Ireland

Nine-year-old Ronan O’Mara made this story for me. Witnessing his youthful delight in old storyteller and then developing a passion to learn the myths and history of his homeland was endearing. Set in the 1950s, itinerant storytellers who once were somewhat commonplace were now becoming a remanent of the past. As custom as it, the old man moves on much to Ronan’s dismay. He spends his years into early adulthood searching for the man and as he does, Ronan becomes quite the storyteller himself.

Rich in both history and that of fable, I learned about the Emerald Ilse in a… show more.

Perhaps no book has moved me more than Ireland by Frank Delaney. 

Through a series of tales told by an itinerant storyteller the author paints a series of haunting, vivid portraits of Irish history. Each story stands alone, but over the course of three nights of story-telling, the pieces of this mosaic come together, revealing a clearer history than most history books could hope to present. 

Delaney reaches deeper historical facts and allows a rare glimpse into how people felt and what they believed. I felt that I was listening to the storyteller, rather than reading words. This presents the… show more.

Being Irish, I can’t help but place Ireland, in my best top ten historical fictional novels. The country is famous for its legends and fantasy, but this story is also about the passage of time from the ice age to the 1950s, told by one of the last of the ancient storytellers that used to roam the roads of Ireland, passing on tales and news from the past.

A young boy is hooked by the stories and as he grows to manhood, he is determined to follow the storyteller wherever he travels. He loses him, but he devotes his… show more.