage; Butterworth-Heinemann o/p).
Highly original stories of life on the outside. The Wig My Father Wore
(Minerva UK). A tale of sex, death and reproduction.
Oliver Goldsmith , The Vicar of Wakefield (penguin; OUP). An affecting
celebration of simple virtue.
Hugo Hamilton , The Love Test (Faber UK o/p). Irish-German novelist's
thriller set on both sides of the Berlin Wall, before and after its
fall, combines excitement with a tender portrait of a disintegrating
marriage. Dublin Where the Palm Trees Grow (Faber UK o/p) is a fine
colletion of stories set with equal assurance in Berlin and middle-class
Dublin.
Anne Haverty , One Day as a Tiger (Vintage; Ecco). Delightful, arcadian
tale of love and genetic engineering twists as the betrayals set in. A
sentimental journey for our times.
Dermot Healy , A Goat's Song (Harvil Press; Harcourt Brace). Dark and
deep novel which convincingly weaves a study of obsessive love into a
fresh view of the Northern conflict. The Bend for Home (Harvil Press;
Harcourt Brace) is a touching memoir of the author's family life.
Aidan Higgins , Flotsam & Jetsam (Minerva UK); Langrishe, Go Down
(Minerva; Riverrun); Lions of the Grunewald (minerva UK). The most
European of lrish writers, whose later works play with language in a
mordantly humorous and deeply personal way.
Desmond Hogan , The Ikon Maker (Faber UK). Impressive, impressionistic
first novel from one of Ireland's most lyrical prose writers, about
angst-ridden adolescence in the 1970s, before Ireland was hip. A
Farewell to Prague (Faber UK) is an intense, episodic, autobiographical
novel that wanders lonely through late-twentieth-century Europe.
Neil Jordan , Night in Tunisia (Vintage; Randon House o/p). Film
director Jordan first made his name with this impressive collection,
which prefigures treatments and themes of his films. His most recent
novel, Sunrise with Sea Monster (Vintage UK), is a delicate, powerful
study in love and betrayal. The Past (Vintage UK) deals with the
troubled early years of the Irish Free State.
James Joyce , Dubliners; Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; Ulysses
(all Penguin; Vintage); Finnegans Wake (Penguin). No novel written in
English this century can match the linguistic verve of Ulysses , Joyce's
monumental evocation of 24 hours in the life of Dublin. From the time of
its completion until shortly before his death - a period of sixteen
years - he laboured at Finnegans Wake , a dream-language recapitulation
of the cycles of world history. Though indigestible as a whole, it
contains passages of incomparable lyricism and wit - try the "Anna Livia
Plurabelle" section, and you could be hooked.
Molly Keane , Good Behaviour (Abacus; Knopf o/p). Highly successful
comic reworking of the "Big House" novel.
Benedict Kiely , God's Own Country: Selected Stories 1963 - 1993
(Mandarin UK). A good introduction to the quirky fiction of a veteran
novelist and travel writer.
Mary Lavin , In a Café: Selected Stories (Town House; Penguin). New
collection of previously published stories by one of the great
short-story writers, in the Chekhov tradition. Earlier books include The
House on Clewe Street (Virago o/p; Viking o/p) and Stories (Constable;
Viking o/p).
Hugh Leonard , Parnell and the Englishwoman (Deutsh UK). Fictional
biography focusing on Parnell's affair with Kitty O'Shea.
Antonia Logue , Shadow-Box (Bloomsbury; Grove). This extraordinary first
novel is an exhilarating mix of surrealism and boxing inspired by the
life of Dadaist poet Mina Laoy.
Bernard MacLaverty , Cal (Vintage; Norton); Lamb (Penguin; Norton). Both
novels of loe beset by crisis; the first deals with an unwilling IRA man
and the widow of one of his victims. Lamb is the disturbing tale of a
Christian Brother who absconds from a borstal with a young boy. Grace
Notes (Vintage; Norton). Finely crafted novel about grief, love and
creativity.
Deirdre Madden , Hidden Symptoms (Faber o/p); The Birds of the Innocent
Wood (Faber UK); Remembering Light and stone (Faber UK); and Nothing is
Black (Faber UK). Evocatively grim novels of life in the North.
Aidan Mathews , Lipstick on the Host (Minerva; Harcourt Brace o/p).
