The Inland Ice And Other Stories By EILIS NI DHUIBHNE (1997, 262 pages)

This is the third collection of short stories by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne I have so far had the pleasure of reading.  

I have also read two of her novels.  I greatly enjoyed this collection.   Most of the stories center on academic women and the men in their lives.   There is interwoven among the stories a fairy tale about a woman in love with a "little white goat" that serves as a kind of coda on the stories.

I bought this book used on Amazon.   There is a dedication, written in hand on the inside cover and dated March 2, 1999.   In it Marie gives the book to Sally and says she loved the stories and hopes Sally will also.   I wondered if the book had set unread on somebody's shelves until they decided to sell it for $3.25, less than the price of a fancy cup of coffee.   I know I enjoyed this book, Marie says they are stories about the lives of women, and wish Sally did also.   

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne (1954, Dublin) is the author of eight novels, four in English and four in Irish.    She has a PdD from The National University of Ireland, focusing on the work of Chaucer as part of an oral tradition.    She has taught at the University College Dublin and was for many years a curator at The National library in Dublin.   She also teaches creative writing.   Her novel, The Dancers Dancing, was short listed for the 2000 Orange Prize.  

Mel u

Midwife to the Fairies New and Selected Stories by Eilis Ni Dhuibhe (2003, 12 short stories)

Eilis Ni Dhuibhne (1954, Dublin) is one of the recognized masters of the contemporary short story.  I have previously posted on two her novels and several of her short stories.  She is a highly regarded academic folklorist and ancient myths often structure her stories.  This is a delightful collection and might be a good place to start reading her.  

There is not a bad story in the collection.  The most famous one is the title story.  The most darkly humorous story was "Fulfillment", about a dog killer.  Her stories flip back and forth in time brilliantly

She deals very much with lives of women, their internal conflicts. 

I have another of her short story collections Inland Ice and will start on it soon.  

Mel u

"The Flowering" and "The Wife of Bath" by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne

My prior posts on Eilis Ni Dhuibhne

I was very lucky to find used copies of two short story collections by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, one of the consensus contemporary master of the Irish short story.  Many of her stories have echoes of folk and fairy tales and medieval literature.   For a while I will have less

blogging time than normal so I will be keeping my posts brief.  Today's post is really just a reading journal entry.  Both of today's stories can be found in Midwife to the Fairies, her 2003 collection.

"The Flowering" is wonderful multi-layered story.   It begins with a woman wishing she could understand her roots, her deep in the past ancestry.  She wants to understand how people from her long buried past lived their lives, what they felt and dreamed.   She learns what her ancestors endured during the Irish famine years of the middle 19th century, reduced to surviving on seaweed and barnacles.  In a wonderful segment of the story that I really liked we learn about  young girl who becomes a lace maker and a dress maker, this is her passion and flowering.  This story I really liked.

Ni Dhuibhne is a Chaucer scholar. "The Wife of Bath"  is a story about a modern Irish woman who is retelling he life story as if she is the wife of bath, relaying her many relationships.   The story well adapts older models of narration in which the lives of ordinary people were treated as comic farces.   

Do you have a favorite short story by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne?

Mel u

" 'Wuff, Wuff, Wuff' For de Valera by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne (2003, 9 pages from Midwife to the Fairies)

My prior posts on Eilis Ni Dhuibhne



I recently was lucky enough to acquire used copies of short story collections by one of Ireland's leading contemporary writers, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne.  I have previously posted on two of her novels and several of her short stories.   I read the lead story in Midwife to the Faires last night, "Wuff, Wuff, Wuff for de Valera" last night and I liked it a lot.   I have already read and posted on the title story, so besides this story there are ten more I have not yet read.  I will read them all soon and post on more them I am sure.  My blogging time will be short for the next three weeks so my posts will be shorter than normal for a while.  

The story is about the lives and interactions of two sisters, twins.  We take them from childhood well into middle age.  It is narrated in the first person by one of the sisters who is harshly critical of  her sibling.   She thinks her sister  would still be decent looking if she lost some weight, ponders why she never advanced at work, why she has had troubles in her relationships.   We learn something very sad about the sister and we do see how an unmarried pregnant woman who does not want a baby was treated in Ireland.  We see the sister who narrates is in bad faith and ultimately is quite selfish.

There is much in this story and I look forward to reading another thirty of so short stories by the author.

Mel u

"Mel, the shorter your posts are
the better"  Carmilla

"Midwife to the Fairies" by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne

"Midwife to the Fairies"  by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne  (1989)

March 1 to March 31

Year III

Event Resources-Links to lots of short stories, from classics to brand new works.   

