LET'S VISIT IRELAND

Ireland with the Troubles but without any current trouble, either socio-political (in Ulster) or economic (in Ulster and Eire)--a complacent view of a slow-paced, ""unspoiled"" land of beckoning beauty. However slanted and summary, it is an agreeable portrait--of events from the first arrivals to full independence; the language(s), music, fairy lore, food and religion of the people; the principal cities and towns; the castles (a sampling from over 3000); the lay of the land; industry and traditional products; farming and fishing; sports and pastimes (much horseracing but no Sweepstakes). Two assertions are mystifying: that Galway was Columbus' ""last port of call before he set out for the New World""; that ""the Shannon River is the largest in Europe."" Otherwise as bracing as a cuppa'.