What Did I Die Of?Medicine and literature are the unifying strands in this skilfully wrought tapestry of Irish biographical portraiture. It delineates the pioneering 18th century Limerick surgeon Sylvester OHalloran, his contemporary Oliver Goldsmith MD, Dublins Milton editor Edward Hill, and the polymath Sir William Wilde; the deaths respectively of his celebrated son, Oscar, Charles Stewart Parnell and J. M. Synge are anatomized, as are the lives of the forgotten

This beautifully illustrated book is fascinating record of that achievement

As O’Neill struggles with the promises he made on ordination day

and 1908 election to senator in the new National University of Ireland

seeking to provide an understanding of his works and days

Darwin and Nietzsche

philosophy and literature – from the sacred writings of Christian mystics to coffin texts of the Egyptians and cradle texts of the Navajo Indians – Moriarty transforms humanity’s Pequod voyage of self-destruction into an Ishmaelite quest for Divine Ground

even lunchtime visits to the local pub become points of attrition

The result is candid

servicing farmers needs and processing some of the key components in the Irish food supply

Often hilarious

in places as far apart as neolithic North Kerry and London

by broadcaster and documentary film-maker Muirís Mac Conghail