Lives Less Ordinary

The people who talk about their lives in this book represent a creative, dissident Ireland. They are artists, writers, map-makers, weavers, water-diviners, teachers, environmentalists, farmers, wood-cutters, gardeners, travellers and monks. Some continue ways of life that have existed for generations; others have chosen to live and work in ways that are experimental, exploratory, and always singular. The choices they have made prompt us to reflect on our own choices. These thirty-two portraits in word and image provide an alternative view of the possibilities of life in Ireland, and a bracing antidote to the banalities of the consumer society.



JUDY KRAVIS has published short fiction and poetry and given many readings of her work. She wrote the libretto for the opera Hot Food with Strangers, which has been performed in London and Ireland. She teaches French literature at University College, Cork, and is the author of Teaching Literature: Writers and Teachers Talking (1995) She looks after a large garden. PETER MORGAN is an artist whose work is in many public and private collections, including The Arts Council of Ireland, University College, Cork, and the Tate Gallery, London. He has made commissioned video projections for the UCC Gamelan Orchestra and Daghda Dance Company. He teaches photography and video at the Limerick School of Art and Design.