Modern Irish Short Stories (World's Classics)

There are quite a few good stories in this little volume. In the Preface by Anthony Burgess, you are told the stories will transport you to the Ireland you may remember (or, for me, introduce me to another culture I would never imagine). Some of the stories are grim and some, sort of happy, but they all give you a taste of Irish life. There is the story of a young lady who is becoming an old maid. She cares for her Father, goes to dances, wants to enjoy the company of a certain fellow I the band, but through it all, she has to keep in mind her duties for her Father, and he had needs and responsibilities as well. She just has to live her life as best she can. The fourth wife of a man in a village needs to find out where to bury him. He has constantly told everyone that he is to be buried in a family plot with his family. It is a very ancient cemetery and he never told the location of the plot, so she enlists two other old fellas to find it, but they can not remember rightly, etc. You definitely get a feeling for the ancient culture surrounding the Irish. One old man recounts how he came to be the owner of a farm and what happened to his sons, et al. Another story tells of a couple going to a Christmas party. Old arguments are rehashed and retold. Some times the Catholic-Protestant problems are written of. In one story the fellow did not want Jameson whiskey because it is protestant whiskey, you just do not hear things like that around here.