Delicate stories of breathtaking skill.
Eugene McCabe , Death and Nightingales (Vintage UK). Powerfully relevant
novel of love, land and violence, set in late-nineteenth-century
Ireland.
Patrick McCabe , The Butcher Boy (Picador; Dell); The Dead School
(Picador; Delta). Scary, disturbing, but funny tales of Irish small-town
life. Breakfast on Pluto (Picador; Harperperennial) is a camp and
macabre satire in which McCabe's protagonist take his cross-dressing
from his sleepy parochial home to a sleazy Londong underworld, and
there's now a fesh crop of absurd short stories in Mondo Desperado
(Picador; HarperCollins).
Eugene McEldowney , The Faloorie Man (New Island Books IRE). Pleasantly
understated autobographical novel set in pre-Troubles Belfast, enjoyable
chiefly for the affectionate nature of the remniscences.
John McGahern , The Dark (Faber; Viking o/p); The Barracks (Faber UK);
Amongst Women (Faber; Penguin); Collected Stories (Faber; Vintage). The
Barracks is classic McGahern; stark, murderous and not a spare adjective
in sight. Amongst Women is an excellent tale of an old Republican and
the oppression of rural and family life.
Eoin McNamee , Resurrection Man (Picador). A darkly poetic and gripping
tale of sectarian killings and the minds of the perpetrators, loosely
based upon the Shankil Butchers.
Frances Molloy , No Mate For The Magpie (Virago o/p; Persea). Written
wholly in dialect, this is the moving tale of a working class northern
woman who finds herself demonstrating outside the American Embassy in
Dublin.
Brian Moore , The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (Flamingo; McClelland
& Stewart). Moore's early novels are rooted in the landscape of his
native Belfast; thish was his first, a poignant tale of emotional blight
and the possibilities of late redemption by love. The some-what
Cartlandesque The Magician's Wife (Bloomsbury; Penguin) is a tale of
pernickety sexual repression at the court of Napoleon lll, while Black
Robe (Flamingo; Plume) re-creates an extraordinary culture clash between
seven teenth-century missionary Jesuits and native North American
Indians.
Mary Morrissey , A Lazy Eye (Vintage; Simon & Schuster o/p); Mother of
Pearl (Vintage UK). Impressive stories and a novel by a rising star in
the new generaton of writers. Her The Pretender (Jonathan Cape UK) tells
the story of the Polish factory worker who claimed to be Anastasia,
daughter of the last tsar of Russia.
Christopher Nolan , Under the Eye of the Clock (Phoenix; Arcade).
Extraordinary and explosive fiction debut: the largely autobiographical
story of a handicapped boy's celebration of the power of language. The
Banyan Tree (Phoenix; Arcade) is an evocative tale, chock full of
poetry, about an elderly woman's love for her family and the land.
Edna O'Brien , The Country Girls (penguin); Down by the River (Phoenix;
Plume o/p). The Country Girls is a sensitively wrought novel from a
top-calss writer sometimes accused, unjustly, of wavering too much
towards Mills and Boon. In Down by the River , incest and bigotry in
parochial Ireland is dealt with head-on and delivered with brutal
poetry.
Flann O'Brien , The Third Policeman (HarperCollins: Dalkey Archive).
O'Brien's masterpiece of the ominously absurd and fiendishly humorous.
At Swim-Two-Birds (Penguin; Dalkey Archive) is a complicated and
hilarious blend of Gaelic fable and surrealism; essential reading.
Frank O'Connor , Guests of the Nation (Poolbeg; Irish Book & Media o/p).
Arguably the best Irish political fiction of the twentieth century. My
Oedipus Complex & Other Stories (Penguin UK). Witty short stories from a
master of the genre, especially enjoyable for Catholics.
Joseph O'Connor , True Believers (HarperCollins; Trafalgar o/p); Cowboys
and Indians (HarperCollins; Trafalgar o/p). Desperadoes (Flamingo UK);
The Salesman (Secker; Picador); Inishowen (Secker & Warburg). The first
two titles deal with life on the perpheries in London and Dublin: love
and loss, madness and redemption. Desperadoes is a love story ranging
from 1950s' Dublin to modern Nicaragua, while The Salesman is a pacy
revenge thriller in which a man hunts the theif who has left his
daughter in a coma. Inishowen is a comic novel set in small-town
Donegal.
