Approximately 800 years have elapsed since the introduction of the English language to Ireland and 400 since the establishment of an Irish Literature in English. However, for complex sociopolitical reasons, there is as yet no comprehensive dictionary of the English of Ireland to which readers of Irish Literature - and, indeed, of any aspect of Irish Studies - can turn to for assistance when they encounter completely unfamiliar words and pharases, or apparently familiar word and phrases used unconventionally by Irish writers. This work is design to provide the general reader, as well as the specialist, with direct and easy access to this important but elusive and often-overlooked element of Irish Literature. Quotations from writers ranging from AE to Zozimus (including all four Nobel laureates in literature: Yeats, Shaw, Beckett and Heaney) are used to illustrate vocabulary and idioms. Also included are illustrative quotations from English writers, such as Spenser and Thackeray, who wrote about Ireland. From archaeology (crannog) to zoology (graunogue), almost every aspect of Ireland and Irish life over the past 400 years is reflected here in the mirror of art.