Eight engaging books set in and around Ireland

22nd April 2021

Eight engaging books set in and around Ireland…

Ireland has a rich literary heritage. Here at TripFiction our focus is on books with a strong sense of place. We list eight titles below, spread around the beautiful Emerald Isle. Some of these stories naturally reflect the troubled history north and south of the current border, but the brilliance of the writing and the powerful sense of location unites them all.

Blackwatertown by Paul Waters – COUNTY ARMAGH

When maverick police sergeant Jolly Macken is banished to the sleepy 1950s Irish border village of Blackwatertown, he vows to find the killer of his brother – even if the murderer is in the police.

But a lot can happen in a week. Over seven days Macken falls in love, uncovers dark family secrets, accidentally starts a war, and is hailed a hero and branded a traitor.

When Blackwatertown explodes into violence, who can he trust? And is betrayal the only way to survive?

Dubliners by James Joyce – DUBLIN

James Joyce’s Dubliners is an enthralling collection of modernist short stories which create a vivid picture of the day-to-day experience of Dublin life early in the 20th century.

Joyce’s first major work, written when he was only twenty-five, brought his city to the world for the first time. His stories are rooted in the rich detail of Dublin life, portraying ordinary, often defeated lives with unflinching realism. From ‘The Sisters’, a vivid portrait of childhood faith and guilt, to ‘Araby’, a timeless evocation of the inexplicable yearnings of adolescence, to ‘The Dead’, in which Gabriel Conroy is gradually brought to a painful epiphany regarding the nature of his existence, Joyce draws a realistic and memorable cast of Dubliners together in an powerful exploration of overarching themes. Writing of social decline, sexual desire and exploitation, corruption and personal failure, he creates a brilliantly compelling, unique vision of the world and of human experience.

Normal People by Sally Rooney – SLIGO and DUBLIN

Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in rural Ireland. The similarities end there; they are from very different worlds. When they both earn places at Trinity College in Dublin, a connection that has grown between them lasts long into the following years.

This is an exquisite love story about how a person can change another person’s life – a simple yet profound realisation that unfolds beautifully over the course of the novel. It tells us how difficult it is to talk about how we feel and it tells us – blazingly – about cycles of domination, legitimacy and privilege. Alternating menace with overwhelming tenderness, Sally Rooney’s second novel breathes fiction with new life.

Connemara: The Last Pool of Darkness by Tim Robinson – CONNEMARA

The first volume of Tim Robinson’s Connemara trilogy, Listening to the Wind, covered Robinson’s home territory of Roundstone and environs. The Last Pool of Darkness moves into wilder territory: the fjords, cliffs, hills and islands of north-west Connemara, a place that Wittgenstein, who lived on his own in a cottage there for a time, called ‘the last pool of darkness in Europe’.

Cal by Bernard MacLaverty – BELFAST

Set in the Northern Ireland of the 1980’s, Cal tells the story of a young Catholic man living in a Protestant area. For Cal, some choices are devastatingly simple: he can work in an abattoir that nauseates him or join the dole queue; he can brood on his past or plan a future with Marcella.

Springing out of the fear and violence of Ulster, Cal is a haunting love story that unfolds in a land where tenderness and innocence can only flicker briefly in the dark.

Siren by Annemarie Neary – BELFAST and COUNTY CORK

A dark and suspenseful psychological thriller about the slippery nature of truth in post-conflict Ireland, and a redemptive story of a woman claiming back her own identity.

Róisín Burns has spent the past twenty years becoming someone else; her life in New York is built on lies. A figure from her Belfast childhood flashes up on the news: Brian Lonergan has also reinvented himself. He is now a rising politician in a sharp suit. But scandal is brewing in Ireland and Róisín knows the truth.

Armed with the evidence that could ruin Lonergan, she travels back across the Atlantic to the remote Lamb Island to hunt him down. But Lonergan is one step ahead; when Róisín arrives on the island, someone else is waiting for her…

City of Bohane by Kevin Barry – SLIGO, GALWAY, LIMERICK

Set in 2053 in Sligo,Galway, Limerick. The binding story here is about love. Two men, one woman, a shared place. Bohane itself is separated by class, tribe, vision. One of the men is Logan Hartnett, who runs the Fancy, the most fearsome gang in the city. He’s also called the Albino or the Long Fella (though not because he writes poetry, which he doesn’t) or simply Mr. H. The obscure, nameless, occasional narrator points out one detail: “Mouth of teeth on him like a vandalized graveyard but we all have our crosses.”

Paddle by Jasper Winn – AROUND IRELAND

Part memoir, part Irish travels, part lunatic endeavour, Jasper Winn’s account of paddling round Ireland in a kayak, during one the worst summers in recent history, is both hugely inspiring and entertaining.

A journey of the mind – as well as out at sea, amid the basking sharks, seals, fulmars and waves the size of wardrobes. And while storms rage, Jasper seeks refuge in bars, playing guitar and talking, as only the Irish can, with everyone along the way. All of which makes for a unique inside view of the new and old Ireland, from a man never quite sure if he’ll come through the next day in one piece.

There now…we hope we’ve given you the promised broad spread of books – novels, short stories, memoirs and travelogues – that give a literary flavour of the island of Ireland. Which is your favourite from those we’ve listed? Which classic have we missed? We’d love you to join in the conversation…..

Andrew for the TripFiction team

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