Peadar O'Donnell , Islanders (Mercier o/p; Dufour o/p). Evocative,
mesmerizing prose from important Republican figure.
Julia O'Faolain , No Country for Young Men (Penguin o/p; Carroll & Graf
o/p). Spanning four generations, this ambitious novel traces the
personal repercussions of the civil war.
Seán Ó Faoláin , Midsummer Night Madness (Penguin). A master of the
short-story form and the juiciness of rural dialect.
Liam O' Flaherty , Short Stories (Wolfhound IRE); The Collected Stories
(St Martin's Press US). Best of the postwar generation of former IRA men
turned writers.
Kate O' Riordan , Involved (HarperCollins UK). A young Dublin woman's
struggle to understand the passions at the root of Northern Irish
republicanism.
Glenn Patterson , Burning Your Own (Minerva UK). Distinctive young
Northern writer gives Protestant child's-eye view of late 1960s'
Northern Ireland just about to explode. Fat Lad (Minerva UK). A man
gives up a promising career to return to Belfast; an uncompromising yet
positive protrayal of the city. The International (Anchor UK). A fine
novel set in pre-Troubles Belfast based around the lives of staff and
guests of what was then just an ordinary provincial hotel.
E.O. Someville and (Violet) Martin Ross , The Irish RM (Abacus; Little,
Brown o/p). Hilarious tales in which the locals always out-wit the
resident magistrate. Some Experiences of an Irish RM (Dent UK). The
needle pushes the begorra factor a little too heavily here and there,
but Someville and Ross write with witty flair and their tales are very
significant for what they unwittingly reveal about a dying class.
James Stephens , The Crock of Gold (Gill & MacMillan; Dover); The
Charwoman's Daughter (Gill & Macmillan o/p; North Books); The Demi Gods
(Butler o/p). Three fabulous masterpieces from the country's most
underrated genius.
Laurence Sterne , The Life and Opinion of Tristram Shandy (Penguin) and
A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (Penguim; Oxford World's
Classics). Essential reading from an eighteenth-century comic genius.
Bram Stoker , Dracula (Penguin; Signet). Stoker woke up after a nighmare
brought on by a hefty lobster supper, and proceeded to write his way
into the nightmares of the twentieth century.
Francis Stuart , Black List Section H (Lilliput; Penguin). Once a
protégé of Yeats, Stuart has consistently maintained a stance of
opposition, in his life and his art. Black List Section H, his
masterpiece, depicts the life of an Irishman in wartime Germany.
Eamon Sweeney , Waiting for the Healer (Picador), A single father's
bleak descent into drink handled with wry humour. There's Only One Red
Army (New Island Books IRE). A fictional memoir of a life led through
alcoholism and an obsession with a third-rate football team.
Jonathan Swift , Gulliver's Travels (Penguin; Oxford World's Classics);
The Tale of a Tub and Other Stories (Oxford University Press UK).
Acerbic satire from the only writer in the English language with as
sharp a pen as Voltaire.
Colm Tóibín , The South (Picador; Penguin); The Heather Blazing
(Picador; Penguin); The Story of the Night (Picador; Henry Holt); The
Blackwater Lightship (Picador; Scribner). In The South a woman turns her
back on Ireland for Spain and returns thirty years later to resolve her
life, and to die. A powerfully understand novel, The Heather Blazing
explores themes of personal and political loss, while his Story of the
Night is a haunting love story set in Argentina at the time of the
Generals. The Blackwater Lightship follows the grim journey of an
ordinary family confronting AIDS.
William Trevor , Collected Stories (Penguin). Five of Trevor's
short-story collections in one volume, revealing more about Ireland than
many a turgid sociological thesis. Often desperately moving, these
stories confirm Trevor as one of the true giants of Irish fiction. Two
Lives (Penguin), including Reading Turgenev , a sensitive account of an
unhappy marriage, was shortlisted for the 1991 Booker Prize.
Oscar Wilde , The Picture of Dorian Gray (Penguin; Dover). Wilde's
exploration of moral schizophrenia. A debauched socialite maintains his
youthful good looks, while his portrait in the attic slowly
disintegrates into a vision of evil.
