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by Sally McKenna, John McKenna
This is an amazingly comprehensive resource for travel to Ireland. The authors have traveled extensively and actually tried the restaurants and hotels and ferreted out both popular tourist attractions and lesser known things to do.
After a general information section are chapters on different regions that give a lot of information on hotels, restaurants and things to see and do as well as any special festivals to watch out for. Dublin takes a lot of space, as you might expect, but I didn't expect to think of Dublin as a place where I would look for great Mexican food! Everything from a psychedelic van with Mexican street food to an Aztec restaurant can be found. Other ethnic restaurants are also separated by categories.
The sections that follow cover Belfast, Cork, Galway and then some of the less population dense areas in various parts of the country. After that, something new happens. I've never seen a book organised this way before but I can see how it works!
There's a section on specific types of restaurants you might look for, like vegetarian or tea rooms. Then a section on historical places to visit, followed by outdoor places and activities and strolls, walks and hikes. By the time you get to section 13, it's pointing out where to look for specific interests that travelers might have, like linen, crystal or Aran sweaters. Followed by information on what you'll find to do on the outer islands.
There's an extensive index and codes to finding things on the maps in the back of the book. Unfortunately the maps are not included in my advance readers copy so I can't comment on how easy they are to follow!
I can say, though, that I'll be referring to this book any time I plan a trip to Ireland. It really is a treasure trove of information!