The Art of the “Good Step” in Colm Tóibín’s Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border (1987)

Abstract

In the summer of 1986, Colm Tóibín set off on a walk along the Irish Border. From the outset, choosing to walk along the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland implied a political perspective. In 1986 the “Northern Ireland peace process” was still not on the agenda and the choice of the Border as a walking space was therefore a highly symbolic one, but its mapping was unsettled and uncertain. While exploring Tóibín’s narrative and topographic detours, I will also examine how well Tim Robinson’s definition of “a good step” applies to Tóibín’s enterprise, as every step “carries [him] across geologies, biologies, myths, histories, politics, and trips [him] with the trailing Rosa spinosissima of personal associations” (Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage, 1986, 20).