Know your 'boreen' from your 'buroo', and your 'cloch?n' from your 'clock'.

While it would be impossible to capture all the variety and richness of language of the country where just about everyone has the 'gift of the gab' and where that gift can be acquired or renewed simply by kissing the Blarney Stone, this charming book provides an excellent introduction.

In Ireland, where nearly everyone is expert in the verbal arts, language is a very live, constantly changing phenomenon, more so than perhaps anywhere else. Not only is there the genius of individual invention to add variety, but also the legacy of the traditional occupations: the fishermen, shipbuilders, weavers, hill farmers and cattle rearers; the influence of the original language of the various settlers who have been transferred violently or peacefully to Ireland - the Scots, the West Country people, English Midlanders and returning lrish exiles from North America, Australia and elsewhere; and, of course, the Irish language, Gaelic, itself. Each period of Irish history has also generated new words or new meanings for old words, and 'the Troubles' proved no exception.

Know your 'banshees' from your 'bodhrans' and your 'boxty' from your 'champ'.