Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Future Popes of Ireland  By  cover art

Future Popes of Ireland

By: Darragh Martin
Narrated by: Gerard Logan
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $24.67

Buy for $24.67

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

A big-hearted, funny and sad novel about the messiness of love, family and belief

LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE

SHORTLISTED FOR IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARD

In 1979 Bridget Doyle has one goal left in life: for her family to produce the very first Irish pope. Fired up by John Paul II’s appearance in Phoenix Park, she sprinkles Papal-blessed holy water on the marital bed of her son and daughter-in-law, and leaves them to get on with things. But nine months later her daughter-in-law dies in childbirth and Granny Doyle is left bringing up four grandchildren: five-year-old Peg, and baby triplets Damien, Rosie and John Paul.

Thirty years later, it seems unlikely any of Granny Doyle’s grandchildren are going to fulfil her hopes. Damien is trying to work up the courage to tell her that he’s gay. Rosie is a dreamy blue-haired rebel who wants to save the planet and has little time for popes. And irrepressible John Paul is a chancer and a charmer and the undisputed apple of his Granny’s eye – but he’s not exactly what you’d call Pontiff material.

None of the triplets have much contact with their big sister Peg, who lives over 3,000 miles away in New York City, and has been a forbidden topic of conversation ever since she ran away from home as a teenager. But that’s about to change.

©2018 Darragh Martin (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: LGBTQ+

Critic reviews

"Raucously funny and genuinely moving. It's the depth of the characters which makes Future Popes of Ireland such a compelling, beautifully conceived family saga; the Doyles are going to stay with me as insistently as the people I've met in real life. A humane, deeply witty and intelligent exploration of faith and its contradictions, and a world which combines the quotidian and the metaphysical, in which every object - from a bottle of water to a smartphone to a scratchcard - could be a holy relic. A joy from start to finish." (Luke Kennard)

"Hilarious and timely, a dazzling debut." (John Boyne)

"Well observed, original, gripping, funny and poignant. This novel is a classic." (Jo Spain)

What listeners say about Future Popes of Ireland

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.