An Irish Country Courtship

By: Patrick Taylor

Narrated by: John Keating

Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Welcome to Patrick Taylor's Irish Country Books and the colourful Ulster village of Ballybucklebo, where two doctors work hand in hand to mend the bodies and spirits of the town's diverse and engaging inhabitants. But who is looking after the wounded hearts of the doctors?

In An Irish Country Courtship, after less than a year, young Barry Laverty, M.B., is settling in to the village, with only a few months to go before he becomes a full partner in the practice. He's looking forward to becoming a fixture in the community, until an unexpected romantic reversal gives him second thoughts. Will he truly be happy tending to routine coughs and colds for the rest of his career? After all, even when a more challenging case comes along, like a rare tropical disease, all he can do is pass it on to a qualified specialist or big-city hospital. As much as Barry enjoys the rough and tumble of life in County Down, is running a humble GP's shop all he wants out of life?

Barry's mentor, Doctor Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly, is going through some personal upheavals as well.
After mourning his deceased wife for decades, he's finally allowed a new woman into his life. But this budding courtship is not going over well with Kinky Kincaid, the doctors' redoubtable housekeeper, who fears having her position usurped by O'Reilly's new flame. Tact, diplomacy, and a fair amount of blarney may be required to restore peace to the household.

Meanwhile, life goes on in Ballybucklebo, presenting both doctors with plenty of distractions from their own troubles. From a mysterious outbreak at the local school to a complicated swindle involving an unlucky racehorse, the two partners will need all of their combined wit and compassion to put things right again--just in time for their lives to change forever.

©2010 Patrick Taylor (P)2010 Macmillan Audio

Fan Falls for Fingal

The Irish country Doctor series and all the Characters of Bally Buckle Bo have made my summer listening very enjoyable and entertaining. I will visit them again and again. I love the narrator and I'm not sure how he reads these stories without laughing. Thank you Patrick Taylor for sharing your gift of story telling with this girl who has a touch of the Irish running in her veins.

One courtship begins whilst another ends.

Once again the performance was excellent and put you right in the heart of Ballybucklebo. Story was a bit slow in parts but very good overall. Looking forward to the wedding!

Women always appear sexual in this series

I've read the first five books (Books 0-4) before this one. I like the series for the culture, the folktale, and the doctoring stories. But the author's description of female characters is obviously very much from a male perspective. It is too sexual and always a turnoff. It is always about appearance - legs, chest, perfume, etc., and appearance is always the main attraction of a woman to her partner. When a man misses a woman, the external attributes are always emphasized, as opposed to the internal ones. This is extremely outdated, sexist, and shallow. Considering this book is written in 2010, I expected a more modern view than this.

The female partners of the main characters are always very good looking and well-dressed. Why can't they simply be average looking but still have great qualities in other things? In the story, they do have the latter things. But why do they have to always be so sexually attractive too? It describes these seemingly perfect females, smart, good career, and good looking, whatever age they are. That's not what happens in life. At the same time, the males they are matched with are just average or don't deserve them. It is so unrealistic, questionable, and hard to read on at times.

I give the author credit for some progressive views, such as that of women in engineering, but this contradicts with its overly sexual description of every female character. It only makes the contrast bigger and makes it baffling why the description of women focuses on appearance. They are incoherent and make the progressive view seem not wholehearted.

I paused reading the series for months because of this turnoff. If I stop reading this series altogether, this would be a big reason.

Love this series

What made the experience of listening to An Irish Country Courtship the most enjoyable?

The characters, it is always about the characters and I love the characters of Bally Buckle Bow!

What other book might you compare An Irish Country Courtship to and why?

This series is just good reading.....to compare them to any other series does them an injustice. Good clean reading.

Have you listened to any of John Keating’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

John Keating is the perfect narrator for this series of books.

If you could rename An Irish Country Courtship, what would you call it?

Why in Heaven's name would I want to rename the book. The title is perfect as it is, ah so...

Another great one in the series!

Loved this one, and can't wait to start the next in the series! If you liked the Yorkshire vet student books, you'll love these. too!

Another wonderful story from Ballybucklebo

Good to be with the Ulster folks again. Great narrator. I'll continue with the series.

LOVE LOVE LOVVEEE

OMG I LOVE these books!! And I absolutely ADORE every fiber of John Keating and his narrating! He absolutely makes these books! He couldn’t be more perfect!

Delightful!

I very much enjoy listening to each book, learning about Irish daily life in a small village.

I love this author. he tells amazing stories of

the everyday life is so interesting. I want to know am more simple life. done really well.

Fun lighthearted listening

This is a lovely story in a series. It is fun to follow the characters.