Authentic Ireland or the tourist haunts? Every year more and more discerning travelers to Ireland are opting to visit the real country, rather than just climbing aboard the endless bus trails with the tourist hordes and never actually meeting a local.

A rundown of the latest and greatest books out of Ireland and Irish America.

An unmistakably Irish memorial service was held in upper Manhattan on Tuesday night when the life and work of the incomparable Frank McCourt, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Irish-American writer, was commemorated in story and song.

There are only two teams left in the New York Senior football County Championship: Down and Cork. Eugene Kyne preview the game and wonders what team will popping the champagne this Sunday in the 125th anniversary year of the GAA in Ireland and the 95th year of football in the Big Apple.

Although the surname Joyce may automatically be associated with author James Joyce, the name has an ancient past, with both Irish and Norman antecedents. Derived from the Brehon personal name Iodoc, which is a diminutive of iudh meaning lord, the name was adopted by the Normans in the form Josse.

Josephine Hart has read and absorbed the best prose and poetry produced in Ireland over the last 200 years, because in her new novel, “The Truth About Love," she gives it back to us in a microburst, a whirlwind of sound and fury to match the emotions that created and sustained it.

Did you know "Ulysses," the literary masterpiece by James Joyce, might never have appeared on American bookshelves. The court case to get the book published in the U.S. involved one passionate Irishman, challenged the censorship of perhaps the greatest novel ever written, and changed the way Americans read.

Tom Deignan reviews a selection of recently published books of Irish and Irish-American interest.

Frank McCourt, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of “Angela’s Ashes” has died. The celebrated Irish author was 78 and had recently been diagnosed with cancer. His wife Ellen daughter, Maggie, and granddaughter Chiara survive him.

She spent a good chunk of her childhood in Galway, so it was fitting that Oscar winning actress Anjelica Huston returned there last week as the special guest of honor at the annual Galway Film Fleadh.

A first edition of Ulysses by James Joyce and a half sheet of the original 1916 Irish Proclamation are back on the market after failing to sell in London's Sothebys on Tuesday. The copy of Ulysses was guided to sell at between £25,000 and £35,000 ($41,000 to $57,000) while the extremely rare half sheet of the Proclamation had a list price of between £20,000 and £30,000 ($32,000 to $49,000).

The Irish are famed for many things -- for their writers, their music, their hospitality, and even for their whiskey. But what about for love?

Edwardian costumes were dusted off and donned with pride in Dublin today as James Joyce fans took to the streets to celebrate Bloomsday.

This month, in an exhibition that seems calculated to attract every Oscar Wilde enthusiast in America, the Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan will exhibit a selection of the Irish writer’s most important manuscripts and letters. But this isn’t just another stuffy museum piece featuring a more than usually compelling Irish writer. This time the Morgan can boast of a dramatic first: the whereabouts of this beautifully bound collection was unknown to scholars for over half a century.

Edythe Preet on the many Irish wedding traditions that make tying the knot Celtic style such a momentous occasion.

Right on the tail of Justin Timberlake’s take on the Irish emigrating to America on the big steamers, Will Ferrell brought his own bit of Celtic schtik to his monologue on the season finale of "Saturday Night Live."

The Wolfhound eats Krugman alive - and another anti0ti-Ireland gasbag, too... Click to read Even more holes in 'Professor' Krugman's Irish

Irish novelists aren't usually associated with mystery writing - but they have served up more than a few 'whodunits', as this list shows

Patsy Fagan's "authentic" Irish pub has just opened in Lebanon. And by some estimates, around 50 countries have Irish pubs. But we shouldn't get too hung up on what's "truly" Irish.

Roger Daltrey, lead singer of the Who, was in Dublin last week to receive the

From Jimmy Cagney in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" to Sean Penn in "Milk," a look at the roles that carried Irish-American actors to the top of their profession.

Ireland has a terrible history. As a kid in school reading about that history I was always afraid to turn the page; what seemed like a hopeful turn of events always was undone by a traitor or some clever English piece of skulduggery - the Indians weren't the only ones with broken treaties. So it was with me as Mary Pat Kelly's new novel, "Galway Bay," sat on my bedside table for several months.

Every year since 1901, the international Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. There is an elite group of Irish and Northern Irish scholars and activists who have won this prestigious award.

NOW in its 16th year, the annual Bloomsday on Broadway festival on June 16 at Symphony Space on the Upper West Side has become one of the hottest tickets in the New York calendar. Celebrating both James Joyce and Ireland, it's a far cry from the other dried up celebrations of revered authors legendary watering hole McSorley's provides the ale, for example, and you never have to wait long to hear a song. Says festival host Isaiah Sheffer, "It's always a great deal of fun and a lot of work and we're just sending out the scripts now to the 93 readers who will take to the stage on Bloomsday.

NEW York-based Irish playwright and film director Imelda O'Reilly has just been awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to travel to Morocco to make a new film.

O'Reilly, a native of Maddenstown, Co. Kildare is currently attending Columbia University where she is a masters of fine arts candidate in film.

ONE of the best selling Irish artists of all time is back on the music scene. Long live Jimmy Rabbitte!

