''The Miseducation of Ross O'Carroll-Kelly: The Diary of a Schools Rugby Player'' is a 2000 novel by Irish journalist and author Paul Howard, and the first in the best-selling

Ross O'Carroll-Kelly Ross O'Carroll-Kelly is a satirical fictional Irish character, a wealthy South County Dublin rugby union jock created by journalist Paul Howard. The character first appeared in a January 1998 column in the ''Sunday Tribune'' newspaper and late ...

series. It was adapted from a series of columns by Howard in the ''

Sunday Tribune The ''Sunday Tribune'' was an Irish Sunday broadsheet newspaper published by Tribune Newspapers plc. It was edited in its final years by Nóirín Hegarty, who changed both the tone and the physical format of the newspaper from broadsheet to ta ...

''. The title refers to the

Lauryn Hill Lauryn Noelle Hill (born May 26, 1975) is an American musician. She is celebrated as one of the most influential musical artists of her generation. Hill is credited with breaking barriers for female rappers, contributing to the popular music, m ...

album ''

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill ''The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'' is the debut solo studio album by American rapper and singer Lauryn Hill. It was released on August 19, 1998, by Ruffhouse Records and Columbia Records. Recorded after the Fugees embarked on a hiatus, the a ...

'', which refers in turn to Carter G. Woodson's book ''

The Mis-Education of the Negro ''The Mis-Education of the Negro'' is a book originally published in 1933 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Content The thesis of Woodson's book is that Black people of his day were being culturally indoctrinated, rather than taught, in American school ...

''.

Background

The novel has many allusions to ''

American Psycho ''American Psycho'' is a black comedy horror novel by American writer Bret Easton Ellis, published in 1991. The story is told in the First-person narrative, first-person by Patrick Bateman, a wealthy, narcissistic, and vain Manhattan investmen ...

'' by

Bret Easton Ellis Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is an American author and screenwriter. Ellis was one of the literary Brat Pack (literary), Brat Pack and is a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark technique as a writer is the expression of extreme acts ...

, from the many prolonged descriptions of the clothes worn by the characters to specific scenes such as Ross dispensing advice on the appropriate type of shoe to wear with chinos, which is taken almost word-for-word from a similar passage in Ellis's work. Several details were altered from the newspaper column; in the newspaper, Simon was the captain of the rugby team and lifted the trophy with the words "For Mom! For Dad! For Rock! For God!" — in the novel, Ross is captain. Howard observed that "in the early days I was trying to make the character f Rossas hateful as possible."

Plot

Ross O'Carroll-Kelly attends Castlerock College (a portmanteau of

Castleknock College Castleknock College () is a voluntary Vincentian secondary school for boys, situated in the residential suburb of Castleknock, west of Dublin city centre, Ireland. Founded in 1835 by Philip Dowley, it is one of the oldest boys' schools in ...

and

Blackrock College Blackrock College () is a voluntary day and boarding Catholic secondary school for boys aged 13–18, in Williamstown, Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland. It was founded by French missionary Jules Leman in 1860 as a school and later became al ...

), a prestigious

South Dublin South Dublin () is a county in Ireland, within the province of Leinster and the Eastern and Midland Region. It is one of three successor counties to County Dublin, which was disestablished for administrative purposes in 1994. South Dublin Cou ...

private secondary school, where academe takes a back seat to

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

. He aims to lead the school to the

Leinster Schools Rugby Senior Cup The Leinster Schools Senior Challenge Cup is the premier rugby union competition for secondary schools affiliated to the Leinster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), and was first held in 1887. Attendances are high for a schoolboy ...

Release

Howard self-published the novel after several rejections, printing 5,000 copies and driving around Dublin selling copies to shops himself. It was launched at

Blackrock College RFC Blackrock College Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club located in Blackrock, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The club was founded in 1882 by former pupils of Blackrock College. Their senior team currently plays in 2024–25 All-Irela ...

, where some members complained about the release of an "anti-rugby" book.

''The Miseducation Years''

In 2004, a revised and expanded edition, titled ''The Miseducation Years'', was published.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miseducation Of Ross O'carroll-Kelly 2000 Irish novels 2004 Irish novels Works originally published in Irish newspapers Ross O'Carroll-Kelly Self-published books Fiction set in 1998 Fiction set in 1999