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Ireland conjures up images of a romantic wild territory unscarred by human activity - a somewhat rosy picture, but with more than a little truth to it. Genuine wilderness may be scarce, but centuries of economic deprivation have ensured that most of Ireland is a rural landscape in which the only intervention has come from generations of farmers.

The topography of Ireland is fairly homogenous: there are few high mountain ranges and most of the centre of the country is covered by a flat boggy plain. And with only four degrees of latitude from north to south, it lacks extremes of weather, the enveloping Atlantic Ocean producing a mild, damp climate. Summers are rarely hot, winters rarely cold, and in parts of the west it rains on two days out of every three.

In these conditions you'd expect to find broad-leaved woodland, but intensive pressure on the landscape during the centuries leading up to the famine of 1845 to 1849 denuded the country of its original tree cover. It has been replaced mostly by a patchwork of small grass fields divided by wild untidy hedgerows - long lines of trees acting as refuges for the former woodland community of plants and animals. The small population in Ireland today means that over much of the country the intensity of land use is lower than in many other European countries. Mixed farms are still more common than specialized intensive units.

Natural habitats such as peat bogs, dunes and wetlands still survive here, having all but disappeared elsewhere under the relentless pace of modern development. However, the pressures are growing. The great midland bogs are being rapidly stripped for fuel; mountain-sides are disappearing under blankets of exotic conifers; shoals of dead fish are becoming all too frequent a sight in Irish waterways; and rapid housing developments threaten some of Ireland's most valuable habitats, most notably in coastal regions

Ireland has no real tradition of eating out, but the range and quality of food has increased enormously in recent years, especially at the top end of the market, and this edition of the guide includes the most luxurious and expensive of eating places, along with more everyday establishments. Outside smart restaurants the best of Irish food is to be found in seafood bars on the west coast and in the all-too-rare vegetarian cafés dotted around the country. These aside, the fresh, though rather plain, selection of vegetables, meat and breads available in the shops make self-catering a reasonable option; in some areas these can often be enlivened by a fine selection of Irish cheeses. If your budget is restricted, the best bet is to fill up with a hearty breakfast and/or a good lunch from a pub or coffee shop in the middle of the day, and then concentrate on drinking in the evening - few pubs serve food at night

ALLIANCE PARTY A moderate, centrist, non-sectarian Northern Ireland party led by Lord (John) Alderdice, now speaker of the Assembly.

BAWN A castle enclosure or castlefold.

BODHRÁN (pronounced bore-run ) A hand-held, shallow, goatskin drum.

B SPECIALS Auxiliary police force of the Stormont government; disbanded in 1971.

CASHEL A kind of rath , distinguished by a circular outer stone wall instead of earthen ramparts.

CLOCHÁN A beehive-shaped, weatherproof hut built of tightly fitted stone without mortar. Clocháns date from the early Christian period.

THE CONTINUITY IRA Small breakaway organization maintaining the armed struggle against British rule and now thought to have amalagamated with The Real IRA.

"THE CRACK" Good conversation, a good time, often accompanying drinking. "What's the crack?" means "what's the gossip?" or "what's going on?"

CRANNÓG An artificial island in the middle of a lake, dating from the Bronze Age.

CURRACH/CURRAGH Small fishing vessel used off the west coast; traditionally made of leather stretched over a light wood frame, modern currachs are of tar-coated canvas.

THE DÁIL Lower house of the Irish parliament.

DOLMEN (or "portal tomb") A chamber formed by standing stones that support a massive capstone. The capstone often slopes to form the entrance of the chamber. Dates from the Copper Age (2000-1750 BC).

DRUMLIN Small, oval, hummocky hill formed from the detritus of a retreating glacier.

DUP The Democratic Unionist Party. A traditionalist, anti-Republican right-wing party founded by lan Paisley and Desmond Boal in 1971. Paisley has remained leader since then and is the only European political leader this century to have founded his own church. The DUP is fundamentally opposed to the Good Friday Agreement and any loosening of the bonds with the United Kingdom.

