The Irish Connoisseur’s Irish Book Club

Due to vile weather and illness, our February 20th book club had only one true grit reader appear with The Mammy in hand, thank you Jill. This book is just too good to pass up. Please join us on to discuss this awesome, laugh out loud, hilarious book.

The Mammy by Brendan O’Carroll

“Mammy” is what Irish children call their mothers and The Mammy is Agnes Browne–a widow struggling to raise seven children in a North Dublin neighborhood in the 1960s. Popular Irish comedian Brendan O’Carroll chronicles the comic misadventures of this large and lively family with raw humor and great affection. Forced to be mother, father, and referee to her battling clan, the ever-resourceful Agnes Browne occasionally finds a spare moment to trade gossip and quips with her best pal Marion Monks (alias “The Kaiser”) and even finds herself pursued by the amorous Frenchman who runs the local pizza parlor. Like the novels of Roddy Doyle, The Mammy features pitch-perfect dialogue, lightning wit, and a host of colorful characters. Earthy and exuberant, the novel brilliantly captures the brash energy and cheerful irreverence of working-class Irish life.