Review: An Irish Country Family

An Irish Country Family by Patrick Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Held on to this book for over a year-- just did not want to read it too soon, knowing that there is only one more book in the series. Taylor decided to stop because the time line had brought him to the turbulent Troubles and he did not want to ignore them, nor did he want his characters to become embroiled in them. So, in this book, he focuses on Barry Laverty's last year as Houseman alternately with is current status as a married man in Balleybucklebo. He and Sue are in the throes of seeming infertility and much of the advances in female medicine are explained as the tests and physician confersations ensue to determine why this young couple does not seem able to conceive.

Time is moving on for the residents and their families and friends in this volume. Some of our favorites die, some marry, some find new positions, others new homes but through it all the news of conflict between Catholics and Protestants cannot be ignored. Yet, the nastiness and violence of it has not reached this little village and the residents wish to celebrate their closeness and ability to rise above this difference. As one man tells his Protestant beau of his Catholic daughter, I cannot let the fact that our two families worship the same God in different ways come between you two. Not a direct quote but close enough to relay the gist of this story.

I've come to love these people and though my Catholic Irish grandmother and her son, my father, would not exactly share that sentiment, having a more personal experience with the British Protestants in their Irish life, I am removed from that and love the way Patrick Taylor has created a fictional place where all is serene and accepting. I will miss it and its inhabitants very much.
Now to the final book, alas!

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