The Queen of Dirt Island

The Queen of Dirt Island is a 2022 novel by Irish writer Donal Ryan that explores themes of Women in Society, The Bonds of Family, and The Pitfalls of Relationships through its lyricism and experimentally structured narrative. Composed of 121 chapters of exactly 500 words each, The Queen of Dirt Island follows three generations of the Aylward family, including a young woman named Saoirse, her mother Eileen, and her grandmother Nana, in rural Ireland near the turn of the 21st century. Ryan, who lives and works in Ireland, has won numerous awards for his fiction, including Novel of the Year from the Irish Book Awards. The Queen of Dirt Island is his sixth novel.

This guide references the 2022 Kindle version.

Content Warning: This novel contains descriptions of self-harm, suicide, and racist, sexist, and anti-gay language.

Plot Summary

The Queen of Dirt Island opens with a man driving home from the hospital with his wife, Eileen, and newborn daughter, Saoirse. They stop to pick up a hitchhiker, but just after, a car accident kills both men, sparing the infant and mother. Eileen moves in with her mother-in-law, whom Saoirse calls Nana. The early narrative focuses on Saoirse’s childhood and her memories and impressions of the Irish countryside. Saoirse has two uncles on Nana’s childhood farm: Paudie and Chris. One day, Paudie is arrested for storing weapons for the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), which is in a long-running conflict with the British government as part of an ethno-nationalist conflict known as the Troubles. Paudie is sentenced to a long stint in jail.

When Saoirse is 12, Eileen gets a job as a bookmaker. One day, Eileen’s father arrives, whom Saoirse has never met before. Her grandfather isn’t unkind to her, but he and Eileen argue. Later, Saoirse discovers that her parents had been married four months before she was born, and she understands why she’d never met her grandparents before—they were ashamed she was born out of wedlock. When Saoirse is 15, she and her mother visit Dirt Island for Eileen’s mother’s funeral. During the wake, Saoirse is treated abusively by her uncle Richard, who tells her that Eileen “broke [his] parent’s hearts” and calls her mother a slur (52). He informs Saoirse that she’ll never return to Dirt Island.

The Troubles end, and Saoirse’s uncle Paudie is released as a part of a prisoner exchange. He moves back to the farm. Saoirse becomes friends with a girl named Breedie Flynn, and they start to attend a weekly concert at a local venue. One night, Breedie and Saoirse are invited backstage to meet the band, who ply them with drinks, and Saoirse accompanies the singer to his van. After Saoirse wakes up, a shaken and bruised Breedie accuses Saoirse of abandoning her. Breedie does not come back to school, and eventually, Saoirse learns that Breedie has died by suicide.

Saoirse discovers that she is pregnant. Though she doesn’t remember having sex, she knows that the baby is the child of the singer from the band, who is implied to have drugged and assaulted her. Nana and Eileen are both furious with Saoirse, as Eileen’s pregnancy resulted in her getting kicked out of her childhood home. Eventually, after prodding from Paudie and Chris, both Eileen and Nana accept Saoirse’s pregnancy and begin to help her through the process.

Chris gets married to a woman named Doreen, whom Nana dislikes. When Saoirse is 17, she gives birth to a girl, whom she names Pearl. She forms a relationship with a local couple, Josh Elmwood and his girlfriend, Honey, who become Pearl’s godparents. While Josh goes to work in a local factory, Honey and Saoirse become close, going on long daily walks with Pearl.

Paudie is arrested again and returns to prison. Richard tells Eileen that their father is terminally ill and has left Eileen a valuable plot of land in his will. Richard tries to get Eileen to sign the land over to him, but she refuses. Paudie dies in prison before he can be released. At the funeral, a group of men in black berets and sunglasses carry the casket, shouting in Irish. Richard also attends to pressure Eileen into giving him the land. Honey admits to Saoirse that she needs a break from Josh, and she leaves unexpectedly, sending him into a deep depression. One day, Nana suffers a stroke, and to everyone’s surprise, Josh visits every day to help care for her. Nana encourages Saoirse to pursue Josh. Despite her reservations, Josh and Saoirse begin to date.

One day, at lunch, Doreen confronts Saoirse, telling her that she is a bad mother for leaving Pearl alone by a lake while she and Josh made love by the shore. When Saoirse becomes upset, Doreen apologizes, claiming that she feels lonely and neglected by Chris. She promises to never treat Saoirse like that again.

Eileen tries to visit her ill father but is rebuffed. A few days later, he passes away. Eileen insists on going to the funeral alone, and around a week later, Saoirse returns to find her uncle Richard choking Eileen on the kitchen floor. Josh tackles Richard, who flees from the house. He’d come with a contract he wanted to force Eileen to sign, relinquishing her rights to the land she inherited, and he attacked her when she refused.

One day, Doreen babysits Pearl, but when Saoirse returns to get her, she finds they left for a walk hours before and never returned. Chris, Eileen, and Saoirse search for Pearl, eventually finding her with Doreen by the edge of a deep pool of water. Chris retrieves Pearl, but Doreen throws herself into the water and drowns.

Now a widower, Chris sells the farm and moves into town, upsetting Nana greatly. Josh admits to Saoirse that he still talks to Honey on the phone a few times per week. At first, Saoirse feels diminished, but Josh reassures her that he still loves her. He also asks her to collaborate with him on his new novel: He wants Saoirse to write down her memories of her family, which he will transform into a book. She agrees and begins to take daily notes on her life.

It turns out that the purchaser of Chris’s farm was Richard, who now lives much closer to the four women. One day, Josh and Saoirse go shopping and run into a woman who mistakes Saoirse for Honey. Saoirse accuses Josh of still being in love with Honey, which Josh vociferously denies. They agree to spend a weekend together to work through their differences. When a tourist assaults Saoirse in public, Josh drags her away rather than protecting her, and Saoirse remembers a time when he defended Honey during a similar situation.

Eventually, Josh delivers his manuscript to Saoirse, titled The Queen of Dirt Island. Josh has written Eileen as a manipulator, Paudie as a traitor, and Saoirse’s father as an IRA terrorist. Josh has also twisted Saoirse’s recollection of her assault by the singer, Pearl’s father. Saoirse confronts Josh, and they have an explosive fight, which ends with Josh burning his manuscript on the stove. Josh walks Saoirse home, their relationship concluded.

Richard encounters bad luck with Chris’s farm, and Eileen, feeling sorry for him, decides to sell him her land to pay for Saoirse and Pearl’s future. Honey writes a letter to Saoirse, and despite what happened with Josh, Saoirse is happy to hear from her. Nana’s health declines, and one day, after a series of strokes, she dies in her sleep.

Years later, Pearl takes her exams and graduates from high school. In the years since Nana’s death, Saoirse wrote a novel, also called The Queen of Dirt Island, which was published to widespread acclaim. Pearl attends university to be a teacher. She decides to defer her second year to travel the world, worrying Eileen. In the final chapter, Eileen and Saoirse drive Pearl to the airport, where she’ll be taking a flight to New York to visit Josh and Honey, who have gotten back together and moved to America. As she leaves her home for the first time, Pearl feels her world expanding, and she feels joy.