Ireland Unhinged: Encounters with a Wildly Changing Country

by David Monagan

"Writing with an unhurried and considered hand, his wryness evident but checked by a brooding malaise, Monagan visits with landscapes both sullied and unsullied, in search of Ireland's many silver tongues. There are great bar-side chats with anonymous pubsters, as well as a wonderfully anecdote-strewn day with author J.P. Donleavy. A penetrating, droll embrace of an Ireland in the midst of tumult." --Kirkus Reviews "IRELAND UNHINGED is incisive, wry, and witty, but also coldly surgical and it repeatedly and perfectly catches the zeitgeist of an Ireland hell-bent on self-destruction. Monagan sees it there is Mad Max stuff in here, but this American-in-Ireland's analysis is also highly reasoned and grinning. Read it." --Patrick McCabe, author of The Butcher Boy, Breakfast on Pluto, and The Stray Sod Country

Genres: Ireland, Travel, Nonfiction, Memoir, Irish Literature

300 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2010

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now ten years aged, this memoir-cum-journalistic period piece takes the reader on a journey through all the four major regions of Ireland, including a swath of the six British counties in Ulster, and through the period in which the Republic was known as "The Celtic Tiger" until it was transmogrified by recession into an injured kitten. The author is an American ex-pat who has taken up residence in Cork City, and his more objective forays into Irish history, economics, politics, geography, and arts are mixed with his own stories and impressions into a very appealing colcannon of culture. Most memorable are his encounters with the aged J.P. Donleavy at his declining manor, with a former IRA soldier dubbed Liam in the hinterlands of County Antrim, with the peacemaker Gerry Reynolds in the Clonard Monastery in Belfast, and concluding with an evening of musical entertainment and nostalgia from The Dubliners, one of Ireland's more successful exports not counting Guinness.

[Rachelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

It sure must be nice to be able to just up and move to another country, own two homes, and still have enough money to be able to flit around the country researching your next book. With three kids?

Honestly it’s hard to hear about the “real” Ireland from someone like this. Plus his complaints about OTHER people having money during the economic boom of the nineties - early aughts.

But hey, I did learn some stuff.

[Glenn Keenan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took ages to read. But a decent insight into an American family's life after they've settled into Ireland. Half memoir, half travelogue. Interesting in most parts. Not a bad book.

[Esther · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not relate to this well-off older American white man perspective whatsoever and didn't enjoy the descriptions or interactions with the women in his life.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second David Monagan book (Jaywalking... being the first) which left me somewhat ill at ease. I can't pinpoint whether it's his topic (obviously Ireland has serious financial problems), or Mr. Monagan's viewpoint on the problems. I think I was uncomfortable in seeing myself (a typical American tourist) identified in several places in the book (for instance, the Irish language classes in the west of Ireland), and in a not-very-flattering light. Mr. Monagan (although he's originally American) shares with us the inner thoughts of the Irish who welcome American tourists, and maybe we'd be better off not knowing those thoughts.

I'll probably seek out his blog, and I'm sure I'll snap up his next book just as I did his first and second, but I wish he'd leave me feeling a little cheerier about Ireland.

[janet Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a particularly interesting account of the author's observations as an American who has lived in Ireland with his family since around 2000. Monagan relates the things that drew him to a life in Ireland, his growing disillusionment with the country during the Celtic Tiger boom years and the beginning of change, much of it positive, he has witnessed since the economic bust. I read his earlier book "Jaywalking with the Irish", which told the story of his initial move to Cork from Connecticut and the adjustments he and his family had to make in their new home so it was nice to read about what has happened to him since and how he is getting on during all the recent change.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone who would like a better understanding of that small but magical, complex, perplexing, witty, larcenous, poetic, and profane country, I highly recommend "Ireland Unhinged". David Monagan approaches his subject as a devoted outsider, but an outsider much closer to the core than most non-natives could ever hope to be, giving us a unique perspective unsullied by either native pride or outsider skepticism. There are characters aplenty to meet in this book. Some of what is revealed is troubling, much is hopeful and for me it made me that much more curious about the subject of Ireland, its history and its people.

[Frank Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following the brilliant book: Jaywalking with the Irish, the author Monagan muses upon he adventures in Ireland through the peak and collapse of the Celtic Tiger. His anecdotes are both humorous and thought provoking as he clearly desires that Ireland retain the magic he first experienced 30 years ago. While an enjoyable read and an interesting chronicle of the craziness of Irish life from 2004 through 2010, the book does not pack the punch of his previous creation. Instead it is as melancholy as is Irish life and culture that exists in the disastrous economic climate in which he writes.

[MikeFromQueens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well it was not bad, but not what I expected. The author was writing his memoir of the years in Ireland, almost like a journal. I thought there would be more research-based information outside the author's experience for comparison. I did get a real flavor of the locals in those parts visited by the author.

[Clair · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beginning of this book provided an excellent narrative of the rise of the Celtic Tiger, but halfway through it became really disjointed and strayed far from any semblance of logical order. I was really excited to read this book, but I quit before finishing it.

[Bonnie Carruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear eyed assessment of a beloved country, true love is seeing the person or country as they really are and loving them faults and all.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just wasn't what I expected.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, with a look back into some Irish history and the Ireland before the 'recession', and where we are now. Heart-warming in parts.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

My high hopes for this book were unfounded. I suppose the outcome might have been different if I had ever read "The Ginger Man" whom the author doted over but it was of an earlier generation.