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The Back of Beyond: A Search for the Soul of Ireland
James Charles Roy, a noted authority on Irish history and travel, escorts a disparate group of Americans through the lonely backwaters of ancient Ireland. Visions of a glorious enterprise evaporate as he sees a dejected and weary handful of aged American tourists disembark at Shannon Airport. Fortified by Guinness, Roy hurls himself into sharing with them the joys and wonders of Ireland's twisted byways. Determined to avoid clichéRoy leads his group to obscure Celtic coronation sites, monasteries, and remote abbeys as he spins a narrative that pulls Ireland's chaotic story into coherence. His unsuspecting charges begin to shed their hesitancies, relishing their guide's idiosyncratic approach to Ireland. Black comedy aside, Roy touches an emotional chord: how the economic phenomenon known as the Celtic Tiger has transformed Old Ireland into a high-tech power. At the tour's end, Roy embarks alone for the inaccessible Ardoilean, a seventh-century Celtic hermitage in County Galway. His vision of an Ireland lost forever is an emotional tour de force.
232 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 19, 2018
Because I traveled to Ireland this year, I set myself the welcome task of reading a number of books both set in Ireland and written by Irish authors. While this particular author is American, he is certainly familiar with the 'off the beaten path' of Ireland, its sad history, its various houses and manors, and most particularly its monasteries and other religious sites.
In many way, I wish I had read this book before going to Ireland, but then I would never have been able to fit it all in. Between this book and the wonder of the Internet (and more to the point, its ready images) I was able to follow along thereby extending my tour of Ireland.
The title will give you a clue that he prefers the mostly non-touristy places. Some look downright forlorn, but he included a plethora of interesting history. Having read several other books that cover the sad history of the Isle, I was mostly prepared for the devastation that has hounded that lovely, gentle country.
My only complaint is that he focused so much on the Catholicism of the trip. To be fair, that might have been the trip itinerary, but it was not particularly called out in the description. As I am not a Catholic, a little of that goes a long way and he became more and more involved with it as the book went along.
Still, an interesting travelogue and an interesting, quirky, temperamental, emotional, and truly devoted fan of Ireland.
In many way, I wish I had read this book before going to Ireland, but then I would never have been able to fit it all in. Between this book and the wonder of the Internet (and more to the point, its ready images) I was able to follow along thereby extending my tour of Ireland.
The title will give you a clue that he prefers the mostly non-touristy places. Some look downright forlorn, but he included a plethora of interesting history. Having read several other books that cover the sad history of the Isle, I was mostly prepared for the devastation that has hounded that lovely, gentle country.
My only complaint is that he focused so much on the Catholicism of the trip. To be fair, that might have been the trip itinerary, but it was not particularly called out in the description. As I am not a Catholic, a little of that goes a long way and he became more and more involved with it as the book went along.
Still, an interesting travelogue and an interesting, quirky, temperamental, emotional, and truly devoted fan of Ireland.
August 31, 2021
'"You see how extraordinary Ireland can be," I say, "here we are on an ordinary street in an ordinary town that could be ordinary anywhere in Ireland, yet we have the confluence of so many life strands right here in this building." Everyone stares at me blankly, their expectations for a nice bowl of Irish cream soup suddenly fading away as their captain goes off on another of his long-winded digressions.'
James Charles Roy's acerbic writing style reveals a tour guide and a Catholic man who is knowledgeable, passionate, and unexpectedly hilarious. Because of coronageddon, I have had to postpone my own tour of Ireland for two years now. Mr. Roy's tour makes this book an oddly delightful substitute.
James Charles Roy's acerbic writing style reveals a tour guide and a Catholic man who is knowledgeable, passionate, and unexpectedly hilarious. Because of coronageddon, I have had to postpone my own tour of Ireland for two years now. Mr. Roy's tour makes this book an oddly delightful substitute.
February 10, 2020
I will soon be making my third trip to Ireland and this book was on the reading list. This book has a lot of good information in it about the Irish culture. Roy rails against the Disneyfication of Ireland with those reconstructed castles decorated with wildly inappropriate artifacts from a variety of periods. I have traveled with knowledgeable group leaders like Roy, but I really enjoyed his remarks about the tourists in his group as well as a great put-down of those tour group leaders who recite a script without any real knowledge of history or archaeology. I would love to visit those abandoned islands where the people lived and struggled so hard to make a living from the land.
land.
land.
October 9, 2017
It's quirky without a doubt, but all in all I enjoyed the strange bits of Irish history, the odd travelogue, and Roy's willingness to let himself look odd at times.
