Book review: More Stuff Irish People Love by Colin Murphy and Donal O’Dea

Do you love the taste of Red Lemonade, launch into ‘The Fields of Athenry’ at the drop of a hat or find yourself admiring ‘the grand stretch in the evenings’?

If you do, then this book, jammed with hilarious reflections on what it is to be Irish, will have you nodding in agreement with every turn of the page! And if you don’t have a clue what any of the above is about, then it could be time to put your hand in the pόca, fork out the spondulicks and try to fit in, for Jaysus’ sake!

From the authors of the smash hit Stuff Irish People Love and all 14 books in the side-splitting Feckin’ series comes another entertaining and self-deprecating guide to the unique passions of the ‘Paddies.’

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Between the pages of this unique little book are approximately 100 things that Irish people like, such as waving hello to complete strangers on country roads, using the ‘cupla focal’ to stress their Irishness when on holidays, going for a few pints after mass, claiming a relative who fought in the Easter Rising, explaining hurling to foreigners and nicknaming statues (for example ‘The Floozie in the Jacuzzi’).

Do you like taking the ‘makings of a fry’ on holidays, can you recognise your mother’s twenty-seventh cousin, twice removed and do you love boasting about Ireland’s literary geniuses, but have never read one?

Is the red man at a pedestrian crossing a challenge rather than caution, do you think there’s nothing peculiar about moving statues, do you eat potatoes with every meal, change into your swimming togs under a towel on the beach, worship Ray Houghton, the legend, and constantly say ‘Know what I mean like?’

More Stuff Irish People Love will have you nodding agreement at the turn of every page (if you’re Irish) and for all foreign readers, it will explain a lot about the Irish!

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From its quirky holographic cover to its essential insights into all that the Irish hold dear, and from innocent traditions and mildly eccentric peculiarities to stuff that’s just downright daft, this is the perfect Christmas gift for Irish folk wherever they live.

However, be warned ... reading this book may give you a craving for a salad cream sandwich or cause you to moan about Peig.

(O’Brien, paperback, £8.99)