"The News from Ireland" is William Trevor's story about an English family, the Pulvertafts, who live on an Irish estate they have inherited. The story shows the disparity of the wealthy English and the poverty stricken Irish, which are starving in the midst of the Great Potato Famine.

As the story begins, the narrator relays the situation of Fogarty, the butler at the Pulvertaft estate, who serves along with his sister, Miss Fogarty, the household cook. Fogarty is thinking about the new governess, Anna Marie Heddoe, newly arrived from England. Fogarty's musings drift to thoughts of others who have also come here as strangers, namely the Celts, St. Patrick and the Vikings.

The current Pulvertaft family, themselves strangers to Ireland, arrived in 1839, eight years ago, when the last owner, Hugh Pulvertaft, died. The current Pulvertafts have assimilated into Irish life, but Fogarty wishes they had...