Strange Ireland


Book Description

In Ireland, truth, folklore, mythology, and legend are indistinguishably interwoven into a Celtic knot of strangeness. From fact to fiction and the peculiar to the bizarre, unravel some of Ireland’s most curious lore: the Blarney Stone kissing ceremony, the giant behind the Giant’s Causeway, the escapades of Saint Patrick, and the myths of the 1690 battle of the River Boyne among many others. Among the twenty-six chapters each detailing a unique Irish oddity, discover the history of Emerald Isle in a new light.




Strange Kin


Book Description

The ties between Ireland and the American South span four centuries and include shared ancestries, cultures, and sympathies. The striking parallels between the two regions are all the more fascinating because, studded with contrasts, they are so complex. Kieran Quinlan, a native of Ireland who now resides in Alabama, is ideally suited to offer the first in-depth exploration of this neglected subject, which he does to a brilliant degree in Strange Kin. The Irish relationship to the American South is unique, Quinlan explains, in that it involves both kin and kinship. He shows how a significant component of the southern population has Irish origins that are far more tangled than the simplistic distinction between Protestant Scotch Irish and plain Catholic Irish. African and Native Americans, too, have identified with the Irish through comparable experiences of subjugation, displacement, and starvation. The civil rights movement in the South and the peace initiative in Northern Ireland illustrate the tense intertwining that Quinlan addresses. He offers a detailed look at the connections between Irish nationalists and the Confederate cause, revealing remarkably similar historical trajectories in Ireland and the South. Both suffered defeat; both have long been seen as problematic, if also highly romanticized, areas of otherwise "progressive" nations; both have been identified with religious prejudices; and both have witnessed bitter disputes as to the interpretation of their respective "lost causes." Quinlan also examines the unexpected twentieth-century literary flowering in Ireland and the South -- as exemplified by Irish writers W. B.Yeats, James Joyce, and Elizabeth Bowen, and southern authors William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O'Connor. Sophisticated as well as entertaining, Strange Kin represents a benchmark in Irish-American cultural studies. Its close consideration of the familial and circumstantial resemblances between Ireland and the South will foster an enhanced understanding of each place separately, as well as of the larger British and American polities.




Strange Flowers


Book Description

AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARD NOVEL OF THE YEAR Longlisted for the Dublin Literary Awards “Mr. Ryan writes conspicuously beautiful prose… The fleeting happiness and abiding melancholy of the asymmetry, heightened by the intimately rendered surroundings, brings out Mr. Ryan’s most sensuous and emotive writing.” –The Wall Street Journal From the Booker nominated author of The Queen of Dirt Island, Donal Ryan's new novel follows the Gladney family across three generations seeking the true meaning of what it is to find home and love. In 1973, twenty-year-old Moll Gladney takes a morning bus from her rural home in Ireland and disappears. Bewildered and distraught, Paddy and Kit must confront an unbearable prospect: that they will never see their daughter again. Five years later, Moll returns from London. What - and who - she brings with her will change the course of her family's life forever. Beautiful and devastating, this exploration of loss, alienation and the redemptive power of love reaffirms Donal Ryan as one of the most talented and empathetic writers at work today.







Foster


Book Description

An international bestseller and one of The Times’ “Top 50 Novels Published in the 21st Century,” Claire Keegan’s piercing contemporary classic Foster is a heartbreaking story of childhood, loss, and love; now released as a standalone book for the first time ever in the US It is a hot summer in rural Ireland. A child is taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm, not knowing when or if she will be brought home again. In the Kinsellas’ house, she finds an affection and warmth she has not known and slowly, in their care, begins to blossom. But there is something unspoken in this new household—where everything is so well tended to—and this summer must soon come to an end. Winner of the prestigious Davy Byrnes Award and published in an abridged version in the New Yorker, this internationally bestselling contemporary classic is now available for the first time in the US in a full, standalone edition. A story of astonishing emotional depth, Foster showcases Claire Keegan’s great talent and secures her reputation as one of our most important storytellers.




Weird Ireland


Book Description

A hill that cars roll up. A bridge that plays music. A chair to cure madness. An underworld gateway. Bizarre foods, films, phrases and creatures. Welcome to weird Ireland. In a journey across the island, Brinsley McNamara - curator of the popular social media channel Weird Ireland - shares his oddity obsession to bring you an off-the-beaten-track account of unique Irish wonders. From UFOs and fairy forts to lake monsters and healing rocks, from standing stones and moving statues to fizzy drinks and fast food, Weird Ireland is a book to be cherished by all seekers of the strange, rare and peculiar. Featuring illustrations by Eoin Whelehan.




The Black Dreams


Book Description

An anthology of specially commissioned short stories exploring the weird, surreal, and dream-like. Bringing together some of the best of Northern Ireland's literary talents as well as new and exciting voices, this collection is dark, funny, and unsettling.




Ireland's Mysterious Lands and Sunken Cities


Book Description

The Emerald Isle of Ireland has inspired a vast number of legends about lost or sunken lands and cities. These legends predate Roman and Christian influences. This book examines the intriguing nature of these legends and reviews anthropological and geological evidence supporting them. Was these indeed a Tir-fo-Thuin, the Land Under Wave, a combination of the dead and a paradise? Reviewed in Ireland of the Welcomes , Vol. 50, No. 6, November - December 2001, p.54 by Mary OSullivan Stories of sunken cities, monasteries, churches and royal palaces are scattered hither and yon across the broad landscape of Irish folklore. The fishermen of Lough Neagh believe that their huge lake conceals the proud remains of palaces and temples more firmly than the inhabitants of Scotland accept the existence of the Lough Ness monster. Hy Brazil or Hy Breasail, the legendary sunken paradise island is, of course, somewhere off the western seaboard, and thanks to its frequent reappearances on the surface, it persists on maps into the sixteenth century. The great Thomas Westropp reports personal sightings, one evening after sunset in 1887 off the Clare coast and again in 1910, this time on the Mayo coast! There are persistent stories of the image of a stately city clearly visible set in the sky above Galway bay, usually during spells of warm calm sunny weather`Come over next summer with an open mind. You never know your luck!




Bending to earth


Book Description




New Irish Short Stories


Book Description

Edited by Joseph O'Connor (author of Star of the Sea and Ghost Light) New Irish Short Stories is a stunning collection from a fascinating variety of writers, both new and established. Featuring, among many others, William Trevor and Roddy Doyle, Rebecca Miller and Richard Ford, Christine Dwyer Hickey and Colm Toibin, it shows the short story to be a vibrant, thriving form and one that should continue to be celebrated and encouraged. This collection follows the two acclaimed editions David Marcus edited for Faber in 2004-5 and 2006-7.