ÉIRE Irish name for Ireland, but officially indicates the 26 countries.

FIANNA FÁIL The largest and most successful of Ireland's two main political parties since Independence. Essentially a conservative party, it has its origins in the Republican faction of Sinn Féin, and fought against pro-Treaty forces in the civil war. During the 1930s, the party did much to assert Ireland's separateness from Britain.

FINE GAEL Ireland's second largest political party, Fine Gael sprang from the pro-Treaty faction of Sinn Féin which formed the first Free State government in 1921. Since that time it has not been able to gain a strong majority, and periods in office have been in coalitions. It advocates more liberal policies than Fianna Fáil in terms of social welfare, but in fact there is very little to distinguish the two main parties.

FIR Men (sign on men's public toilets).

GAELTACHT Any region in Ireland in which Irish Gaelic is the vernacular speech; these are chiefly in the west.

GALLERY GRAVE A simple burial chamber of squared stoned, generally found under a long mound.

GARDAÍ The police force of the Republic of Ireland.

INLA Irish National Liberation Army. Extreme splinter group of the IRA. Its aim is the creation through physical force of a united socialist 32-county republic.

IRA Irish Republican Army. The upholders of the Irish Fenian tradition, ultimately dedicated to the establishment of a united 32-county republic by whatever means possible and notorious both for its bombing campaigns and the extreme sophistication of its organizational structure.

IRSP Irish Republican Socialist Party. The most revolutionary, if small, party in Northern Ireland and the political wing of the INLA.

LVF Loyalist Volunteer Force. Banned paramilitary organization based in and around Portadown, led by Billy Wright until his assassination by the INLA in the Maze prison, December 1997.

LOYALIST A person loyal to the British Crown, usually a Northern Irish Protestant.

MARTELLO TOWER Circular coastal tower once used for defence.

MNÁ Women (sign on women's public toilets).

MOTTE A circular mound, flat on top, which the Normans used as a fortification.

NATIONALISTS Those who wish to see a united Ireland.

THE NORTH Term referring to Northern Ireland used by many people.

OGHAM (rhyming with poem) The earliest form of writing used by the Irish (fourth to seventh centuries), and found on the edge of standing stones. Employing a twenty-character alphabet derived from Latin, the letters were represented by varying strokes and notches, and read from the bottom upwards.

ORANGE ORDER A Loyalist Protestant organization, found throughout Northern Ireland, which promotes the Union with Britain. The name comes from William of Orange ("King Billy"), the Protestant king who defeated the Catholic James II at the Battle of the Boyne (1690) and at the Battle of Aughrim (1691). Most Unionist MPs are Orangemen, and outside of Northern Ireland, Orange Lodges (branches) are found amongst Loyalist expats .

PASSAGE GRAVE A megalithic tomb from the Neolithic period. A simple corridor of large, square, vertical stones lead to a burial chamber, and the whole tomb is covered with earth. The stones are decorated with simple patterns; double spirals, triangles, zigzag lines, and the sun symbol.

POTEEN/POITÍN (pronounced potcheen) Highly alcoholic (and often toxic) and illegal spirit, usually distilled from potatoes.

PUP Progressive Unionist Party. Seen as the political wing of the UVF. Many of its leading lights are former Loyalist paramilitaries, including David Ervine, a major player in ensuring Loyalist support for the Good Friday Agreement.

RATH or RINGFORT A farmstead dating from the first millennium AD. A circular timber enclosure banked by earth and surrounded by a ditch formed the outer walls, within which roofed dwellings were built and, in times of danger, cattle were herded. Today raths are visible as circular earthworks.

THE REAL IRA Breakaway faction led by the IRA's former quartermaster which rejects the political process and maintains the armed struggle; responsible for the Omagh bombing, The Real IRA has attacked RUC and Army installations and exploded bombs in England, most notably at Hammersmith Bridge.

REPUBLICANS Supporters of the ideals incorporated in the 1916 Proclamation of the Republic, the overthrow of British rule in Ireland and the promotion of Irish language and culture.

ROUND TOWER Narrow, tall (65-110ft) and circular tower, tapering to a conical roof. Built from the ninth century onwards, they are unique to Ireland. They are found on the sites of early monasteries, and served to call the monks to prayer. The entrance is usually a doorway 10-15ft above the ground, which was reached by a wooden or rope ladder that could be pulled up for safety.

RUC Royal Ulster Constabulary. Northern Ireland's regular, but armed, police force.

SDLP Social Democratic and Labour Party. The largest Nationalist party, centrist left, founded in 1970 and led by John Hume since 1979.

SINN FÉIN ("Ourselves Alone") Sinn Féin's history has been colourful, eventful and characterized by splits. Re-emerging in the 1970s, it subsequently became a major political force in Northern Ireland, aiming to achieve national self-determination and the formation of a 32-country socialist republic, based on the principles of the Proclamation of 1916 and the beliefs of Tone, Pearse and Connolly. It has been labelled by some as the political wing of the IRA. Its leader since 1983 has been Gerry Adams who has gradually steered Republicanism towards democratic resolution of its goals.

THE SIX COUNTIES Nationalist/Republican name for Northern Ireland.

SOUTERRAIN Underground passage that served as a hiding place in times of danger; also used to store food and valuables.

TAOISEACH Irish prime minister.

TD Teachta Dála. Member of the Irish parliament.

32-COUNTY SOVEREIGNTY COMMITTEE The alleged political wing of The Real IRA.

TRICOLOUR The green, white and orange flag of the Republic.

THE TWENTY-SIX COUNTIES The Republic of Ireland (Éire).

UDA Ulster Defence Association. A Loyalist paramilitary organization, the largest in Northern Ireland.

UDP Ulster Democratic Party. Political wing of the UDA, led by Gary McMichael.

UDR Ulster Defence Regiment. A regular regiment of the British army recruited in Northern Ireland.

UFF Ulster Freedom Fighters. Another illegal Protestant paramilitary faction; linked to the UDA.

UKU United Kingdom Unionists. Virtually a one-person Unionist Party, sharing similar views to the DUP and led by Robert McCartney, MP for North Down.

ULSTER One of Ireland's four provinces, often erroneously used by Unionists and journalists as a synonym for Northern Ireland, thus ignoring the counties of Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan which Ulster also comprises.

UNIONISTS Those (predominantly Protestant) who wish to keep Northern Ireland in union with the rest of the United Kingdom.

UUP Ulster Unionist Party. Founded in 1905 by Edward Carson, the UUP was in power in Northern Ireland from 1921 until the dissolution of Stormont in 1972. Known as the Official Unionists, the largest party in the North is led by David Trimble, a key player in the peace process and now First Minister in the Assembly.

UVF Ulster Volunteer Force. Yet another illegal Protestant paramilitary organization, originally formed in 1912 to oppose any British plans to impose a united Ireland on Northern Irish Protestants; banned in 1966 following its random sectarian murders of Catholics.

Ireland has two hugely popular indigenous amateur sports, hurling and gaelic football, with important matches attracting big crowds and passionate support. Hurling is a fifteen-a-side stick game, a precursor of hockey and lacrosse, but much faster and more competitive than either. Like rugby, there's an H-shaped set of goalposts and each team aims to score as many points as possible by either hitting the leather, baseball-sized ball ( sliotar ) over the crossbar for one point or into the net below for three points. The game's skill lies in control of the broad, wooden hurley stick ( camán ) and players can knock the ball along the ground, hit it through the air or run while balancing the ball on their stick. The ball can be caught by hand or with the hurley. The hurling season begins with local inter-county games in the early summer, progressing through provincial championships to reach its climax in the All Ireland Hurling Final on the first Sunday in September at Croke Park in Dublin. Cork, Kilkenny, Offaly and Tipperary are the most successful counties. Camogie, the women's version of hurling, is becoming increasingly popular, and well worth watching, if there's a match in the area.

Gaelic football is played on the same pitches as hurling and shares the same scoring system and team size. It has similarities with both rugby and association football, as the round, soccer-sized ball can be kicked, caught and passed by either boot or hand. However, running with the ball is only allowed if a player keeps control by tapping the ball from foot to hand every five steps. The season, which runs from early summer, is organized like hurling's, culminating in an All Ireland final at Croke Park on the third Sunday in September, a flavour of which can be gained from the excellent film shown as part of the Croke GAA Museum tour . Details of fixtures for hurling and gaelic football can be obtained from the Gaelic Athletic Association (tel 01/836 3222).

Rugby union and soccer are also extremely popular and tickets for international matches are very much in demand, especially in the Republic. The international rugby team is a joint Republic/Northern Ireland side, with home matches played at Dublin's Lansdowne Road Stadium . The main event of the year is the Six Nations Championship, a series of international games against France, England, Scotland, Wales and, latterly, Italy played in Spring. Soccer is organized on a professional basis in both the North and the Republic, though the majority of players are semi-professional, with teams competing in the Irish League and League of Ireland respectively. Standards are not especially high and Irish teams rarely progress beyond the preliminary rounds of the European competitions. Northern Ireland's international matches are played at Windsor Park, Belfast , and the Republic's at Lansdowne Road. Both international teams draw the overwhelming majority of their players from the English and Scottish leagues. The Northern Ireland side had its heyday in the 1980s, culminating in their famous 1-0 victory over hosts Spain in the 1982 World Cup, while the Republic gained a high profile and creditable international reputation in the early 1990s under the managership of the Englishman "Big Jack" Charlton - it's undoubted high point was the 1-0 defeat of Italy during the 1994 World Cup Finals. There's hope for the future too, as the Republic's youth team gained a remarkable third place in the 1997 World Finals and, uniquely, won both the under-16 and under-18 1998 European Championships. However, the most popular clubs here (and in the North) are Manchester United and Liverpool. Glasgow Celtic and Rangers are also popular in the North with support following sectarian Catholic and Protestant divisions.

Horse racing unites two Irish passions, horses and betting, and is carried out with a relaxed good humour that you shouldn't miss. Racing is concentrated around the Curragh, a grassy plain in Co. Kildare , where the classic flat-race course of the same name is located, along with Punchestown race course and many of Ireland's famous stud farms. The Irish Grand National is run at Fairyhouse in Co. Meath in April, the Irish Derby at the Curragh in June. The flat-racing season runs from mid-March to early November while National Hunt racing over jumps takes place throughout the year. Just as much fun and more easily accessible is greyhound racing . Shelbourne Park (tel 668 3502) in Dublin is the country's most prestigious venue, although there are sixteen tracks across the country. Information on meetings is available from Bord na gCon, the Irish Greyhound Racing Board (tel 061/316788).

Cycling is a hugely popular sport in Ireland, exemplified by the large crowds lining the route of the Irish sections of the 1998 Tour de France, a race won in 1987 by one of the country's sporting heroes, Stephen Roche. Another, Sean Kelly, was world number one from 1984 to 1988. There's an enormous number of golf courses here too, with major championships like the Irish Open in July. Both tourist boards produce information on where you can play and have details of holiday packages and accommodation.

Naturally, as this is an island, there are innumerable opportunities for sea angling and hundreds of lakes and rivers for fishing of the fly and game varieties. In general, the best of the sea angling takes place on the south and west coasts and Bord Fáilte can help with information. The high spot of the fly-fishing season is the emergence of the mayfly around mid-May when anglers flock to the best brown trout spots such as: Lower Lough Erne, Co. Fermanagh; Lough Derg, Co. Clare and the Corrib system, Co. Galway. There are plenty of other possibilities, however, and, again the tourist boards can assist.

