March 17th is St. Patrick’s Day. To celebrate, we’ve selected five Irish audiobooks — with the help of our friends at Chirp Audiobooks — that will transport you to Ireland and help you to appreciate the history and culture behind St. Patrick’s Day.
Note: you can get a 30% discount with our exclusive promo code: AUDIOBOOKADDICTS30
An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor
Audiobook Summary:
Welcome to the Village of Ballybucklebo. Come and say hello to Dr. O’Reilly’s odd-as-two-left feet patients, his housekeeper, Mrs. “Kinky” Kinkaid, and O’Reilly’s pets, Arthur Guinness, the beer-swilling black Lab and Lady MacBeth, the demonically possessed white cat. And of course, to young Dr. Barry Laverty.
Beautifully evocative of a gentler, simpler time, Patrick Taylor’s An Irish Country Village magically captures the charm, wit, and ribald humor of a vanished Irish countryside and its people.
Why we love it!
You’ll be transported to the quaint Irish countryside in this cozy listen.
Listen to An Irish Country Village audiobook.
Ireland by Frank Delaney
Audiobook Summary:
From a land famous for storytelling comes an epic novel of Ireland that captures the intimate, passionate texture of the Irish spirit.
One evening in 1951, an itinerant storyteller arrives unannounced at a house in the Irish countryside. In exchange for a bed and a warm meal, he invites his hosts and their neighbors to join him by the wintry fireside, and begins to tell formative stories of Ireland’s history. Ronan, a nine-year-old boy, grows so entranced by the storytelling that, when the old man leaves abruptly under mysterious circumstances, the boy devotes himself to finding him again.
A sweeping novel of huge ambition, Ireland is the beautifully told story of a remarkable nation. It rings with the truth of a writer passionate about his country and in full command of his craft.
Why we love it!
This New York Times bestselling mystery will keep you both enchanted and on the edge of your seat.
Murder in an Irish Pub by Carlene O’Connor
Audiobook Summary:
The small village of Kilbane is hosting a poker tournament at the local pub, and card sharp Eamon Foley, a tinker out of Dublin, is set to win the tournament. But when Foley is found at the end of a rope, it’s time for the garda to take matters into their own hands. Macdara Flannery would lay odds it’s a simple suicide, but Siobhán suspects foul play, as does Foley’s pregnant widow. Perhaps one of Foley’s fellow finalists just raised the stakes to life and death.
With conflicting theories on the crime, tensions are running high. Soon it’s up to Siobhán to call a killer’s bluff, but if she doesn’t play her cards right, she may be the next one taken out of the game.
Why we love it!
Poker, pubs, and a murder to solve–what more could we ask for in this enthralling listen!?
Listen to Murder in an Irish Pub audiobook.
Maeve’s Times by Maeve Binchy
Audiobook Summary:
Maeve Binchy is well known for her best-selling novels, the most recent of which was A Week in Winter. But for many years Maeve was a journalist, writing for The Irish Times. From ‘The Student Train’ to ‘Plane Bores’, ‘Bathroom Joggers’ to ‘When Beckett met Binchy’, these articles have all the warmth, wit and humanity of her fiction. Arranged in decades, from the 1960s to the 2000s, and including Maeve’s first and last ever piece of writing for The Irish Times, the columns also give a fascinating insight into the author herself.
With an introduction written by her husband, the writer Gordon Snell, this collection of timeless writing reminds us of why the leading Irish writer was so universally loved.
Why we love it!
For fans, this collection is yet one more chance to visit with an old friend. For newcomers, the columns represent a kind of social history of Ireland and of the late 20th century.
Listen to Maeve’s Times audiobook.
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”
So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank’s mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank’s father Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story.
Perhaps it is a story that accounts for Frank’s survival. Wearing shoes repaired with tires, begging a pig’s head for Christmas dinner, and searching the pubs for his father, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors – yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness.
Imbued with Frank McCourt’s astounding humor and compassion – and movingly read in his own voice – Angela’s Ashes is a glorious audiobook that bears all the marks of a classic.
Why we love it!
Listening to Angela’s Ashes is an example of how an audiobook can bring a dimension to literature that raises the medium far above the convenience of “listening on the go”. The book is a classic, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 and a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1996. But to listen to McCourt tell his story with eloquence, exuberance, and remarkable forgiveness is something else – I feel as if people who have only read the book have missed out on something. Read our full review of Angela’s Ashes.
Listen to Angela’s Ashes audiobook.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, you’ll find most of these titles are currently discounted by Chirp for a limited time (click here to read our Chirp review). You can get an additional 30% discount with our exclusive Chirp audiobooks promo code: AUDIOBOOKADDICTS30
What Irish audiobook will you be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with? Please share in the comments section below!
