The novel---THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE--- is a fiction of an impressionistic nature derived from the composite life experiences outlined. The novel tells the story of a teacher Dr Quinn who is sectioned in a psychiatric clinic and is told he is schizophrenic. The novel relates his struggle to discover his true self, his true identity as an Irish man and in the struggle he creates The National Government of Ireland Act as the solution to the Irish problem. He gives the Act to Dr Kane to read but the doctor dismisses it as unreadable rubbish. He is then given an injection by force and is turned out of the clinic to live in a dirty dump of a flat. The novel deals with reality, delusion, the imagination, identity and the solution to the Irish problem. The author's concise solution to the Irish problem is at present being published in the Irish political journal---The Blanket---and can be found on the Internet. The author is in his sixties and has been married. He has a family of four and three grandchildren. He is now divorced. He lives in Derry where he has many friends and enjoys the close support of his three sisters. His interests are writing, reading, gardening, interior design, charity work and a daily work out in the local gym. He intends to write two further novels, one titled The Rape of the Virgin, which has to do with good and evil in a rural parish in Ireland and another titled Size Matters, which will deal with communal bigotry in Ireland. Chidi Lynn typed the novel on to disk and Tony Doyle, an art student at the N.W. Institute of Further and Higher Education in Derry, created the design for the cover. Michael Gillespie B.Ed B.Sc (Econ) Dip.Ed D.A.S.E. M.A. ( Ed)