January Books 18) Irish Tales of Terror, edited by Jim McGarry
This has been lingering on my shelves for years, and it took an intercontinental plane flight to finally work through the fairly modest 158 pages of the book. It is a rather peculiar collection of short stories and extracts from longer works, including two ostensibly factual pieces by the editor on witchcraft accusations in Clonmel (1895) and Island Magee (1711). The only bit actually worth reading is a Sean O'Casey story, "The Raid", which didn't seem to me to have any supernatural element at all (unless you believe that randy Irish women are unnatural). The collection doesn't really cohere and there is too much Oirishry.