Our book group is open to all- you do not have to be Irish to attend.

Attend every meeting, occasionally or just once in your life. All we ask is that you read the book in advance and take part in the discussion. There’s a short introduction by a member of staff, a group regular, or someone we know with a special interest in the book in question.

This month, the Irish Group will be discussing Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry

‘Have you ever been the custodian of a story no one else believed?’ ‘Oh yes,’ he said. ‘You have?’ ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Then I can tell you.’

Recently retired police officer Tom Kettle is settling into the quiet of his new home, a lean-to annexed to a Victorian castle overlooking the Irish Sea. For months he has barely seen a soul, catching only glimpses of his eccentric landlord and a nervous young mother who has moved in next door.

Occasionally, fond memories return, of his family, his beloved wife June and their two children. But when two former colleagues turn up at his door with questions about a decades-old case, one which Tom never quite came to terms with, he finds himself pulled into the darkest currents of his past.

A beautiful, haunting novel, in which nothing is quite as it seems, Old God’s Time is about what we live through, what we live with, and what may survive of us.

Refreshments provided.

Our book groups – Fiction and Irish book groups (monthly), Pagan (bi-monthly), Non-Fiction (quarterly)