''Emerald Germs of Ireland'' (2001) is a

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

novel by Irish writer Patrick McCabe. Each chapter is begun with an Irish

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

Plot summary

The book focuses on the life of Gullytown homeboy Pat McNab, the village idiot. The alternately adoring and criticizing attention by his mother, Maimie and the total abusiveness of his father finally send him over the edge. He responds by ridding Ireland of "germs," however, in this case, the "germs" are people. He kills both his father and mother, his neighbors and local visitors to the village. His list includes four-legged "germs" as he kills several donkeys. He then digs his mother up from her grave after the removal of each succeeding "germ". The title "Emerald Germs of Ireland" is similar to Patrick McCabe's '' The Butcher Boy'' which often brings up a music book titled "Emerald Gems of Ireland".

References

2001 Irish novels Novels by Patrick McCabe (novelist) Picador (imprint) books Novels set in Ireland {{2000s-comedy-novel-stub