‘Everything Ireland’ Is for Everyone.

Book Review by
Debbie McGoldrick

IRELAND is brought down to a neat size — 461 pages to be exact — in Everything Irish, a new book edited by Lelia Ruckenstein and James O’Malley which was released by Ballantine last week.

O’Malley, a native of Co. Limerick, is best known in the Irish American community as an immigration lawyer with a thriving Manhattan practice. He’s used to writing legal briefs, but a book was a different undertaking altogether.

His introduction to editing came via his wife Ruckenstein, who has a successful career in the publishing industry. “I was approached by an agent, Elizabeth Knappman, who had heard that Ballantine was interested in doing an Irish book,” says Ruckenstein of the initial contact which came in 1999.

What Ballantine had in mind was a one-volume guide to all things Irish. When O’Malley and Ruckenstein submitted their proposal it was quickly accepted, and then the hard part started — how to condense Ireland’s rich history, which could actually fill volumes, into a single book.

“We thought we would do it in an A to Z format,” said Ruckenstein. “And then we found experts in various fields who were willing to contribute and write the entries.”

The result is impressive. Everything Irish: The History, Literature, Art, Music, People and Places of Ireland from A-Z is chock-full of short but succinct essays on everything from the Abbey Theatre (the first entry) to Zozimus (the final one, which refers to the nickname for Michael Moran, a blind Dublin storyteller.)

O’Malley and Ruckenstein contacted several experts in various fields to write many of the more than 900 entries, including numerous Irish Times journalists, historians and academics.

“The project was more difficult than we expected,” admitted O’Malley. “It was a challenge. We had constraints — space being the obvious one — but we were determined to make it an accessible, one volume read.”

Picking the entries was also difficult, but O’Malley and Ruckenstein gathered many opinions from many different sources to finalize their choices. “We tried to balance it as best we could,” says O’Malley. 

A map of Ireland opens the book, and a compact chronology of Irish history closes it. In between are entries on each Irish county, politicians such as Gerry Adams and Eamon de Valera, writers like Brendan Behan and James Joyce, and many other “did you know?” type entries (for instance, James Hoban, a native of Co. Kilkenny born in 1762, was the architect of the White House.)

Each and every entry went through a strict editing process, triple-checked before it making into print. “Getting it all right took us nearly three years,” O’Malley says.

Everything Irish is an informative and interesting read which, despite its size, has pretty much covered all the bases. Looking for answers to Irish questions? Want to brush up on trivia? Or just interested in a good Irish read? Then the Ruckenstein/O’Malley offering is just what you’re looking for.

The hard-cover book, with a cover price of $29.95, is now available at all major bookstores and the amazon.com website. Publisher’s Weekly also offered a recent review, saying Everything Ireland is “written for anyone who has an eye directed toward the Emerald Isle, this tome of fact and lore will provide a satisfying resource and should be an excellent holiday and St. Patrick’s Day gift.”