Ireland: A Terrible Beauty is the story of Ireland told during the 1970s, (during the time of the Troubles) with 388 photographs, including 108 in full color.

This is an eclectic book, reflecting the interests and experiences of Jill and Leon Uris. While not systematic, it is organized by themes.

I enjoyed the book in the main (I was a bit taken aback by the bitterness of Uris’s attack on the British and Unionists in Ulster, but more about that later). The prose is marvelous and the photos exquisite. I couldn’t quite tell if it is more a book where well-written prose supports exquisite photos, or where exquisite photos support a well-written text? I just accepted the book as the treat to the eye and mind that it provided.

I read this book in conjunction with a light, but more systematic, history of Ireland. From the other volume I wanted facts and systematic details. From the Uris volume I wanted some feeling tone in both text and photos. For that role it is an excellent volume.  - Bob Corbett

The first half of the book is about the Republic of Ireland, and it’s alternately sweet and sad, full of lovely lovely pictures and detailing Ireland’s weirdly mixed history of glory and oppression, of poets and warriors, of art and of famine. The second half of the book is about Ulster, and features a lot of pictures of graffiti-covered ghettos patrolled by military and paramilitary men with big guns. There are some sections about awesome historical things and the beautiful geography in Northern Ireland as well, but most of it focuses on the Troubles, both the history leading up to them and the situation as it was when the book was written. My favorite bit is a short interview with a very young pIRA leader named Martin McGuinness, talking about him living on the run and his hope to one day have a steady job. Martin McGuiness is now Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland.

While it’s obviously not the most current source of information on Ireland and her many woes, it’s still very informative, both as a solid introduction to the geography and older history of the island and as a snapshot of the island in the mid-seventies. I’m very glad I read it. - Clare