A pint of Guinness, a placebo, and call me in the morning.

books:


	• An Irish Country Doctor (Irish Country Books) Patrick Taylor Forge Books, 2008 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An Irish Country Doctor

This is really a wonderfully funny and touching novel. I just finished it and once I started reading it I could not put it down. Anyone who needs to get away from all the problems of the world should read it.

I cannot wait to get Patrick Taylor's next book "An Irish Country Village". I know it has to be as good, but I can not imagine it being better.

Whether you are Irish or not I believe you will be able to relate to some of the characters he introduces in his story.

He is a great author. He is just what the Doctor ordered. Of course him being a doctor does not hurt.

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Karon yes, Herriot no

The synopsis on the inside cover of AN IRISH COUNTRY DOCTOR compares Taylor's book to James Herriot and Jan Karon. Jan Karon I can see. James Herriot is a bit out of reach.

There's more syrup in this book than in a Smucker's factory. Doctor Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly is like a father to the residents of Ballybucklebo in Northern Ireland. There's a pregnant servant girl, a proud old man who lives in his car, a carpenter's wife with a ne'er-do-well husband, plus his new young assistant, Barry Laverty, who's reminiscent of a lovesick calf. O'Reilly presents a tough exterior, but he's got the proverbial heart of gold.

That's not to say AN IRISH COUNTRY DOCTOR doesn't have some good points. If you love language, you'll love the Ulster dialect. For instance, "A beagle's gowl" is the distance a Beagle can be heard; "Near took the rickets" means had a great shock. There are also some more familiar words and expressions such as "lummuck" and "shite," all of which are defined in Taylor's glossary.

Taylor is also a doctor, so the medical scenes provide some enlightenment. I didn't know, for instance, that halitosis is a symptom of appendicitis.

My biggest problem with the book was the climax. O'Reilly resolves all of the plot conflicts in one fell swoop. But he uses blackmailing and some questionable medical slight of hand to do it. I'm thinking there's no way the villain, a tough businessman, would have believed O'Reilly's ploy for a second.

All in all, if you like Jan Karon, you'll probably like AN IRISH COUNTRY DOCTOR. If not, venture at your own risk.

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A pint of Guinness, a placebo, and call me in the morning.

Travelers to the North of Ireland find wind-swept vistas, fog-blanketed coasts and a land so verdant it looks like it was brush-stroked by Thomas Kinkade. On the occasional clear day you can even see Scotland from the lush Antrim shoreline. A mere twelve miles, `tis, across the North Channel, and a cinch for the marauding Scots giants of lore to breach it in a dozen strides, seeking to do battle with Ireland's own giant, Finn McCool. Saint Patrick first landed somewhere nearby and lies buried beneath an eponymous cathedral in County Down. A land of provos and loyalists, the fervent prayer is that the North of Ireland has also entombed the Troubles.

Nestled astride close-by Beflast Lough, readers are introduced to the make-believe, picture-postcard village of Ballybucklebo. An emerald plucked from the Ireland of yesteryear, herein resides a laughable, affable and pitiable collection of all the Irish caricatures we'd ever want to meet. `Tis where we find our two Irish country doctors in residence plying a common sense and routinely placebo-driven brand of medicine mildly reminiscent of the old joke: A man goes to his doctor and informs him that his arm hurts terribly when he raises it. To which the doctor replies: "Then don't raise your arm. Next patient!"

Our crusty but learned Doctor Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly plays mentor, confessor and father-figure to wet-behind-the-ears Doctor Barry Laverty, late of Belfast's Queen's University Medical School. Gambling that rural Ireland might offer a more suitable lifestyle than Belfast, Dr. Laverty arrives in Ballybucklebo ("Bally" loosely meaning "town" in Irish) driving a beat-up Volkswagen, answering O'Reilly's advertisement for a physician to assist him. Following typically whimsical driving directions the Irish are renowned for, Laverty ultimately finds O'Reilly's combination rustic living quarters and surgery (in Ireland "surgery" equals doctor's office) where he's set upon by Arthur Guinness, Fingal O'Reilly's shaggy mutt, a brute armed with boundless affection for the human leg.

