The twenty short stories that compose IRELAND'S LIVING VOICES are a celebration of the beauty, power, and sheer talent of today's Irish writers. The collection combines the established brilliance of Bryan MacMahon, Mary Lavin, William Trevor, Benedicy Kiely and Terence deVere White with the thrusting emergence of new blood such as Ronan Sheehan, the 1984 winner of the Rooney prixe for Irish Literature, Emma Cooke, Sebastian Barry, and Aidan Matthews.

It underlines the growing international reputations of best-selling Maeve Binchy, Clare Boylan, Desmond Hogan and prizewinner 'Cal', and contrasts them with the divergent and entertaining styles of Leland Bardwell, Maeve Kelly, Val Mulkerns, Ita Daly, Helen Lucy Burke and Belfast's Sam McAughtry and Linda Anderson.