Irish Fiction

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9.2.2 - Irish Fiction

Ireland has produced some of the worlds greatest writers and continues to produce excellent fiction. It has always been something that the Irish were world beaters in. Here are a selection of my favourites, please feel free to e-mail me anymore.


James Joyce: Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, Portrait of an Artist as a young man and a collection of short stories called the Dubliners (which is worth it for The Dead alone). There is also a mailing list for discussing Finnegans Wake.


Samuel Beckett: Famous for both his plays and prose. Most famous plays would include End Game, Waiting for Godot and Krapp's Last Tape. Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnameable make up The Beckett Trilogy of novels. Approach with caution.


George Bernard Shaw: Plays include Pygmalion (My Fair Lady), Superman and Heartbreak House.


Jonathon Swift: Author of Gullivers Travels.


Flann O Brian: The Third Policeman should be read by everyone before they die. Also known as Myles Na Gopaleen and Brian O'Nolan, this Irish Times columnist also produced outstanding works such as The Poor Mouth (An Beal Bocht), At Swin Two Birds and The Dalkey Archive.


Brendan Behan: The hard man of Irish writing. Try Borstal Boy, The Quare Fellow for someone who did it all before Shane McGowan or Luke Kelly.


Oscar Wilde: Picture of Dorian Grey, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Happy Prince, Salome and Lady Windermere's Fan.


John McGahern: Amongst Women was shortlisted for the booker prize. The Leavetaking, The Barracks, The Dark and the Pornographer are all worth reading.


Dermot Bolger: Foremost in the new generation of Irish writers. The Journey Home and Emily's Shoes are both excellent.


Patrick McCabe: Shot to fame with The Butcher Boy.


Roddy Doyle: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha won him the Booker prize. The Commitments and The Snapper were both made into films and The Van is due for release next year. His play The Family which was a joint RTE/BBC production is picking up prizes by the armload on the European circuit.


John Banville: Mephisto, Kepler, Doctor Copernicus.


Sean O'Casey: Plays include Juno & the Paycock, The Shadow of a Gunman and The Plough and the Stars.


If you still want more you can try John Millington Synge (Playboy of the Western World), Brian Moore (The Colour of Blood), Edna O'Brien (The Country Girls), J.P.Donleavy (The Ginger Man), Oliver J. Gogarty, John B. Keane (The Bodhran Makers) or William Trevor. There are also many famous Irish poets such as Yeats, Kavanagh, and Seamus Heaney.