From Maeve of Connaught to President Mary Robinson, this book presents Irish women - known and unknown, real and invented - as their compatriots have described and interpreted them. The editors draw upon mythological tales, letters, biographies, autobiographies, newspapers and official reports, as well as poems, novels, stories, plays, recordings and songs, to create this sympathetic selection. The book includes the writings of Yeats, Joyce, Synge, Clare Boylon, Augusta Gregory, Nora Barnacle, Julia O'Faolain, Cecil Woodham-Smith and Maud Gonne.