Final Ross O'Carroll Kelly book to be released

Say Your Number

End of an era, the storyline had gotten way over the top a long time ago, but it was rare I went more than 20 pages without laughing out loud, and the social commentary remained sharp, still will miss them all the same.

https://twitter.com/PenguinIEBooks/status/1796464717831217588

Tony H

Great series of books ,a highlight of my reading every year .

HBC08

Gutted to hear this,

Just finished Camino Royale on holidays last week.

Ross has been a massive part of my holiday routine for 20 years.Always laugh out loud funny.

I'm genuinely sad about this,at least I've one more to go.

yagan

I can still remember picking up the Miseducation of Ross O'Carroll Kelly in a hostel while backpacking in Asia and I'd never heard of it. Kind of lost touch with it after Downturn Abbey, but might get this one to finish it off.

89897

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122206733#Comment_122206733

Brilliant, thats exactly where I first read it also not knowing what it was. I wonder was it the same book :)

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122206786#Comment_122206786

I found it in a hostel in Penang, in Malaysia.

It was such a laugh being sucked right into Celtic tiger nonsense but at a distance.

Padre_Pio

I remember reading these back in college in UCD, maybe a year after Ross left UCD to become an estate agent.

Brilliant memories.

ancapailldorcha

Are they worth reading? I live in the UK so I'm not sure I'd get the humour. I did live in Dublin for a few years.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122207053#Comment_122207053

They are, I missed the last few and the few before that had become repetitive but the first five or six were (in the words f Shakin' Stevens) great stuff.

hoodie6029

’I drove straight to Finglas, without a thought for my own safety’

AndrewJRenko

Some good laughs, used to be part of my Xmas stocking. This was my favourite ever line;

HildaOgdenx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058354003/final-ross-ocarroll-kelly-book-to-be-released

Had to happen sometime I guess. I have enjoyed them all.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122207010#Comment_122207010

"Athlone, the gateway to Dublin!".

He really nailed the lunacy of the property madness of the time.

elperello

All good things have to come to an end.

It was a hell of a ride.

Ciao.

Famous Blue Raincoat

Pity. I started reading him in The Sunday Tribune, where he first started before moving to The Irish Times years later.

I only found out from an interview with Paul Howard that Ross O'Carroll Kelly was an acronym for ROCK - and not his real name (in the first few weeks of the Tribune it wasn't clear he was a parody! He was writing next to the talented author Joseph O'Connor and the historian JJ Lee in those days - both real people).

In that interview years ago, Howard was saying he himself lives in Dublin/Stillorgan but drove at that time to rural Wicklow every morning to write and come back to Dublin in the evening - avoiding the traffic in both directions. Now, that's thinking outside the box for those of us stuck in the traffic twice each day.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122207157#Comment_122207157

Another focking day in paradise for me! If it hadn't been for Oisinn's apartment in Killiney, the old man paying for my Golf GTI, JP's old man's job offer and all the goys wanting to buy me drink, it would have been, like, a complete mare. Totally. But naturally, roysh, you can never be sure what life plans to do to you next. At least, it came as a complete focking surprise to me …

I'm going to pop down to the charity shop this weekend and pick up the set

CuriousCucumber

Just ordered the final 3 books off of the back of this news.

Such well written, enjoyable, easy to read books

Say Your Number

Always thought he was one of those posh D4 lads taking the piss out of his own, like the D'unbelivables, he's from a council estate, there is real venom in the first few books, Ross is a total scumbag, after that he makes him somewhat redeemable.

He was putting out two books a year for the last few years, the children's books and Roddy Collins autobiography, he was even in tow with Roddy when he was promoting the book, which was strange.

StupidLikeAFox

Never read the books but did go see the play a few years ago. It was very funny and as a country boy, I thought it was funny that a lot of the people attending had the D4 accents that he was taking the piss out of.

Fair play to him for the longevity, its something that could have got very stale, very quick

loyatemu

he's continuing the IT column. I've read a good few of the books, completely not in order but I don't think that matters. But I think it works best in the weekly doses in the paper, and it invariably gets a laugh out of me on a Saturday morning. It's interesting that he has a few different plotlines each year in the column and a completely different plot in the books but he has to keep track of continuity across them all.

His book about Roy Keane's dog "Triggs" was also very good.

JupiterKid

I will miss the Ross O'Carroll Kelly books...hadn't read one in ages but I loved the early ones...hilarious!

hoodie6029

Went back through my highlights in the kindle this evening. Here’s a few that I enjoyed. 

I notice his cor porked in front of the house. A 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe. A focking tramp wouldn't sleep in it.

Focking Cistercian. It sounds like a disease that makes cows lame. 

I’ve never said anything about Bray that wasn’t one hundred percentage warranted. 

On Juno and the Paycock being performed at Mount Anville:
God, I remember that production. A lot of parents walked out.
They refused to believe that poverty like that ever existed in Dublin and, if it did, they didn't see why they should have to pay ten grand a year in school fees to be reminded of it.

Sorcha doesn't say ****. She's got obvious stage-fright. She's like - what's that phrase? - a rabbit in the headlice?

I'm up off that bed like Susan Boyle has just climbed into it beside me

Seneca the Stoic

They are incredibly well-plotted and written, and seriously underestimated by many. I don’t know how Howard churned out a book a year, so in a way I’m not surprised at this news. But yeah no, I’m still, I want to say, saddened?

Kalimah

I bought one for my son years ago and ended up reading it myself! Bought every one after that for myself as soon as they were published. 😀 I totally loved them.
Funnily enough I never got into the Irish Times column at all.

HildaOgdenx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122208937#Comment_122208937

But yeah no, I’m still, I want to say, saddened?

'If that's even a word?'

That always makes me laugh 🤣🤣🤣

HBC08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122208937#Comment_122208937

Yeah,no,same,im saddened too.....and I want to say gutted??

hoodie6029

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122208937#Comment_122208937

Seriously underappreciated. He had his book about Ireland becoming an authoritarian state within a year of Trump’s election and there was barely a peep in the media about it.

Paul Murray’s book on the same topic was 6 years later and the media were gushing about how timely and accurate it was. Paul Howard did it 6 years ago you tŵâts! Biden had been president for 2 years!

HBC08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122209554#Comment_122209554

So many examples of stuff like this.

3 years ago Christian and JP set up a company to house foreigners in stand up coffin like beds in fields in rural Donegal.....Malingrad.

castletownman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122209554#Comment_122209554

Not to mention the reverence the Aisling series of books seems to hold, basically because it's chick-lit for totally modern Irish women.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122209554#Comment_122209554

What books are these?

Heroditas

Awww that's sad news. I started reading him in the Tribune all those years ago. After going to one of the schools he mocked, I could easily relate to it. The character certainly has evolved through the years but the stories have got a bit too absurd recently, albeit still very enjoyable.

However, I just couldn't stand the phonetic way Ronan's speech was done. It was really annoying and slows down the flow of the books when you're trying to read it.

I really did like K-k-k-k-k-kennnet' though 🤣