What is it about Oxford University Press's recent infatuation with Ireland? This august publishing house has, of course, twice honoured us in the past - in 1958 with The Oxford Book of Irish Verse, chosen by Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson; and in 1986 with The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse, edited by Thomas Kinsella - but within the last couple of years three substantial volumes on matters Irish have come from Great Clarendon Street.
First to appear was The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature, an invaluable reference book edited by Robert Welch and published just over two years ago. The second, a mere two months back, was The Oxford Companion to Irish History, edited by S.J. Connolly, which is already proving to be just as indispensable - not just to scholars but to anyone with the remotest interest in how we came to be what we are, or indeed to anyone simply in need of checking an historical fact.
And next Tuesday sees the official publication of The Oxford Book of Ireland. Edited by Patricia Craig, it isn't perhaps as essential as the others, but in its serendipidous way it makes for very pleasurable reading all the same - like The Ireland Anthology of a few months back, which was devised by Sean Dunne and published by Gill & Macmillan, it offers a fascinating kaleidoscope of poetry and prose on all aspects of Ireland and Irishness, whether historical, political, religious, topographical, literary or social.
If one were in quibbling mood, one might note the bias towards writers from Northern Ireland, the small number of women on show (forty-three out of two-hundred-and-fifty authors, by my count) and the relative dearth of contemporary voices - no Roddy Doyle or Emma Donoghue or Patrick McCabe, to take just three obvious names. But the book's notable qualities (you can open it at any page and find something arresting) make such nit-picking seem a bit churlish.
Anyway, two women will be among the six writers reading from the anthology at its official launch in the Bank of Ireland's Arts Centre, Foster Place, next Wednesday at 7pm. The line-up features John Banville, Anthony Cronin, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Joseph O'Connor, Nuala O'Faolain and Colm Toibin, with an introduction by Michael Longley, and if you want to go along, tickets are available from Fred Hanna in Nassau Street. They cost just £2 and are redeemable against the price of the book, if you wish to buy it, which you should.
Speaking of Michael Longley, one of the finest poets currently writing in English, I'd like to draw attention to Broken Dishes, which is his latest volume and which comprises fifteen recent poems, most of them elegies.
Any book by this poet is an event. The fact that this one is so beautifully produced (with all the elegance of The Dolmen Press in its heyday) constitutes another. And that it comes from a new publishing house is yet another.
Established last year, Abbey Press is based in Newry, with Mel McMahon as administrator and Adrian Rice as editor. In fact, the latter's first volume of poems, Impediments, with a commendation from Seamus Heaney, is among the imprint's first titles.
Also among them is Gerald Dawe's The Rest Is History, a series of essays in which the poet, critic and TCD lecturer eloquently examines his own Belfast roots as well as the Belfast culture that lies at the heart of Van Morrison's early lyrics (Madame George, for instance, in the wind and the rain of the backstreets) and of Stewart Parker's great play, Pentecost.
The author read from the book at Tuesday night's launch in The Winding Stair, Lower Ormond Quay, and Thomas Kilroy, friend and colleague from UCG days, introduced him.
Poetry Ireland's Theo Dorgan is excited by the "allnew" Dublin Writers Festival which will take place from June 13th to 16th.
"Dublin," he says, "singularly among world cities, draws its international reputation principally from the work of its writers, so it seems apposite we should begin again the process of building a world-class literary festival here."
To this end, Poetry Ireland, the Irish Writers Centre and the Cultural Committee of Dublin Corporation have put their heads together and devised a three-year plan, so that by the year 2000 they hope to have "the world's pre-eminent literary festival".
They hadn't an awful lot of time to organise this year's bash, but already lined up are Maeve Binchy, Deirdre Purcell, Marian Keyes, Roddy Doyle, Dermot Healy, Seamus Heaney, Edna O'Brien, John Banville, Aidan Higgins, Rita Ann Higgins and Catherine Phil McCarthy.
That's not bad going by anyone's standards, especially when you add in such non-nationals as James Kelman, Marina Warner, Helen Dunmore and Tom Leonard.
And there'll also be something called a Poetry Slam, which Theo describes as an "open-mike opportunity for a wide range of writers to participate as performers in the festival". To apply for a slot in this, send a sample of your work (say, five poems) to DWF Poetry Slam, Dublin Corporation Arts Office, 20 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, by May 29th.
Oh, oh . . . already I can hear Patrick Kavanagh's standing army of ten thousand Irish poets frantically blowing the dust off their manuscripts. God help the secretary up in the Corpo office.