Some years ago, I contacted a Twin Cities academic and asked if he could recommend a list of Irish books that everyone should read. He thought for a long time, way past my deadline, and then he finally got back to me. Well, there's fiction, he said, and there's nonfiction, and of course there's poetry, and anyway the most important Irish books are all written in Gaelic.
And there went that idea.
But with St. Patrick's Day coming up, as well as the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, I figured I'd take a stab at a list myself. I don't read Gaelic, but I do read a lot about Ireland, and a lot of Irish writers, and any list, I figure, is just a good starting point for an argument. (So: Feel free to argue! In Gaelic!)
"Those Are Real Bullets," by Peter Pringle and Philip Jacobson, a riveting, aggravating, incensing book of reportage about Bloody Sunday 1972, when British soldiers fired into a crowd of unarmed Irish Catholic citizens, killing 13 people, injuring another 14.
"The Killing of Major Denis Mahon," by Peter Duffy. Another one to get the blood a-boiling. The rebellion of Irish peasants during the heart of the Famine resulted in the murder of an English landlord — which resulted in extreme measures from the Brits.
"Courage, Boys, We Are Winning," by Michael B. Barry. Photos, documents and other ephemera from the 1916 Easter rebellion that led to independence. Perhaps most moving is the sketch made at the scene when James Connolly was executed — tied to a chair, because his battle wounds made it impossible to stand.
"Academy Street," by Mary Costello. In just 160 pages, Costello gives us the full life of Tess Lohan, who grew up in the west of Ireland and emigrated to the United States. Reminiscent of Colm Toibin's brilliant "Brooklyn," but even more spare and more interior.
"The Green Road," by Anne Enright. Rosaleen Madigan, aging matriarch (and such a great character!), summons her children back to Ireland for one last Christmas before she sells their childhood home.
