The Wily O'Reilly: Irish Country Stories (Irish Country Books)

by Patrick Taylor

Hardcover, 2014

Collection

Description

"Long before Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly made most readers' acquaintance in Patrick Taylor's bestselling novel An Irish Country Doctor, he appeared in a series of humorous columns originally published in Stitches: The Journal of Medical Humour. These warm and wryly amusing vignettes provide an early glimpse at the redoubtable Dr. O'Reilly as he tends to the colourful and eccentric residents of Ballybucklebo, a cozy Ulster village nestled in the bygone years of the early sixties. Those seminal columns have been collected in The Wily O'Reilly: Irish Country Stories. In this convenient volume, Patrick Taylor's legions of devoted fans can savor the enchanting origins of the Irish Country series ... and newcomers to Ballybucklebo can meet O'Reilly for the very first time. An ex-Navy boxing champion, classical scholar, crypto-philanthropist, widower, and hard-working general practitioner, Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly is crafty and cantankerous in these charming slices of rural Irish life. Whether he's educating a naive man of the cloth in the facts of life, dealing with chronic hypochondriacs and malingerers, clashing with pigheaded colleagues, or raising a pint in the neighborhood pub, the wily O'Reilly knows a doctor's work is never done, even if some of his "cures" can't be found in any medical text!"--… (more)

Library's rating

Rating

½ (20 ratings; 3.6)

Awards

Audie Award (Finalist — 2015)

User reviews

LibraryThing member jwood652
The book is actually a collection of newspaper columns about an old fashioned Irish doctor from the perspective of the young doctor who assisted in his practice. Written by an Irish expat now living in Canada, I surmise that the inspiration for these tales is provided by the author's own
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experiences. Doctor O'Reilly is an unconventional, opinionated, hard drinking character whose antics keep the reader entertained and smiling. Using occasional restatements of familiar phrases and alliterative runs the author brings the wily O'Reilly to life. Although there is occasional Irish slang and dialect it works well and doesn't interfere with the flow of the narrative. Meeting O'Reilly has put a smile on my face and a bit of joy in my heart.
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LibraryThing member jwood652
The book is actually a collection of newspaper columns about an old fashioned Irish doctor from the perspective of the young doctor who assisted in his practice. Written by an Irish expat now living in Canada, I surmise that the inspiration for these tales is provided by the author's own
Show More
experiences. Doctor O'Reilly is an unconventional, opinionated, hard drinking character whose antics keep the reader entertained and smiling. Using occasional restatements of familiar phrases and alliterative runs the author brings the wily O'Reilly to life. Although there is occasional Irish slang and dialect it works well and doesn't interfere with the flow of the narrative. Meeting O'Reilly has put a smile on my face and a bit of joy in my heart.
Show Less
LibraryThing member MM_Jones
An entertaining collection of humorous short writings first published 1995 - 2001 in Stitches: The Journal of Medical Humour. I have read several of the books in the author's Irish Country series and it was interesting to see the journey from essays to book. The main characters were formed in the
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essays, some of the original ideas were developed, others discarded. Also fascinating to follow someone who has a successful career, but is compelled to write. Bravo.
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LibraryThing member scoutmomskf
I love the Irish Country series and have been reading the books since their beginning in 2007. I have lost count of the number of times I have laughed until I've cried. It was intriguing to read at the beginning of this book of how the novels came to be. Each chapter is about three or four pages
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long and is made up of one of Dr. Taylor's columns from the Canadian medical magazine Stitches: The Journal of Medical Humour. They are chronological, and it is easy to see the development of the author's writing style.

In these stories, Dr. O'Reilly's assistant is the author himself, rather than the Dr. Laverty we come to know in the series. Each one shows Dr. O'Reilly in his role as doctor, mentor, friend, and occasionally the hand of justice. In some stories, there are the seeds that come into full flower in the novels, where the situations and characters are further developed. Some of the characters have undergone significant changes between the columns and the books, most notably (in my opinion) Donal Donnelly. In the columns, he is rather simple and not overly bright, while in the novels he has a unique cleverness that gets him into and out of all kinds of trouble.

I thoroughly enjoyed the early looks at Bertie Bishop, Kinky the housekeeper, and other residents of Ballbucklebo. The heart of the small village is the same, from columns to novels. This Dr. O'Reilly is a bit more rough around the edges, but the essence of him is the same. I loved seeing his ease and kindness with the children, even those that tried his patience, such as his nephew, Willy. I laughed out loud at the two little ones who came to him for pre-marital counseling, and again at Willy's portrayal of the innkeeper during the Christmas play.

The wily Dr. O'Reilly had many opportunities to demonstrate to young Dr. Taylor that not all cures came out of a bottle. Some of the best stories came from just knowing your patient and understanding where they were coming from. I especially loved his encounters with Miss Maggie MacCorkle and how he never made her feel foolish. He also did not suffer fools gladly, and there were several occasions where he found interesting ways to deliver rough justice to those who offended him.

There were several stories that would have been right at home in James Herriot's All Creatures books. There were a couple of amusing stories involving pigs, the doctor's least favorite animal. My favorites were those involving his cat, Lady Macbeth, and his black lab, Arthur Guinness. The best were the two stories where first, Dr. O'Reilly decided that taking Lady Macbeth out on his boat was an excellent idea. It did not end well, for either the boat or the doctor. The subsequent trip, with Arthur, was equally hilarious.

The book finished with a short story "Home is the Sailor" about O'Reilly's return to Ballbucklebo after being away at war for six years. It is the beginning of his career as village's doctor, full of his fears about whether he can make a go of it. The maturing of the author's characterizations is clear, and I loved O'Reilly's encounters with his early patients.
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LibraryThing member Diana_Long_Thomas
This book has all the short stories that started the Irish Country series, with Dr. Fingal O'Reilly. You'll recognize many of the stories in this anthology, though some were new to me. These were published in many journals by the author, and instead of the character Barry Lafferty, he inserted
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himself as the doctors assistant. This book wasn't my favorite in the series, due to the fact that there were a lot of repeats, though if I hadn't been binging the series prior to this book, it may not have been so repetitive. If you're a fan of the series, I suggest reading the book at least once as a part of the series.
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LibraryThing member jennybeast
This was weird, and I'm not enough of a completionist to need to see all the original documentation of the origins of the series. I stopped fairly quickly when I realized that it mostly previous versions of stories I've already heard. Taylor has matured as a writer by this point in the series, so
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the flashback to early work didn't add anything for me.
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Publication

Forge Books (2014), 336 pages

Pages

336

ISBN

0765338386 / 9780765338389

Language

Original language

English
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