Book Club Discussion Questions for Ireland by Frank Delaney

1. Is the storyteller a phenomenon unique to Ireland?
    
2. Why is Ronan enthralled before the storyteller even begins to speak? Can you imagine why Alison is so repelled?
    
3. There's nothing quite like Newgrange in the US -- or is there? What do public monuments represent in the United States? Were they built in anything like the same way?
    
4. Why is Ronan so much more interested in history than girls? What is it about the Storyteller that has made such a deep impression?
    
5. The Storyteller has a very specific method for reaching his audience. Is his method similar to that of an actor or a writer?
    
6. The Penal Laws made it very difficult for Catholics to become educated. How is a culture that is forcibly denied the growth and insight available through education and learning able to keep itself vitally alive?
    
7. In following the Storyteller for so many years, has Ronan, in fact, become a Storyteller himself?
    
8. Between the Norman-Irish and the Anglo-Irish, it seems difficult to define, who, really is "Irish." Is this similar to how "American" identity is formed?
    
9. How would have Ronan's life been different if he knew his family's great secret all along?
    
10. The book is called Ireland. To what extent is the country itself a character in the novel?

Reproduced with the permission of the publisher, Harper Collins. Page numbers refer to the USA hardcover edition and may vary in the other editions.

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.