Review
Author: Patrick Taylor
Reviewed by: SHA
Issue: March 2021
If you have not been exposed to the Irish Country novels by Patrick Taylor, you have some highly entertaining reading in store. Taylor, a retired medical researcher and professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia, was born and brought up in Northern Ireland, practiced medicine in Belfast and rural Ulster, and later immigrated to Canada where he lives today. His Irish Country Doctor, the first in the series (2007), was a New York Times bestseller, the Book-of-the-Month selection in March of 2007, and has been translated into 13 languages. These stories are set in the fictional rural village of Ballybucklebo in Northern Ireland and center on the medical practice of Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly and his assistant Dr. Barry Laverty. Practicing medicine in a rural village is, of course, quite different from practices in big cities in that everyone knows each other, the doctors are treating their friends and neighbors, know the background and medical histories of their patients, and are involved citizens in their towns. The surgery is open in the morning for drop-ins as needed, and the doctors socialize with the villagers - hunting, fishing, dinners, and participation in the village activities. An Irish Country Welcome centers on the difficult pregnancy of Dr. Laverty's wife, Sue, and the taking-on of a new doctor-trainee in the practice with concerns that Sebastian Carson's upper-class background will not fit with the down-to-earth Ballybucklebo folks. This story is set against the Troubles in Northern Ireland and an added theme is a proposed marriage of a Catholic girl and a Protestant man whose father opposes the marriage. As with other books in this series, readers will thoroughly enjoy the day-to-day events of the village and the operation of the medical practice. As an aside, this reader could not help but note the nature of the people in this village, their mutual support, and kindnesses with each other, compared with the sharp public dialogue and resistance displayed in a divided America today. I hope we can get this back.