I am very fond of stories about fairies, especially Irish ones.   Before you scoff at this Google "Einstein on Fairy Tales".    There are a great many scholarly books written on fairy tales.   There are several different theories as to how fairy stories became an important part of Irish culture.  

I have so far read two novels by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne (Dublin, 1954) The Dancers Dancing and her wonderful satire of the Irish literary social scene Fox, Sallow, Scare Crow and her  marvelous collection of short stories, The Shelter of Neighbors. (There is background information on her in my prior posts  She is recognized as one of the contemporary masters of the short story.   I have wanted to read "Midwife to the Fairies" ever since Beauty is a Sleeping Cat did a great post on it during Irish Short Story Month in 2012.   I also admit I think the title of the story is just beyond brilliance.   How could one not want to read it?

As the story opens a woman who works in a maternity ward of a Dublin hospital in relaxing on a Friday night with her husband, looking forward to the weekend when there is a knock on the door.   It is a man telling he he needs her to come with him to deliver the baby of his wife.  Her mother and grandmother were both midwifes so she feels she has to go.   She wants to take her own car but it won't start so she goes with the man.   When she gets there she finds a young woman ready to give birth.  There are a number of people there but they are unfriendly and seemingly not concerned about the woman.   The baby is born but his birth weight is very low and she tells the husband the baby needs to be taken to a hospital.   He takes her home and gives her some well needed money.  

There is another story being told also, an old story about a woman who assists in the birth of "wee people".   It is a very dark story and it is, or I should better say they the old and and the new story are commentaries on each other.

Both story lines end in a terrible fashion.   I will refrain from spoiling the ending of this story for you.  


Mel u

"Illuminations" by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne

"Illuminations" by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne  (2012, from The Shelter of Neighbors)

"Illuminations" - a work of magic by

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne

The Shelter of Neighbors

Eilis Ni Dhuibhne is one of Ireland's highest regarded contemporary writers.   I have previously posted on two of her novels, Fox, Scarecrow, Swallow and The Dancers Dancing as well as a brilliant short story, "Trespass".   I recently acquired her latest collection of short stories The Shelter of Neighbors (2012).  Today I will post briefly on the a story from the collection, one I totally loved and am more than a bit mystified  almost stunned by.



"Illuminations" is set in an artists' retreat in a beautiful setting in the hills of the west coast of the United States.     It is told in the first person by a writer in residence there.  The view from her window is one of the beauty, almost out of a fairy tale.  It is a setting of perfect tranquility and calm.  They are in the midst of a forest of redwoods, pines and oak with abundant wildlife, even a rumored mountain lion, she can hear coyotes at night.  She is working on a novel.  In the afternoons she walked in the hills, at night she read.   The house used to be owned by a woman married to a famous biographer and it had a library with lots of biographies of writers.   She reads several of them and begins to wonder if being a successful writer requires a "stunning eccentricity".

There are two others in residence at the house.  One is a Chinese man who paints abstracts and the other is a German woman who composes very jarring musical works meant, she thinks,  to represent "alienation and disconnection".  The conversations between the artists are really interesting.  For sure you will wish you could be in residence there!   The Chinese man is a wonderful cook. The owner of the house brings in supplies for them but they are basically left alone.

I know I cannot convey why I like this story so much but I just loved it for what is not said, what we are left to figure out on our own and imagine.

The woman begins to go for walks in the beautiful forest.   There are homes in the hills, mostly of wealthy people who just use them for vacation homes.   She comes upon a house and she begins to talk to the woman there.   A strange and beautiful woman who seems way to young to have two grown children, one a man near forty.  Her daughter lives with her also.   The house is amazingly beautiful.   They invite her in.  She senses something may not be quite right here but she goes in.   The family in the house are just marvelous creations.   The son is a very well known musical composer who says he can create only at the house and the beautiful daughter, twenty maybe, who confuses the narrator when she learns she does not go to college or pursue any occupation.   The mother of the family invites her to come back for dinner and when she does it is the best food she has ever had.   She is captivated by the family.   She makes enquirers as to who they are and she gets some answers that raise more questions than anything else.   She is offered and invitation to stay overnight and shown the guest room.   It is as though they have seen into her mind and created the perfect room for her.   You keep sensing something terrible is going to happen to her.  The story brings back very old memories about why staying away from strange houses deep in the forest is a good idea. I think one of the reasons this story works so well is the sheer beauty of the language mirrors the beauty the narrator is presented in.   It as almost as if we cannot believe anything this beautiful can endure.   The ending is a complete mystery.

I loved this story.  It is very deep, I think.


Author Data

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne (1954, Dublin) is the author of eight novels, four in English and four in Irish.    She has a PdD from The National University of Ireland, focusing on the work of Chaucer as part of an oral tradition.    She has taught at the University College Dublin and was for many years a curator at The National library in Dublin.   She also teaches creative writing.   Her novel, The Dancers Dancing, was short listed for the 2000 Orange Prize.  