Robert McLiam Wilson , Ripley Bogle (Minerva; Ballantine). Very funny
first novel in which the irrepressible and precocious down and out Bogle
tells his tale in wonderfully extravagant tones. Eureka Street (Minerva;
Ballantine). Acerbic, irreverent humour in both pre- and post-ceasefire
Belfast.
Poetry and drama
Sebastian Barry , The Steward of Chistendom (Methuen UK), Boss Grady's
Boys and Prayers of Sherkin (Methuen UK), and Our Lady of Sligo .
Characters from Barry's family history are central to these plays, all
characterized by his richly poetic use of language.
Samuel Beckett , Collected Shorter Plays and Waiting for Godot (Faber;
Grove). Bleak hilarity from the laureate of the void. All essential for
swanning around Dublin coffee shops.
Brendan Behan , The Complete Plays (Methuen; Grove). Flashes of
brilliance from a writer destroyed by alcoholism. His The Quare Fellow
takes up where Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol leaves off.
Eavan Boland , The Journey (Carcanet UK o/p); Selected Poems (Carcanet
UK) and Outside History (Carcanet; Norton). Thoughtful, spare and
elegant verse from one of Ireland's most significant poets.
Pat Boran , The Unwound Clock (Dedalus UK o/p). Wry, insightful poems of
contemporary Irish life.
Marina Carr , Portia Coughlan (Faber UK), The Mai (Gallery IRE) and On
Raftery's Hill (Faber UK). Three plays by one of Ireland's most
promising playwrights.
Ciaran Carson , The Twelfth of Never (Gallery IRE). Richly allusive
poetry that will baffle those not steeped in Irish history and politics;
Carson's novels offer a more accessible taste of one of Ireland's most
musical literary voices.
Austin Clarke , Selected Poems (Colin Smythe; Penguin). Clarke's tender
work evokes the same stark grandeur as the paintings of Jack Yeats.
Patrick Crotty (ed), Modern Irish Poetry: An Anthology (Blackstaff;
Dufour). This anthology covers a broad range of poetry from 1922
onwards, includes Irish and English translations of a number of poems,
and provides highly accessible introductions to both the period and the
individual poets represented.
Denis Devlin , Collected Poems (Wake-Forest US). Pre-eminent Irish poet
of the 1930s, owing allegiance to a European modern tradition rather
than the prevailing Yeatsian.
Paul Durcan , A Snail in My Prime (Harvill; Penguin); O Westport in the
Light of Asia Minor (Harvill UK); The Berlin Wall Café (Harvill UK);
Greetings to our Friends in Brazil (Harvill). Ireland's most popular and
readable poet. Berlin Wall is a lament for a broken marriage, recounted
with agonizing honesty, dignity and, ultimately, forgiveness.
Peter Fallon , News of the World (Gallery; Wake-Forest). Reflections on
a reassuring landscape, the present consciously linked to the past,
punctuated by the petty rivalries and discrete madnesses of country
life.
George Farquhar , The Recruiting Officer (OUP). The usual helping of
cross-dressing and mistaken identity, yet this goes beyond the
implications of most Restoration comedy, even flirting with feminism
before finally marrying everyone off in the last scene.
Padraic Fiacc , Missa Terribilis (Blackstaff UK o/p). Fiacc's work is
informed by the political and social tribalisms of Northern Ireland, and
explores personal relationships in these contexts.
Brian Friel , Dancing at Lughnasa (Faber). Family drama by Derry
playwright examining the coexistence of Catholicism and paganism in
Irish society, and the tensions between them. Plays 1 (Faber) contains
six of his greatest works, including Translations and Faith Healer .
Oliver Goldsmith , She Stoops to Conquer (A&C Black; W.W. Norton).
Sparky dialogue, with a more English sheen than Farquhar.
Augusta, Lady Gregory , Collected Plays (Colin Smythe; Dufour). The
Anglo-Irish writer who understood most about the cadences of the Irish
language. This gives not only her translations, but also her original
drama an authenticity lacking in the work of others.
Seamus Heaney , Death of a Naturalist (Faber); Station Island, Seeing
Things and Opened Ground: Poems 1966-96 (Faber; Farrar Straus & Giroux).
