The Deposition of Father McGreevy: Brian O'Doherty

The setting: a small Irish village in the middle of nowhere: a stark, dreadful winter in which all the younger women die, leaving their menfolk and children to battle on.  Their priest narrates much of the story.  He's an unlikeable, inflexible man.  He tells a tale of poverty and hardship, old-fashioned faith, superstition, suspicion.  There's the village idiot and sheepshagger. This is the story of the death of a village and a way of life, and of lives transformed and ruined in two dreadful years.

For all he's a nasty, small-minded old man, Father McGreevy is sympathetically portrayed.  The picture of small town life, spiteful and unforgiving, is eloquently drawn.  It's a chilling narrative, and an engrossing one