SNIPPET: Some interesting-sounding 2006 books for background to research:: 1. "Life On A Famine Ship: A Journal of the Irish Famine 1845-1850," by Duncan CROSBIE (Gill & Macmillan), h/b. Per review, "Mr. Crosbie was assisted by a large team in the (charming) design, illustration and paper engineering of this interesting book designed especially to explain the Irish Famine and the subsequent migration out of Ireland, particularly to America. Fact filled, but crafted specifically to hold the interest of a child, this should be a popular present." 2. "Railway Encounters," by Peter McNIFF, 36 La Touche Park, Greystones, Co. Wicklow), p/b. "A careful account of that magical stretch of railway line connecting Dublin and Wicklow embracing the contributions of world-renowned engineers VIGNOLES, BRUNEL and DARGAN and a variety of local personalities. The author centres the account on the town of Greystones and his photographs are reproduced so as to create a most attractive sense of the past - just right for a railway!: 3. "Serving A City, The Story of Cork's English Market," by Donal and Diarmuid O DRISCEOIL (Collins Press), h/b. Per review, "The authors researched Cork Corporation's Minute books, newspapers, valuation and insurance maps, trade directories and literary archives and they persuaded people to trawl back through their personal and family memories to assemble the material for this sumptuous book about a market which has operated on the same site since 1788, the year the fleet established a first settlement in Australia. The French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the Act of Union between Britain and Ireland and the election of U.S. President George Washington were all still to come -- but not too far in the future. And it's still going strong, selling all you would expect in a well-appointed European city market - as well as drisheen, tripe, bodice (part of the ubiquitous pig), spiced beef, buttered eggs and battleboard (a dried, salted, large type of cod or ling). A totally irresistible book." 4. "Conversations, Glimpses of Modern Irish Life," by Darragh MacINTYRE, (Gill & Macmillan), h/b. "A Moore Street fishmonger, Miss Ireland, a jazz musician, a wheelchair-bound serving garda, an estate agent, a divorce adviser, a former addict, a publisher are amongst the fifty or so people whose interviews are included in this book. Those contributing are drawn from all over the country and between them, they shed an intriguing light on Ireland in the present day...." 5. "Lady Gregory, An Irish Life," by Judith HILL (Sutton Publishing), h/b. "Isabella Augusta, LADY GREGORY by marriage, was the little regarded middle daughter of 13 PERSSEs. - and her father had three older children by his first wife. She was indeed a product of her time and her social circumstances, but she asserted herself against both these forces so as to encourage, support and invent new developments in the artistic and cultural life of her country. She is the only one of that large family to achieve anything of note and her achievements were outstanding. She led and supported the Abbey Theatre, supplied it with successful plays, championed and sustained the poet W. B. YEATS, pioneered the collection of local folklore and supported the idea of an Irish national gallery. A good account of her life with interesting illustrations." 6.. "Killarney, History and Heritage," ed. Jim LARNER (Collins Press), h/b. "This lavish, illustrated book traces the story of Killarney through a series of specially commissioned esays dealing with its prehistoric and early monastic settlements, Gaelic lords and treasured legends, the BROWNE, HERBERT and BOURNE VINCENT families, the native poets and the wave of visiting romantic poets, the painters and urban designers, the military and police and the place of the town and surroundings in the history of cinema and the graphic arts. And, of course, the long history of Killarney as part of Irish and world tourism has an essay entirely to itself. And then there are the personalities - the author of "The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen," one Rudolph RASPE is buried in Killarney, Monsignor Hugh O'FLAHERTY, the hero of the film "The Scarlet and the Black" is commemorated there by a grove of trees. Dr. Hans LIEBHERR, whose enterprises reinforced Killarney's economic life substantially, has a road named after him."