Irish literature/books/authors

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
martha

martha

Blue Crack Supplier
Joined
Mar 30, 2001
Messages
42,544
Location
Orange County and all over the goddamn place
So I might be in the mood for something Irish. I'm down with James Joyce and Seamus Heaney, but how about something else? My literary tastes are as eclectic as my musical tastes, so don't hesitate. Fiction, biography, history. Lemme have it!

One warning: In music and writing, I don't like crap, so no literary equivalents of Sum 41 or any such like. I don't want to read the Irish Danielle Steel.
 
Well, Maeve Binchy writes some good books!


And my own personal favorite is Eilis Ni Dhuibhne. (I wrote my senior thesis in college on her works.) She writes mostly short stories, but she's also written a novel. I would recommed starting with the short story collection "Eating Women is Not Recommended" :)

And if you're into something eclectic and off the wall, try Flann O'Brian's "At Swim-Two-Birds" ... it'll blow your mind! lol

WB Yeats is an old standard.

Also, if you're really in the mood, the old Irish tales are fantastic!


Anyway... in case you couldn't tell... I'm an English major AND I concentrated in Irish literature :D
 
Hi Martha,

I am getting so old I can't remember anything, but I finally found one of the ones I liked (although it's a little depressing, as a lot of Irish literature is!). It's called Cowboys and Indians by Joseph O'Connor. It's a bit dated but I liked it when I read it. Oh, and something U2 related but not an Irish book is The Moviegoer which Bono recommended to me years ago, and I loved it. I can't remember the author but it's it the US!
 
hippy said:
Thought of another one... Roddy Doyle! His books are some of the most poignant and hilarious books I've ever read :)
Click to expand...

True!
Here some titles:
- A star named Harry
- the woman who walked into doors (my favourite one!)
- the van
- the committee
- Rory & Ita (about Doyle's parents -- it's an interesting way to know more about how people lived in Ireland in the past)

And the new one:

- oh, play that thing!
 
Read "Eureka Street" by Robert McLiam Wilson, it is laugh out loud hilarious.

If you like reading plays, check out the work of Sean O'Casey, especially "The Plough and the Stars." He is very historical, as is Brian Beehan (original version are mostly in Gaelic, but they've been translated).
 
um, not sure if this counts, but flannery o'conner. i remember reading that bono read her. my favorite is "the lame shall enter first"
 
Yeats.

And shermn, Flannery O'Connor was a southern gal from the US. Christian existentialist, no less (how's that for strange bedfellows?)

Martha- Where were you when I did my Yeats and Joyce appreciation threads?

Old Celtic myths are fun, too. Yeats edited a nice volume of folk and fairy tales. :yes:
 
Yeats :up:

Oscar Wilde - my favourite book as a child, and one of my favourites still is a sweet little tale called The Selfish Giant.
I really liked the Malachy Mc Court biography Angela's ashes and the sequel called 'Tis.

Most of the other books I read are all about Irish history, history of N.Ireland, the troubles etc and that's not everyone's cup of tea.

Music - Brian Kennedy (from Belfast, I think he lives in Donegal now). I really want to go and see him in concert, I did get the chance to see him at a thing with Bob Geldof (I'm a big Boomtown Rats fan) and other Irish singers in May. I really like him.

The Corrs are quite popular but I'm not that fond of them

It's hard to recommend bands to you. I don't really know what you like :hmm:
 
Last edited:
There are many brilliant irish authos that I really like and admire.

One of my favourite female writers is Marian Keyes. She is hilarious but she always conveys a deeper message in all her books. She takes real life experiences and includes them in her books.

This is a short list of other Irish writers I like and some their work:

Patrick Kavanagh: The Great Hunger , Come Dance with Kitty Stobling,The Green Fool

Samuel Beckett: More Pricks Than Kicks, Murphy

Brendan Behan: The Quare Fellow, Borstal Boy. The Hostage

Frank McCourt: Angela's Ashes, T'is

Malachy McCourt: A monk's swimming, singingg by him song

Liam O'Flaherty: my favourite short story is "The snipper"
 
I only know Irish history books. :reject:

"Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland" by Tim Pat Coogan is fantastic. It is a really exciting, romantic read and a inside look at what the IRA originally was.
 
