I marked St Patrick’s Day last year by noting the books about Ireland that I had read in the previous twelve months, and it seems like a nice idea to do that again.

Fiction

• Our Song, by Anna Carey – lovely romance set in contemporary Dublin.
• The Colony, by Audrey Magee – interesting depiction of change on a small island in 1979.
• Prophet Song, by Paul Lynch – remarkable dystopian vision of Irish society collapsing into Syrian-style chaos.
• The Wren, The Wren, by Anne Enright – a good one, literature across the generations.
• How Many Miles to Babylon?, by Jennifer Johnston – classic of class struggle and the Great War.
• Inspector French and Sir John Magill’s Last Journey, by Freeman Wills Crofts – convoluted 1930s murder mystery, much of it set in County Antrim.
• Mother Ross: An Irish Amazon, by G.R. Lloyd – attempts to novelise the story of the famous genderqueer seventeenth-century Irish soldier, but tries too hard.
• Black Mountain and other stories, by Gerry Adams – rather dull, I’m afraid.
• Joan and Peter, by H.G. Wells – mostly set in England with excursions elsewhere, but there is a crazy Unionist aunt and the male protagonists visit Dublin to find out What Is Going On.
• The Dramatic Works of Denis Johnston, vol 3: Radio and Television Plays – from a different era and a different medium, but some interesting stuff.
• Ness: A Story from the Ulster Cycle, by Patrick Brown – graphic novel based on ancient legend, which I’m afraid I rather bounced off.

Autobiography

• Apostate, by Forrest Reid – first volume, taking the (now mostly forgotten) writer through childhood in late nineteenth-century Belfast up to the start of his literary career.
• Private Road, by Forrest Reid – second volume, recounting a literary life between Northern Ireland and England in the first third of the twentieth century.

History of Literature

• Irish Conflict in Comics: Rebellion, Nazi Spies and the Troubles, by James Bacon – the definitive guide to Ireland in comics.

Northern Ireland

• Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, by Patrick Radden Keefe; and the TV series – the parallel, tragic and violent stories of Dolours Price and Jean McConville.
• Killing Thatcher: The IRA, the Manhunt and the Long War on the Crown, by Rory Carroll – how the IRA came close to eliminating the top of the British political system.
• Irish Unity: Time to Prepare, by Ben Collins – arguing that the day is coming.

Twentieth century history

• The Partition: Ireland Divided, 1885-1925, by Charles Townshend – definitive account of how the island ended up split.
• Charlie vs Garret: The Rivalry That Shaped Modern Ireland, by Eoin O’Malley – reliving the political dramas of my teens.
• Britain’s Other D-Day: The Politics of Decimalisation, by Andy Cook – mostly about the UK, but with a substantial chapter about the Irish process, starring my grandfather.

Nineteenth century history

• The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-9, by Cecil Woodham-Smith – unbeatable account of the Famine and how the British government made it worse.
• The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Murders that Stunned an Empire, by Julie Kavanagh – an unexpected pleasure, recounting the most audacious political assassination in Irish history and its consequences.

Earlier history

• Ireland in the Renaissance, 1540-1660, ed. Thomas Herron and Michael Potterton – a fantastic book, sixteen substantial essays and none of them is a dud, and beautifully illustrated.
• The Politics and Culture of Honour in Britain and Ireland, 1541-1641, by Brendan Kane – good detailed book on a slightly obscure topic.

My favourites of these are Our Song, by Anna Carey, Prophet Song, by Paul Lynch, The Irish Assassins, by Julie Kavanagh, and Ireland in the Renaissance, eds Thomas Herron and Michael Potterton.

Finally, some Irish biographical blog notes which were not based around books:

• Hugh Carswell: Belfast’s first science fiction fan – a strange tale from the 1930s.
• Alice Everett, 1865-1949 – an early graduate of Queen’s Belfast who became a key developer of television technology.
• Lt. Gerard Valentine Ryan’s grave in Venray – my second cousin once removed and his final resting place in the Netherlands.