The most important Irish poet since Yeats. His poems are immediate and
passionate, even when dealing with intellectual problems and radical
social divisions. The Redress of Poetry (Faber o/p; Farrar Straus &
Giroux) is an example of his energetic prose, consisting of the lectures
he gave while Professor of Poetry at Oxford from 1989 to 1994. The title
of The Spirit Level (Faber), winner of the 1997 Whitbread Prize, alludes
to the delicate balances of private and political life following the
ceasefire; cool, reassuring poetry with its own quiet music. Opened
Ground is a massive new collection selected from all his previous
published work.
Patrick Kavanagh , Selected Poems (Penguin UK). Joyfully mystic
exploration of the rural countryside and the lives of its inhabitants by
one of Ireland's most popular poets. See also his autobiographical
novel, Tarry Flynn (Penguin UK).
Brendan Kennelly , Cromwell (Bloodaxe; Dufour). Speculative meditation
on the role of the conqueror in Irish history. Poetry My Arse (Bloodaxe;
Dufour) is an epic poem which "sinks its teeth into the pants of poetry
itself", while Begin (Bloodaxe UK) presents an accessible and highly
enjoyable selection of Kennelly's "echopoems".
Thomas Kinsella , Collected Poems: 1956-1994 (OUP), and his first-rate
anthology The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse (OUP).
Shane MacGowan , Poguetry (Faber UK o/p). Powerful and pungent lyrics by
the former Pogues' bardperson. Not for Yeats fans.
Louis MacNeice , Collected Poems (Faber UK) or Selected Poems (Faber;
Wake-Forest). Good chum of Auden, Spender and the rest of the "1930s'
generation", Carrickfergus-born MacNeice achieves a fruitier texture and
an even more detached tone.
Derek Mahon , Selected Poems (Penguin UK); Collected Poems (Dufour US);
The Hudson Letter (Gallery UK); The Yellow Book (Gallery; Wake-Forest).
One of the finest contemporary Northern Irish poets. See also his
Penguin Book of Contemporary Irish Poetry (ed with Peter Fallon).
Martin McDonagh , The Beauty Queen of Linnane, The Skull of Connemara
and The Lonesome West (all Methuen UK).Festering familial hatred, murder
and isolation on the west coast of Ireland dished up with aplomb.
Medbh McGuckian , Venus in the Rain (Gallery; Dufour); Selected Poems
(Gallery; Wake Forest). Trawling the subconscious for their imagery,
McGuckian's sensuous and elusive poems are highly demanding and equally
rewarding.
Frank McGuinness , Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme
(Faber). An exploration of the Ulster Protestant experience of World War
I by one of Ireland's most important playwrights. Someone to Watch Over
Me (Faber) reveals the resources of cultural history and personality
that sustain three hostages - one Irish, one American and one British.
Conor McPherson , McPherson: Four Plays (Nick Hern Books). A collection
including This Lime Tree Bower , a very funny play in which the lives of
three men change in the course of a weekend, and The Weir , an eerie,
compelling drama set in an isolated village in the west of Ireland. A
Dublin Carol (Nick Hern Books) is a moving piece set around the seasonal
reflections of a Dublin undertaker.
Paula Meehan , The Man who was Marked by Winter (Gallery; Eastern
Washington University); Pillow Talk (Gallery UK); Dharmakaya (Carcanet).
Memorable work, often concerned with women's lives, issues of family,
gender and sexuality and rooted in the inner-city experience.
Gary Mitchell , Tearing the Loom & In a Little World of our Own, Trust
and The Force of Change (all Nick Hern Books UK). Fine plays from one of
Belfast's leading playwrights, chiefly focusing on the changing lives of
the Loyalist community.
John Montague , Collected Poems (Gallery; Wake-Forest). Terse poetry
concerned with history, community and social decay. See also his
anthology, The Book of Irish Verse (Faber; Budget Book Service).
Paul Muldoon , New Selected Poems (Faber UK). Muldoon's own selection of
his more accessible, witty and inventive poetry taken from work spanning
thirty years.
Tom Murphy , Famine, The Patriot Game, The Blue Macushla and The Gigli
Concert (Methuen/Heinemand). Along with Friel and McGuinness, Murphy is
one of the three outstanding contemporary playwrights.
