Five top books to understand the Irish border

Fintan O'Toole is assistant editor of the Irish Times and author of Ship of Fools: How Stupidity and Corruption Killed the Celtic Tiger. One of five books to understand the Irish border that he tagged at the Guardian:

Garrett Carr’s The Rule of the Land: Walking Ireland’s Border came out last year but describes a journey just before the Brexit vote brought back all the old fears. It, too, is haunted by history and violence, but Carr is much more hopeful than [Colm] Tóibín['s Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border (1987)] could afford to be. His is a place that appears to be settling down, coming into its own. It matters greatly that his book does not come to seem a mere record of a short period between the wars.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue