21 Books Set in Ireland to Read Before Your Next Trip

Finn McCool is the largest giant in all of Ireland. He's a fierce warrior, even beating the giant Culcullan and saving Ireland from the Scots. Helpful and kind, he helps the farmers and everyone in the village admires him.

But for all his strength, courage, and goodness, there's one thing that Finn lacks. He's just not smart. And he knows it.

When a wise man living in a nearby village tells Finn about a magical red salmon with the wisdom of the world, Finn sets out to catch the fish. And he learns a thing or two about himself in the process.

Jamie is accustomed to his wife doing all the household and garden chores, so when she injures her back, he figures he's sure to starve to death.

As luck would have it, he chances upon a leprechaun. The elfin man offers Jamie the biggest "pratie" in the world in exchange for letting him go. A fun read-aloud for little ones or early readers.

The happy Irish farmer Seamus and his pet goat, Finny, seek the chance of a lifetime at the King Puck Festival. And as Seamus and Finny's adventure unfolds, you'll adore finding the fairies hidden in each of the radiant illustrations.

Set against the backdrop of Ireland's oldest and most unusual fair, King Puck is a jig-reeling, kid-appealing tale of friendship, fun, and fairy magic!

Someone has stolen the witch of Crookhaven's horse, and there will be no peace in the village until it is returned. So bold, brassy Kate O'Sullivan takes matters into her own hands.

Instead of saving the day, she manages to land herself--and her family--in trouble with the king. So Kate sets out to save their hides the only way she knows how--with a good story.

Filled with imagination, wit, and a healthy helping of good old-fashioned Irish blarney, this is a hilarious tale that will keep readers coming back for more.

WELCOME TO THE rival towns of Tralee and Tralah, where the annual St. Patrick’s Day decorating contest is underway. Every year, Tralah defeats Tralee.

This year, though, little Fiona Riley has a wonderful idea that will help Tralee win the contest for sure. But neither town has counted on a stranger arriving—a funny little man with pointed ears and boots trimmed with bells—who will turn the contest upside down!

The greedy Leprechaun King has locked away all the luck in Ireland and the whole country has fallen into despair. Through clever charades, Fiona outwits the Leprechaun King and restores luck to the land. Beautiful illustrations will attract readers of all ages to this original folktale.

Storytelling is one of Ireland’s oldest and grandest traditions, and these vivid tales of far-off days will introduce young readers to the country’s irresistible folklore. Here are brave warriors with superhuman skills, monster dogs with blazing eyes, fairy folk and leprechauns, and the magical land of Tir na nÓg.

This enchanting collection of favorite Irish folk tales deserves to be read aloud at every hearth. The larger-than-life characters, dramatic landscapes, and magical happenings of all the tales, including the famous legend of the bewitched Children of Lir, will transport readers to another world for many happy hours.

Brigid's Cloak retells an ancient tale about one of Ireland's most beloved saints. On the day she is born, Brigid receives a brilliant blue cloak from a mysterious Druid.

Years later, the young girl still wears the now-tattered but beloved cloak while she tends her sheep. Is it her imagination that suddenly takes her to an unfamiliar land? Or is it something far greater that leads Brigid to a crowded inn in a town called Bethlehem?

When Jack and Annie got back from their adventure in Magic Tree House #43: Leprechaun in Late Winter, they had lots of questions. What are leprechauns? How do we know many of the old Irish stories? How do fairies spend their time? Who speaks the Irish language?

Find out the answers to these questions and more as Jack and Annie track the facts.

Tweens and teens will love these enchanting Irish fairy tales that uncover the haunting, hidden world of the fairy folk. Best-selling author Michael Scott has crafted stories guaranteed to captivate young readers who love magic, legends, and lore.

Pirates and crooked rulers make seventeenth-century Ireland a dangerous place. When Tom feels rejected by his father, he finds a secret second family among the group of smugglers who trade in and around Roaringwater Bay. Though Tom doesn't know it, his family in the Big House is under huge pressure.

In this day, cut-throat interests control everybody and everything, friend turns into foe, and loyalty counts for nothing. From his new family, Tom learns all about boats and smuggling and secret treasure, but Tom discovers the best-kept secret of all.

Meg is given a very special gift on her eleventh birthday, a gift as beautiful and mysterious as it is old. It has been in her family's possession for as long as they have been sailing the ocean. But stranger things await her as she is suddenly thrust on a journey to Ireland, the land of her Ancestors.

Join her on a modern-day high-seas adventure to the Emerald Isle. Readers will discover a world of spirits, pirates, hidden treasure, and a legendary sea queen named Grace O'Malley, also known as Granuaile. The key to all she wants to know could be in the family heirloom she received, but can she figure it out before the man called The Digger takes everything away from her?

There never seems to be enough time in Kinvara, or anywhere else in Ireland for that matter. When J.J.'s mother says time is what she really wants for her birthday, J.J. decides to find her some. He's set himself up for an impossible task . . . until a neighbor reveals a secret.

There's a place where time stands still—at least, it's supposed to. J.J. can make the journey there, but he'll have to vanish from his own life to do so. Can J.J. find the leak between the two worlds? Will a shocking rumor about his family's past come back to haunt him? And what does it all have to do with the village's new policeman?

Once a year, Wren is chased through the woods near her rural Ireland hometown as part of a game. The pursuers are a group in control of an ancient, powerful magic they stole from her own people, the augurs . . . but they don't know her true identity. If they learned the truth, the game would surely turn deadly.

Wren embarks on a quest to return the power to her family and end the reign of the pursuers once and for all. Thrilling for middle schoolers and above.

It began with Benny Hogan and Eve Malone, growing up, inseparable, in the village of Knockglen. Benny—the only child, yearning to break free from her adoring parents...Eve—the orphaned offspring of a convent handyman and a rebellious blueblood, abandoned by her mother's wealthy family to be raised by nuns.

Eve and Benny—they knew the sins and secrets behind every villager's lace curtains...except their own. If you've seen the movie, the book is better. One of my all-time favorites.

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate the upcoming wedding of a television star and his magazine publisher fiancee. Every detail has been planned, and nothing should go wrong until it does.

Someone turns up dead, but who was responsible and why? I thought this book kept my attention and was a fairly quick and fun read.

In the winter of 1951, a storyteller, the last practitioner of an honored, centuries-old tradition, arrives at the home of a nine-year-old boy in the Irish countryside. For three wonderful evenings, the old gentleman enthralls the local audience with narratives of foolish kings, fabled saints, and Ireland's enduring accomplishments before moving on.

These nights change a young boy forever, setting him on a years-long pursuit of the elusive, itinerant storyteller and the glorious tales that are no less than the saga of his tenacious and extraordinary isle. Magical storytelling by Delaney.

As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods.

When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled sneakers, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours. 

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. When a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox—his partner and closest friend—find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery.

Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

To escape a recent heartbreak in New York, Grania Ryan returns to her family home on the rugged, wind-swept coast of Ireland. Here, on the cliff edge in the middle of a storm, she meets a young girl, Aurora Lisle, who will profoundly change her life.

The saga begins in pre-Christian Ireland with a clever refashioning of the legend of Cuchulainn, and culminates in the dramatic founding of the Free Irish State in 1922.

Through the interlocking stories of a wonderfully imagined cast of characters -- monks and noblemen, soldiers and rebels, craftswomen and writers -- Rutherfurd vividly conveys the personal passions and shared dreams that shaped the character of the country.

He takes readers inside all the major events in Irish history: the reign of the fierce and mighty kings of Tara; the mission of Saint Patrick; the Viking invasion and the founding of Dublin; the trickery of Henry II; the plantations of the Tudors and the savagery of Cromwell; the flight of the “Wild Geese”; the failed rebellion of 1798; the Great Famine and the Easter Rebellion.

With Rutherfurd’s well-crafted storytelling, readers witness the rise of the Fenians in the late nineteenth century, the splendors of the Irish cultural renaissance, and the bloody battles for Irish independence, as though experiencing their momentous impact firsthand.