Eileán Ní Chuilleanáin , The Rose Geranium (Gallery IRE); The Brazen
Serpent (Gallery; Wake-Forest). Manages to carve something new,
purposeful and whole from the iconography and language of religion;
quietly impressive.
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill , Selected Poems (Raven Arts Press; New Island o/p)
is in Irish and English. Haunting translations of her modern erotic
verse by the fine poet Michael Hartnett are included in Raven
Introductions 3 (Colin Smythe UK) and in Frank Ormsby's anthology .
Sean O'Casey , Three Dublin Plays (Faber). Contains his powerful Dublin
trilogy, Juno and the Paycock, Shadow of a Gunman and The Plough and the
Stars , set against the backdrop of the civil war.
Frank Ormsby (ed), The Long Embrace: Twentieth Century Irish Love Poems
(Blackstaff UK o/p). Excellent anthology with major chunks from the work
of almost every important twentieth-century Irish poet from Yeats to the
present day. A Rage To Order (ed) (Blackstaff IRE o/p); impressive
anthology of poetry born of the Troubles. Horror, pain, anger and pity
somehow all wrestled into some sense of form; an absorbing book. See
also his Poets from the North of Ireland anthology (Blackstaff; Dufour).
Tom Paulin , Fivemiletown; The Strange Museum; Walking a Line; Selected
Poems 1972-90 (all Faber). Often called "dry" both in praise and
accusation, Paulin's work reverberates with thoughtful political
commitment and a sophisticated irony.
John Millington Synge , The Complete Plays (Methuen; Vintage). Lots of
begorras and mavourneens and other dialogue kindly invented for the
Irish peasantry by Synge; but The Playboy of the Western World (Penguin)
is a brilliant and unique work, greeted in Dublin by riots, threats and
moral outrage.
Oscar Wilde , Complete Plays (Methuen). His drama is characterized by
bittersweet satire, subversive one-liners and profound existentialist
philosophy all masquerading as well-made, drawing-room farce. In his
poem, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, the great comedian achieves his
greatest success, in tragedy.
William Butler Yeats , The Poems (Everyman UK) and The Collected Poems
(Scribner US). They're all here, poems of rhapsody, love, revolution and
eventual rage at a disconnected and failed Ireland "fumbling in the
greasy till".
Biography and criticism
A.M. Brady and Brian Cleeve (eds), Biographical Dictionary of Irish
Writers (Lilliput o/p; St Martin's Press o/p). Succinct entries on all
the greates, better used as a magical mystery tour through the lost
byways of Irish literature.
Anthony Cronin , Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist (Flamingo; Da Capo).
Accessible, anecdotal biography, good on the Irish background. No
Laughing Matter: The Life and Times of Flann O'Brien (Fromn US). Witty
and insightful biography, and particularly interesting on 1950s Dublin.
Seamus Deane , Short History of Irish Literature (Hutchinson o/p;
University of Notre Dame Press). Deane brings a poet's sensitivity to a
massive and sometimes unwieldy tradition, with skill and a profound
sense of sociopolitical context. See also his shorter analysis of modern
writing in Irish Writers (Eason UK).
Richard Ellmann , James Joyce (OUP US); Oscar Wilde (Penguin o/p).
Ellman's Joyce is a major literary work in itself, a massive and
brilliant book. His Oscar Wilde is at least its equal, an eloquent
corrective to the image of Wilde as an intellectual mayfly.
Roy Foster , W.B. Yeats - A Life - The Apprentice Mage , Volume One of
two volumes (OUP). This is a superb biography - dispassionate,
scholarly, and bound to augment your understanding of, though not
necessarily your feelings for, the great man.
Michael Holroyd , Bernard Shaw: A Biography (Chatto & Windus; Random
House). Unfairly slammed by the critics, this is actually a pretty
successful stab at understanding one of the most difficult and complex
authors of the whole Anglo-Irish canon.
Robert Kee , The Laurel & the lvy: The Story of Charles Stewart Parnell
(Penguin). Illuminating account of the life and times of the great
states-man by one of Ireland's most respected historians.
Declan Kiberd , Inventing Ireland (Vintage; Harvard University Press). A
massively scrupulous assessment of modern Irish literature from Yeats to
Friel, set against a background of flux and turmoil.
