This is an updated and revised paperback edition of the successful Sinclair-Stevenson book of 1997. It also includes additional brief interviews with such people as Maeve Binchy, John Banville, Dr Tony O'Reilly, Pauline McLynn, Andrea Corr, and Lord Longford, on being Irish and Catholic. It is a highly readable book, strongly - though in general fairly - flavoured by the author's wellknown sympathies. An example might be her comment on the Mother and Child saga, that "whenever the Church exceeded her power, it was because the politicians were themselves unreservedly deferential to the Church and jumped when the bishops said so". Her comment that in her experience "in the Dublin media, it is a distinct disadvantage if you are known to be an observant Catholic; it is even considered risible and absurd", bears reflection.
