The Rosa Mulholland Book Club - the first six months

I decided to start the Rosa Mulholland Book Club in January after discovering many forgotten female writers from this part of Ireland, including Rosa Mulholland born here in Belfast in 1841. Some of her family are buried in Friars Bush Graveyard so I chose the Jeggy Nettle on the Stranmillis Road and we meet there on the first Sunday afternoon of every month at 2PM and the chat isn’t all just about the books!

So far we’ve read ‘Eldergowan’ by Rosa Mulholland which she wrote in 1874 and was republished by Charles Dickens. It was a novel which revolves round a country estate in rural Ireland and is essentially a marriage plot between childhood friends. Rosa Mulholland wrote forty books in a fifty year writing career so lets just say she maybe has better material...

Lovely little illustration in Eldergowan by Rosa Mulholland

In February our book was ‘The Feminine in Fiction’ by Elizabeth McCracken who wrote under the name of L.A.M Priestly. This was a literary criticism that examined how some well known literary characters were portrayed in novels and how the fictional heroine evolved from a passive figure into an independent women and she connects this to the womens suffrage movement. As Elizabeth McCracken was a prominent Suffragette in Belfast this book was exactly what I thought it would be!

Our March book was ‘The Maiden Dinosaur’ by Janet McNeil, first published in 1964 and set in Belfast during the 1960’s. This one revolved around a group of middle aged women who had been friends since school some of whom live in the main characters childhood home which had been split up into flats. The book examines how the women coped with the various trials and tribulations of middle age and everyone seemed to enjoy this book.

Our book for April was ‘Tinkers Hollow’ by F.E (Francis) Crichton. She wrote this in 1912 and it is the story of Sally Bruce, a Victorian orphan sent to live in rural County Antrim with her maiden aunts. The novel is a portrait of an austere Presbyterian culture and also contains elements of Ulster Scots dialect. I hated it!

In May we read ‘Irene Iddesleigh’ by Amanda McKittrick Ros, which has the accolade of being widely regarded as the worst novel of all time. Weirdly I quite liked this one. Her use of alliteration at the start of each chapter took a bit of getting used to but actually the story was good and the plot was quite dark at times. It involves Irene, who was an orphan, marrying into nobility even though she is in love with someone else whom she later elopes with. Slightly odd, but like I say I didn’t hate it.

Appropriate Book Club pick for July

For June and July we’re reading “The Twelfth Day of July” by Joan Lingard and if you’re of a vintage like me you’ll have definitely read this many years ago when you were a teenager. This was the first of the 'Kevin and Sadie' books and caused quite a bit of controversy when it was first published in 1970. I’m looking forward to reading it again to see if its as good as I remember and we’ll be meeting to chat about it in the Jeggy Nettle on the 2^nd of August at 2pm.  

 We have a good laugh and a good chat about many things related to the women of Belfast and although the books sound serious they’re really not. A bit like my walking tours I wanted the Book Club to be fun, quirky and something a bit different. It’s great to give some of these forgotten female writers a voice again, so come along for the craic – you’ll maybe read something which surprises you.