James Knowlson , Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett (Bloomsbury
o/p; Simon & Schuster). Stunning biography: thorough, balanced and
scholarly.
Brenda Maddox , Nora: A Biography of Nora Joyce (Minerva; Houghton
Mifflin). Eminently readable story of the funny, irreverent and
formidable Nora Barnacle and her life with James Joyce - an interesting
complement of Ellmann's Joyce biography.
Ulick O'Connor , Brendan Behan (Abacus UK). Moving account of the
dramatist's life.
Margaret Ward , Hannah Sheehy Skeffington: A Life (Cork University Press
IRE). Fascinating, scholarly biography of a militant suffragist;
co-founder of the Irish Women's Franchise League in 1908, Skeffingtion
was one of the most important political activists of her day.
Rober Welch (ed), Oxford Companion to Irish Literature (OUP). This
encyclopedic tour through who's who and what they've written fills a
long-standing need.
Memoirs and journalism
Dr Noel Browne , Against the Tide (Blackstaff IRE). Tremendously
important autobiography and account of Irish political life by one of
Ireland's key twentieth-century radicals. Dr Browne pulls no punches and
leaves you feeling both appalled and inspired.
Ciaran Carson , The Star Factory (Granta; Arcade). Magical account of
growing up in 1950s and 1960s Belfast; Carson has a poetic ingenuity
reminiscent of Dylan Thomas.
Liam Fay , Beyond Belief (Hot Press UK o/p). Hilarious, irreverent look
at the state of religion in Ireland.
Myles na Gopaleen , (aka Flann 0'Brien), The Best of Myles
(HarperCollins UK). Priceless extracts from a daily humorous newspaper
column by 0'Brien's alter ego.
Frank McCourt , Angela's Ashes (Flamingo; Touchstone). Stunning memoir
of a Limerick childhood; a tale of bleak, desperate poverty, laced with
astonishing moments of humour and a deep respect for the lives led. In
the sequel, 'Tis (Flamingo; Simon & Schuster), McCourt finds both escape
and a sense of purpose through education in New York.
Nuala O'Faolain , Are You Somebody ? (New Island Books; Owl Books).
Despite a life rich in ideas and experience, this memoir reveals an
Ireland that until recently treated women with, at best, indifference.
Neat sketches of literary Dublin in the 1950s, puncturing one or two
cosy myths along the way.
Colm Tóibín , The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe
(Vintage; Pantheon). Novelist Tóibín uses his journalistic skills to
find the old-time religion in Ireland and elsewhere. Bad Blood (Vintage
UK) is a perceptive account of a journey along the line that divides
Northern Ireland from the rest of the island.
John Waters , Jiving at the Crossroads (Blackstaff; Dufour o/p).
Curiously engaging autobiography which traces a fascination with Fianna
Fáil politics through the formative years of a western youth in the
1970s and 1980s.
Art and music
Bruce Arnold , Irish Art: A Concise History (Thames & Hudson UK).
Updated edition provides a fuller account of Irish modernism.
Breandán Breathnach , Folk Music and Dances of Ireland (Ossian).
Breathnach's classic developmental account and analysis of the structure
of Irish music is essential reading. A companion CD features all the
songs and tunes from the book's closing section.
Ciaran Carson , The Pocket Guide to Irish Traditional Music (Appletree
Press; Irish Books & Media). Useful introduction to the world or
traditional music, while Last Night's Fun (Pimlico; North Point Press)
is a wonderful evocation of the elusive pleasures of traditional music
sessions.
Tony Clayton-Lea & Richard Taylor , Irish Rock (Gill & MacMillan UK).
Popular account of the growth of the Irish music scene, particularly
good on the punk and new wave years.
P.J. Curtis , Notes form the Heart (Poolbeg IRE). Criminally ignored on
first publication, P.J.'s opening chapters provide an admirable overview
of the music's twentieth-century developments, while the remainder
focuses on major figures in County Clare's music.
Brian Fallon , Irish Art 1830-1990 (Appletree Press UK). The development
of art in Ireland and its reflection of questions of national identity
and culture.
Caoimhín ó hAllmhuráin , Between the Jigs and Reels: The Donegal Fiddle
Tradition (Drumlin Publications IRE). A marvellous book which truly
captures the richness of the county's musical heritage through a
detailed analysis of its history, informative biographies of many
musicians and valuable descriptions of their various techniques.
