Ireland of the Proverb

For lovers of Ireland, folk traditions or fine photography, the publication of this splendid book will be a welcome event. The author, director of the Irish language laboratory at University College, Dublin, gathers more than 100 Irish proverbs in use today, accompanying each with one or more photographs and a short essay illuminating the proverb's hidden store of historical and cultural information. The literate prose is alive with engaging detail, telling anecdote and historical reference. For instance, ``The mouth of the grave often allows something to go to the mouth of the poor'' occasions a brief essay on Irish wakes and a striking photograph of Maoras Cemetery in the author's hometown of Connemara in County Galway. ``The branch lives on the hedge but the hand that planted it is dead'' moves the author to write evocatively of abandoned houses in rural Ireland, evidence of the unhappy circumstances leading to massive Irish emigration after the Great Famine of 1845-48. Some 100 black-and-white photographs, most by well-known Irish photographer Doyle, have the same timeless, archetypal quality as the proverbs, conveying in economical visual images the accumulated heft of Ireland's ancient culture. (Oct.)