Niamh_Saoirse said:
There are many brilliant irish authos that I really like and admire.

One of my favourite female writers is Marian Keyes. She is hilarious but she always conveys a deeper message in all her books. She takes real life experiences and includes them in her books.

This is a short list of other Irish writers I like and some their work:

Patrick Kavanagh: The Great Hunger , Come Dance with Kitty Stobling,The Green Fool

Samuel Beckett: More Pricks Than Kicks, Murphy

Brendan Behan: The Quare Fellow, Borstal Boy. The Hostage

Frank McCourt: Angela's Ashes, T'is

Malachy McCourt: A monk's swimming, singingg by him song

Liam O'Flaherty: my favourite short story is "The snipper"
Click to expand...

Oops I got my mc courts mixed up. :up:
I didn't like Malachy's books as much.
 
mmmm Irish history books--my bread and butter.

If that *is* your cup of tea, Richard English (who is a prof at QUB) published a book about a year ago called "Armed Struggle" which I think is fantastic.

You might also check out "Proved Innocent" (published later as "In the Name of the Father") by Gerry Conlon, about how he was tried by a Diplock court and imprisoned for years for a crime he didn't commit. Also a fantastic movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis (which Bono & Gavin Friday wrote music for, incidentally)
 
tennispunk said:


You might also check out "Proved Innocent" (published later as "In the Name of the Father") by Gerry Conlon, about how he was tried by a Diplock court and imprisoned for years for a crime he didn't commit. Also a fantastic movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis (which Bono & Gavin Friday wrote music for, incidentally)
Click to expand...

That book is excellent. I couldn't put it down until I finished it. I totally recommend it.

I also forgot to add "Rebel Hearts: Journeys within the IRA soul" by Kevin Toolis. It's a very interesting and well documented book.

This is an editorial review for the book:

From Library Journal
A journalist who has reported on the Irish Republican Army in Ulster for many years, Toolis here draws together many facets of militant IRA republicanism. Weaving together the history of the troubles in Northern Ireland with the stories of families and individuals, he looks into the "rebel hearts"of these partisans and offers reasons for their joining the IRA. His portraits of brothers Dermot and Martin Finucane, Chieftain Martin McGuinness, and informer Patty Flood are compelling. But no less important is the historical detail of a quarter-century of violence, reprisal, loss, and sadness. Toolis offers measured and heartfelt judgment on?but does not condemn?the hypocrisy, callousness, and stupidity of the Ulster police, paramilitary, and ideologues. Recommended to general readers for the fullness of detail and content but also to more sophisticated readers for the author's insights.?Richard B. Finnegan, Stonehill Coll., North Easton, Mass.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 
Niamh_Saoirse said:


That book is excellent. I couldn't put it down until I finished it. I totally recommend it.

I also forgot to add "Rebel Hearts: Journeys within the IRA soul" by Kevin Toolis. It's a very interesting and well documented book.
Click to expand...

I wonder if that's the one my friend recommended to me... :hmm:
The title sounds so similar! I'm going to have to track her down and ask.

I realized my review of the Michael Collins book sounded a bit sappy--it's actually a well-researched biography, but it really captures the emotion and danger of the times.
 
this is a great thread. I've wanted to read some Irish literature for a long time. I have a degree in English Lit and we barely read anything by James Joyce let alone anyone else Irish. I've been really interested in finding some Irish Lit but didn't know where to look.
 
Oh yes!!
"Rebel Hearts" was the first Irish history book I ever read....and now I'm heading towards a phd in Irish history. Anyway, this is a good one for people not all that versed in the dealings of the IRA because it's very journalistic.

