Daughter of Lir by Diana Norman - Reading Ireland Month 2024

Title: Daughter of Lir
Author: Diana Norman
Publication: Headline Books, paperback, 1988
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: 12th century Ireland

Description: Taken from Ireland and abandoned at a French convent in the Loire Valley at 6, Finola is renamed Sister Boniface and brought up by the nuns, then at 18 is chosen to be Abbess of Kildare in Ireland. Her focus on her new Abbey and not the warring factions around it is disastrous and she makes a serious enemy, Dermot of Leinster.

Kilkenny and Waterford, Ireland 2026

A quick look at some of the highlights of my trip to Ireland, beginning in Waterford – several of us were invited to the wedding of our friends, Duncan (who I met when I was 5 - very Betsy-Tacyish) and Marlene’s daughter, Regina, in County Cavan. Having only had a 24-hour layover in Dublin many years ago, I decided I wanted to see more of the country and persuaded my college classmate, Susan, to join me for several days of sight-seeing before we headed to the wedding.

Mt. Congreve Gardens

Long Island by Colm Tóibín – 15/20 Books of Summer

In Brooklyn (2009), Eilis Lacey was encouraged by her sister Rose to leave her small town in Ireland for better employment prospects in New York. She finds a job in a department store and takes bookkeeping classes at night but is lonely. Eventually, she began attending Friday night dances with a friend and meets an Italian-American plumber. When she gets bad news from home that Rose has died, Tony persuades her to get married secretly before she returns to Ireland to be with her mother.

The Heart Speaks Many Ways by Madeleine A. Polland – Reading Ireland Month 2025

In this coming of age story, with an admittedly sappy title, a lovely young woman learns to have confidence in herself and her decision-making rather than reacting to stronger personalities or tragedy.

Emily McRoss has been living in Spain for two years, being “finished” with family friends, Don Rafael and Dona Serafina, and their daughter Remedios, her own age. In the background of the relaxed life of the upper classes in Andalusia there is increasing unrest that will result in civil war.

The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien - Reading Ireland 2026

O’Brien’s first novel is a coming of age story, with autobiographical elements, about Caithleen Brady and her frenemy, Baba Brennan; two girls from rural Ireland who yearn for something not available at home. Cait’s mother dotes on her but does not protect her or prepare her for life, perhaps because she cannot protect herself from a drunken, spendthrift husband. Cait is conscious that she doesn’t have the possessions her friend does: nice clothes, for example, or a bicycle. Baba always wants more, however, and helps herself in a very unattractive way to what she wants – she takes the flowers Cait picked for their teacher so she can present them, she snatches biscuits from the Bradys’ kitchen although she must know how little the family has, and she ends up with Mrs. Brady’s rings. She is a vivid but unlikable character while Cait is dreamy but annoyingly passive.

Thicker Than Water by Madeleine Polland - atmospheric suspense in Ireland

Title: Thicker Than Water
Author: Madeleine Polland (1918-2005)
Publication: Pyramid Books, paperback, 1966 (originally published in 1965)
Genre: Fiction/Suspense
Setting: Ireland

Description: When Veronica learns her grandmother, from whom she has been estranged since adolescence, is dying and has asked for her, she leaves London and heads to her deceased father’s childhood Irish home, Hollymount, on the border of Galway and Mayo.

County Cavan and Dublin, Ireland 2026

The main event of my trip was Regina and Sam’s wedding at the Virginia Park Lodge in County Cavan. Back on Saturday, upon arrival at the airport back, the Customs Officer asked the purpose of my trip, and I said I was there for a wedding and sight-seeing. He asked where and then told me he was also going to a wedding at the Virginia Park Lodge two months later! Quite the coincidence!

credit: Wonder and Magic

Cork, Ireland 2026

On Monday, we took an 8 am bus to Cork, the second-largest city in the Republic of Ireland (my cousin Sabrina had given us good advice about a bus stop closer to our B&B but I didn’t relax until the bus actually stopped and let us buy tickets on board)(everyone kept warning us that having a ticket in advance guarantees you a seat but if you have a ticket for bus and miss it, you are out of luck). We only had one day in Cork so we wanted to get an early start. 

