historical ireland

I second Poetinahat's Frank Delaney recommendation. 'Shannon' is another great story by him. He wrote a whole series which, unfortunately, I haven't been able to catch up with. But he's definitely worth checking out.

Frank Delaney also wrote a cracker of a novella called "My Dark Rosaleen". It's set in the 1950s and deals with corruption in a village. Not exactly romantic, but the characters in it are interesting.

I'm also writing a story set in Ireland (well, the beginning is in Ireland. It's about a girl who emigrates to America after the famine, so it's not like your story).

Anyway, I saw a book called an Irish Country Wedding when I worked at Barnes and Noble, and I've been meaning to look into it. I don't know a lot about the author, but when I saw what you were asking for, I thought of this. It seems to be set in the type of setting your describing.

I've recently read a book called the Yellow House by Patricia Falvey set in Ulster during World War I. It deals more with the turmoil Ireland was going through at the time, but the way she describes her country is beautiful. I hope that helps.

I used to have a guitar teacher who was Irish, and he once told me about how on St Patrick's Day he was in a take-away shop, and a guy came up to him and said 'hey, you're Irish. Why aren't you drunk?' To which he replied with 'I'm not Catholic.'

It was St Cuthbert's day on 20th March. I was in Durham cathedral as they were decorating the shrine with flowers and greenery. Beautiful.