Brendan O’Carroll - The Mammy and The Chisellers

review by Ro Bennett on show 28th July
I’ll just explain a bit about what led me to read these books. Bear with me as you’ll see the relevance eventually - I hope... I watched Mrs Browne’s Boys which is a sitcom created by and starring Irish writer-performer Brendan O’Carroll who plays the title character Mrs. Browne in drag. It’s about an Irish family and I found the few episodes I watched very funny if a tad risqué and the language in places was rather earthy. The sitcom is loosely based on the family Brendan O’Carroll wrote about in the books The Mammy and The Chisellers which were published in 1994 and 1995 respectively. The books are based in the 60’s while the tv series is present time. The cast is, for the most part Irish and a large majority of the main cast is played by O'Carroll's family. For example, Cathy Brown is played by his wife, Winnie McGoogan by his sister, Maria Nicholson by his daughter, Buster Brady by his son and Betty Brown by his daughter-in-law. Apparently it was also a daily radio soap at one time and Brendan O’Carroll is described as Ireland’s funniest and most outrageous comedian.



Marlene got the books, enjoyed them very much and passed them on to me.
My first impression was that I didn’t like the book covers but I noticed on Amazon that they are now different and instead of rather hideous comic type sketches, they are now photos from the 60’s which I personally prefer.


From the back of the book The Mammy: It’s 1967 and in the teeming streets of Jarro, home of Dublin’s dealers and dockers, Agnes Browne struggles to raise seven children, the only legacy of her dead husband, ‘Redser’. With her best pal Marion and an assortment of characters as colourful as the fruit on her Moore Street stall, she copes with propositions, puberty and the problem with Sr. Mary Magdalen. And when she has time she dances with Cliff Richard.
I loved the book, it was quick and easy to read, hilarious in parts but also poignant and sad, with glorious, colourful characters.


The Chisellers is the second book, Chisellers means children which I didn’t know.
From the back of the book:
This takes place three years after Redser’s death and Agnes Browne soldiers on, being mother, father and referee to her fighting family of seven. Helped out financially by her eldest and hormonally by the amorous Pierre, Agnes copes with family tragedy, success and the move from Jarro to the ‘wilds of the country’ - suburban Finglas when the Dublin Corporation decides to re-house them as part of their Inner City Renewal Plan to demolish the tenements.
And when the family’s dreams are threatened by an unscrupulous gangster he learns a costly lesson - don’t mess with the children of Agnes Browne.
I enjoyed this book as much as the first one - it’s described as ‘a heroic, comic saga brimming over with the raw humour of the Dublin Streets.’ There’s more pain in this book, it introduced a more tragic element, but it still made me laugh out loud in places.
One reviewer sums the books up: Excellent read. Best of good old fashioned Irish humour. Great read for your holidays, or in hospital as it gives you lots of laughter.
Another wrote: This author captures the true spirit of family life as they go through the happy and sad times as they all grow up.It was a wonderful read and I have now read all of Brendan’s books all I can ask is that through you, you contact him and tell him to get off his fat lazy arse and write some more.
I haven’t read the third book, ‘The Granny’ yet, but I have ordered it.