Stories of Ireland by Brian Friel

This was a recent holiday read, I always try to take something that reminds me of home as a perverted placebo for homesickness. There is something about reading of the mist of Ireland, or the home counties of England whilst sitting in the sunshine that appeals to me.

I picked up Stories of Ireland not really knowing what to expect. I knew Brian Friel by name as a playwright (Dancing at Lughnasa), but I hadn’t read any of his fiction. This collection of short stories changed that.

These are quiet, slow-burn stories. Not much 'happens' in a big dramatic sense, but the stories stay with you. Friel has a way of capturing small moments, a glance, a silence, a decision not to speak and letting them reveal something much bigger.

None of the stories have twists or big resolutions. They’re about people, place, and what gets left unsaid.

The tales are set in rural Ireland, Donegal featuring heavily. There are farmers, schoolteachers, civil servants, people trying to hold their lives together with limited options and even fewer words. Friel never makes a big show of their struggles, but they are there, just below the surface.

The Saucer of Larks is one of the standouts. It’s about two men. one Irish, one German, going up into the hills to recover the body of a German pilot who crashed during the war. On paper, not much happens, but Friel turns the landscape into something alive. The bog, the mist, the silence all carry weight. It’s a story about grief, war, and unlikely connections, but it never tells you that outright.

There’s some dry humour here too. The Diviner, about a man hired to find something important, gently pokes fun at rural superstition, but with affection, not mockery. Friel never looks down on his characters, even when they’re being stubborn or misguided, he treats them with care

The stories feel like mini-plays. You can hear the rhythm in the dialogue, the pauses, the subtext. Characters talk, but what matters most is what they don’t say.

What I took from the book is this: these aren't stories about Ireland.

They are stories about what it feels like to live in a country where people carry a lot; history, regret, love, loss but rarely say it out loud. The land, the weather, the daily routine, all becomes a language in itself.

I really enjoyed this book, easy to read and full of depth - as well as a strong sense of place, and the people in it.

Recommended.