Collecting Irish Fiction

[Del.Monte]

I'm a big fan of certain genres of Irish fiction including anything by William Trevor, Jennifer Johnston, Molly Keane, Rearden Conner, John McGahern, J G Farrell etc. When I find an author that I like, I try to read everything that I can by that author, which can be easier said than done due to scarcity and price.

J G Farrell (1935-1979) is a case in point and having really enjoyed "Troubles", his 1970 novel set in Ireland during the War of Independence, I set about buying anything else that I could by the author and there aren't that many works due to his life being cut short in a drowning accident at the early of 44. I have read most of his books save for his two earliest works - A Man from Elsewhere (1963) and The Lung (1965) - both of which are scarce and very expensive. A Girl in the Head (1967) his third novel is awful rubbish and the two expensive ones sound even worse. The author so disliked 'A Man from Elsewhere' that he never allowed it to be reprinted and thus it remains beyond the reach of most. It's on my eBay wants list and some years ago https://insatiablecollector.wordpress.c ... g-farrell/ it popped up in my email - priced £250 which I baulked at. Today I searched for the title again - two copies available on AbeBooks - the cheapest a staggering £1,500 and the dearest £1,950 - it seems that I missed a bargain in 2015!



Does anybody else suffer from this strange need to read everything by a particular author?

[quodec]

I have Walter Macken's historical trilogy in the Pan paperback series from the 1960s. Probably not that valuable, but I enjoy his stories and his spare writing style. Never heard of JG Farrell (my bad). Must investigate him.

[Del.Monte]

"Troubles", published in 1970, was the first of Farrell's Empire Trilogy and was made into a TV mini-series starring Ian Richardson and Sean Bean in 1988. It is well worth tracking down a copy of this forgotten series - I have it on VHS but am trading up to a DVD as soon as I can. The second in the Empire Trilogy - The Siege of Krishnapur - won the Booker Prize in 1973 and comes a close second to Troubles in my list of all time favourite works of fiction.

[nlgbbbblth]

John McGahern's The Dark is fantastic.

The character of Mahoney is a legend.

[Del.Monte]

John McGahern's The Dark is fantastic.

The character of Mahoney is a legend.

"That They May Face the Rising Sun" John McGahern's last novel was the first of his books that I read and really warmed to it as it described a rural Ireland that I could relate to. Set in a border county the novel doesn't really go anywhere, instead it observes people, places and the changing seasons in a quiet, sympathetic way which left me wanting more - then poor John McGahern died......Since then I've bought quiet a few of his books and these have joined a growing pile awaiting my attention. I'd recommend it as a good starting place for anybody wanting to explore the world of John McGahern and nice hardback copies of the Irish Independent freebie edition can be picked up very cheaply.

[Del.Monte]

Rearden Conner (1905 - 1991) is another largely forgotten Irish writer who is worthy of further attention. Born in Dublin, the son of an RIC officer he was educated in Cork and growing up in Ireland during the troubled period he had little love for the new state. He emigrated to England in 1941; served with the Red Cross during the Blitz; worked as landscape gardener in London and later turned novelist, critic and broadcaster.

His experiences as a struggling writer (and landscape gardener) are well covered in his autobiography " A Plain Tale from the Bogs" (1937) An interesting read and well worth picking up a copy. In 1933 his first novel "Shake Hands with the Devil" was published. A tale of murder, mayhem and kidnapping in Ireland during the War of Independence it went on to be made into a 1959 movie starring James Cagney, Don Murray, Dana Wynter.... Shot on location in Dublin and Wicklow it's a well crafted work but slightly sanitised compared to the book. The full movie is available on YouTube and on DVD.



I haven't been able to ascertain if his writings, or the film, brought him great financial security but he seems to have enjoyed his retirement. He left his estate to the Leonard Cheshire Foundation including many unpublished manuscripts and some of this material was used in the novel "Epitaph" published posthumously in 1994. Also on my pile for reading. Conner considered "Men Must Live" (1937) his best work and it's set in small-town Ireland just before the outbreak of 'the troubles' - on my list.

[Banshee Bones]

Generally, I'd rather have my thumbnails pulled out than read your modern Irish novelists but I enjoyed the cards of the gambler by Benedict Kiely when I was a kid.

Obviously, you have the classic fantasy writers lefanu, dunsany, etc.