The reason I love this book, is that within it is the source of Charles Dicken's Christmas Carol. Yes, he ripped off the Marley scene, almost word for word, and I've never seen it mentioned anywhere in print. Peter Haining, the editor of this book didn't even notice, or mention it. But read "The Friendly Demon," by Daniel Defoe, and tell me that Dickens didn't read it before writing his little story. If you can find a copy, read it. ( )

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This anthology should not be confused with a quite different book with exactly the same title, but edited by Jim McGarry, which I read and didn't much care for just over a year ago. I did like this one. Haining has constructed it as an introduction to fantastic literature for readers interested in Ireland, rather than desperately grabbing anything vaguely genre and Hibernian; this does mean that some entries don't strictly fit the remit - "The Canterville Ghost", by Oscar Wilde, has no Irish connection apart from its author, and the final piece by Ray Bradbury (who also supplies an introduction to the volume as a whole) has no fantasy content. But it's an eclectic and interesting anthology, with pieces from Giraldus Cambrensis and James Joyce (the passage about Hell from Portrait) as well as the more obvious Maturin, Hodgson, Lovecraft, Le Fanu, Yeats, Dunsany, Sinead de Valera, etc. Worth getting hold of. ( )