Announcing the Eilís Dillon Book Club as part of Galway's Great Read

The name Eilís Dillon always had an intriguing ring for me. I recall the book cover we had at home with its curious title, Across the Bitter Sea, and the world-weary, sphinx-like gaze of its dark-haired heroine on the cover, gently confronting the reader, with a crumbling ruin of a Famine cottage in the background, an ocean and a seated gentleman.

I knew the book had that sweeping ‘saga’ look about it, but to my child's eyes, it seemed like something of a tome - too large and prohibitive to navigate. So, it was not until relatively recently that I finally got my hands on a copy of the novel that had graced our shelves in my childhood home in Carrick-on-Shannon, and knuckled down to reading it. Ambitious in its historical time span (1851-1916) and thematic reach (post-Famine up to the Easter Rising), yet written with a fluid and compelling touch, it's no wonder the novel achieved bestseller status when first published in 1973. After years of being unfairly neglected, Eilís Dillon is a name to conjure with once again. So many Irish households own at least one copy of an Eilís Dillon novel and yet we hear so little about her. Why so? Now, in her centenary year, it is heartening that there are celebrations taking place throughout October and November across Galway city and county and I’m delighted to announce that, as part of Galway’s Great Read, I will be facilitating the free online Eilís Dillon Book Club for Galway Public Libraries throughout the month of October.

“I was born, in Galway in 1920, into a world of ghosts”, Dillon wrote in her captivating memoir, Inside Ireland (1982) and we will be unpacking what exactly the writer meant over the course of the book club sessions with a special focus on her 1958 novel, The Bitter Glass - the first of the six historical novels written by her.

I decided to explore The Bitter Glass because of its richness as a socio-historical document of the civil war era in Ireland (relevant in this decade of centenaries) and as a novel that evokes the whitewashed homesteads and turf-fires of Connemara. Eilis Dillon’s West-of-Ireland sensibility and deep feeling for the landscape and its people pervades her books, offering glimpses of the songs, traditions and folklore of the Galway hinterland. While Across the Bitter Sea is probably her most famous novel, The Bitter Glass is a quiet work of art with its simple storyline and tense plot that raises subtle, yet haunting, questions around the 'Irish conscience' and that also explores themes of confinement, especially apt in our pandemic era. Gripping enough to read in a couple of sittings, I know it will be ideal for our book group discussions. I was also impressed to discover that the book was included in the Peter Boxall's 1001 Books you must read before you die compendium and that the great Eudora Welty was "completely won by it...the world of Connemara was flawlessly conveyed". Each week, on Thursday evenings from 7pm, (beginning on 8th October), we will focus on particular passages in the book, discuss the novel’s themes and also have a chat with a special guest who will enrich our understandings. With the truism of its very opening sentence, proclaiming that: “Galway was like a different world”, how apt that it is Galway's Great Read for 2020! To register for a place click on this link and be sure to sign up for each of the 4 sessions. I look forward to chatting with you about this fascinating and highly versatile writer. The first three chapters of The Bitter Glass are now available to read for free on the Eilís Dillon website here. The book will also be available via Kindle very soon. Happy reading and I hope you might join us for what promises to be a fun and engaging exploration of a truly gifted writer!