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A Tourist's Guide to Ireland
Book by Liam O'Flaherty
96 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1998
About the author
Liam O'Flaherty
127 books77 followersPeople 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 8, 2024
quick read looking at the different main categories of Irish people at the time. Extremely candid yet humorous
July 30, 2019
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.
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.
March 23, 2025
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.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews