Irish literary tradition can be traced as far back as the fourth century with the recording of folklore tales on wood and stone carvings. The first of the four epic cycles of early Irish literature is the Mythological Cycle, also called the Cycle of the Gods, which explains the pagan pantheon that dominated pre-Christian Irish religion. This pantheon, the Tuatha Dé Danann, inhabited a realm called the Otherworld. It was also believed to house the dead since many of the island’s burial mounds were identified as spirit gateways, such as the Brú na Bóinne. Skippy Dies makes numerous references to traditional Irish folklore. For example, it points to English writer Robert Graves’s interpretation of Irish mythology, contained in his 1948 book The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth, to build ideas about desire and the mystical quality of the world.

Skippy Dies also resonates, however, with much later movements in Irish literature, most notably the Modernist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Best known for the novelist James Joyce, Irish Modernists embarked on experimental forms of writing, reacting in parallel to the wide social changes brought about by industrialization and the push for independence from the British Empire.