ACCORDING to the publicists every year since I’ve been here, and presumably well before that too, Ireland has been going through a golden age in literature.
Now, I’ve long had a love affair with Irish literature, as it was one of the ways in which I tried to understand the country I was rooted in; but I’ve also long treated marketing with a healthy scepticism.
Saying that, and with no more credibility than being an obsessive reader, there are indeed Irish books that I would urge anyone to read. Of course there are many incredible non-fiction works, and they deserve a column of their own, but if I were going with only fiction I know which ones I’d be pushing on the unsuspecting reader.
Despite the transparent hyperbole of the contemporary literary marketing scene there are recent and contemporary books that deserve a wide readership. Ciarán Collins’ The Gamal is a ridiculously underrated novel.
I remember it coming out and watching as lesser books, in that mysterious way of book promotion, did far better. I even managed, so enamoured of it was I, to wangle writing a review of it for one of the Irish papers. The general story aside, about a young, traumatised lad — if you want to feel how small town Ireland operates and the invisible hierarchy of, even, a pub lounge then read this book.
Ken Bruen’s The Guards is the first of his Jack Taylor series and was made into a TV series I’ve never watched. I’ve read nearly all the Jack Taylor books though. They are ostensibly about a detective in Galway who is a chronic alcoholic and an all-round tragic figure. There is a special attraction in The Guards for anyone who knows Galway city but that aside these dark, visceral books are a great insight into modern Ireland. Especially if you like the sourness and warmth of whiskey.
But, in all honesty, we can’t avoid the older masters if we are talking about Irish literature. The very masters, indeed, that give the current publicists the illustrious history they can feed off. Strumpet City by James Plunkett is one of the most brilliant Dublin books there is. A superb story about the Dublin lock-out of 1913 it is the finest of Irish novels. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell is the nearest to it in terms of Irish writing about working class life, is arguably in fact better, but Strumpet City is the one set specifically in Ireland.
Thy Tears Might Cease by Michael Farrell is a much forgotten book whose beauty has been ignored. It is set during the original Troubles that led to the foundation of this State but it is for its evocative rendition of ordinary Irish life that this book lingers long in the memory. It is romantic Ireland, for sure, but with the authenticity of rain and wind. You will feel you are in Ireland if you read this.
Exiles by Dónall Mac Amhlaigh is that extraordinary thing, an Irish language novel about Irish immigrants in London. My Irish is, sadly, nowhere near good enough to read it in the vernacular but the English translation is deeply moving and evocative. It is an essential text about Irish immigrant life in the UK, in this case in London, and its account of the work and the pubs is like a memory.
It’s an astonishing book.
Another Irish language novel in translation is the wonderful The Dirty Dust by Máirtín Ó Cadhain. It is about the dead in a graveyard and the conversations they have and, strangely, will bring a smile to your face.
Flann O’Brien’s, The Third Policeman, is strange, dark, hilarious and quite simply one of the best books you will ever read. Is it about a bicycle is a catchphrase far more enduring than any comedic one you might have heard before.
The Ultras by Eoin McNamee is a very, very, dark novel about the disappearance of the British soldier Captain Robert Nairac and brings the chill of those days truly alive. Indeed, all of these novels have a power you won't quickly forget.
Frank O’Connor’s short stories, in various editions, are magical examples of Irish writing. They will bring Ireland to your doorstep no matter where you are in the world and are some of the best, most moving, wittiest things you’ll ever read. And I haven’t even mentioned Yeats. Heaney, Joyce or Beckett. I haven’t even mentioned, in fact, the much dismissed Walter Macken whose book The Bogman is one of the most incredible portrayals of rural Irish life there is. To be honest I haven’t even scratched the surface.
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