Irish Novels, Histories Make for Swell Summer Reading

By Martin Russell
Irish American Post book editor

The numbers of marvelous Irish and Celtic-themed books making their way deskside this past year are as plentiful as the garden’s zucchini. And just as delicious in their own way. The following reads are some of the best culled from evergrowing stacks creeping their literary way past the back porch swing. Now where’s the tonic water, ice and lime? It’s time to settle in for summer’s much appreciated mental vacation.

Festival Songs & Stories, John O’Brien, Jr., (Author House, 2006, $20). Written by the assistant director of Cleveland’s Irish Cultural Festival, Festival Songs takes up with Irish music legends Tommy Makem, Danny Doyle, Liam Clancy, Joannie Madden and numerous others. A welcome addition is the discography following each performer’s tale about life on the road, at home and in the studio. Also fun are the numerous photos gracing this in-depth volume, allowing readers to remember how young everyone once was. O’Brien writes in a breezy, easy-to-follow style that ties together the stories related by the entertainers who make our summer festivals so much fun. 

Kathy’s Story, Kathy O’Beirne, (Greystone Books, 2005, $16.95). Using her own life as a backdrop, Kathy O’Beirne has tackled the horrors of the Magdalen laundries in which "wayward" girls were locked up and forced to work off their "sins." O’Beirne was taken from her family as a troubled youngster and locked up. During her stay in one of the laundries, she was beaten by staff, raped by a visitor and gave birth...all before her 14th birthday. But ultimately, Dubliner O’Beirne’s tale is one of triumph. As an adult, she went on to lead the campaign for justice for the Irish girls who had to endure such abuse. While not light fare, this is an excellent peek into an Irish past that needed to be exposed.

Bornholm Night-Ferry, Aidan Higgins (Dalkey Archive Press, 2006, $12.95). Adultery in novels can often be fun, if not forgiving. Characters Finn FitzGerald and Elin Marstrander trade passionate letters between their trysts aboard a famous Baltic Sea ferry boat in the late 1970s. Naturally, a mere 47 days together isn’t enough to carry them both to happiness. Their emotive seas became way too rough and they are stranded with their dreams. The book is interestingly presented, with the author using the couple’s letters to convey their story. It helps that Finn is a novelist and Elin a poet, adding a literary caste to what could have been just a simple tale of two lovers adrift. 

Ireland: In a Glass of Its Own, Peter Biddlecombe (Abacus, 2006, $15.95). Noted travel writer Peter Biddlecombe takes readers on a hilarious romp around Ireland. The expedition, naturally, deals a lot with drink...whether a pint in a local snug or the free decanter of port found in his room each day at a Co. Mayo hotel. Biddlecombe is hot on a quest to have a Guinness in each of Ireland’s 32 counties and weaves a great deal of local lore into the process, as well as information about the country’s brewing business, race horses, good-looking women and some not, clergy and the Blessed Virgin. Now that’s a travel book!

Art in Belfast: 1760-1888, Eileen Black (Irish Academic Press, 2006, $65). Originally written as a doctoral dissertation for Queen’s University, Belfast, Art in Belfast may be academic in appearance but it is lively in tone. Author Eileen Black, from the Ulster Museum, puts the Northern Ireland city in focus as an art colony, albeit one fraught with politics, intertribal cultural warfare and class conflict. In this work, she redrafted her thesis to make it less geared to the university set and expanded on the era’s history to place the art scene into its proper context. Numerous color plates are helpful aids in placing the various art pieces in perspective. Any Irish art lover needs this in his/her library. 

Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion, Charles Townshend (Ivan R. Dee, 2006, $28.95). Chosen as the Irish Times’ Book of the Year, Prof. Charles Townshend of the University of Keele in England lays out the terrible struggle for Irish freedom in clear, readable tones. He delves into the personalities, as well as the politics, of Ireland of the time. Townshend gets past the myths and lays out the turmoil within the revolutionary movement that almost doomed it from the start. The author lays out a gripping, intelligent presentation that fills in many holes left in other such histories.

The Wrong Kind of Blood, Declan Hughes (William Morrow, 2006, $23.95). What is summer for, if not for delving into a good potboiler...and specifically an Irish one at that. Playwright/director Declan Hughes has turned his keen eye toward the printed page, off the stage for once, for this thriller. A private investigator living in Los Angeles returns to hometown Dublin for his mother’s funeral and stumbles into a world he wished he had grown beyond. Old flames are rekindled, bodies pile up, nefarious deeds done. Our boyo, hero Ed Loy, needs to watch out for those evil Halligan brothers as well as the sultry Linda Dawson. Will he heed our advice? This book is good for a least three slowly sipped tonics (add the Brian Boru vodka, please). Let’s hope the movie comes out soon, or at least has a theatrical oomph from Hughes’ Rough Magic company. This is his first novel. 

The Wearing of the Green: A History of St. Patrick’s Day, Mike Cronin and Daryl Adair (Routledge, 2006, $19.95). So it isn’t March, but the dog days of summer. Yet a read through The Wearing will ensure that every Irish parade-ophile will be reading for next spring’s marching season. The authors dig deeply into the legends of the High Holy Days and tell how a religious experience evolved into a party featuring green bagels and silly hats. The authors take readers to Australia, Ireland, Canada and Northern Ireland, as well as the United States. Heavily footnoted, this tome is not just a valuable chronicle of paddywackery, but also one delving into the deep cultural pool of what constitutes being Irish.