Falling In Love With Ireland
by K. Allen McNamara
On Tuesday March 13th a third Nor’easter pounded the east coast of the United States and I found myself thinking of Ireland. Perhaps it was the wind’s banshee cry or the crash of the waves at the shore that set me on this path. But curled up with a book and cup of tea, Ireland played across my thoughts.
I first fell in love with Ireland long before I visited it; I fell in love through books. In the corner of my elementary school library, I read about selkies, elves, fairies, leprechauns and banshees. From that dusty corner, the books changing as I grew, I moved on to: Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish, The Lion of Ireland, and The Horse Goddess by Morgan Llywelyn, Trinity by Leon Uris, and Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy. I gobbled up American authors of Irish descent without knowing it: Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly*, Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Then moved on to Mary Higgins Clark and Andrew Greeley, Alice McDermott, Kate Chopin, Michael Connelly, Raymond Chandler, Flannery O’Connor, Joyce Carol Oates, Tim O'Brien, and Patrick Conroy.
I’ve been lucky enough to visit the Emerald Isle now three times since my armchair days. And each time I do I marvel at my connection to the land and the kinship I feel with its people. Perhaps it is because there is something innate, something so visceral in me (beyond my marital surname) that makes visiting Ireland feel as if I’ve come home. After all, humans share 33% of our DNA with a daffodil perhaps the same can be said about the shamrock.
When asked asked about visiting Ireland and what I recommend, I provide a list places we stayed while in the Burren, Galway and Dublin, places of note that we visited along Ireland’s West Coast, and provide with a quick rundown of the food and pubs to be found etc…
I also provide a list of books to get a feel for Ireland and for ‘being of’ Irish descent. There is, of course, a difference between being Irish - as in of Ireland, born and raised and “being” American-Irish. But it is a strange kind of difference for it is often too a sameness and one I feel is captured and conveyed in and through the stories written by Irish and American-Irish authors. Books set in a place provide a map of that place and its people - not a cartographer’s map but a setting map: the feel for or essence of the place. To experience a land and its people you need to know it’s essence. You need to read. Or in the words of Tim O'Brien's collection of stories you need to know: The Things They Carried.
My list of Irish authors or American-Irish authors to provide a Map of Ireland (mind you it does evolve with each book read):
Alice McDermott (my all-time favorite author): McDermott’s Charming Billy won the National Book Award in 1998 which not only gives the reader a clear view of growing up Irish American in New York but is a feat for being able to merge viewpoints so we are as Robert Olen Butler describes both characters at central point of convergence, in what Butler calls "the Dissolve"- switching from one image to another through a camera shift which hinges on shared memory. *Confession I own multiple copies of this book it is one of my very favorites.* If you want to remember the 1960s/70s or a Mad Men fan read That Night and for a look at the changes one life has made since the 1970s in terms of tolerance and acceptance read Someone: A Novel.
J. Courtney Sullivan: A Saint for All Occasion moves between County Clare to Boston family saga which explores secrets and regrets of a family who refuse to talk about the elephant in the room and expect people to "just know things" without every sharing.
Tana French (American-Irish author who lives in Dublin) : In the Woods a psychological thriller won the Edgar Anthony, Macavity and Barry awards for best new author. Faithful Place (one of my favorites by Tana French) and The Likeness (takes place at Trinity).
Maeve Binchy (Irish author) : Light a Penny Candle - a feel for the power of the Church in coloring how one views the world - rose colored glasses it is not. Wanton thoughts indeed! Normal coming of age thoughts, aches and desires and the juxtaposition of each against the Church and a culture so entwined with its faith.
Leon Uris: Trinity . No Uris is not Irish or American-Irish but he can make you feel the urgency and the oppression the wanting to be free of the yoke of British rule so acutely.
Tom Molloy: Rebel Streets Boston-born Molloy lived in Belfast covering the Troubles as an independent reporter. He lived and walked with IRA fighters and was arrested in British raids. Rebel Streets looks at what happens when ordinary people are thrust into violence during the period known as the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Patrick Taylor: (Irish author) who has written about the Troubles in his Ulster Stories and novels about being an Irish country doctor. Taylor lived in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and practice medicine (obstetrics) there. He is also the author of numerous medical articles and a contributing member to the medical humor column Stitches. He resides in British Columbia.
Morgan Llwelyn (a citizen of Dublin): Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish - which weaves the tale of how Ireland came to be settled by Europeans and why the Sídhe (the Fey of Ireland) went underground. Lyrical and wonderful you will get lost in the Bard's tale.
Lisa Carey: Mermaid's Singing set off the west coast of Ireland it is a story of mothers and daughters that switches between Ireland and the US and examines what pain befalls us and our offspring when we are too guarded.
Regina McBride: The Nature of Air and Water a modern telling of the selkie with a twist. I read this when I first visited Ireland and it haunted me as I hiked those roads.
For your middle school reader: Nory Ryan's Song and Maggie’s Door by Patricia Reilly Giff covers the Great Hunger and the walk to Galway Bay to board the orphan ships to America.
Audio books for the family: Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer (Irish author) - I highly recommend this series. It provided us with hours of entertainment on car rides north to go skiing. Boy Genius, Criminal Mastermind, Fairies, Leprechauns- it has it all. Plus the protagonist develops a conscience.
Yes, to me, Ireland will forever be entwined with books - how can it not be? This time of year (today is St. Patrick’s Day) there are many lists that abound re: the Irish author you should read next and why. These lists range from contemporary Irish authors, to books every Irish American should read, to books by American-Irish authors that should be read and much more. Some of these lists and their links appear below. Warning: your TBR pile may grow.
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“Eight Irish Women Writers Who Match Up with Joyce and Yeats” by Caroline B. Heafey
The 20 Books Every Irish American Should Read | The New York Public Library
14 brilliant books by Irish women that you really ought to read
15 Great Irish Writers You've Probably Never Read (But Should) | Literary Hub
Review of J. Courtney Sullivan's A Saint for All Occasions
A review of Lisa Carey's Mermaids Singing
A review of Regina McBride's The Nature of Air and Water
Too Smart to Be Sentimental: Contemporary Irish American Women Writers - this book "offers a feminist literary history of twentieth-century Irish America. This collection introduces the reader to the works of twelve contemporary Irish American women writers..."
If your interests are more of the Irish literary greats - I found this site which lets you travel Ireland following iconic literary figures.
*Maureen Daly was actually born in Ireland but grew up in Wisconsin.
