Boys of Tommen is one of those literary phenomena that has far outgrown the bookshop shelves. Created by Irish author Chloe Walsh, this romance series set in County Cork has won a huge international readership, particularly through BookTok. Its world is now taking on a new dimension with its television adaptation.
At the heart of the story are a fictional private school, Irish rugby, an invented small town in County Cork, and a generation of teenagers facing family and personal struggles far darker than their day-to-day lives at Tommen College might suggest.
Boys of Tommen began as a series of novels by Irish author Chloe Walsh, who is from Cork. The first book, Binding 13, introduces the world of Tommen College and the relationship between Shannon Lynch and Johnny Kavanagh.
The saga belongs to the contemporary romance and coming-of-age genres. But to describe it simply as teenage romance would be reductive. Throughout the novels, Chloe Walsh also explores family violence, bullying, trauma, friendship, loyalty, mental health and the pressure placed on young athletes destined for professional careers.
The books’ success grew considerably on social media, particularly on BookTok. The saga eventually reached international bestseller lists, becoming a phenomenon significant enough to be adapted for the screen.
The story begins with Shannon Lynch, a reserved teenager who arrives at Tommen College after a difficult time at school. Behind her quietness lies a deeply troubled family situation.
In contrast to this young girl, who above all wants to go unnoticed, is Johnny Kavanagh. The star of Tommen’s rugby team, popular and destined for a brilliant sporting future, Johnny seems to belong to an entirely different world. Yet he too hides his own vulnerabilities, including an injury that could jeopardise his professional ambitions.
Their meeting gives rise to an intense relationship around which an entire group of characters gradually takes shape. Tommen’s friends, brothers, sisters and classmates are not merely supporting roles: some go on to become the protagonists of subsequent novels.
This ensemble structure partly explains readers’ attachment to the saga. Boys of Tommen tells not so much a single love story as the story of a community of young characters whose paths intertwine.
Ireland is central to the identity of Boys of Tommen. The story is set mainly in Ballylaggin, County Cork.
There is no need to look for Ballylaggin on a map during a road trip, however: the town is fictional. The same is true of Tommen College, the private school attended by the main characters.
Chloe Walsh therefore uses an imagined territory rooted in a very real geography: that of southern Ireland and her native County Cork. This choice allows her to create her own microcosm while retaining a strongly defined Irish identity.
Rugby contributes greatly to this atmosphere. In Boys of Tommen, it is not simply a backdrop for a romance: the sport shapes the school’s social life, Johnny’s ambitions and some of the relationships between the characters. It is an especially fitting choice in the province of Munster, where rugby culture holds an important place.
The saga begins with Binding 13 and Keeping 13, which chiefly tell the story of Shannon Lynch and Johnny Kavanagh.
The literary universe extends much further, however. After this first couple, Chloe Walsh develops the story of Joey Lynch and Aoife Molloy in Saving 6 and Redeeming 6, before devoting further volumes to different Tommen characters.
This structure is one of the saga’s distinctive features: each book enriches the same group, explores characters already encountered in greater depth and develops the universe without starting from scratch.
Shannon Lynch and Johnny Kavanagh are at the heart of the first cycle. Around them are Joey Lynch, Aoife Molloy, Claire Biggs, Gerard Gibson, Lizzie Young, Hugh Biggs, Katie Wilmot and Patrick Feely.
The relationships between these characters are essential to the identity of Boys of Tommen. Friendships, rivalries, family stories, first loves and sometimes fragile loyalties make up much of the narrative tension.
Two things need to be distinguished here: where the story is set and the actual filming locations.
The world imagined by Chloe Walsh is clearly associated with County Cork. Ballylaggin and Tommen College nevertheless remain fictional creations. The adaptation was produced in Ireland with local production teams and services.
Available production information mentions Dublin among the locations used for filming. However, no comprehensive official list yet makes it possible to identify with certainty all the buildings, schools, rugby pitches or streets used to portray Ballylaggin and Tommen College.
It would therefore be misleading to present certain places in Cork as confirmed locations without a precise source. At this stage, the connection with Cork is above all one of the narrative world, the author and the saga’s cultural identity.
Beyond its romantic plot, Boys of Tommen also works because its Irish identity is not merely an exotic backdrop. Local references, the place of rugby, family dynamics, school, language and the County Cork setting genuinely shape the characters.
This grounding in an identifiable place contributes to readers’ attachment. Although Ballylaggin does not exist, the world it evokes points to a contemporary, rural and suburban Ireland far removed from tourist clichés of castles and cliffs.
The success of Boys of Tommen rests largely on its emotional intensity. Readers become attached to the couples, but also to the whole group, the families and the bonds built across several volumes.
The saga also tackles weighty subjects without leaving the romance genre: domestic violence, psychological trauma, bullying, sporting pressure, family loyalty and recovery. This combination explains why the books have prompted so much discussion, so many recommendations and such strong reactions on social media.
For readers keen to discover a very contemporary side of Irish popular culture, Boys of Tommen has now become an impossible phenomenon to ignore.
