Here are some other books for 2002 in which you might find of interest: 1. "Fair Melodies - Turlough CAROLAN: An Irish Harper, by Art Edelstein, Noble Stone Press, 711 Bayne Road, East Calais, VT 05650, USA. A large-format p.b. (with CD). The late Chieftain harper, Derek BELL, said, "The thing is that some of O'Carolan's pieces are so difficult for the harp it's hard to imagine that anyone would have conceived such music for the instrument had he not been a jolly good player himself." This book receive national attention in America when it featured on the NPR (National Public Radio) music program "The Thistle & Shamrock" last spring. The biography of the great blind Irish composer and harpist is accompanied by 21 examples of his music on CD, out of the 214 melodies that in all, are attributed to him. (The author has traced more that 100 recordings of Shi Beag, Shi More; it must surely be one of the most frequently recorded pieces of music). Art Edelstein paints a detailed picture of Ireland during the 1600s and 1700s and the harsh polit! ical and social circumstances that shaped Carolan's life and art. 2. "The Whiskeys of Ireland," by Peter Mulryan, The O'Brien Press. h/b. A Dublin bloke, one Richard STANIHURST, alchemist, no less to his Majesty Philip II of Spain sang its praises as follows: "Aqua vitae sloeth age. It strengtheneth youth, it helped digestion, it cutteth flegme. It abandoned melancholy, it relisheth The heart, it lighteneth the mind, It quickeneth the spirites. Truly It is a soveraigne liquor, If it be orderly taken." Peter Mulryan deals authoritatively with no less than 55 of our most popular brands of firewater. Lavishly illustrated with the author's photographs and a wide variety of well-chosen old illustrations and drawings. 3. "The Millennium Legacy," large-format p/b ed by Tom Rowley & Laurie Cearr, The National Millennium Committee, Dept. of the Taoiseach, Gov. Bldgs, Upper Merrion St., Dublin 2: This grand, large multicolored book tells the world how Ireland has welcomed a new era with a confident feeling of happy exhilaration laced with a little appropriate Hibernian foreboding. (All the proceeds of this book are being given to the charitable Society of Saint Vincent de Paul). It tells the story that in addition to thousands of private events from repainting a barn to visiting a grave in Cockatoo Island, 2,500 National Projects were carried out with the assistance of the National Committee. "We lit a candle in every household and planted a tree for every family. We built a boardwalk by the Liffey and we bought the site of the Battle of the Boyne for the nation. Seamus HEANEY was inspired to write, "A Dream of Newgrange" and the Cinemobile was put on the road with its capacity to br! ing a comfortable 100-seater cinema to small towns and country crossroads as required. We restored the facade of the Gaiety Theatre and built a plaza in front of it. We reintroduced the Golden Eagle to Donegal and built the Mullingar Millennium Gym and financed a youth group to build a two-seater airplane and learn to fly it, etc." This is the sort of happy piece of reading that would brighten up anyone's world, per review in "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine. 4. "The Politics and Relationships of Kathleen Lynn," by Marie Mulholland, The Woodfield Press, Inchicore, Dublin. p/b. Kathleen LYNN, a daughter of a Unionist family played an extremely active part in the emerging political life of the infant Irish state. She then set about establishing an independent voluntary hospital for sick children and in this she was eventually successful. She apparently had a life-long personal partnership with a nurse and political activist in social affairs, Madeleine FFRENCH-MULLEN. 5. "CODE," by Eavan BOLAND, Carcanet Press, Conovan Court, 12-16 Blackfriars St., Manchester M3 5BQ, England. p/b. "August. High summer in an Irish town. Tied sheaves and a sea haze near the ocean. A statue of the Virgin: a passerby at her shrine Who sees her move, who sees her step down: let the blaze begin." From "Hide This Place From Angels," a selection of short poems and one longer work from Ms. Eavan Boland, one of the many fine poets working in Ireland at the present time. This poem reflects on an extraordinary series of visions of moving statues which were reported in Ireland in the past decade The poet watches forest fires in the Wicklow mountains from her suburban home while all of this is passing through her mind. Per review, this is an elegant, disquieting little book.