A tourist's guide to Ireland

by Liam O'Flaherty

Publisher This Title is part of the "HardPress Classics Series". In this series we are bringing a treasure throve of old books back into print using our own state-of-the-art techniques. Since we are working with old material - occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these reproductions. We have managed to fix the vast majority of issues though, and we believe these books deserve to be persevered for future generations to enjoy.

134 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1998

About the author

People know Irish writer Liam O'Flaherty especially for his short stories, collected in Two Lovely Beasts (1948) and The Pedlar's Revenge (1976).

This significant novelist, a major figure in the literary renaissance, also wrote short stories. Left-wing politics involved him as was his brother Tom Maidhc O'Flaherty (also a writer), and their father, Maidhc Ó Flaithearta, for a time.

Reviews

[laurel sheard]

quick read looking at the different main categories of Irish people at the time. Extremely candid yet humorous

[Dr. S.]

Highly entertaining little piece of satire about what keeps Ireland going.

O'Flaherty assesses that Ireland is beautifully uncivilised and rests on four pillars:"the parish priest, the politician, the peasant and the publican. The waves of progress will never undermine the sacred values upon which our great nation is founded. As long as these bastions stand, Ireland's glory is safe from the evils of modern civilization."

He then works his way through these groups where he as a keen eye for concise statements garnished with black humour, hyperboles, and exaggerations. I liked it and it was also a short read.

Five Stars. Gonna pick up more O'Flaherty novels. I like how rebellious and radical he is.

[ThePageGobbler]

Definitely in the category of satire via blunt instrument (the ‘tourist guide’ joke only carries on in earnest for a couple of chapters) and not necessarily new ground in terms of discussing the uneasy entanglement of church and state in early 20th century Ireland, but still a very good, very impassioned account of a broken social arrangement, with the later chapters on Publican and Peasant fantastic in deepening and going beyond the aforementioned secular/state complicity.