Tasting Notes: Trinity by Leon Uris.

A quintessentially Irish experience written by a non-Irishman that perfectly captures the spirit.

Novel is alcohol forward with lingering notes of bitter fruit and sweet spices.

Pair with a glass of Redbreast 12 year and a slice of spice cake.

Why should you read this book?

Better question: why shouldn’t you read this book, dear reader?

For all the fiction and nonfiction books about the Troubles or the Irish in general, Uris is rare for his ability to capture the difference between flashpan anger and the quiet, sustained fury only able to be attained by persons of Irish descent. More than that, in Trinity Uris has somehow managed to nail nearly all elements of the Irish mentality to a T (said the American with Irish ancestry only).

Now, that being said, if you don’t have Irish in your blood this book will be a….well fun isn’t the right word given the subject material so engaging perhaps? You’ll see both oppressor and oppressed humanized, and come to love and hate them both as you realize just how bound they are in a horrific apartheid system of traditions and greed. Families are torn apart, there’s terrible violence, subterfuge, political intrigue, and no small dose of romance. You know, all that good stuff that makes for nice fiction fodder.

So if you’re German or Czech or something than bon apetite and Bob’s your uncle.

If you do have Irish in your blood, however, then buckle up buttercup because you’re in for one wild ride. Your blood will boil, your heart will stir, and then your blood will boil some more because the British were nothing if not consistent in their fuckery during this period. Let’s just say that by reading this book you’ll get a fair idea of the social pressures that caused a “domestic disturbance” in Northern Ireland that has lasted unto our own time.

Like dust motes dancing in sunlight you’ll catch glimpses of the legacy of men such as David Wolfe and William Parnell, of struggles with Famine and failed Uprisings past, and you’ll see beginnings of the Easter Uprising of 1916 and the unfortunate radicalization of a branch of the Irish Republican Brotherhood into a more militant sect that you may recognize today as the IRA.

Trinity is an excellent book, dear reader. But it’s only fiction, true. Only a story.

But as the Irish know: a good story comes first from the heart.