I didn't anticipate this collection being mostly pieces on Ireland, Irish writers, and the Roman Catholic Church (what did I expect?) but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless. ( )

A previously published autobiographical essay from 2011 provides the title and highlight of this excellent essay collection, which allowed me to appreciate Toíbín’s journalism, having previously read some of his novels and short stories.

For me, the autobiographical essay is the most powerful writing as it resonated with me, echoing some of my childhood experiences and recalling similar incidents, similar attitudes.
The essays about the Catholic Church were much less engaging, as they are dated and not relevant to my experience, but they are still historically interesting, and they illuminate a period of Irish history, when the country moved away from the dominance of the Church, which had suppressed, and participated in, some terrible crimes to women, children and babies. Toíbín also links, but distinguishes, this to homosexuality among the Catholic priesthood, at a time when homosexuality was illegal.
The final section includes three essays about literature, the approach to Protestantism in the novels of Marilynne Robinson, Francis Stuart (an Irish novelist who went to Germany and broadcast to Ireland in the Second World War, who I hadn’t previously heard about) and the novelist John McGahern. The first two of these essays are the more interesting, as they are argumentative, discursive pieces.
Finally, there is an essay on Venice during the pandemic lockdown in 2020, discussing the art and Mann’s Death in Venice. ( )