An Irish Country Doctor - Patrick Taylor

[junogirl]

An Irish Country Doctor - Patrick Taylor

This book is a fiction about a medical doctor in Ireland who learns more about life and love then he ever imagined in medical school. Many of the characters first appeared in Patrick Taylors’ monthly column, “Stitches: The journal of medical humour” in 1995 and were suggested to him as a possible foundation for a novel.



Barry Laverty decides to start his life as a new doctor in a tiny village in Northern Ireland. His position is as assistant to the current doctor, Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly. As Barry learns the practice and gets plenty of hands on experience, he realises that Dr. O’Reilly has his own way of doing things and he can’t decide if he is a genius or a charlatan. The good doctor exhibits some instances of extreme intelligence and learning, then follows those up with odd remedies, drunkenness and a laissez faire attitude. Barry has many doubts and concerns about the post he has accepted, but enjoys the country life and the eccentric people he meets and learns from every day. He then has to decide if Dr. O’Reilly is helping his patients or hindering them. How much of his schooling is to be taken seriously and how much is dependant on the situation. On one of his trips back to the city, he meets Patricia Spence and falls head over heels in love. Patricia is special and not a girl to be taken lightly and Barry has to decide if this is the life he wants to lead or if he wants to go back to the big city and the rules he learnt in medical school.


This book was entertaining and instructive in my opinion. I could not put it down. I needed to find out what happened at every turn of the page but I also learned many things about life in a small village in Ireland. Much like any small town, everybody knows who everybody else is and also their business but in Ireland, they are extremely superstitious and the doctor is regarded as someone who holds all the answers; IF he can gain their trust. This seems to be a recurring theme in books written by Irish authors about Ireland. Maeve Binchy has the same thought processes in her books about Ireland.



I really enjoyed learning about the issues that doctors in general have to deal with in their day to day practices. There are some more serious issues where their knowledge and judgement either saves their patient or doesn’t but there are also a myriad of seemingly ridiculously small nuisances that plague their patients and the way they deal with the people involved means more than anything medicine could ever teach. Especially for a small practice, a big part of a doctors’ success may come from knowing your patients very well as well as or sometimes excluding examining of symptoms.



I am giving this book 3 out of 4 stars because most people who love to read would enjoy the way it is written, the storyline and the thought that it provokes. It may be a work of fiction and not seem very profound when you read it but when you are done you will find yourself considering some of the issues brought up and whether or not they were dealt with properly.

[jamespoet]

Is this book in a series by the author? I ask because he's written a number of books with an apparent theme of Irish.

[junogirl]

well, he's written two books with many of the same characters but other than that, no, it does not appear to be a series...

[jamespoet]

Oh ok. Speaking of Irish writers, have you ever read James Joyce or Seamus Heaney?

[junogirl]

no, james joyce is familiar to me and i believe we may have studied him in high school but seamus heaney i don't believe i've ever heard of. is he a poet?

[jamespoet]

Yes, and a great one as well. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, and he came out with a bestselling translation of BEUWOLF in 2000. It pained me greatly when I got news of his passing the other year.

[junogirl]

i will definitely give him a read. also, i love your postscript? it speaks to me.

[jamespoet]

I'm glad you like the postscript. I adapted it from hearing it somewhere. I like yours as well; I am a big John Green fan.

[junogirl]

oh, well, i won't pretend i've ever read John Green before because i haven't....but when i read that sentence, it felt like everything i've ever wanted to say when i read a book...

[jamespoet]

oh, well, i won't pretend i've ever read John Green before because i haven't....but when i read that sentence, it felt like everything i've ever wanted to say when i read a book...

Well I highly recommend his first book, LOOKING FOR ALASKA. Great book. I even wrote a review on it.