If the name doesn't ring a bell, perhaps it's because he does not exist in real life. He sprung from the mind of author Roddy Doyle back in the nineties.

WILL Ferrell is hilarious. Moviegoers have known that for years, making his films such as Elf and Talladega Nights major box-office smashes, but the comic still as sharp performing live on stage, as his appearance at University College Dublin last week attested to.

Ferrell spent the guts of two weeks in Ireland north and south this month with his brother Patrick and dad Roylee, with the centerpiece of the visit a trip to UCD to accept a literary award named after James Joyce - or Jimmy, as Ferrell likes to call him.

In the comedy Semi-Pro, opening nationwide this Friday, Irish American funnyman Will Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, the one-hit wonder singer who's also owner and coach of the fictional Flint, Michigan basketball team The Tropics. Faced with the disbandment of his squad he must take drastic - and hilarious - action. CAHIR O'DOHERTY talks to Ferrell, and co-stars Woody Harrelson and Andre (3000) Benjamin.

When Hans van den Broek, the Dutch narrator of Joseph O'Neill's masterful new novel "Netherland" meets Chuck Ramkissoon, a Trinidadian trickster on the make, he's led - albeit reluctantly at first - toward a new and more expansive life.

For Hans, a prosperous financial analyst, the move to New York has brought with it an unexpected and prolonged unhappiness for the first time in his life. Then, moving uptown to the Chelsea Hotel in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, his wife tells him she wants to return to London, taking their young son.

The Pride of Parnell Street

By Sebastian Barry

Review by Cahir O'Doherty

THE past, wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a foreign country; they do things differently there. In Irish playwright Sebastian Barry's brilliant new play, The Pride of Parnell Street, he explores a time and place that now seems as lost to history as Atlantis - pre-Celtic Tiger Dublin.

WILL Ferrell brought along his Irish American sidekick in the film Step Brothers, John C. Reilly, for a week of business in pleasure in Dublin that just wrapped up. The visit marked Ferrell's second trip to the Emerald Isle this year - in January he gave an hilarious speech at University College Dublin, dressed in tight fitting Irish rugby gear, to accept an award.

"The Simpsons" made history in Ireland on St. Patrick's Day when an episode premiered outside of the U.S. for the first time. Called "In the Name of the Grandfather," the episode involves Homer and Grampa visiting Ireland - and buying a pub.

For millions of people, June 16 is always an extraordinary day. On that day in 1904, Leopold Bloom made his epic journey through Dublin as described by James Joyce in Ulysses, one of the world's most highly acclaimed modern novels. "Bloomsday" - the St.

Ireland is a small country that's big on charm, wit and hospitality. And, thanks to a booming economy and the infusion of millions from multi-national companies, Ireland East and Dublin is one of the most rapidly expanding areas in Europe today. Ireland has breathtaking scenery, luxurious five-star resorts with world-class spas, gourmet cuisine and more than 400 top-notch golf courses, but the Emerald Isle is also known for its advanced networking, conferencing and exposition facilities and is a leading destination for today's mobile business traveler.

I MET Ronnie Drew once in the meeting room of the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin. In person he looked a lot worse than the photographs.

Clearly he had been drinking and was falling asleep in the corner when a friend brought me over.

SO what are the greatest Irish books ever written? One man who should know is Des Kenny of Kenny's bookshop in Galway, which for long was a Mecca for any traveler to the west coast of Ireland. Now Kenny has written a book published by Currach Press (www.currach.

St. Brigid's Spared by $20 Million Gift

"For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we don't see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance."

(Romans 8:24,25)

The patience and prayers of the parishioners of St.

Irish literature and lore shows Mulligan little respect. The very opening sentence of James Joyce's acclaimed Ulysses introduces Buck Mulligan, a ribald braggart who, before many pages, is borrowing a quid to "get gloriously drunk so as to astonish the druidy druids," making an utter fool of himself in a "jester's dress of puce and yellow and a clown's cap" and identifying Shakespeare as "the chap that writes like Synge."

Prof.

The family name Quinn or Quin is an anglicized form of "O Cuinn," meaning "of Conn." O'Cuinnde notes lineage from the legendary High King of Ireland, Conn of the Hundred Battles. Conn is derived from the Irish word, ceann (head) signifying a person of intellectual ability.

It's 8 a.m. and Fionnula Flanagan arrives for breakfast looking fresh as a daisy in a crisp white shirt.

Top 100 Irish America's Finest in Dance . Music . Acting

The Irish have had a long history in the entertainment business, from the days when actors Errol Flynn and James Cagney graced the silver screen, Gene Kelly danced his way into hearts, and crooner Bing Crosby brought joy to millions with his heavenly voice. So too, our Top 100 honorees, dancers, musicians, stars of stage and screen, light up our lives with their particular talent.

They have made us laugh, cry, sit spellbound in our seats, and gasp in awe at their enormous talent.

Ireland has tons of arts festivals for visitors to attend. Here is a list of some highlights.

A list of five great weekend to visit Ireland: the All-Ireland Finals weekends, the bank holiday weekends and the Bloomsday weekend.

Pubs occupy a special place in a Dubliner's heart - and this list will show you why.