St. Fin Barre Cathedral

The Winter Guest by W.C. Ryan #ReadingIreland2023

Title: The Winter Guest
Author: W.C. Ryan
Publication: Arcade Publishing, hardcover, 2022
Genre: Historical Mystery
Setting: Ireland, 1921

Description: After an ordinary evening of cards and conversation, Maud Prendeville, Lord Kilcolgan’s daughter, and two companions are killed in an IRA ambush, yards from her home in the Irish countryside.

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch – Reading Ireland Month 2025

After Eilish Stack answers the door one night to find two policemen asking for her husband, she slowly begins to realize nothing will be the same for her family. Her husband’s job seems innocuous – he is an administrator for the Teachers’ Union of Ireland but these men are investigating an allegation against him:

A series set in Northern Ireland featuring a magical cat for #ReadingtheMeow2024

Mallika of Literary Potpourri invited us to read and discuss books with cats in them this week.

I recently came across Meta Mayne Reid (1905-1991), who wrote some twenty children's books as well as two novels for adults and one collection of poetry from 1936 through 1980.

The Elements by John Boyne - Reading Ireland Month 2026

In this very dark novel by Irish writer John Boyne, four novellas are connected through the trauma that each character experienced; some are victims and some have turned around to inflict their pain on others. Each segment is named after an element. 

Six Degrees of Separation – from Land to Into the Fire

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where it ends up. July’s starting point is Land by Maggie O’Farrell (2026). Land is about an Irish family in the 19th century, and is described as a spellbinding story of separation, longing, recovery, and survival as a family makes a new home in the aftermath of 1840s famine. It’s set on an unnamed, fictitious peninsula on the west coast of Ireland.

Six Degrees of Separation – from Prophet Song to Whitethorn Woods

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where it ends up. This month’s starting point is the 2023 Booker winner, Prophet Song by Paul Lynch.

I got Prophet Song from the library this week for Reading Ireland 2025 as it is about an Irish family and takes place in Dublin (as I plan to read it I avoided spoilers).

My March 2024 Reading

This month’s best reads were all historical fiction: The Phoenix Crown, set around the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco; Daughter of Lir by Diana Norman, about an abbess in medieval Ireland; and Wheel of Fortune by C.F. Dunn, in which a 15th century orphan learns she is powerless against men who should be her protectors.

Hungry Hill by Daphne du Maurier

Title: Hungry Hill
Author: Daphne du Maurier
Publication: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1943, hardcover
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: Ireland, 1820-1920

Plot: This is a multi-generational saga following the fortunes of an Irish mine-owning family, who are cursed by the peasants who once owned their land.  The book consists of five sections, each focused on a different generation as the feud continues.   

The Rúin by Dervla McTiernan

The Rúin is a dark, suspenseful debut set in Galway, first in a series. It follows Detective Cormac Reilly as he relocates from Dublin with his girlfriend, and (somewhat mysteriously) is treated with hostility by his new police department, which assigns him to cold cases (some of which are not just cold but wet - he thinks his colleagues are deliberately spilling coffee on the case files to show their contempt of him), despite an impressive 20-year career. When Jack Blake commits suicide by jumping in the River Corrib, his fiancee and sister are devastated and argue there are circumstances regarding his death that make murder more likely.

The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan: for Reading Ireland Month 2022

Title: The Good Turn
Author: Dervla McTiernan
Publication: Blackstone Publishing, trade paperback, 2021
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Setting: Present-day Ireland

Description: Three separate storylines are deftly brought together in the most recent book by Dervla McTiernan, an Irish writer who now lives in Australia. The story begins with Anna and her suddenly mute 9-year-old, clearly in trouble.

Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy #ReadingIreland2023

Title: Heart and Soul
Author: Maeve Binchy
Narrator: Sile Bermingham
Publication: Random House, Audio, 2008
Genre: Fiction
Setting: Ireland

Description: Dr. Clara Casey had been hoping for a different job but instead finds herself managing a new Heart Clinic attached to St. Brigid’s Hospital in Dublin. She has plenty of stress at home dealing with two high-maintenance daughters and the husband she kicked out for cheating years ago, so puts all her energy into the clinic.

Galway, Ireland 2026

I was determined to visit Galway, which is described as Ireland’s “bohemian cultural heart, famous for its vibrant street music, medieval history, and lively pub scene,” and because the Galway races take place during the last week in July, I chose to go the week before. Now that we knew our way around Cork, it took only a few minutes to reach the bus stop for a three hour trip that was fairly scenic.

Arms of the Martin family, one of the Tribes of Galway (1641)