The Bodhran (pronounced bough-rawn), makers of the title are "poverty stricken people who never lost their dignity." Every January, they celebrate their Celtic ancestry with a festival of singing, drinking, and music making with the Bodhran, a drum made from goat skin.

    From Morgan Llywelyn, bestselling author of Lion of Ireland and the Irish Century novels, comes the story of a magnificent, sixteenth-century heroine whose spirit and passion are the spirit and passion of Ireland itself.Grania (Gaelic for Grace) is no ordinary female. And she lives in extraordinary times. For even as Grania rises as her clan's unofficial head and breadwinner and learns to love a man, she enters a lifelong struggle against the English forces of Queen Elizabeth -- her nemesis and alter ego.Elizabeth intends to destroy Grania's piracy and shipping empire--and so subjugate Ireland once and for all. But Grania, aided by Tigernan, her faithful (and secretly adoring) lieutenant, has no choice but to fight back. The story of her life is the story of Ireland's fight for solidarity and survival--but it's also the story of Grania's growing ability to love and be strong at the same time.Morgan Llywelyn has written a rich, historically accurate, and passionate novel of divided Ireland -- and of one brave woman who is Ireland herself.

    Every cliff, inlet and headland reveals layers of myth and historical memory, and Robinson makes beautifully crafted observations about the habits of birds, plants and the humans who lived there and endured, leaving records in stone - on the walls, cairns and ancient forts - in story and in oral tradition.

    New Hibernia.

    

    As the most wide-ranging anthology available--spanning from the pre-Christian era to the present day, the poems are grouped in three sections. Kinsella's first selections are from the earliest pre-Christian times and move forward to the first poetry in English from the 14th century. Next comesIrish bardic poetry and English poetry in the era of Swift and Goldsmith. The final section brings us to the recent past and the present with 19th- and 20th-century poets from Davis, Mangan, Yeats, and Ferguson to Austin Clarke, Patrick Kavanagh, and Seamus Heaney.

    Edited by Paul Muldoon, himself widely regarded as the leading Irish poet of his generation, this anthology provides a fine introduction to the most consistently impressive Irish poets after Yeats.

    The name of the notorious outlaw was on everyone's lips -- and once Marguerite met him she knew why. His green eyes flashed defiance; his broad shoulders implied strength. Although an innocent, she longed to be swept up into his arms and crushed against his chest. Naive in the ways of love, somehow Marguerite knew that it would be Sheridan who would teach her to reach the heights of passion and understand the meaning of true rapture... AMERICAN BEAUTY Sheridan O'Roarke guarded his heart with all of his might -- his dangerous lifestyle left no room for the kind of sentimental attachment loving a woman would bring. But when he saw Marguerite he knew he was lost. Her beauty was unmatched; her charms clouded his judgment. Then one night he stole into her room just to satisfy his desire -- but one taste of her velvet lips was not enough. Once he caressed her silken skin and embraced her soft curves, he could not drink his fill. Like a man possessed, he vowed to make her his own, to lose himself in the depths of her Emerald Ecstasy.

    

    "Full of emotional truth and the beauty of immediate, trusting speech, overbrimming with folklore of great imaginative richness." Seamus Heaney. Edited with an Introduction by Brian Friel."

    Today, they live on the roadside in trailers and in government-built camps. Told largely in her own voice, Nan's saga begins in 1919 with her birth in a tent in the Irish Midlands; it follows her life in Ireland and England, in countryside and city slums, through adversity and adventure. Gmelch brings to her task not only the resources of anthropology, but the skill of a sensitive writer and a warmth that allows her to see Nan as a person, not a subject. What emerges is a human story, filled with cruelty and compassion, sorrow and humor, bad luck and good.

    Full-color guide • Make your trip to Ireland unforgettable with illustrated features, 46 maps, and color photos.Customize your trip with simple planning tools • Practical advice for getting around • Convenient overview of each region and its highlights • Easy-to-read color regional maps  Explore Dublin, County Cork, Connemara, and beyond Discerning Fodor’s Choice picks for hotels, restaurants, sights, and more • “Word of Mouth” tips from fellow Fodor’s travelers • Illustrated features on the spectacular Ring of Kerry, Dublin's famed pubs, and the new Irish cuisine • Great itineraries, best golf courses, top food markets  Opinions from destination experts • Fodor’s Ireland-based writers reveal their favorite local haunts • Revised annually to provide the latest information