Given my penchant for books about the Devil and my ever present longing for the land of my birth, it is a curious thing that I have not yet reviewed this book. Eddie Lenihan’s The Devil is an Irishman is a collection of folk stories about Satan’s exploits in Ireland.

5 years ago, I reviewed Lenihan’s Meeting the Other Crowd. (I loved it, but my review sees very little traffic.) In that book, each of the many stories is given a bit of an introduction with some background information on where the story came from. This one is different. There’s only 4 stories in here, and while they are folk tales, the telling is distinctively Lenihan’s. I heard his voice in my head as I was reading them. He doesn’t mention where the tales come from, but he mentions in the introduction that they were collected, so I assume they are actual folk tales.

The Devil doesn’t seem to fare well in folk tales. He seems surprisingly easy to deceive, and he repeatedly finds himself in rather uncomfortable situations. I was actually quite surprised at the level of violence in this book. One tale sees the Devil having his eyeball popped after he is brutally beaten with hammers.

I loved this book, and you should definitely read it. I’m actually back in Ireland at the moment, drinking lots of tea and talking lots of shite. I’ll keep an eye out for Satan while I’m here.