An Irish translation of The Street is welcome. This version, however, though adequate, rarely lets us forget that translation is mainly what it is about. In Irish. the tradition of Lynn C. Doyle and John D. Sheridan shows through. the stories are clearly if somewhat loosely written, and basically and irredeemably sentimental. The book paints a warm, in deed intimate, picture of an idealised Belfast community with understanding and humanity. The writing is wilfully superficial, however, and the violence, though present, is always at one remove. The story that most affected me was "Luch agus Laoch", the humorous tale of a hapless mouse put on trial in a prison camp, brutally killed, and then found innocent.