Luck of the Irish-C

Ten years ago, the authors, who are husband and wife, moved to Ireland-Williams's homeland-from suburban New York City to live in a cottage in County Clare. Here they continue their adventures related in O Come Ye Back to Ireland and other books, with survival a central theme, as the couple and their two adopted children struggle to make a living in Kilmihil, with Williams working as a part-time English and French teacher and writing, while Breen takes care of the home, paints and writes. There is the eternal lament on the bad weather and the vanishing hope that it ``might clear yet.'' There is the locals' suspicion of the flesh, with the scandal of topless dancing in Ballyferriter and the production of John B. Keane's ``dirty play,'' The Chastitute. There is also the adventure of discovering western Ireland with a trip to Dingle, where the people of the Gaeltacht, the Irish-speaking region, talk ``in foreign-sounding English.'' Ireland is also a fertile place: Williams's play, The Murphy Initiative, is staged at the Abbey Theater in Dublin and the family's horse foals. Readers will toast this book with a well-deserved slainte. Author tour. (Jan.)