Nathaniel Harris is the author of numerous history and art books including The Easter Rising. He returns once again to the subject of Ireland in this lavishly illustrated authoritative text that vividly depicts not only the topography of this Atlantic island of mist and myth, but also its history and culture through the ages.

The Oxford educated Harris lives with his wife and son in Worcester, England.

Harris explains how Ireland's climate and culture have combined to create the distinctive Irish identity. From the island's past which includes Early Stone Age settlements to the coming of Christianity, and through numerous invasions and rebellions one sees the mold that has shaped contemporary Irish life. In the book's 224 pages, Harris examines the Celtic world, the age of monasticism, the Irish at war, the Ascendancy, Home Rule, the Easter Rising and partition, the life of the Traveller, farming, industry, sport and music. Readers will also learn about Irish art, the place of the church in Irish life, Georgian Dublin, the Big House, castles and strongholds, the Literary Revival, and James Joyce.

A chapter devoted to myth and magic explains the life and death of Cuchulainn from the cattle Raid of Cooley, one of the best known stories from the Ulster Cycle. Shown is the bronze statue of the mythic hero which now stands in the General Post Office in Dublin's O'Connell Street.

In Dublin's Fair City, the reader may enjoy a vicarious tour through the Georgian City with stops at Royal Kilmainham, now an art gallery; the library at Trinity College, home of the Book of Kells and which, along with the British library, receives a copy of every book published in the British Isles; and the James Gandon designed Custom House and Four Courts.

Celtic and Christian art in the form of incised stones, beehive huts, high crosses, chalices, torcs, brooches, and illuminated manuscripts fill the pages and provide insight into Ireland's cultural past and the unbroken continuity that extends to the present day.

Heritage of Ireland is skillfully written; Ireland is brought vividly to life on every page of this fascinating volume and is sure to make you want to hop on the next plane to Dublin to see for yourself.

Reviewed by Suzanne Barrett

Nathaniel Harris' Heritage Of Ireland celebrates Irish life and history, providing a lively review of the peoples and geography which have formed the Irish peoples. Vintage illustrations and modern photos accompany a fine colorful review.

When a tall, handsome customer mangles a machine at her copying business, single mom Kelly Sumners is too busy ogling him to be irritated. But five minutes later she's really freaked out when the same man unfixably mangles her car in a parking-lot fender bender.

As Riley helps Kelly from her car, a sudden overwhelming premonition convinces him that Kelly is "The One." But, far from thrilled, the dogged bachelor is determined to avoid his fate at all costs. He begins by showering Kelly with expensive gifts as payback for causing the accident, but Kelly keeps refusing them all. Though it gets harder all the time. Not just because of the costliness of the gifts, but because they are so amazingly appropriate to the needs of her and her children.

The book has a strong beginning, and it doesn't let up. Each new encounter between the hero and heroine sets up a zany new adventure as they negotiate Kelly's conflicted feelings about Riley's latest attempts to help her out. The hero and heroine are both well motivated, and their attraction to each other is strong and very believable. The heroine's kids are cute (but not annoyingly so), and the emotional intensity and sexual tension are very high. All in all, a fun sexy read!

Divorced Kellie Summers receives the frantic call from the All Day All Play day camp to pick up her son Trevor who was gambling and possessed a knife. Kellie leaves her struggling new business Copycat to pick Trevor and his twin sister up, but instead ends up in a fender bender with a hunk of a BMW, Riley Lombard III. He makes sure Kellie is okay, but has a flash of he and she marrying.

He knows he must avoid this woman at all costs because he cannot deal with any personal emotions as he is still struggling with the deaths of his spouse and daughter. However, his efforts to escape seem doomed as fate seems to propel Kellie and Riley together. His new ploy is to find her someone else, but he soon finds himself in love with a woman who reciprocates his even though she wanted nothing to do with the other sex after the impulsive gambler of a first husband.

HUSBAND MATERIAL is an amusing contemporary romance that uses misunderstandings to foster the plot. The story line is often humorous, but the problem of gambling addiction is a serious subject that is treated too lightly. Kellie and Riley are strong individuals struggling with their respective pasts and the pressure of a combined future. Her two kids are a delight especially Trevor the Terrible. Liz Ireland has written a funny relationship tale starring two walking wounded.

Harriet Klausner

I am researching a PhD dissertation on the British security forces in the Irish insurgency of 1920-21, and of the dozens of books and articles I've read on this subject, Peter Hart's _The IRA and its Enemies_ is unquestionably the finest. Hart's research is incredibly thorough: when I was in Dublin last summer, archivists remembered him and spoke admiringly of his industry. His history of County Cork in the revolutionary period combines two approaches: a social history of a single county, of the sort pioneered by his dissertation supervisor, David Fitzpatrick; and microhistories of individuals, families, and incidents that bring this conflict vividly to life. His first chapter is gripping: by describing the string of murders that began with the shooting of a police sergeant, Hart teaches the reader more about the nature of guerrilla warfare in Ireland than other authors have conveyed in entire books. His book has only one weakness--it has much more to say about the IRA than its enemies. Lucky for me: if Hart had decided to cover the British security forces in the same detail as the Republican insurgents, I would have had to find a new dissertation topic.

If you enjoy this book, you may also want to read David Fitzpatrick's _Politics and Irish Life 1913-1921 : Provincial Experiences of War and Revolution_, Michael Farry's _The Aftermath of Revolution : Sligo 1921-23_, and Marie Coleman's forthcoming _County Longford and the Irish Revolution 1910-1923_. Each of these books, like Hart's, examines the impact of the Irish revolution on a single county (Clare, Sligo, and Longford).

'The lads on the hill' was how the local IRA battalion was known in my home area, and the affectionate terms 'the lads' or 'the boys' seems to have been prevalent throughout Ireland for the young guerillas who opposed British Rule in the period 1919-21, and the Irish Free State in 1922-23. This will become the classic work on how the mythos of 'the boys' was built, and as it explains the myth, it also (of course) destroys it. Hart shows it was the communal bonds of extended families, neighbours and parishes that sustained the IRA when repression forced many to leave to leave the movement in the 1918-19 period. The riots and repression by the RIC also gave these men the steel to begin killing 'outgroups' - at first the RIC, then the British Army, later Protestants, 'spies' and 'informers', many innocent. Hart's prose brings home the moral wasteland of many of the guerilla's activities. On both sides IRA and their opponents, Auxiliary policemen and 'Black and Tans' killed without hesitiation or discrimination. Hart could have explained more, I believe, the contradiction between a 'national' struggle, and the small community versus metropolitan air of much of the IRA men's statements at the time. Certainly, the bonds of community were unable to prevent the total victory of the Free State in the Civil War. If anything, this should destroy the smug republican propaganda of 'the IRA were never defeated'. For one thing, the Free State were even an even more implacable foe than the British State, and the ex-servicemen and former labourers who made up the Free State's army (around a core of ex-IRA men)were much more effectively led in a political sense. So the small 'parish republics' of Cork went down before the centralising state. Hart's book is of immense value to those who are interested in Irish history and nationalism generally, but also to the military historian who studies guerilla warfare and why men fight. Highly recommended.

I heard him read some of his poems tonight and they are absolutely amazing!! I bought the book and absolutely love it!!

I never thought that I would fine a book like this! It was absolutely amazing because it was written so well. It helped me a great deal in finding out about Celtic traditions, folklore, and many other things! If you are at all interested in Celtic folklore and would like a book that's easy to read and understand, this is the book for you! I promise, you won't be disappointed! Happy reading!

Declan Kiberd's is one of the few historioes of contemporary Irish literature which manages to do justice to the literature in Irish language, too. It is also a fascinating view on the development of the modern Irish nationalism and ideology. It is also brilliantly written. I have found it a treasure trove, also because it offers valuable analogies for a student of my own country's history. I sincerely hope you buy it, and read it, and re-read it. It is worth ten times what you pay for it.

