5 Irish Lesbian Books To Read for St. Patrick's Day

You have to read these 5 Irish lesbian books in time for St. Patrick’s Day. It’s one great way to celebrate Irish culture, without alcohol poisoning.

St. Patrick was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, commemorates St. Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland. Which is why so many St. Patrick’s Day parades don’t want queer people! But it also celebrates the heritage and culture of the Irish in general. And thank Goddess for that! It’s a big drink-fest for many participants.

But if you’re looking for a quieter, more literary side of Irish culture, check out these 5 lesbian Irish books to read just in time for St. Patrick’s Day! We suggest authors Meg Grehan, Mary Dorcey, Emma Donoghue, Kate O’Brien and Linda Cullen.

Ireland isn’t exactly the most lesbian-positive country. Thousands walk in annual LGBT Pride parades, and there are hard-won social and community spaces. But many lesbians still feel the need to be either closeted or very discreet. Ireland is deeply religious, and religious run institutions are exempt from hiring queers, or anyone else who would “undermine” their religious beliefs. Actually, that’s true in many countries.

Books are one way to connect with Irish lesbian identity and the larger queer community. Like our Irish sisters, join in the comradery and celebrations, openly or not, for St. Patrick’s Day!

1. The Space Between by Meg Grehan

It’s New Year’s Eve, and Beth plans to spend a whole year alone, in her snug, safe house. But she has reckoned without floppy-eared, tail-wagging Mouse, who comes nosing to her window. Followed shortly by his owner, Alice. As Beth’s year of solitude rolls out, Alice gently steals her way first into Beth’s house and later into her heart. And by the time New Year’s Eve comes round again – who knows?

A tender and delicate love story in verse, The Space Between is a tale of how warmth, support and friendship can overcome mental anguish.

2. Biography of Desire by Mary Dorcey

“From the first moment I saw you, I knew my life was changed. As you strode away from me down the hospital corridor with your loose careless walk, entirely unconscious of me, absorbed in conversation with your friends, I recognised a crossroads cut clear across my path. Cut between past and future.”

The novel explores the conflicting, ambivalent currents of loyalty and desire through the lives of two women: Katherine, a married woman and mother of two children and Nina, whom she meets one night, by chance, in the casualty ward of a city hospital. Biography of Desire is a lyrical meditation on the nature of sexual identity. It is above all, a love story, intense, erotic, haunting.

3. Landing by Emma Donoghue

A delightful, old-fashioned love story with a uniquely twenty-first-century twist, <i>Landing</i> is a romantic comedy that explores the pleasures and sorrows of long-distance relationships–the kind millions of us now maintain mostly by plane, phone, and Internet.

Síle is a stylish citizen of the new Dublin, a veteran flight attendant who’s traveled the world. Jude is a twenty-five-year-old archivist, stubbornly attached to the tiny town of Ireland, Ontario, in which she was born and raised. On her first plane trip, Jude’s and Síle’s worlds touch and snag at Heathrow Airport. In the course of the next year, their lives, and those of their friends and families, will be drawn into a new, shaky orbit.

This sparkling, lively story explores age-old questions: Does where you live matter more than who you live with? What would you give up for love, and would you be a fool to do so?

In 2008 the Golden Crown Literary Society gave it an award in the Lesbian Dramatic General Fiction category.

4. As Music and Splendour by Kate O’Brien

Set in the 1880s and ’90s, As Music and Splendour tells the story of two young Irish girls who are sent to Rome for training as opera singers. Rose – red-haired, big-hearted and big-voiced – is soon on track to become a prima donna soprano; Clare, also a soprano but subtler and less glamorous, is more at home with sacred music. While Rose juggles the affections of various men, Clare embarks on a passionate affair with her fellow-student Luisa. As Music in Splendour is a thrillingly readable and romantic novel from one of the very few truly important Irish novelists of the twentieth century.