Books Set in Ireland
Books Set in Ireland
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Books have an extraordinary power to transport us. Through their pages, we can cross oceans, wander through misty landscapes, and feel the magic of distant places—all from the comfort of our own homes. Few places capture readers’ imaginations as vividly as Ireland. With its lush green scenery, rich folklore, and vibrant culture, Ireland provides the perfect setting for stories that linger in our hearts long after we turn the final page.
A Journey Through Ireland’s Many Layers
When you read books set in Ireland, you are not just reading words—you are stepping into a land of myths, history, and natural beauty. Ireland offers a unique mix of rugged coastlines, ancient ruins, and cozy villages filled with charm. You can wander through the rolling hills of County Kerry, explore the dramatic cliffs of Moher, or stroll the cobblestone streets of Dublin. From the misty magic of the Irish countryside to the lively warmth of its cities, Ireland comes alive in books in a way that feels both enchanting and deeply human.
Stories set in Ireland capture the essence of the country—its warmth, its struggles, and its enduring spirit. Through these pages, readers experience Ireland’s breathtaking landscapes, age-old traditions, and tales of resilience.
A Feast for the Senses
Ireland is a country that engages every one of the senses, and authors who set their stories here bring that richness to life. When reading about Ireland, you can almost feel the cool mist in the morning air, hear the rhythmic lilt of an Irish fiddle, or smell the smoke from a peat fire burning in a cozy cottage. You might taste a hearty stew or the creamy foam of a freshly poured pint of Guinness. The wind whispers through ancient ruins, and the sound of waves crashing along the Wild Atlantic Way evokes both beauty and power.
Books like Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín evoke the quiet charm of small-town Ireland, while novels like The Irish Cottage by Juliet Gauvin celebrate the beauty of the countryside. Ireland’s landscapes and traditions are so vividly brought to life in fiction that readers can almost feel they are there.
Stories Woven with History and Myth
Ireland’s rich history and mythology provide a stunning backdrop for both historical fiction and contemporary tales. Books like The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd trace the country’s tumultuous past, from its ancient roots to its struggles for independence. Historical novels like The Famine Trilogy by Liam O’Flaherty bring readers into one of Ireland’s most painful chapters, offering a deeper understanding of its resilience.
Myth and legend are also central to Ireland’s identity, and many stories draw from its rich folklore. Books like The Children of Lir bring ancient Irish myths to life, while modern novels like The Wild Hunt by Elizabeth Chadwick weave magic and history together seamlessly.
Romance and Renewal in Ireland
Ireland’s beauty and charm make it an ideal setting for stories of love, transformation, and renewal. Its rolling green hills, cozy pubs, and windswept coasts provide the perfect backdrop for characters seeking connection and new beginnings. In P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern, readers experience the emotional journey of loss and healing, set against the warmth and beauty of Ireland. Meanwhile, An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor introduces readers to the tight-knit community of a small Irish village, where love, laughter, and everyday life shine brightly.
For contemporary romance, books like Love & Luck by Jenna Evans Welch capture the magic of traveling through Ireland with family and friends, blending adventure with heartfelt moments.
Mystery and Adventure
For readers who crave suspense, Ireland offers a rich and atmospheric setting for mysteries and thrillers. Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series is a standout, immersing readers in intricate cases and the shadowy beauty of Ireland’s capital. The lush countryside and centuries-old castles provide haunting backdrops for stories full of secrets and intrigue.
Books like In the Woods by Tana French or The Secret Place evoke a strong sense of place while delivering thrilling, page-turning plots. Ireland’s landscapes—both beautiful and brooding—add depth and atmosphere to these compelling mysteries.
Escape to Ireland Anytime
For readers unable to travel, books set in Ireland provide the ultimate escape. They allow us to experience the vibrant greenery of the Emerald Isle, the warmth of its people, and the enduring power of its stories without ever leaving home. Whether you crave a quiet moment of beauty, a sweeping romance, or a thrilling mystery, Ireland offers something for every reader.
