Fifty Shades of Ireland

The beautiful island of Ireland has endured a history that is pock-marked with struggle and oppression, with religious division and self-serving administrations. It has sacrificed its youth in wars, its generations in famines and emigration. But it has never forsaken its calling that Ireland is a beacon for dignity, for humanity and a home for words and literature of every description. Across the centuries, whatever its joys and torments, its poets have assembled verse that speaks to its soul. These fifty poems can never be a complete package of Ireland; they give glimpses, aspects and thoughtful views and opinions of a nation that is proud, free and gloried with a history that few others can carry, that few others possess. From Katherine Tynan, Francis Ledwidge, Isabella Valancy Crawford and Thomas Moore to James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and W B Yeats, this roll-call of wordsmiths speaks of Ireland and for Ireland.