The two docs hit it off (without which---no story) and Laverty hires on after passing the muster of the matronly "Kinky" Kincaid, O'Reilly's cook, housekeeper, nurse, confidante, screening-committee and appointment scheduler. Kinky's the glue holding the practice together, protecting our doctoral duo from the likes of: Councillor Bertie Bishop, resident Orangeman and curmudgeon, an equal opportunity Scrooge bent on leaving misery in his path as he cuts a vicious verbal swath through the townspeople. We're soon introduced to the half-dozen or so listless folks who appear daily at the surgery patiently awaiting their turn to receive hypodermic injections of "the tonic", which O'Reilly confesses hush-hush to Laverty is merely vitamin B-12, a placebo which the patients think they cannot live without. We can`t forget about Maggie and Sonny either. He living down the county in his automobile until the roof on his cottage get's fixed. It's been fifty years and the two lovebirds just might get hitched when he gets the roof money together. The good doctors make automobile and house calls to the likes of Sonny and others who can't find a way to the surgery. Which brings us to Major Fotheringham and his wife, a hypochondriac couple who spend days conjuring up imagined maladies, luring a nonplussed Doctor O'Reilly to their house where he plays the game for a bit and takes leave after appearing duly concerned for their fragile health.

Another hapless patient, Seamus Galvin, learns wife Maureen is pregnant again; they're hoping for a turn of financial luck which will allow them to emigrate to Americay. Speaking of pregnant, unmarried Julie MacAteer is praying she's not (But aren't they always?), and none too keen to identify the father.

Spring is in the air and a young man's fancy turns to .....fishing. Not really. Laverty's good with the rod and reel but he's infatuated with a captivating lady he met in Belfast; yet she's unsure, hesitant, all of which leaves our good doctor pining away in Ballybucklebo. And what about Doctor O'Reilly's love life? It's a subject he plays close to the vest, not freely discussing the sad tale behind the one and only love of his life and what happened to her. Keeping his nose to the grindstone, O'Reilly stays steadfast to the task at hand, mindful that the July 12th Orange parade looms and with it the potential for violence and mayhem that accompanies that enduring symbol of the Troubles.

There's more, of course, lot's more: a life-and-death medical emergency; an embarrassing misdiagnosis. In the end of author Taylor's semi-autobiographical Irish charmer the sutures get tied and most, but not all, wounds heal. Some things you can't fix----people die; bad sometimes wins over good. But make no mistake, this is a feel-good anachronistic tale in the stead of The Quiet Man, the Irish heart-tugger that transferred so beautifully to the silver screen over a half-century ago and remains as fresh as it did in the 1950s.

Doctor Laverty's alter ego, author Patrick Taylor M.D., is alive and well, living the good life on Bowen Island off Vancouver, British Columbia, where he reminisces about his days as a physician in his native County Down, Northern Ireland.

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A gentle tale

Yes, I read all of James Heriots books and this is in the same vein. The Dr. is kind and gentle young and hopeful. His view
the people of the area is appreciative of their ways and he ministers to them without trying
to change them. A lovely story with laughs and joy. Reading this book is like going to a restful country home for the weekend.

An Irish Country Doctor

For me this book was an easy, quick, read that I could hardly put down. The dry, witty, humor gave me many laughs. I especially liked watching the relationship develop between the old, established, doctor and the young, new doctor. A very good read that I have passed on to others.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

Barry Laverty, M.D., can barely find the village of Ballybucklebo on a map when he first sets out to seek gainful employment there, but already he knows that there is nowhere he would rather live than in the emerald hills and dales of Northern Ireland. The proud owner of a spanking-new medical degree and little else in the way of worldly possessions, Barry jumps at the chance to secure a position as an assistant in a small rural practice.

At least until he meets Dr. Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly.

The older physician, whose motto is to never let the patients get the upper hand, has his own way of doing things. At first, Barry can’t decide if the pugnacious O’Reilly is the biggest charlatan he has ever met, or the best teacher he could ever hope for. Through O’Reilly Barry soon gets to know all of the village’s colorful and endearing residents, including:

A malingering Major and his equally hypochondriacal wife;

An unwed servant girl, who refuses to divulge the father of her upcoming baby;

A slightly daft old couple unable to marry for lack of a roof;

And a host of other eccentric characters who make every day an education for the inexperienced young doctor.

Ballybucklebo is long way from Belfast, and Barry is quick to discover that he still has a lot to learn about the quirks and traditions of country life. But with pluck and compassion and only the slightest touch of blarney, he will find out more about life—and love—than he ever imagined back in medical school.

An Irish Country Doctor is a charming and engrossing tale that will captivate readers from the very first page—and leave them yearning to visit the Irish countryside of days gone by.

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