You can learn more about her work on her webpage 

There are thirteen stories in The Shelter oi Neighbors.   I also read and liked a lot "Taboo".   "Trespass" is included in the collection.   I have eight stories to go and am really looking forward to reading them.   I have no preset plans on how many stories I will post on but I am sure there will be more.  

Eilis Ni Dhuihne Two Short Stories from the shelter of neighors

"The man who had no story"  (2012)
"A literary lunch"  (2012)

Two Short Stories by 

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne

The Shelter of Neighbors

Eilis Ni Dhuibhne is one of Ireland's highest regarded contemporary writers.   I have previously posted on two of her novels, Fox, Scarecrow, Swallow and The Dancers Dancing as well as a brilliant short story, "Trespass".   I recently acquired her latest collection of short stories The Shelter of Neighbors (2012).  Today I will post briefly on the first two stories (of 14) in the collection.  

"The man who had no story" is the lead story.   It is about Finn O'Keefe and his wife Grainne.  Finn is a teacher who would rather be a writer and is wife is a teacher also.  They have rented a summer house for six weeks.    He is trying to write a travel book about the south of Ireland.  He and his wife take long walks in the beautiful countryside.  Then trouble starts.  It starts to rain a lot and Grainne's back starts hurting.   Then their son minding the house back in Dublin calls to say the cat is not eating so they have to go back to tend to this problem.  The vet charges them a very big fee for treating the cat and then suggests maybe he needs to be out down.   They refuse and the cat makes a come back.  This cheers them up a lot.  I can relate directly to this as in the last year or so of the life of our beloved cat Mr. C it  seemed like he was going to pass several times then recovered so I understand these emotions.   The story goes a lot into their time during their six weeks holiday.  The man decides he will write a short story, one that will make his name again.  He thinks how he was considered a promising writer a long time ago.  The problem is now he can think of nothing to write about even though he teaches creative writing.   I think the part of the story I liked best was the story within a story about Dermot O'Keefe and the fairies.   This is kind of a challenging short story to write about as so much is going on in it.   It is also about marriage, about the feeling of knowing your best days are behind her and the power of stories to keep us going.  It is the work of a master of the form.

"A Literary Lunch" is set, as was  Fox, Scarecrow, Swallow  among the literary elite of Dublin, not so much great writers as people who sit on boards that give out government grants  that can enable one to write.   With a grant you can work full time on your novel, without one you have to work at a job and then write in what ever time is left.   The setting of the story is a literary lunch of a board that gives out grants.  They have just had a three hour meeting so the chairman, Alan, decides they deserve lunch at one of Dublin's best and most expensive restaurants, all paid for by government grants, of course.  There are three women on the board, one man who never comes to meetings but won the Man Booker Prize, and eight other men.  You can see the chairman delights in his power to give out grants.   The story is very funny and punctures a lot of bloated egos.   It was fun to see people wondering how expensive a lunch they should get.   The bill was very high.  There is something going on in the background with one of the women.  She has a relationship of some kind with a man whose grant application was to be decided at the meeting and she had promised to call him as soon as she could to let him know what happened.    I will leave the rest of the story unspoiled.  It was a great pleasure to see the literary lions of Dublin through the author's very perceptive eyes.   We get to know a good bit about the man trying for a grant and I felt his very real pain and accepted his bitterness.

Author Data

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne (1954, Dublin) is the author of eight novels, four in English and four in Irish.    She has a PdD from The National University of Ireland, focusing on the work of Chaucer as part of an oral tradition.    She has taught at the University College Dublin and was for many years a curator at The National library in Dublin.   She also teaches creative writing.   Her novel, The Dancers Dancing, was short listed for the 2000 Orange Prize.  


You can learn more about her work on her webpage 

I will read all of the stories in the collection and I am sure I will be moved to post on several of them.   I am looking forward to the experience.

The Dancers Dancing by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne

The Dancers Dancing by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne (1998, 296 pages, 597 KB)
with an afterward by the author and a commentary by Declan Kiberd.

The Irish Quarter

The Dancers Dancing is the second novel by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne I have recently read.  I was crazy about her Fox, Swallow, Scarecrow and loved her short story "Trespass" so I was eager to read another of her novels.  

The Dancers Dancing fully lived up to the very high expectations I came to it with.   The central characters in the novel are all early teenage Irish girls.  I have three teenage daughters so this made the novel especially relevant for me.   The girls are all in attendance at a summer school in Donegal  to learn Irish.   Some of the girls are from Dublin and some from Derry, in Northern Ireland.   The girls board with families in Donegal.   