Wedding Dashers by Heather McBreen
Also listed in Books Set in London
After a case of mistaken identity and an almost one-night stand, two stranded wedding guests have to find their way to their final destination together, in this riotously fun debut romance.
Ada’s little sister is getting married. Which should be a happy thought, right? But the once close sisters have been in a year long fight, the wedding is all the way in Ireland, and Ada is so broke that she just barely managed to get a ticket on a budget airline. And as if things couldn’t get worse, said airline just cancelled her connection. Which means Ada is stuck in London with no way to make it to the wedding.
Surely she’s hit rock bottom?
So, there’s no reason for her not to spill her heart out about the over-the-top wedding, her sister’s worryingly quick engagement, and the womanizing best man she’s dreading meeting to a handsome also-stranded stranger at the bar. Until she realizes the stranger is headed to the same wedding. Oh, and he’s the infamous best man.
Now, Jack and Ada must put their simmering attraction behind them to make it to Belfast before they miss the nuptials. But between flat tires, missed trains, and suspect hostels, Jack and Ada start to question whether their feelings are worth going the distance, or just a distracting detour along the way.
The Irish Girl by Ashley E. Sweeney
Author Interview with Ashley E. Sweeney
Thirteen-year-old Mary Agnes Coyne, forced from her home in rural Ireland in 1886 after being accused of incest, endures a treacherous voyage across the Atlantic alone to an unknown life in America. From the tenements of New York to the rough alleys of Chicago, Mary Agnes suffers the bitter taste of prejudice for the crime of being poor and Irish.
After moving west to Colorado, Mary Agnes again faces hardships and grapples with heritage, religion, and matters of the heart. Will she ever find a home to call her own? Where?
Sisters of Belfast by Melanie Maure
Also listed in My Most-Anticipated Historical Fiction of 2024
Orphaned during the Second World War, Aelish and Isabel McGuire—known as the twins of Belfast—are given over to the austere care of the Sisters of Bethlehem. Though they are each all the other has, the girls are propelled in opposite directions as they grow up. Rebellious Isabel turns her back on the church and Ireland, traveling to Newfoundland where she pursues a perilous yet independent life. Devout Aelish chooses to remain in Northern Ireland and takes the veil, burying painful truths beneath years of silence. For decades the two are separated, each unaware of the other’s life. But after years of isolation Aelish is unexpectedly summoned to Newfoundland, where she and her estranged sister begin to bridge the chasm between them.
Reunion brings to light the painful secrets and seismic deceptions that have kept these sisters apart, leaving the McGuire twins to begin reconstructing their understanding about themselves as women and as family–what they know of love, hope, and above all, forgiveness.
Castles and Ruins by Rue Matthiessen
Castles & Ruins is inspired by a summer Rue Matthiessen spent in Galway, with her husband and son.
She had lived in Galway when she was approximately her son’s age (6), with her mother, poet Deborah Love, and her father, writer Peter Matthiessen. Their house was on a small island in a huge lake called Lough Corrib. Her mother died six years later, when Rue was thirteen. A year before that, Deborah Love had published a book called Annaghkeen, (1970, named for the castle on the shore across from the island).
Rue had always wanted to return to Ireland, to try to find the island where she had lived. Finally, she was able to make a plan, and set out with her husband and son. As soon she arrives, she finds that Ireland is much more than a vacation with an end point, it is a trove of memories—a Pandora’s box.
Though her mother had left Annaghkeen, events had been left hanging in time, along with multiple unanswered questions. Rue’s feelings about having lost her rise to the surface afresh, as well as memories of her moody, intense father, who was just then on the cusp of a major literary career. The sixties, and her parents' passionate, always crumbling marriage become vivid, like a film reel before her eyes.
Each chapter begins with a quote from her mother’s book, which further illuminates the trip as it unfolds. They drive the circumference of the island, from church to ruin, from charming village to dramatic seaside cliff. Rue finds ancient, wild Ireland unchanged, and deeply familiar. After all, the seeds of her life were sown here. Ireland is where she remembers it all, and discovers her own beginnings. By following coordinates from Annaghkeen, she finds the island and castle at the end, just as she had left them.
