It’s hard to believe that the final full week of Reading Ireland Month is now done! I had a lot going on this week and lost a bit of impetus, so didn’t post quite as much as I wanted to. This week I reviewed:

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• Walking with Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne

• Thin Places by Kerri ní Dochartaigh

I also posted about forthcoming non-fiction books by Irish writers that I’m looking forward to.

Your posts have been coming thick and fast this week and to date, with a mere three days of the month to go, there have been 94 posts relating to Reading Ireland Month, which is amazing! It would be great to make it to 100 by Wednesday!

• Claire at Word by Word reviewed Tanglewood and Brine by Deirdre Sullivan and also reviewed Constellations by Sinéad Gleeson.

• Lizi at Just One More Page reviewed The Long March by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick which sounds just fascinating!

• Tony at Tony’s Book World reviewed The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney.

• Chris at Calmgrove loved Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney (and so do I!)

• It was great to see a review of some Irish crime as Bitter Tea and Mystery read The Secret Place by Tana French

• More crime, this time Carla at Carla Loves to Read reviewed After the Fire by Jane Casey.

• Carla also reviewed an audio book of Sally Rooney’s Normal People

• Lynne at Fictionophile reviewed After The Rising by Orna Ross, Season of Second Chances by Aimee Alexander and The Boatman’s Wife by Noelle Harrison.

• Virginia at Rosepoint Publishing reviewed Alley Katz by Mike Faricy, Last Port of Call by Jean Grainger and the audiobook of The Chain by Adrian McKinty.

• Peggy at Peggy’s Porch reviewed Love Bites and Other Stories by John B Keane – a collection that was new to me – and also reviewed The Death of a Joyce Scholar by Bartholemew Gill.

• Naomi at Consumed by Ink reviewed Colm Toibin’s The Testament of Mary, alongside West by Carys Davies for this year’s Wales Readathon.

• Rachel at Pace, Amore, Libre reviewed The Art of Falling, the new novel from Danielle McLaughlin.

• Rosemary at Scones and Chaiselongues reviewed Chestnut Street by Maeve Binchy and a collection of writings from Irish women authors called Portrait of the Artist As a Young Girl

• The brilliant Reese Warner at Typings reviewed Fergus by Brian Moore, this month’s read for the Brian Moore at 100 readalong.

• Annabel at Annabookbel reviewed two books for Reading Ireland Month – The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien and The Guts by Roddy Doyle – with one reading experience being more successful than the other!

• Over on Instagram, My Cat Jeoffrey reviewed The Revolution Script by Brian Moore, which sounds fascinating.

• Also on Instagram, the Summer Faerie read Translations by Brian Friel and Sennuchi read Seven Winters by Elizabeth Bowen.

In other Irish bookish news this week, Doireann Ní Ghríofa made yet another shortlist with her wonderful book A Ghost in the Throat which has been listed in this year’s Republic of Consciousness Prize, while Colum McCann’s Apierogon was once again shortlisted, this time for the International Dublin Literary Award.

I was delighted by the news this week that Mary Lavin is to become the first female Irish writer to have a public space named after her.

The quarter-acre square at Wilton Park in Dublin is part of a major redevelopment and Mary Lavin Place will link Lad Lane, where she lived for many years, to Wilton Park. A naming ceremony on Friday will coincide with the 25th anniversary of Lavin’s death in 1996 aged 83. I reviewed Happiness, a wonderful collection of her short stories for Reading Ireland Month a few years ago.

There are just a few more days left in Reading Ireland Month so next week I’ll be posting a round up of some other Irish books I’ve been reading this month and I’ll be heading across the world to take part in Kim’s Southern Cross Crime Month, with an Irish twist of course!

As always, thanks to everyone who has posted, commented, tweeted and retweeted this week. If you have posted and I’ve missed it, let me know in the comments and don’t forget to follow along at the hashtag #readingirelandmonth21 for the last few days of this year’s event!

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