The wonder in this novel is in getting to know the girls.   We are with them on the bus ride to the school.  We gradually get to know them through their conversations with each other.   There are lots of great insights about class distinctions in Ireland and the feelings people from North Ireland and The Irish Republic have about each other.   The girls are just beginning to feel sexual impulses and we see them dealing with this.  We see the girls develop new relationships and become BFFs.  The beauty of the Donegal region of Ireland is very much in evidence.    There is lots of interesting details about the families of the girls

In his very illuminating after-note Declan Kiberd, whose Inventing Ireland is my go to book on Irish literature, explains the post colonial implications of the novel and the author in her very interesting after-word related her own experiences to those of the girls in the book.

Personally I liked Fox, Swallow, Scarecrow more but that is sort of like saying I liked Madame Bovary more than A Sentimental Education.  

I will begin reading more of her short fiction soon.  I hope Blackstaff Press will produce more Kindle editions of her work. 

Author Data

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne (1954, Dublin) is the author of eight novels, four in English and four in Irish.    She has a PdD from The National University of Ireland, focusing on the work of Chaucer as part of an oral tradition.    She has taught at the University College Dublin and was for many years a curator at The National library in Dublin.   She also teaches creative writing.   Her novel, The Dancers Dancing, was short listed for the 2000 Orange Prize.      She is very dedicated to preserving and promoting the Irish literary tradition.  

Please share your suggestion as to the best contemporary Irish novels

Mel u

Fox, Swallow, Scarecrow by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne

Fox, Swallow, Scarecrow by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne   (2008, 354 pages)

The Irish Quarter

"The problem with Alex, she reasoned, was that he was just too masculine.  Masculine men could not understand any point of view except their own.  Single-minded, they had developed blinkered vision millions of years ago to sharpen their hunting skills".   

Fox, Swallow, Scarecrow by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne is a wonderful work of art, incredibly funny and sad in places, and a work of a  sensibility refined to a very high level.   It is the story of Anna Sweeny, a woman married to a rich man who loves her but does not pay her a lot of attention with one son who starts an affair with a single man.   The story is overtly modeled on Anna Karenina, there are quotes from this at the start Fox, Swallow, Scarecrow.   Fox, Swallow, Scarecrow is so brilliant it actually helped me understand Tolstoy a bit more (I am glad I recently read Anna Karenina). In the hands of a less talented writer to model a novel on Anna Karenina would be a travesty, OK it would be stupid and Fox, Swallow, and Scarecrow is as far from stupid as it gets!   

Anna Sweeny is working on a novel.   Her husband is riding the back of the Celtic Tiger and much of her time is taken up with literary parties.  I have been partially focusing on Irish literature for about a year and a half now so I had fun trying to figure out who the fictional authors in the novel are supposed to be in real life. I knew one was Sebastian Barry whose Secret Scriptures I recently read.   I know there were a lot of references I did not get.   I really liked this aspect of the novel a lot.   I felt like I was there for the launch parties and I felt what it was like to be a literary agent or a poet in Ireland.  Everyone in the literary world depicted in this novel is trying to ever so subtlety put down everyone else.   There are a few super stars and everyone else is trying not to be jealous and of course no literary artist would want anything as pedestrian as to be the next J. K. Rowling (who appears at a book launching).  

There are characters that will remind you at once of the main persons in Anna Karenina and we get to see how they live. In a touch so heavy handed it is hilarious, one of the characters is named "Leo" and there is even a homeless tramp who reads Tolstoy.   If you have read the novel I know you gasped when you saw what you at first thought the tramp did with War and Peace.   Leo works on programs to reduce the deaths by auto accident in Ireland.  He does something just flat out crazy on a train one day and it comes back to haunt him.   I really liked that segment of the novel.  

There is a lot to be learned about Ireland in this novel.   We see the different neighborhoods of Dublin, we ride on the trains and buses, we take the expressways,  we see the many subtle class distinctions at work.  There are also lots of wonderful literary references in the novel, besides those to Tolstoy.   There are lots of references to Irish folklore also.   

On every page there are amazing beautifully written sentences.   This is an amazing novel and I feel bad as I know I cannot do justice to it.  

I loved this book.

I have previously posted on her brilliant short story "Trespass"

Author Data

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne (1954, Dublin) is the author of eight novels, four in English and four in Irish.    She has a PdD from The National University of Ireland, focusing on the work of Chaucer as part of an oral tradition.    She has taught at the University College Dublin and was for many years a curator at The National library in Dublin.   She also teaches creative writing.   Her novel, The Dancers Dancing, was short listed for the 2000 Orange Prize.      She is very dedicated to preserving and promoting the Irish literary tradition.    

I hope to very soon read her The Dancers Dancing and some more of her short stories.

Mel u