The Fairytale Life of Dorothy Gale by Virginia Kantra
A woman learns to follow her own road in this heartwarming novel inspired by The Wizard of Oz by New York Times bestselling author Virginia Kantra.
Dorothy “Dee” Gale is searching for a place to belong. After their globe-trotting mother’s death, Dee and her sister Toni settled with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em in Kansas, where Dee attends graduate school. But when Dee’s relationship with a faculty member, a bestselling novelist, ends in heartbreak and humiliation, she’s caught in a tornado of negative publicity. Unable to face her colleagues—or her former lover—Dee applies to the writing program at Trinity College Dublin.
Dee’s journey to Ireland leads her to new companions: seemingly brainless Sam Clery—who dropped out of college and now runs a newsagent’s shop—is charming and hot, in a dissolute, Irish poet kind of way; allegedly heartless Tim Woodman—who stiffly refused to take back his ex-fiancée—seems stuck in his past; and fiercely loyal Reeti Kaur, who longs for the courage to tell her parents she wants to teach underprivileged girls rather than work in the family business.
In a year of opportunities and changes, love and loss, Dee is mentored by powerful women in the writing program, challenging her to see herself and her work with new eyes. With her friends, Dee finds the confidence to confront her biggest fears—including her intimidating graduate advisor, who may not be so wicked after all.
Faced with a choice with far-reaching consequences, Dee must apply the lessons she’s learned along the way about making a family, finding a home...and recognizing the power that’s been inside her all along.
Trouble the Living by Francesca McDonnell Capossela
It’s the final years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and Bríd and her sister, Ina, try to maintain a stable life in a divided country. Pushed by her mother’s fanaticism and a family tragedy, Bríd joins the IRA and makes a devastating choice. Frightened and guilt ridden, she flees, leaving behind Ireland and her family for America.
Years later, her guilt and tragic history still buried, Bríd is an overprotective mother raising her sensitive daughter, Bernie, in Southern California. Growing up amid a different kind of social unrest, Bernie’s need for independence and her exploration of her sexuality drive a wedge into their already-fragile relationship. When mother and daughter are forced to return to Northern Ireland, they both must confront the past, the present, and the women they’ve become.
As they navigate their troubled legacies, mother and daughter untangle the threads of love, violence, and secrets that formed them―and that will stubbornly, beautifully, bind them forever.
Out of Ireland: A Novel by Marian O’Shea Wernicke
In the late 1860s in Bantry, Ireland, sixteen-year-old Eileen O’Donovan is forced by her family to marry an older widower whom she barely knows and does not love. Her brother Michael, at age nineteen, becomes involved with the outlawed Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret organization dedicated to the violent overthrow of British rule in Ireland. Their fates intertwine when they each decide to emigrate to America, where both tragedy and happiness await them. An exciting coming-of-age story of a brother and sister in an Ireland still under the harsh rule of the British, Out of Ireland brings alive the story of our ancestors who braved the dangers of immigration in order to find a better life for themselves and their families.
The Choice by Nora Roberts
The conclusion of the epic trilogy from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Awakening and The Becoming.
Talamh is a land of green hills, high mountains, deep forests, and seas, where magicks thrive. But portals allow for passage in and out—and ultimately, each must choose their place, and choose between good and evil, war and peace, life and death…
Breen Siobhan Kelly grew up in the world of Man and was once unaware of her true nature. Now she is in Talamh, trying to heal after a terrible battle and heartbreaking losses. Her grandfather, the dark god Odran, has been defeated in his attempt to rule over Talamh, and over Breen—for now.
With the enemy cast out and the portal sealed, this is a time to rest and to prepare. Breen spreads her wings and realizes a power she’s never experienced before. It’s also a time for celebrations—of her first Christmas in both Talamh and Ireland, of solstice and weddings and births—and daring to find joy again in the wake of sorrow. She rededicates herself to writing her stories, and when his duties as taoiseach permit, she is together with Keegan, who has trained her as a warrior and whom she has grown to love.
It’s Keegan who’s at her side when the enemy’s witches, traitorous and power-mad, appear to her in her sleep, practicing black magick, sacrificing the innocent, and plotting a brutal destruction for Breen. And soon, united with him and with all of Talamh, she will seek out those in desperate need of rescue, and confront the darkness with every weapon she has: her sword, her magicks—and her courage…
The Invincible Miss Cust by Penny Haw
Author Interview with Penny Haw
Aleen Cust has big dreams. And no one―not her family, society, or the law―will stop her.
Born in Ireland in 1868 to an aristocratic English family, Aleen knows she is destined to work with animals, even if her family is appalled by the idea of a woman pursuing a veterinary career. Going against their wishes but with the encouragement of the guardian assigned to her upon her father's death, Aleen attends the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh, enrolling as A. I. Custance to spare her family the humiliation they fear. At last, she is on her way to becoming a veterinary surgeon! Little does she know her biggest obstacles lie ahead.
The Invincible Miss Cust is based on the real life of Aleen Isabel Cust, who defied her family and society to become Britain and Ireland's first woman veterinary surgeon. Through Penny Haw's meticulous research, riveting storytelling, and elegant prose, Aleen's story of ambition, determination, family, friendship, and passion comes to life. It is a story that, even today, women will recognize, of battling patriarchy and an unequal society to realize one's dreams and pave the way for other women in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
“One of the most unforgettable characters in contemporary literature” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the hard years following World War Two. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America, she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.
Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, who loves the Dodgers and his big Italian family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future.
P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern
Holly and Gerry were childhood sweethearts–soulmates. And then the unthinkable happens. Gerry's death devastates Holly. But as her 30th birthday looms, Gerry comes back to her, leaving her a bundle of notes signed ‘PS, I Love You’. One for each month of the year. The man who knows her better than anyone is set out to teach her that life goes on.
With the help of her friends and family, Holly finds herself laughing, crying, singing, and dancing–life is for living, she’s realizing–and it helps if there's an angel watching over you.
The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd
Edward Rutherfurd has introduced millions of readers to the human dramas that are the lifeblood of history. From his first bestseller, Sarum, to the international sensation London, he has captivated audiences with gripping narratives that follow the fortunes of several fictional families down through the ages. The Princes of Ireland, a sweeping panorama steeped in the tragedy and glory that is Ireland, epitomizes the power and richness of Rutherfurd's storytelling magic.
The saga begins in tribal, pre-Christian Ireland during the reign of the fierce and mighty High Kings at Tara, with the tale of two lovers, the princely Conall and the ravishing Deirdre, whose travails cleverly echo the ancient Celtic legend of Cuchulainn. From that stirring beginning, Rutherfurd takes the reader on a powerfully-imagined journey through the centuries. Through the interlocking stories of a memorable cast of characters—druids and chieftains, monks and smugglers, noblewomen and farmwives, merchants and mercenaries, rebels and cowards—we see Ireland through the lens of its greatest city.
In the Woods by Tana French
Also listed in Best Psychological Thrillers Books
As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.
Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.
An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor
Barry Laverty, M.D., can barely find the village of Ballybucklebo on a map when he first sets out to seek gainful employment there, but already he knows that there is nowhere he would rather live than in the emerald hills and dales of Northern Ireland. The proud owner of a spanking-new medical degree, Barry jumps at the chance to secure a position as an assistant in a small rural practice.
At least until he meets Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly.
The older physician, whose motto is to never let the patients get the upper hand, has his own way of doing things, which definitely takes some getting used to. At first, Barry can't decide if the pugnacious O'Reilly is the biggest charlatan he has ever met, or possibly the best teacher he could ever hope for.
Ballybucklebo is long way from Belfast, and Barry soon discovers that he still has a lot to learn about country life. But if he sticks with it, he just might end up finding out more about life--and love--than he ever imagined back in medical school.
Love & Luck by Jenna Evans Welch
Addie is visiting Ireland for her aunt’s over-the-top destination wedding and hoping she can stop thinking about the one thing she did that left her miserable and heartbroken—and threatens her future. But her brother, Ian, isn’t about to let her forget, and his constant needling leads to arguments and even a fistfight between the two once inseparable siblings. Miserable, Addie can’t wait to visit her friend in Italy and leave her brother—and her problems—behind.
So when Addie discovers an unusual guidebook, Ireland for the Heartbroken, hidden in the dusty shelves of the hotel library, she’s able to finally escape her anxious mind and Ian’s criticism.
And then their travel plans change. Suddenly Addie finds herself on a whirlwind tour of the Emerald Isle, trapped in the world’s smallest vehicle with Ian and his admittedly cute, Irish-accented friend Rowan. As the trio journeys over breathtaking green hills, past countless castles, and through a number of fairy-tale forests, Addie hopes her guidebook will heal not only her broken heart, but also her shattered relationship with her brother.
That is if they don’t get completely lost along the way.
The Famine Trilogy by Liam O’Flaherty
Elizabeth Lara built a perfect life as San Francisco’s top divorce attorney, but when she loses her great-aunt Mags, the woman who raised her, she boards a plane and leaves it all behind.
The Irish shores welcome her as she learns a shocking truth, kept secret for thirty-five years. Devastated and now alone in the world, Beth tries to find peace in a beautiful cottage by Lough Rhiannon, but peace isn’t what fate had in mind. Almost as soon as she arrives, Beth’s solitary retreat into the magic wilds of Ireland is interrupted by Connor Bannon. A man with light brown hair, ice blue eyes and a secret of his own. He’s gorgeous, grieving, and completely unexpected.
The Secret Place by Tana French
A year ago a boy was found murdered at a girlsʼ boarding school, and the case was never solved. Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to join Dublin’s Murder Squad when sixteen-year-old Holly Mackey arrives in his office with a photo of the boy with the caption: “I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.” Stephen joins with Detective Antoinette Conway to reopen the case—beneath the watchful eye of Holly’s father, fellow detective Frank Mackey. With the clues leading back to Holly’s close-knit group of friends, to their rival clique, and to the tangle of relationships that bound them all to the murdered boy, the private underworld of teenage girls turns out to be more mysterious and more dangerous than the detectives imagined.
The Wild Hunt by Elizabeth Chadwick
In the wild, windswept Welsh marches a noble young lord rides homewards, embittered, angry and in danger. He is Guyon, lord of Ledworth, heir to threatened lands, husband-to-be of Judith of Ravenstow. Their union will save his lands - but they have yet to meet...
For this is Wales at the turn of the twelfth century. Dynasties forge and fight, and behind the precarious throne of William Rufus political intrigue is raging. Caught amidst the violence are Judith and Guyon, bound together yet poles apart. But when a dark secret from the past is revealed and the full horror of war crashes over Guyon and Judith, they are forced to face insurmountable odds. Together...
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
In 1920, at their country home in County Cork, Sir Richard Naylor and his wife, Lady Myra, and their friends maintain a skeptical attitude toward the events going on around them, but behind the facade of tennis parties and army camp dances, all know that the end is approaching—the end of British rule in the south of Ireland and the demise of a way of life that had survived for centuries. Their niece, Lois Farquar, attempts to live her own life and gain her own freedoms from the very class that her elders are vainly defending. The Last September depicts the tensions between love and the longing for freedom, between tradition and the terrifying prospect of independence, both political and spiritual.
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
Author Interview with John Boyne
Cyril Avery is not a real Avery -- or at least, that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn't a real Avery, then who is he?
Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead. At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from - and over his many years, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country, and much more.
In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.
Ireland’s captivating landscapes, rich history, and deep sense of magic make it a literary destination unlike any other. Books set in Ireland let us explore its rugged beauty, immerse ourselves in its stories, and connect with its people from wherever we are. Whether you’re dreaming of misty mornings, cozy cottages, or moments of magic in an Irish pub, let Ireland be your next armchair travel destination—all you need is a good book.