October 17, 2022
Interesting review of Irish history, some I knew, some I did not, coupled with some humorous tour guide stories.
January 29, 2024
I love finding obscure books from bygone years written by authors I've never heard of on topics that interest me. Enter "The Back of Beyond", a charming, atmospheric, humorous micro-memoir of Irish history and modern life, written 20 years ago by American historian James Charles Roy, who has spent much of his adult life in Ireland, and who here recounts his reluctant role hosting a small, fussy US travel group for a few weeks, and the zany, humorous, and occasionally poignant experiences he led them through, traipsing around lesser-known historical sites to disabuse them of their misconceptions about the real Ireland.
His group is a small but opinionated band of geriatrics, some of whom can barely walk, and who don't know their right hand from their left. Yet he weaves a narrative for them, and for readers, that succeeds in his goal of presenting to them an Ireland worth knowing, full of charm, sorrow, optimism, beauty, and a history of a people forever placed at "The Back of Beyond", off the beaten path.
Roy interjects anecdotes about his dilapidated castle in Moyode in County Galway, thus explaining his standing as a well-liked, if curmudgeonly, American mascot of sorts for the local Irish community, many with roots that seem to go back to Celtic times.
I have great interest in exploring Ireland, and Roy's account makes me want to read his other works, in which he unfolds Ireland's history, people, and intrigue, to better prepare.
--
I found this book in a Half Price bookshop in Boise, Idaho, on the clearance rack last year.
His group is a small but opinionated band of geriatrics, some of whom can barely walk, and who don't know their right hand from their left. Yet he weaves a narrative for them, and for readers, that succeeds in his goal of presenting to them an Ireland worth knowing, full of charm, sorrow, optimism, beauty, and a history of a people forever placed at "The Back of Beyond", off the beaten path.
Roy interjects anecdotes about his dilapidated castle in Moyode in County Galway, thus explaining his standing as a well-liked, if curmudgeonly, American mascot of sorts for the local Irish community, many with roots that seem to go back to Celtic times.
I have great interest in exploring Ireland, and Roy's account makes me want to read his other works, in which he unfolds Ireland's history, people, and intrigue, to better prepare.
--
I found this book in a Half Price bookshop in Boise, Idaho, on the clearance rack last year.
February 2, 2015
This is the story of the author's leading a tour of Ireland purporting to get to the soul of the land and its history. "I genuinely want them to realize how the little things in Ireland are often what should command our greatest attention." Not long before saying that this is what he wants to impart to the people on his tour, he said, "Even though I dreamed up the itinerary, put all the pieces together, and wrote most of the brochure, I have to admit that I haven't seen many of the places on it in years." Apparently "greatest attention" doesn't necessarily involve actually being present.
Jim Roy is certainly knowledgeable and he knows how to tell a story, but his relentless pessimism and his patronizing attitude towards the people he guides soured the experience for me. His numerous disparaging comments ("my group is incapable of making any independent choices") most often reflect his disgust at their not happening to know what he knows. He seems to forget that hearing what he knows is what they're paying him for.
I tired of his know-it-all, sweeping, and ornery takes on various subjects, which at times lapsed into the nonsensical, as in: "I've never paid attention to a sermon in my life,...never having heard one worth listening to." There are also some inaccuracies that his fact checker should have saved him from, for example his saying twice that The Daughters of the American Revolution preserved and run Mount Vernon. (It's always been the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.) I'm sure I'd be more forgiving of such lapses if I liked him better!
Mr. Roy seems to be suffering from a bad case of the nostalgic fallacy, the notion that everything in the past was grand, was more authentic than what things have become in a modern world seen as inevitably tawdry and fake.
I learned some things along the way and was happy to revisit some of the places that I enjoyed on my two trips to Ireland, but I'm glad the tour is over.
Jim Roy is certainly knowledgeable and he knows how to tell a story, but his relentless pessimism and his patronizing attitude towards the people he guides soured the experience for me. His numerous disparaging comments ("my group is incapable of making any independent choices") most often reflect his disgust at their not happening to know what he knows. He seems to forget that hearing what he knows is what they're paying him for.
I tired of his know-it-all, sweeping, and ornery takes on various subjects, which at times lapsed into the nonsensical, as in: "I've never paid attention to a sermon in my life,...never having heard one worth listening to." There are also some inaccuracies that his fact checker should have saved him from, for example his saying twice that The Daughters of the American Revolution preserved and run Mount Vernon. (It's always been the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.) I'm sure I'd be more forgiving of such lapses if I liked him better!