This book offered me a lot on first reading, and even more upon re-reading. I'm sure I'll be going back again, as his ideas about not only Anglo-Irish literature, but the uses of history in constructing a present identity for Ireland really impressed me a great deal.

My absolute favorite quote of 1998 appears on p. 293 "...History thereby becomes a form of science fiction: in order to get a fair hearing in a conservative society, the exponents of revolution had to present their intentions under the guise of a return to the idealized past..." If you're as confused as this Irish American was about how to make sense of the disparate Irish histories - you need this book!

I just read this with my son. We are visiting Ireland later this year. This book is terrific. Well-written and so easy to follow and understand! Impressive and appropriate photos. I borrowed my copy of the book from the library (based on a previous Amazon review) and bought a different book. Wish I had bought this one!!!

Brendan January's True Book about Ireland is an illustrated guide to the history, geography and culture of the Emerald Isle. January tells of the country's history, from ancient times through the Golden Age of Celtic civilization to the beginning of "the Troubles" between Protestants and Catholics. At one point January explains how the Irish flag represents the Catholics (green) and Protestants (orange) separated by a white stripe that represents the hope for peace. This book also includes pages of The Book of Kells and the Irish Potato Famine, as well as a list of books, organizations and online sites from which young students can find out more about Ireland. Students learning about different countries of the world will find this little book to be very information and provide all the basics teachers would like them to learn. The color photographs seem to prove the claim that there are forty different shades of green to be found in the Irish countryside.

From what I understand, the inspiration for this book came out of Leon Uris' research for the novel, "Trinity".

It's a pity that this book is out of print. It is an excellent photographic journal -- Jill did the photography, and Leon wrote the narrative. It gives a very real portrait of Ireland, and how this moment in history has arrived. You will not find these pictures in any travel brochure -- they are quite remarkable.

sensitive portrayal with outstanding photographs of all classes of Irish people

I purchased this book while on a trip to Ireland. I was looking for a book that captured the beauty of the landscape that I had seen. This book does that ~ and much, much more. The photographs in the book are so beautiful that it's hard to believe that they are real. The colors and images are deep in color and rich with detail.

This coffee-table book covering Ireland scenes from the air will make an excellent conversation piece or addition to the home of any with a prior affection for the country. Aerial views provide spectacular geographic insight on the land's various changes and will appeal to any with a fascination for Ireland.

This book does a great job explaining the complicated modern history of Ireland. No one side is made the hero, nor is one side made the villian. This is a rare un-biased history of Ireland and features not only great photo's but outstanding writing.

Unlike many of its predecessors, The Irish Century does not portray Ireland as an embattled war zone wrought in a conflict that has devoured its culture. Instead, through wonderful photographs, Michael MacCarthy Morrogh and Neil Jordan have brought to the surface a true vision of Ireland and the Irish. Through photos, the everyday life of the Irish has been beautifully preserved. This life, although at times characterized by poverty, tyranny, and war, nonetheless was filled with joy and hope. The sharp juxtaposition of an beautiful Irish wedding and the Eater Rebellion of 1916 speaks to this varried life of this, The Irish Century.

Reading this book recently allowed me to discover a worthy successor to Flora Thompson's "Lark Rise to Candleford". Which to my mind stands as the classic textured literary time machine, that allows the reader to taste, touch, hear & smell a bygone era in full measure. Marrie Walsh has created a minor masterpiece with her (first?) book. Not only will those devotees of the country life memoirs find similarities with Thompson, but also touches of Miss Read as well as WB Yeats and Thomas Hardy here. The bitter as well as the sweet with a magical touch of folklife for good measure. Highly recommended. And may we see many more works from Ms Walsh's pen.

This is a marvelous little book recounting a childhood in Ireland. It is eminently readable and will transport you to a simpler world for a few hours.