We Used to Dance Here

by Dave Tynan

We Used to Dance Here is a portrait of both Dublin and Dubliners in flux, exploring life on the margins, toxic masculinity and frustrated ambitions. With dog tracks, late-night radio talk shows, pubs, messy break-ups, industrial accidents and the reality of housing precarity, these stories show a darker, edgier side to Dublin and they do so in brilliant, crackling prose.

Genres: Short Stories, Irish Literature

240 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 28, 2025

Reviews

[Aoife · Rating 4 out of 5]

if you love stories about Irish people with mental health problems struggling to communicate with each other, you will love this book about Irish people with mental health problems struggling to communicate with each other

[John Braine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisite collection of short stories that reflect a city and its people that I fully recognise and connect with, which is no mean feat.

[Chiara Barone · Rating 3 out of 5]

ghost trails: i was not expecting a collection of poems at the end. Ghost trails because it's all about breakups of some sort --leaving the trails of the ghosts we used to know AND it is at the end of the book leaving us trails of the book we just read. Ugh fucking poetry.
"still making air with the idea of you"
--
I overall really liked this. Some stories were way more engaging than others, and the language was sometimes hard to follow (but it made sense for the specific story). Great attention to detail, great word used to describe specific feelings. I can def see he's a movie director, there's a lot of old cinematic feeling behind most of these.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very different and it's been years since I read a short story collection.The characters are really well drawn. I loved the two stories Forge Worlds and Off Your Chest in particular.

The writing is the standout about the book, it is really gorgeous and I get the sense there is a poetry collection somewhere behind this. However, In places I felt almost felt it got so dense with these nice images or turns of phrase it became difficult to read or follow, but then other stories I think it's more evenly spread out and the imagery really pops and sets the mood really well.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of short stories, some 5 star and others very much not. Tourists was great. Allowed for some nostalgia of time spent in Dublin back in my twenties. Dog Men another I'll remember fondly, would love to find out how the characters lives turn out. Overall enjoyable 3 star read.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

up the fucking dubs

[Tim Chapman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed it. I had to read over a few weeks because of I read the stories back to back they seemed to bleed into each other.

[Gabsby · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
Beautifully written short stories about depressed Irish people - can’t go wrong really

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dave Tynan is a writer of astoundingly electric prose. Oh my goodness me. A five star read until the final story (Baby's First Plague) which took an unfortunate COVID themed turn, and the long poem (ghost trails) that closed the collection. Will certainly be returning to this author. An audacious debut.

[Chris Nightingale · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with the writing style tbh, quite short and snappy it felt like. Some stories were lovely and held a nice meaning but some I lost interest in. Maybe they felt they weren't distinctive enough from each other or maybe there was a deeper meaning to a theme running through them all - I couldn't spot one.

[Caoimhe Bonehill · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF
A beautiful collection of short stories, really liked ‘Tourist’ and ‘Crispy Bits’.
The snappy mismatched pace of the shorter stories works really well but I found the slighter longer stories harder to get into.

I may turn back to this collection eventually but I’m in no rush.

[Fionnán Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of good premises, but the majority of stories just stopped rather than reaching a proper ending

[Sean O'Hara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoy most things Dave Tynan produces and this collection of short stories is no different.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think if you're going to write a book that abandons quotation marks and standard sentence structure you should have to ask me personally for permission.

[Dayabir · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who (almost) hates collected short stories I liked this surprisingly much, there were were stories quite I enjoyed and others I really struggled to get through.

The stories felt raw and represented the feelings of home away from home in a way that resonated with me, having lived for 10 years away from my home country. The sequence of the stories was good, my favourite being 'And the Ballroom'.

Ultimately though, the stories are set in a too recent time periods for my personal preference and the world building keeps the time it's set in quite clear.

*Note: Because so much of the book is focused on dialogue, the lack of speech marks made it a little difficult to follow the conversations at times. May be the author's stylistic choice or something editors / the publisher insisted on but I would have preferred the book with speech marks.