The Old Trading Store - Joe O'Flaherty

The Old Trading Store is a sweeping Irish family saga set in the heart of mid-century rural Ireland. At its centre are Bill and Hanna Flanagan, whose lives are bound up in the fortunes of the family trading store and the turbulent move into bar ownership. As gossip, ambition, and betrayal ripple through Cody’s Cross, the Flanagans confront love, loss, and resilience in a world where everyone knows your secrets.

With bare-knuckle fights, horse trading, illicit after-hours drinking, and the ever-watchful Gardaí, this novel evokes the raw texture of Irish life. The restless figure of Jonsie—a boy torn between home, exile, and dreams of escape—adds urgency and poignancy to a tale that mirrors Ireland’s own struggles with identity and change.

For readers who loved Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, Patrick McCabe’s The Butcher Boy, or Edna O’Brien’s The Country Girls, this book delivers the same mix of humour, tragedy, and unforgettable Irish storytelling.