Mary Kenny

Joined at the Hip

The Rule of the Land: Walking Ireland’s Border

By

Faber & Faber 312pp £13.99 order from our bookshop

We have become aware that once Brexit is completed the land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will also be one that separates the United Kingdom from the European Union. It’s an exceptionally winding border, sometimes along country lanes. On occasions the only sign that you have changed states may be the sight of a red or green postbox, or, on a main road, the switch from miles to kilometres and the addition of place names in Irish. Personally, I rather like this diversity – it makes life interesting when, all of a sudden, you are under another jurisdiction – but the border has also been a cause of headaches ever since it was formally established in 1923. 

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • A piece of Literary Review history from way back in 1983: John Haffenden talks to the great Iris Murdoch. ,
    • Britain’s only travelling lit fest, the Garden Museum Literary Festival is heading to Houghton Hall, Norfolk, for a… ,
    • 'The 19th-century German sage is not my idea of a pleasant travel companion' goes hiking with Friedr… ,
    • If you want ideas about what to read next, sign up to our free email newsletter, and get book reviews, archive mate… ,
    • 'The heroic male nude could not, I think, be used today to signify civic pride and glory', as Michelangelo’s 'David… ,
    • 'Munch’s later works show us a man liberated from the torments that gave rise to some of the best-known early works… ,
    • 'We read from left to right and from start to finish. Or do we?' Stuart Hannabus considers the merits of reading i… ,
    Follow Us