Essays on the State of Irish Crime Fiction
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Irish Crime
Just when I think I have a handle on how things stand over here and try to finish off my essay, another shocking headline makes me realize I don't understand the nature of good and evil in Eire at all. So for the moment, content yourself with these links:
The Gardai (as they're known) are the Irish police. Yep, there's just one force for the whole country. None of this complicated town/ county/ state/ DHS/ FBI/ CIA stuff. In English, An Garda Síochána means "The Guardians of the Peace." Most of the 12,000 Guards walk around unarmed.
After the Guards nab Joe Scummer, he's dragged through the Courts. Click on the image for more info on how the Irish system works. Reads some headlines for how it just really doesn't.
The sentences handed down by Irish courts seem ridiculous by American standards. Violent rapists who would receive twenty years hard labor in the US, minimum, are are released with no prison time at all. (That disgrace is no exageration, by the way) What I hear about conditions inside, though, tells that it's a hell of a place to be for any amount of time.
Didn't I Hear About a Bomber?
Don't expect to run into gun-toting paramilitary types on your next visit to Ireland. That type of trouble might still exist, should someone go looking for it, but the average scam and scandal here in the twenty-first century is more likely to involved bomber jackets.
A guy I used to work with returned from lunch with the story of an Italian fashion designer who was on his way to the airport but couldn't carry home all the stock from his Irish show. My buddy helped him out, buying two heavy designer coats for a bargain price. A few days later I was approached in a car park. The guy in the Opel Astra explained that he was a famous designer, but the airline would only allow him to check one bag. It's an Irish Crime Fact: reality here is a tedious array of property rip-offs.
Irish Crime Fiction: More Interesting
The last ten years (dating back to the 1998 publication of Julie Parsons' Mary, Mary) has seen a surge of excellent crime novels set here in Ireland, dealing with Irish themes, Irish characters and Irish realities. Some of these are even written by Irish people. (Parsons is from New Zealand, for instance. Most contributors to Ken Bruen's Dublin Noir were from the U.S. and U.K.) The quality originals have generated a tide of imitators, wannabes and distinguished literary figures slumming it to cash in. Some of which are great fun.
Crime Always Pays and Cormac Millar's excellent reference site contain encyclopaedic lists of all crime writers with an Irish connection. Let me just recommend a few of my faves.
Mick's Faves
Yes it would be easier to just look in the left-hand column for novels that have been nominated for my annual Best Book Read awards. Still, there's a few characters I'd like to plug.
Journalist Gene Kerrigan has released two crime novels to date. This man hardboils with the best of them, writing without clichés about flawed characters in desperate situations. There's such reality to his novel The Midnight Choir. This author will take you to the reality of what crime is like in Ireland, and make sure it is something not soon forgotten.
Colin Bateman has reached the Frankie, Arnold or Madonna level of fame. Only one name (Bateman) was necessary on the cover of his most recent Northern Irish crime novel. For humor and fun, he's worth spending a Hamilton.
Wicklow-based clever boots Declan Burke is just as much fun as Bateman, but with more style. I dig his stuff. Keep your eye out for Burke's forthcoming thriller set on Crete, mentioned in our June 2007 interview.
As an honest-to-God monk, Andrew Nugent acknowledges Burke's handjobs and hash rather than set his fiction in some stupid TV-PG universe where such things do not exist. Even updated to modern times, The Four Courts Murder still somehow manages to capture the feel and flavour of a classic mystery story. Fun and feel-good, with a cop-on that most books in the genre lack.
Big Names You Might Know
Literary heavyweight John Banville headlined 2006's news by releasing a crime novel entitled Christine Falls. Most reviews rave that this amazing pseudonymous novel even slices bread, but I found it dull.
William Trevor has released crime fiction and done it under his own name. Felicia's Journey is dark, horrific and perfect. Trevor rocks.
Edna O'Brien's book In the Forest is a controversial exploration of an actual crime. Irish-American mystery author Erin Hart described it as enjoyable, sad, and wrenching in our 2006 interview.
Dermot Bolger, the hardest working man in Irish letters, has explored the ambiguous world of Irish gangsters and the lowly, murderous depths to which corrupt politicians will sink. That's crime by my reckoning.
Irish American Elements
Alex Barclay's excellent Darkhouse features a New York cop and bad-ass Texan killer squaring off on the coasts of Ireland. Residents of both nations will enjoy thoroughly.
Erin Hart divides her time between Minnesota and Ireland. Her novels are divided, as well: the main crime-investigating characters are an archaeologist named Cormac Maguire and an Irish-American doctor named Nora Gavin.
John Connolly is a Dub who sets his crime fiction in America- Louisiana and Maine, specifically. Gruesome and supernatural ala Steven King, his work is highly enjoyable.
There is even an Irish crime/mystery writer living in Australia, Eoin Hennigan, whose book The Truth, It Lies, is set in 1950s Hollywood.
Crime Sites That Critical Mick Recommends...
Crime Always Pays
 Crime Scene NI
 Detectives Beyond Borders
Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home.
 Crime, ink
The world of an Irish crime reporter
 Eamon Dillon's blog on
Fakes, Frauds and Scams
 Seth Harwood's CrimeWAV.com
A Quality Crime Fiction Podcast
 The View from the Blue House
Rob Kitchin's crime blog
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Audio bonus: Declan Burke chats with Mick about Irish crime fiction. 6MB, 8:40