Irish Journal consists of 18 short chapters, that are at most loosely connected and describe the author's experiences on Achill Island and in other parts of Ireland.
Most chapters of the book are based on individual articles ("Irish Impressions") that had been published from 1954 onwards in a German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
It prepares the reader for immersion into a different world, and touches on important recurring themes like religion, poverty and emigration, and cultures of drinking and caring.
For example, an emigrant woman who openly confesses that she no longer believes in God also makes clear that she would never dare not to go to church when she visits her family back in Ireland.
In the short foreword Böll explains the need of an epilogue, where he can address intermediate social and economic changes:[3] Unlike the original series of articles or indeed typical travelogues, Irish Journal lacks any chronological and geographical order, as Böll restructured the order of the original articles heavily for the book.
[9] Böll's contemporary German author Carl Zuckmayer found Irish Journal to be one of the "most beautiful and worthy books written in the last fifty years".
The most popular homage is Hugo Hamilton's Die redselige Insel – Irisches Tagebuch (The Island of Talking – Irish Journal) of 2007.
This book updates Böll's impressions and not only the title is intended to remind of the original Irish Journal; the iconic disclaimer is also demonstratively resembled: Dieses Irland gibt es.