Mr. Roy seems to be suffering from a bad case of the nostalgic fallacy, the notion that everything in the past was grand, was more authentic than what things have become in a modern world seen as inevitably tawdry and fake.
I learned some things along the way and was happy to revisit some of the places that I enjoyed on my two trips to Ireland, but I'm glad the tour is over.
December 26, 2012
(Rounded up from 4.5 stars because this is a unique approach to the subject matter).
The Back of Beyond is the story of author James Charles Roy's leadership of a small pilgrimage/tour group in the rural parts of western Ireland. An American, Roy has written extensively on Irish history (his The Road Wet, the Wind Close is extremely well researched if a bit dry to read). The story is part memoir, part history, and part travelogue. It's a good tale of a tour guide trying to show his group a reality of Irish history stripped of its overly-romanticized tendencies.
Roy's personality is curmudgeonly and slightly difficult, but he is deeply passionate about the topic. He wants his group to see the reality of Irish history through its two weeks in-country, so they tour the backroads and little known places, rather than hearing tales of shamrocks and leprechauns. The story works because of Roy's angst and his passion, but especially because his humor negates his obviously overwritten grumpiness. Its a funny story filled with facts, stories, names and places, but is not the same old tales of a Magically Delicious country.
If you're looking for a romantic tale, look elsewhere. If you want to see the little details - for Roy's thesis is that the best things in Ireland are small and easily overlooked - then read this one.
Truthfully, I've tried reading The Road Wet... a few times now. I recognize that it's good, but it's dry. However, after finishing this later tale, I'm definitely going back to read it in full, recognizing that I'm hearing from a realist who still deeply values the magic of Irish history, from its saints to its overlords, even if that magic isn't the simplistic thing that is usually told to American tour buses.
The Back of Beyond is the story of author James Charles Roy's leadership of a small pilgrimage/tour group in the rural parts of western Ireland. An American, Roy has written extensively on Irish history (his The Road Wet, the Wind Close is extremely well researched if a bit dry to read). The story is part memoir, part history, and part travelogue. It's a good tale of a tour guide trying to show his group a reality of Irish history stripped of its overly-romanticized tendencies.
Roy's personality is curmudgeonly and slightly difficult, but he is deeply passionate about the topic. He wants his group to see the reality of Irish history through its two weeks in-country, so they tour the backroads and little known places, rather than hearing tales of shamrocks and leprechauns. The story works because of Roy's angst and his passion, but especially because his humor negates his obviously overwritten grumpiness. Its a funny story filled with facts, stories, names and places, but is not the same old tales of a Magically Delicious country.
If you're looking for a romantic tale, look elsewhere. If you want to see the little details - for Roy's thesis is that the best things in Ireland are small and easily overlooked - then read this one.
Truthfully, I've tried reading The Road Wet... a few times now. I recognize that it's good, but it's dry. However, after finishing this later tale, I'm definitely going back to read it in full, recognizing that I'm hearing from a realist who still deeply values the magic of Irish history, from its saints to its overlords, even if that magic isn't the simplistic thing that is usually told to American tour buses.
August 1, 2015
A contemporary travelogue style book written by The Times journalist who loves Ireland (and as he is the 'man of faith', its Catholic Churches), who decides to be the tour guide for a group of elderly American tourists on a tour to the 'the back of beyond' in Ireland. It has all the qualities of a good travel book - easy to read style, self deprecating humour, an eye of an outsider who can see the accentricities of the locals but lovingly accepts those, insights into the local ethos. However this book also covers many sights and places in Ireland which are not usually on the tourist circuit. We went to quite a few of those so really enjoyed this book. Recommended as a travel companion for Irish trips.
April 19, 2014
Honestly, I skimmed most of it - but it could be useful for research later. James Charles Roy, author & scholar, has bought a ruined wee castle in Ireland. He guides a tour of Americans (I think) through the Galway area. I wasn't totally impressed, there was a lot of navel-gazing, but I think there's good info buried in there.
January 15, 2011
Was really into this book about IRELAND, but lost it on the train to Montreal.
January 19, 2013
Love, love, love this book. Laugh out loud funny in some places, makes one want to cry in others.
August 8, 2012
Difinitely the "soul" of Ireland
Have read it 3 times
Have read it 3 times
September 2, 2012
Someone should option this for a film - even with the ol' Hollywood treatment it would be a charming film; humor, pathos, character studies, tragedy, triumph....
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews