- Paperback: 248 pages
- Publisher: Andre Deutsch Ltd; New edition edition (1 July 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 023300095X
- ISBN-13: 978-0233000954
- Product Dimensions: 19 x 12.7 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 446,869 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"'Funnier than Bill Bryson or Pete McCarthy, and also more likeable because Colin is a more generous self-effacing 'smartass tourist' than either' - Teletext; 'Highly entertaining tale of an Irish pilgrimage... Irwin's narrative flips between the past and the present, brimming with anecdotes and running jokes as the most extraordinary characters bustle in and out of the pages, among them some of the giants of Irish music' - Uncut; 'This has to be the funniest book I have read in a long time... Every step of the way you feel as though you're there... A brilliant read' - Irish World; 'A worthy addition to other rib-tickling tomes like McCarthy's Bar and Round Ireland with a Fridge.' - Irish Post; 'Very clever, very entertaining, tremendously enjoyable and at times downright hilarious...Do they find that elusive chimera, the Craic? You'll just have to buy the book and find out for yourselves.' - Folk Roots magazine"
Product Description
There's nothing quite like hearing Irish music in Ireland. Not in big concert halls or grand arenas, or even the popular taverns on the tourist route, but in the small pubs in remote areas where the locals habitually gravitate for those informal sessions universally known as the Craic. After 25 years visiting Ireland both as a music writer and a tourist, Colin Irwin goes in search of the craic. He talks to some of the leading Irish musicians about their experiences and they direct him to places where the craic is mightiest. This is the story of his journey into Ireland's musical soul. But Ireland, being Ireland, nothing ever goes quite according to plan...
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First Sentence
I know a bloke who met a bloke who knew another bloke whose sister's boyfriend's cousin went on his holidays to Ireland. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I know a bloke who met a bloke who knew another bloke whose sister's boyfriend's cousin went on his holidays to Ireland. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is both a fascinating and hugely enjoyable trip around Ireland's many pubs and the interesting people he encounters on the way.
Colin Irwin has so many funny and sometimes poignant anecdotes to tell. He obviuosly has an infinity with the country and its people and this comes across very well in this book.
This is certainly one of the best books I've read this year. Recommended!!
Colin Irwin has so many funny and sometimes poignant anecdotes to tell. He obviuosly has an infinity with the country and its people and this comes across very well in this book.
This is certainly one of the best books I've read this year. Recommended!!
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The synopsis scarcely does justice to the seriously hilarious, yet also genuinely informative tales told during an eventful trip around Ireland. Anybody who enjoyed McCarthy's Bar or Going Round Ireland With A Fridge will lap this up as the author goes on a pub crawl of music venues with his long-suffering wife. His descriptions of the people he meets along the way are very entertaining, from the tramp in the street singing In The Ghetto with him to the spoons player who kept interrupting a fiddle concert. I was laughing out loud on many occasions reading it, though parts of it are poignant, and quite telling as he reflects on the changes in Ireland in recent times, not all of it for the better. It also tells you a lot about music in Ireland - and its history comes to life in some of the characters portrayed. His obsession with the song Fields Of Athenry is also quite funny. He talks to various famous people like Bono, Sinead O'Connor and Shane MacGowan, but it's the old characters he encounters I like best. He's on a quest to find the ultimate night of the craic and right at the end he seems to find it in a pub that only opens on a Thursday night! It's hardly an original concept to write about travelling around Ireland but few have done it more entertainingly than this. It's a great read for anyone who likes colourful travelogues but you might end up wanting to buy a load of traditional Irish records too.
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a fan of Irish music and travel writing I really wanted to enjoy this book. Alas I was to be disappointed. Colin Irwin is not a funny writer. His anecdotes have no punchline, he appears to have little sense of comic rhythm or timing and his attempts at running jokes are desperately laboured in a way that makes you think he's inserted them with a crowbar.
Irritating mistakes also detract - misnaming Shane MacGowan's "Broad Majestic Shannon" as "Wild Majestic Shannon", and the persistent misspelling of Ciaran Bourke's name are just two grating errors that should have been ironed out during the editing process. There is however much terrific information about the music of Ireland. Colin is a great music writer - did the publisher only agree to publish this book if there were jokes in it after the success of Pete McCarthy's and Tony Hawks' offerings?
Comic travel writing is a rare skill with which Colin Irwin has not been blessed. If he'd presented a more serious journey through Irish music it would have worked far better (cf: Ciaran Carson's "Last Night's Fun"): there is much humour in the music and musicians that would have shone through anyway. Here they are lost among tortuous jokes and half-regurgitated interviews from up to twenty years earlier.
But hey, that's just my opinion. And I still finished reading the book - if it had been *really* bad I'd have given up...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The ultimate pub crawl
If you ever have a hankering to take a trip to Ireland, avoid Dublin and follow the route taken by the author. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Eamonn
Good read for anyone about to visit Ireland
This is fun, it will give the visitor a taste of Ireland and the Irish a great reminder of the craic to be had far and wide.
Published on 31 Mar 2010 by M. Payne
I was also disappointed
Much like the previous reviewer, I bought this book in great anticipation as I am of Irish descent and a great fan of all Irish music. Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2007 by RiffRaff
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