Christy Moore , One Voice (Hodder & Stoughton). Not just a scintillating
account of Moore's own life through song, but a hard-hitting analysis of
ireland over the last thirty years.
Thomas Moore , Moore's Irish Melodies; (Ossian; Dover). Various editions
of the prettied-up tunes Moore stole from the harpists, along with
lyrics of mind-numbingly perfect rhythm. Moore is an important
historical figure, who expressed the Nationalism of the emerging middle
class and brought revolution into the parlour.
Nuala O'Connor , Bringing It All Back Home (BBC UK). Detailed account of
the history of traditional Irish music written to accompany a 1991 BBC
TV series.
George Petrie , The Complete Collection of Irish Music (Llanerch UK).
One of the most important cultural documents in Irish history.
Mark J. Prendergast , Irish Rock: Roots, Personalities and Directions
(O'Brien Press IRE). Dated, but still the best in-depth account of the
development of Irish rock music.
Fintan Vallely (ed), The Companion to Irish Traditional Music (Cork
University Press IRE). Provides constant delight in its copious accounts
of the music's form, style and qualities, and brief biographies of many
key participants; required reading.
Geoff Wallis and Sue Wilson , The Rough Guide to Irish Music (Rough
Guides). A quintessential account of the roots and current state of
traditional music in Ireland, containing a comprehensive directory of
more than four hundred singers, musicians and groups and details of the
best places to see them in action.
Landscape and topography
Aalen, Whelan and Stout , (eds), Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape
(Cork University Press; University of Toronto). Wholly absorbing
collection of essays, maps and illustrations revealing and analysing the
changing landscape of Ireland; a must for all concerned with its history
and future.
Deirde Flanagon & Lawrence Flanagan , Irish Place Names (Gill &
MacMillan; Irish Books & Media). Expertly researched account of the
origins of virtually everywhere on the island - a dipper's delight.
Breandán & Ruarí ó hEithir , An Aran Reader (Lilliput IRE). A
fascinating anthology of writings about the Aran Islands, including the
works of early travellers, anthropologists, poets and islanders.
Tim Robinson , The Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage (Penguin UK). Treats the
largest of the Aran Islands to a scrutiny of Proustian detail. The
Stones of Aran: Labyrinth (Penguin UK) completes the projects, to form a
uniquely challenging travel book.
Guides
Kevin Corcoran , West Cork Walks (O'Brien; Irish American). A good,
accessible guide to ten walks, including a wealth of interesting
material on the history and natural history of the country.
Paddy Dillon , Twelve Walks in Glendalough (Drimbane IRE). A
lightweight, easy-to-use guide to walks around Glendalough, ranging from
short and easy to long and very strenuous. Colour photographs and clear
maps are included.
David Herman , Hills Walkers' Donegal (Shanksmore Publications UK). Over
thirty walks in the country described in excellent detail.
Joss Lynam (ed), Best Irish Walks (Gill & MacMillan; Passport).
Seventy-six walks through some of the most beautiful and remote parts of
the country. Easy Walks near Dublin (Gill & Macmillan IRE). An excellent
guide to forty walks, many in the Wicklow Mountains, and several with
details about access by public transport from Dublin.
Sally and John McKenna , Bridgestone Irish Food Guide (Estragon UK). The
best in an almost non-existent field of Irish food writing. The same
author's smaller guides, to restaurants and places to stay, are also
popular.
Seán Ó Súilleabháin , Walk Guide: South West of Ireland - Third Edition
(Gill & MacMillan UK). Forty-seven well-written and clearly illustrated
walks; indispensable for any-one planning walking in Kerry and on the
Beara Peninsula.
Patrick Simms and Tony Whilde , West of Ireland Walk Guide (Gill &
MacMillan UK). Detailed descriptions of west and northwest walks from
counties Clare to Derry.
Brendan Walsh , Irish Cycling Guide (Moorland; Irish Books & Media).
This is a grand tour of the country, in 36 stages, taking the roads with
least traffic.
Alan Warner , Walking the Ulster Way (Appletree Press; Irish Books &
Media). The first man to walk the entire five hundred miles describes
his journey in detailed and sometimes whimsical diaries.
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