The Secret World of the Irish Male
Joseph O'Connor
New Island, 1994
A Lively Debate About the State of his Balls
Joseph O'Connor, like my good self and Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, splits his time between the US and Ireland, attended University College Dublin, enjoys beer and inevitably aims for a laugh. Of the three of us, ROCK gets the most giggles. Joseph O'Connor next. I'm dead last. Again.
First published in 1994, The Secret World of the Irish Male is O'Connor's first collection of essays. Like Ross, most contents originally appeared in The Sunday Tribune. Here for posterity Joe's wisecracking ramblings are grouped into topics like My Difficult Childhood, Jesus and Me: A Wopbop A Loobop A Lop Bamboom, and The Write Stuff: Irish Writers and Writing. It's easy to dip in and out.
Though the final chapter covers Irish soccer fans visit to Orlando for the World Cup in 1994- I bartendered to those drunks, by the way. Some people in the US do know how to pull a pint of Guinness- my favorite is Chapter Two: The Birds and the Bees: How to Fall in Love. A chuckle was never far away while Joe reminisced about the time he took "a lithe creature with blonde hair, a stunning smile and legs that seemed to go all the way up to her neatly coiffured armpits" to "the near-legendary event called The Trinity Ball." Of course it all goes horribly arseways. Cool shit.
To find work after graduation, O'Connor- like my own UCD amigos- had to emigrate to London. His comments and observations are an interesting record of those bleaker days. Beyond that, The Secret World of the Irish Male spends pages building Disney World jokes on the fact that "mickey" is Irish slang for "pleasure snake." There is a lively debate between a cop, a cabbie and O'Connor about the state of O'Connor's balls (pg 231). It's all just about OK, but shrinks in comparison with a book like McCarthy's Bar. Now that was a man with insight.
One O'Connor title I wholeheartedly recommend is the man's second novel, Desperados. That had me hooked from the phone call announcing the discovery of a missing young Irishman's body in post-war Nicaragua. A road novel through interesting territory, Desperados sings with memorable characters. It's got rock, salsa and soul. Critical Mick says: oo baby.
About The Secret World of the Irish Male, Critical Mick says: a mix of funny bits, interesting Biblical trivia bits, punk rock attitude and Colm Toibin references, The Secret World of the Irish Male is better than a kick in the mickey. It is also guaranteed to get more memorable laughs than all the so-called writing on criticalmick.com
Many thanks to Joseph O'Connor for humoring my questions as he signed the book. Yes once again I made an eejit of myself.
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