Round Ireland with a Fridge


Round Ireland with a Fridge is a book by Tony Hawks, first published in the UK in 1998, shortly before Pete McCarthy's best seller, McCarthy's Bar. It sold over half a million copies.
The book is loosely based on a journey made by Hawks in 1997, when he hitchhiked around Ireland while re-evaluating his life and career. He made the trip as a result of a £100 bet with a friend, after he had seen a man in Ireland hitchhiking with a refrigerator.
Publishers Weekly called the book "a bad parody of Dave Barry's travel books" but added that "In the end, Hawks's book becomes a lively celebration of contemporary Irish society and the goodwill of its people that neither revels in irony nor descends into mawkishness.

Film version

A film based on the book, directed by Ed Bye and starring Ed Byrne, Josie Lawrence, Sean Hughes and Sara Crowe, was released in 2010. It was shown at the Cambridge Film Festival, to mixed reviews, and then released on DVD.