Try reading Paddy's Lament, by Thomas Gallagher (non-fiction) which was one 2nd generation, Irish-American man's quest to find out why everyone in his family hated the British with the white hot fury of a thousand suns.
And Leon Uris' Trinity, is a powerful piece of fiction about Ireland.
Thomas Flanagan has written three (that I'm aware of)historical novels of Ireland The Year of the French, The Tenants of Time, and The End of the Hunt, all of which are still on my 'need to read' list.