Book Club Discussion Questions for Ireland by Frank Delaney

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, and our BookBrowse Review of Ireland.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

Introduction

One evening in 1951, an itinerant storyteller -- a Seanchai, the very last practitioner of a tradition extending back hundreds and hundreds of years -- arrives unannounced at a house in the Irish countryside for an evening of storytelling. One of his listeners, a nine-year-old boy, grows so entranced by the storytelling that, when the old man leaves abruptly under mysterious circumstances, the boy devotes himself to finding him again.

Storyteller extraordinaire Frank Delaney takes his readers on an epic journey through the history of Ireland, stopping along the way to evoke the dramatic events and personalities so critical to shaping the Irish experience. This is the true story of Ireland and the Irish -- of how the character of the land and its people were shaped by history, by neighboring England and by the Irish themselves-written by a native son possessed of his own prodigious storytelling gifts.



Questions for Discussion

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.