From Sky Road to Hell Street

Frank McNally's style has been described as a mixture of anarchy, wit and oddball scholarship, and his deadpan miniature histories of Ireland have been rare visitations of comic sanity in a country that hasn't had much to laugh about in recent years. (His 'History of Ireland in 100 Euphemisms' is rivaled only by his 'History of Ireland in 100 Insults').

He writes brilliantly about people, places, and language, discovers forgotten byways of the country's history and makes connections that no-one has ever made between the oddest events.

McNally has one of the funniest voices in contemporary Ireland.

But there is pathos and tragedy here too. The Ireland beyond greater Dublin is its main focus, the layers of history in a rural universe more remote from the big city and the tourist than many can imagine.

Sky Road and Hell Street are both actual Irish places on opposite sides of the island, and to move from the heavenly to the infernal is a short step in McNally's Ireland.