Irish reading

Irisheyesrdreaming · Veteran Member

RE: Irish reading

Dude · Guru

Bringing this back in case any of us need some summer reading to supplement our daily dose of the IrelandYes Forum!

I have just read and enjoyed, for very different reasons:
Singing Bird by Roisin McAuley
The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom

"Case" is the first of a series; I understand the second has just come out. It will crack you up!

youngka · Guru

Somewhere I read about a couple that had moved from the U.S., sold all their belongings and wrote two books about their "adventures" of moving to Ireland and starting all over again! The name of the books are: O Come Ye Back to Ireland "Our first year in County Clare, & The Pipes are Calling: Our Jaunts Through Ireland. I hadn't noticed, but they have two other books also: When Summer's in the Meadow and The Luck of the Irish: Our Life in County Claire.

I got them from Amazon.com

Youngka

Itallian Chauffeur · Moderator

This, from an amateur Irish Historian and collector of Local Histories:

Aubane: Where In The World Is It? (Millstreet Area)
Under The Shadow Of Suifin (Sheeps Head)
Northside Of The Mizen (self-explainitory)
Memories Of Kilcorney and Rathcoole (Millstreet Area)
Stone Mad For The Music (Sliabh Luachra)
Where The Sun Sets (Belmullet, Co Mayo)

The list goes on and on and on and ...

BUT, what about:

Thomas Flanagan's THE TENANTS OF TIME and THE YEAR OF THE FRENCH
Bodie & Brock Theone's ONLY THE RIVER RUNS FREE
Cecil Woodham-Smith's THE GREAT HUNGER
Beatrice Coogan's THE BIG WIND
Leon Uris's TRINITY and TRINITY REDEMPTION
Thomas Keneally's THE GREAT SHAME
Joan Hoff & Mary Yeates's THE COOPER'S WIFE IS MISSING
Joyce Marlow's CAPTAIN BOYCOTT AND THE IRISH
Liam O'Donnell's THE DAYS OF THE SERVANT BOY
Bill Cullen's IT'S A LONG WAY FROM PENNEY APPLES

And, my current, personal favorite:
Charles McGlinchey's THE LAST OF THE NAME

McGlinchey is commemorated by a School/Lecture Series in June, in Donegal!!!

Bob

youngka · Guru

Bob,

thanks for an outstanding list. We will have YEARS of reading before us! I didn't read all of the first page, obviously! The idea I got for reading the story about the couple moving to Ireland and starting over, was on this forum. I'm glad I did read it, however, when that reply was first written!

Youngka

cryogenine · Veteran Member

Picked up Thge Collected Poems of Patrick Kavanagh in Killarney and it became my constant companion throughout our trip. With all the building and paving over of Ireland, Kavanagh, a self-educated farmer from Co. Monaghan, plows deep into the land and psyche of the Irish and what springs forth is, in my not-so-humble opinon, some of the most beautiful and haunting imagery ever written by an Irishman...and that is saying something! ie:

You flung a ditch on my vision

Of beauty, love and truth.

O stony grey soil of Monaghan

You burgled my bank of youth!

You can't go wrong reading anything about or by the Irish and Ireland. The Arabs have oil, Irish have language and we are infinately richer for it.
jb

CowboyCraic · Guru

Jb,

If you enjoy Kavanagh, then try Gerard Manley Hopkins. He was ahead of his time in verse form, sprung rhythm, but has quite a following now. I have taught the past two summers at an international summer session in Monasterevin celebrating his life and his works. God's Grandeur is one of my favorites:

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

And wears man's smudge & shares man's smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs --

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast & with ah! bright wings.

They have me listed as a participant this year. How I wish that were true! I will find a way to be there next year though.

Slan Beo,

Bit

Michele Erdvig · Host

Dude,

Great idea to top this thread for fun summer reading. Thanks!

Michele

Itallian Chauffeur · Moderator

Seem to have lost my ability to edit idea

The link for Charles McGlinchey Association's activities for Donegal, in June:

www.mcglinchey.ie/old_magazine.htm

Bob

Michele Erdvig · Host

Bob,

I think the edit feature only lasts for around 24 hours.

Michele

murphybridget · Veteran Member

It sounds like you enjoy fiction books with a blend of Irish history, captivating landscapes, and rich descriptions of Irish culture. "A Dream of You" by Noala O'Faolain seems to fit that bill nicely!