cover image A Day in the Life of Ireland

A Day in the Life of Ireland

. Collins Publishers San Francisco, $45 (220pp) ISBN 978-0-00-215951-7

On one day in May 1991 more than 75 distinguished photographers undertook to capture on film the many sides of Ireland and its people. As with previous Day in the Life explorations of other countries, the photographs provide a stunning panorama of everyday life in a variety of settings, from pastoral to urban, from working-class neighborhoods to country estates. Celebrating the land and its citizens, these 200 mainly color photographs are accompanied by maps indicating the location of each and by concise captions. Subjects include a Benedictine nun on a monastery farm, a man soaking in his bath at a spa, a covey of ``punk rockers'' in a Dublin neighborhood, the bishop of Cork putting ``a little body Irish'' on a road bowling match. A feast for the eyes is the result of an impressively coordinated project that, though ambitious, makes no claim as a definitive record of a complex country. 90,000 first printing; major ad/promo; first serial to Islands magazine. (Dec.)