Long before Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly made most readers' acquaintance in the novel An Irish Country Doctor, he appeared in some 70 humorous columns originally published in Stitches: The Journal of Medical Humour. These warm and wryly amusing vignettes by real-life Irish doctor Patrick Taylor provide an early glimpse at the redoubtable Dr. O'Reilly as he tends to the colorful and eccentric residents of Ballybucklebo, a cozy Ulster village nestled in the bygone years of the early 1960s, whether he's educating a naive man of the cloth in the facts of life, dealing with chronic hypochondriacs and malingerers, clashing with pigheaded colleagues, or raising a pint in the neighborhood pub.

"These gently humorous stories not only introduced the 'irascible, blasphemous, hard-drinking, rural Ulster GP' but also served as the springboard for the ongoing novelization of the village of Ballybucklebo in all its irresistibly eccentric glory. Though brief, each individual story contains a wealth of warmth, wit, and wile. Readers unfamiliar with the good doctor's personal antics and medical adventures will be delighted to make his acquaintance, and old friends will settle in for a comfortable visit."—Booklist