Journey Through Ireland, by Terence Sheehy (Hamlyn, £5.95).
IN Journey Through Ireland Terence Sheehy explores the countryside and its heritage. This beautiful volume, lavishly illustrated, is published by Hamlyn at the very reasonable price of £5.95. It is an enticing hook, it is not the usual guide book which is produced more as a kind of reference book. This book is geared to entice visitors to come to Ireland for the first time, but it will also be treasured by those who have already fallen. in love with Ireland and like to walk down memory lane in company with the excellent colour photography and easily read commentary.
Since this book is neither a guide book nor a definitive historical/geographical account it devotes only a little space to most locations and the reader can have fun criticising the omissions that limitations of space have forced upon the author. For example, one paragraph is devoted to Doneraile Court, Co Cork, but no mention is made of the fact that it was here that the only woman was ever admitted to the order of Free Masons. Abbeyleix boasts a beautiful old pub, Morrisey's, but then there are so many around the country that Terence Sheehy would need to have had over 500 pages instead of just over 100.
The book succeeds admirably in what it sets out to do, to inveigle you to cross the Irish Sea for your next holiday.
Jonathan Kemp