Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
To learn more about Ireland past and present, check out a few of these books or films:
Noniction
For a quick overview, Richard Killeen's
A Short History of Ireland
is a well-illustrated
walk through key events.
Ireland: A Concise History
(Máire and Conor Cruise O'Brien)
is just that, while
How the Irish Saved Civilization
(Thomas Cahill) shows how this “is-
land of saints and scholars” changed the course of world history. In
Traveller's History of
Ireland,
Peter Neville leads readers on a tour through Ireland's complicated history.
Frank McCourt's autobiography,
Angela's Ashes,
recounts his impoverished childhood
in 1930s Limerick.
Are You Somebody? The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman
(Nu-
ala O'Faolain) and
To School Through the Fields
(Alice Taylor) are well-written memoirs.
Two New Yorkers move to a tiny Irish village in
O Come Ye Back to Ireland
(first in a
series of four books by Niall Williams and Christine Breen). For a humorous jaunt through
the Irish countryside, read
Round Ireland with a Fridge
(Tony Hawks) or
The Back of Bey-
ond: A Search for the Soul of Ireland
(James Charles Roy).
Fiction
Ireland is the home to its share of great writers, among them masters such as James Joyce
(try his
Dubliners
for a look at Irish life in the 1900s), Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, W.
B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, and Samuel Beckett. Other classic Irish authors include
Brendan Behan, Oliver Goldsmith, Thomas Kinsella, and Seamus Heaney (for more on
Edward Rutherfurd's thick, two-part
Dublin Saga
traces key events in Irish history
from
A.D.
430 to the fight for independence. Other historical epics include
Trinity
(Leon
Uris),
The Last Prince of Ireland
(Morgan Llywelyn), and
Ireland
(Frank Delaney).
The Bódhran Makers
(John B. Keane) is a heartwarming look at poor families in 1950s
Ireland. Roddy Doyle's gritty novels, such as
The Barrytown Trilogy
and
A Star Called
Henry,
capturetheday-to-daylifeofworking-classDubliners.AlsosetinDublin,
Finbar's
Hotel
and
Ladies' Night at Finbar's Hotel
(Dermot Bolger) were written collaboratively,
with each chapter penned by a different modern Irish author. Consider also any of Maeve
Binchy's soapy novels such as
Circle of Friends.
Films
The Quiet Man
(1952), starring John Wayne as a disgraced boxer, remains a sentimental
favorite. David Lean's epic WWI love story
Ryan's Daughter
(1970) was filmed near
Dingle. If you're visiting the Aran Islands,
Man of Aran
(1934) is a classic documentary
