GinnVillas - Travel in America, Europe, South America and australia

It starts out with basic info; finding Ireland on a map, it's history, landscape, wildlife and people. It then moves on to a region by region review of places to visit and the towns/sights to be seen. The book has a ton of information as well as beautiful photographs to give you a feeling of what you'd see. I especially liked that the hardback book I have is bigger and easier to view than it's soft cover counter part. I've seen the smaller version and, even though the information is the same, you lose a lot in trying to see those teeny, tiny pictures. Go for the big one if you have the room! There's not much difference between them in price.

If you plan on going to Ireland I can only suggest you suppliment this book with a guide like Frommer's that give you places to eat and stay as well as all the prices. "Travel Portrait" lists which places have fees but not exact amounts. It also lists which towns have market days, which sights require fees and offer tours, which ones are handicap accessible and what the open and close dates are for most places.