I also really like to read Gerry Adams' work...."Before the Dawn," "Cage 11," and his latest, "A Farther Shore" are all fascinating reads. I'd say that you probably need to read a general Irish history book before you can get the full effect of those, though....maybe "The Troubles" by TP Coogan, although his writing is pretty dry, it's very informative. He used to be the editor of the Irish Times.

And back to literature, there's a book called "The Year of the French" by Thomas Flanagan, which is historical fiction about the 1798 rising. Complex, brilliantly written book.


Niamh_Saoirse said:


That book is excellent. I couldn't put it down until I finished it. I totally recommend it.

I also forgot to add "Rebel Hearts: Journeys within the IRA soul" by Kevin Toolis. It's a very interesting and well documented book.

.
Click to expand...
 
Try Colm Toibin's The Master, a fictionalized portrait of Henry James. Toibin is one of Irelands hottest, hippest young writers. It was a finalist for the Booker Prize this year, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world for contemporary fiction.
 
Oh lord. It's not written like Henry James, is it? :no:

I'm working through A Pocket History of the IRA by Brendan O'Brien. Now that report cards are over, I'll probably actuallt egt through it soon. I bought a Roddy Doyle book when folks first started responding to this thread when it was in the other forum. It's the Barrytown Trilogy, with The Commitments, The Snapper, and The Van.

Maybe I'll print this thread out. :hmm:
 
oh holy shit....
The Commitments and the Snapper are two of the more hilarious movies I've ever seen.

"Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud!"

I haven't read the books though. I've got to re-read Ed Moloney's (very Orange) book "A Secret History of the IRA" and a tome by Coogan over the next couple weeks, but maybe I'll be able to make time to read some Doyle.



martha said:
Oh lord. It's not written like Henry James, is it? :no:

I'm working through A Pocket History of the IRA by Brendan O'Brien. Now that report cards are over, I'll probably actuallt egt through it soon. I bought a Roddy Doyle book when folks first started responding to this thread when it was in the other forum. It's the Barrytown Trilogy, with The Commitments, The Snapper, and The Van.

Maybe I'll print this thread out. :hmm:
Click to expand...
 
martha said:
Oh lord. It's not written like Henry James, is it? :no:
Click to expand...

No!

from The New York Times
The Passion of Henry James
By DANIEL MENDELSOHN
June 20, 2004

...'The Master.'' (The title refers to the nickname that the rather overpoweringly impressive and oracular James acquired from a reverential younger generation; it should be said at the outset that Toibin's novel, with its crisp, almost tactile scene-setting, is anything but overpowering or heavy in the way many people think James's work is.).

...Whatever Toibin's literary-critical and ideological interest in James, ''The Master'' is unquestionably the work of a first-rate novelist -- one who has for the past decade been writing excellent novels about people cut off from their feelings or families or both.
Click to expand...

and so on.
 
I've read two of Mr. Toibin's earlier books ('The Blackwater Lightship' and his first novel of which I cannot recall the title) and have found them interesting, engaging reads.

I must remember to get hold of 'The Master'.
 
yertle-the-turtle said:
I've read two of Mr. Toibin's earlier books ('The Blackwater Lightship' and his first novel of which I cannot recall the title) and have found them interesting, engaging reads.

I must remember to get hold of 'The Master'.
Click to expand...

I liked Blackwater Lightship as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

LemonMelon
Desert Island XI - QUARANTINE ISLAND - Group 2 Listening Thread
4 5 6
Replies
175
Views
6K
namkcuR
N
GraceRyan
Mysterious Ways - chapter 29
Replies
13
Views
2K
Vertigo20
V
lharper
Innocent Experience - Chapter 4
Replies
6
Views
2K
eriekittym
eriekittym
LemonMelon
Desert Island IX: Master List, Part Three
2 3
Replies
88
Views
4K
bono_212
bono_212
Edge_Orchestra
Guitar Player: June 1985
Replies
0
Views
2K
Edge_Orchestra
Edge_Orchestra

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom