Avid Series Reader's Reviews > An Irish Country Christmas

An Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor is book 3 of the Irish Country series, set in Ulster, Northern Ireland. Christmas season 1964 is doctor Barry Lafferty's first holiday season in Ballybucklebo. In this tiny rural town, everyone knows everyone else. Barry is well liked for his caring and healing skills. He has learned the foibles of country folk, and adjusted his demeanor and practices accordingly. Barry enjoys living and working with senior doctor Fingal O'Reilly. Their housekeeper Kinky Kincaid watches over them in a motherly way. She cooks them sensational feasts.

Fingal has been mourning his late wife Deidre for 25 years. He rekindles a long-ago friendship with Kitty O'Halloran (they met in med school), and starts opening up his heart. Together in an emergency they successfully delivered a breech baby at the mother's home, so they are well aware of each other's medical skill.

The emergency was caused by a quack doctor, new in town, who dismissed the experienced midwife and did not examine the pregnant woman properly. A breech birth is dangerous for baby and mother. The mother should have been under careful scrutiny through her pregnancy, and hospitalized for the birth. The quack also prescribed gunpowder for the husband of a woman who was trying (but failing) to conceive. At first Barry and Fingal were concerned the new doctor would steal patients from their practice. Once they realize his quack methods are endangering patients, they intervene.

A major annoying plot thread: Barry's girlfriend Patricia Spence is studying civil engineering in Cambridge. He's really looking forward to seeing her again. In her rare phone calls, she waffles whether she'll come to visit for Christmas. At first, the excuse is the uncertainty of her father's Christmas bonus, so she delays any plans. She refuses to let Barry pay for her ticket. Next phone call, no mention is made of the first excuse; the second excuse is that she has been too busy to ask for time on a telephone, so she couldn't call a travel agent; she spends her free time going to museums. Next excuse: she has gone to stay with a classmate in a lovely country house near some nature preserve. She yammers on and on about architecture and endangered ducks, while Barry is breathlessly waiting to hear if he will see her soon. He suggests she try a lower-cost ferry. And so on. Eventually her excuse is it's too late, plane and ferry tickets are sold out. As time goes on and the excuses mount, Barry questions the relationship. He's always feared that she would no longer be interested in a country doctor in rural Ulster, after the excitement of Cambridge and nearby London.

Meanwhile Barry and Fingal are busy every day treating their patients. Christmas holiday approaches, there are many community events to be arranged, many financial issues both with clubs and private citizens. Warm-hearted Barry and Fingal do their best to see that all children get a gift from Santa. Barry befriends several young women in their small town. He's beginning to appreciate their physical characteristics, too. The dress shop owner he previously thought to be a bitter hag (in an earlier book) proves to be a fascinating woman who grew up in India. The local school teacher is a warm and caring person, who reciprocates his interest. A student nurse at a dance in Belfast bores him with her taste in music, although she attracted him with a nice figure. Barry is ripe for a relationship. Perhaps a new friendship he formed in this book could lead to romance, with a woman who is happy with life in rural Ulster.

The first half to two-thirds of the book is well-paced with a plot that flows naturally from event to event. Later chapters seem anecdotal, repeating themes of holiday spirit and friendship (too much).