Wacky Ireland

Imagine BBC's Countryfile crossed with Channel 4's cult series Eurotrash - and Father Ted!Now imagine it as a book of true stories, from scandalous exposés to charming vignettes of rural life, told by an insider who has travelled the length and breadth of Ireland seeking out the weird, the wacky, the naughty-but-nice and the downright shocking - an outrageous romp through the Emerald Isle, where ancient traditions, strange customs and modern obsessions make lively bedfellows and where people constantly surprise you. Farmers, faith-healers, lovesick bachelors, animal antics, ghosts - this is modern Ireland.You won't find these stories in the tourism brochures, and this book is not for the easily offended, the ultra-conservative or anyone po-faced. But if you've ever drawn a moustache on your local politician's poster, or a willy on the John Hinde postcard donkey, this is the perfect book for your coffee-table, the ideal gift for a foreign visitor - and a poignant memento for an émigré.Welcome to Wacky Ireland - it's stranger than fiction.NEW updated edition includes a list of little-known Holy shrines...chapters on the ancient Fair at Maam Cross, the Goddess Fest at the Gates of Hell, Donald Trump, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary... more about Loftus Hall, spooks in general, feisty farmers, monster plants, Obama, Elvis, Joe Dolan and the mystery of the Boleyn sisters...an explanation of gaelic terms - and a countryman's guide to "culcher".