This is the first reference work to provide the general reader, as well as the specialist, with direct and easy access to the English language as it has been used in Irish literature. Quotations from writers ranging from AE to Zozimus, including Nobel laureates Yeats, Shaw, Beckett, andHeaney, are used to illustrate vocabulary and idioms. From archaeology ("crannog") to zoology ("graunogue"), almost every aspect of Ireland and Irish life over the past 400 years is reflected in this volume.