Exploring Northern Ireland: 10 books from a land with a turbulent history

A list of books to read from Northern Ireland

In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes ‘interesting’. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and to be noticed is dangerous.

The unnamed narrator of this Booker Prize winning novel offers a sharp, darkly humorous, and deeply human perspective on living under constant surveillance — both political and social.

For those seeking a clear and comprehensive introduction to Northern Ireland’s history, this non-fiction book is essential. McKittrick and McVea trace the origins and aftermath of the Troubles with clarity and empathy, making a deeply complex period accessible to readers unfamiliar with the region’s history.

I’m diving into Northern Ireland with a hope of learning something about the history of the Troubles, so maybe I should actually go for the nonfiction option this time?

Or we could go for a blend of true crime and history, and pick this one. I don’t usually read true crime, but it might be a good choice this time?

Say Nothing is a gripping account of Jean McConville’s disappearance during the Troubles. Patrick Radden Keefe delves into the moral ambiguities and human cost of the conflict, creating a narrative as compelling as it is chilling. This book provides invaluable insight into the complexities of Northern Ireland’s recent past.

Or we could wrap the learning about the Troubles in a love story?

In Trespasses Cushla, a young Catholic schoolteacher, falls for an older Protestant barrister, but their relationship becomes a flashpoint in a society divided by sectarianism. As people get up each morning and go to work, school, church or the pub, the daily news rolls in of another car bomb exploded, another man beaten, killed or left for dead. In the class Cushla teaches, the vocabulary of seven-year-old children now includes phrases like ‘petrol bomb’ and ‘rubber bullets’. And as she is forced to tread lines she never thought she would cross, tensions in the town are escalating, threatening to destroy all she is working to hold together.

Eureka Street is set in 1990s Belfast, a city blasted by years of force and fury, but momentarily stilled by a cease-fire. Two unlikely friends search for that most human of needs: love. But of course, a night of lust will do. Jake Jackson and Chuckie Lurgan, one Catholic, one Protestant, navigate their sectarian city and their nonsectarian friendship with wit and style. Chuckie, an unemployed dreamer, stumbles into bliss with a beautiful American who lives in Belfast. Jake, a repo man with the soul of a poet, can only manage a hilarious war of insults with a spitfire Republican whose Irish name, properly pronounced, sounds like someone choking. Brilliant, exuberant, and bitingly funny.

I like books that are bitingy funny. Should we do some Northern Irish humour?

Or we could go for a kind of memoir by someone who lived it, with this semi-autobiographical novel which blends personal memory with the legacy of the Troubles.

A young boy unravels family secrets, uncovering how they intertwine with Northern Ireland’s tumultuous history. As the boy listens through the silence that surrounds him, the truth spreads like a stain until it engulfs him and his family. a luminous tale about how childhood fear turns into fantasy and fantasy turns into fact. Breathtakingly sad but vibrant and unforgettable, Reading in the Dark is one of the finest books about growing up – in Ireland or anywhere – that has ever been written.

Or we could do a darkly funny contemporary look on Northern Ireland?

Majella, a young woman on the autism spectrum, navigates small-town life in Northern Ireland with humor, resilience, and a dash of sarcasm. But underneath Majella’s seemingly ordinary life are the facts that she doesn’t know where her father is and that every person in her town has been changed by the lingering divide between Protestants and Catholics. Captures the quirks and routines of Small town Northern Ireland with warmth and wit. Told in a highly original voice, with a captivating heroine readers will love and root for.

This book is actually set in Ireland, but for the theme of a divided nation, I still chose to include it here.

Jack Ferris, playwright, drunk, is mired in contemplative misery in a fisherman’s cottage on the windy bleak west coast of Ireland. Mourning his love affair with Catherine Adams, an actress and Protestant from the North, he summons her instead in his imagination. In doing so, he tells the story of her father Jonathan, failed parson and retired RUC man, shamed into exile by a moment of violence in Derry years ago. Masterly, elegiac, A Goat’s Song conjures the contrasting landscapes and opposing myths of a nation divided.

If all of those realistic accounts of the troubled history of Northern Ireland is not really your thing, here is a different take, which wraps the themes in a bit of magic.

Dr Jonathan Murray fears his new-born daughter might not be as harmless as she seems. Sammy Agnew is wrestling with his dark past, and fears the violence in his blood lurks in his son, too. The city is in flames and the authorities are losing control. As matters fall into frenzy, and as the lines between fantasy and truth, right and wrong, begin to blur, who will these two fathers choose to protect?

“I was diagnosed with Asperger’s/autism aged five … By age seven I knew I was very different, I had got used to the isolation, my inability to break through into the world of talking about football or Minecraft was not tolerated. Then came the bullying. Nature became so much more than an escape; it became a life-support system.”

And if the troubled history is simply not your thing at all, here is something completely different for you! This memoir by teenage naturalist Dara McAnulty celebrates Northern Ireland’s natural beauty. Chronicling a year in Dara’s life, the book intertwines his experiences of autism with his passion for the environment. Dara’s lyrical prose and heartfelt reflections offer a hopeful and refreshing view of a region often associated with conflict. It’s a reminder that even in a place marked by history, there’s always room for wonder and growth.