Culture Shock! Ireland

an excellent resource for planning a trip to Ireland or just learning more about Ireland!

It was delivered fast and it was brand new. I loved it!

The team of Sheehan & Levy gets around plenty, judging from their publications on an array of travel and other topics. Their experience, in this revision of a 2000 guidebook, makes for an efficient, straightforward, and perhaps more honest account for travelers confident enough to veer of well-trodden paths, but not so spartan as those in a Rough Guide or as quirky as Lonely Planet might cater to. After all, to boot, this is Ireland, and any sense that a visitor today will be far off from civilization or deprived of comforts is ridiculous, no matter how besotten with sylvan stereotypes a tourist might be. I tested its usefulness by sampling two areas I know well, Galway city and O'Connell St, Dublin, to see what Sheehan & Levy found that other guidebooks might miss. For Galway city's bookstores, Kennys is mentioned (although it will close its historic High St store in 2006, by the way) but not the secondhand seller on the next street over Charley Byrne's. McDonagh's bustling chip shop might be hard to find, as it's listed here without the "Mc." But the map of the city centre is well drawn, and avoids the common problem other guidebooks invite by keeping the heart of the touristed areas out of the "gutter" of the spine. Lots of eateries & sleeperies are cross-listed on both the map and the following text; this book gives slightly less attention to sights and more to practicalities of food, bed, and fun pubs than its competitors. For Dublin, it's the only guide I've perused that mentions, for instance, the Royal Dublin Hotel on O'Connell St. Its handsome map of this area is placed within the text itself, again cross-referenced with the surrounding practicalities. Arrows at the start of paragraphs on sights refer you to local DART stops, tell you how far the place is from the train, or send you to another page for additional information. This attention to linking the various aspects of the guidebook together shows the care that's gone into this edition. The general maps at the back lack the numbers for secondary roads, and so are not useful when on the road wondering where the turn is, but maps within the text offer more detail when needed. While the book's two-shade print appears sober, and you do not get the plethora of photos other guides give, the space saved is better spent on hard facts, with sidebars filling you in on certain local legends and contexts when appropriate. The details on where to stay and eat and shop are kept at the back of a section, apart from the sights and maps, but this is common to most guidebooks, allowing you to read about the whole area first and then figure out later where to stop. It is a bit tricky to find your way back and forth within the pages due to the reliance on only two colors, but the marginal colors for different regions/counties on the page edges mitigate this. Culture and history chapters append the book, in short essays, and the books recommended are up-to-date and varied in their approache

If you think of green beer, shamrocks and leprechauns when someone says "Ireland" then this is a book for you. Different from a travel guide, this book will help a new Eire inductee gain insight to Ireland and the Irish people themselves whether you are there for vacation, business trip or school. Especially good is the section about Irish history, the people involved in the making of that history and the important player's in making peace in Northern Ireland. Having said that, this book is badly in need of an update since it stops just after the 1998 Peace Agreement was reached. It also helps you to understand where each side is coming from and how not to make conversation faux pas when discussing the often sensitive issue of The Troubles.The book is great for an overall feel of Ireland's culture but it's not for those who have had much exposure already. Having gone on several trips to Ireland and knowing many native Irish individuals personaly, I found much of the book to be too basic. However I still was still entertained and learned bit more about the Irish in general. I wish I had read it before my first trip; it would have helped me to understand and appreciate the island more at that time.

This book is a wonderful preliminary to any first-time excursion to Ireland, as well as a concise compendium of everything Irish. Not a tour-guide; it delves into cultural issues, Ireland's history (up to and including the 1998 Northern Ireland Peace Agreement, which, unfortunately will require a whole new chapter as of today's writing), political faces and national celebrities,interacting with the locals, pub life, key Gaelic phrases, and basically, how to navigate without looking like a total tourist.I highly recommend this to anyone interested in an introduction to Irish history and current issues, and to anyone who is going to Ireland for the very first time.