The relatively sheltered waters of the east coast see most of the sailing activity, especially in Dublin Bay and further south around Arklow and Wexford, though there are excellent opportunities, too, in West Cork and on Lough Derg, Co. Clare. The south and southwest are most popular for cruising, though the Cork coast offers many possibilities for yachting. The rougher waters of the west coast restrict the options to the areas more protected from the elements, such as Galway Bay or Killybegs, Co. Donegal. On the north coast, Lough Swilly is increasingly popular, while on the other side of the border, there are numerous boating possibilities on Strangford Lough. For further information contact the Irish Sailing Association (tel 01/280 0239). Inland waterways also offer canoeing , ranging from touring to rough- and white-water racing.

Wind-surfing and water-skiing are usually possible wherever there are good sailing waters and there are some fabulous beaches for board-surfing . Some of the best are: Barleycove beach, Co. Cork; Inch Strand and Castlegregory beach on, respectively, the south and north sides of the Dingle Peninsula. Further north, Easky, Co. Sligo offers perhaps the best of the lot, though Bundoran and Rossnowlagh beaches, Co. Donegal are close contenders. The Northern Ireland coast between Castlerock, Co. Derry and Portrush, Co. Antrim attracts hordes of board fanatics.

Situated in the path of the Gulf Stream, there are stupendous opportunities for diving off the Irish coast, from protected harbours for beginners to rocky cliff faces for the more experienced. There are plenty of places where you can learn to dive too. The Irish Underwater Council can provide details of clubs and courses (tel 01/284 4601).

The Ulster Way was the first waymarked walking trail in Ireland and it's still the longest, running a 560-mile circuit of Northern Ireland and linked to trails from Donegal and Cavan. If you don't fancy the complete trek, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board publishes information on specific shorter walks, and the route guides published by the Sports Council for Northern Ireland at House of Sport, Upper Malone Road, Belfast BT9 5LA (tel 028/9038 1222) are also useful. A variety of similar trails now exist in the Republic, ranging from walks through glens and mountains, such as the Wicklow Way, or around entire peninsulas, like the Beara and Dingle Ways. Although the walks are waymarked, you'll always need a good map as a standby. Local tourist offices and councils have produced map guides for some of the ways, as has East West Mapping, Ballyredmond, Clonegal, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford (tel 054/77835), which also sells trail guidebooks. These walks are maintained in the south by the National Waymarked Ways Committee (tel 662 1444, walsha@entemp.irlgov.ie ) who can give advice on which routes to take, while Bord Fáilte's publication Walking Ireland is a handy introduction to easier walks in the country.

Though Ireland's mountain ranges are not especially high, there are numerous opportunities for rock-climbing , expecially in Counties Cork and Kerry - the latter's Macgillycuddy's Reeks make up for their lack of height by spectacular settings. To the east, the Wicklow Mountains are hugely popular, while the craggy splendour and coastal setting of the Mourne Mountains in Co. Down are hard to beat. The Mountaineering Council of Ireland (tel 01/450 7376, www.mountaineering.ie ) publishes a Web site, a magazine, Irish Mountain Log, plus a number of guides and offers advice on a variety of peaks.

The number of rare species visiting Ireland makes the country a birdwatching paradise. Again, the tourist boards can provide details, as can the National Parks and Wildlife Service (tel 01/661 3111), and the Irish Wildbird Conservancy (tel 01/280 4322). In the North a good contact is the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (tel 028/9049 1547) while Birdwatch Northern Ireland has been established specifically to assist north-bound ornithologists (tel 028/9069 3232). Useful Web sites relating to birdwatching in Ireland include www.indigo.ie/~hutch/birdmap.html and www.geocities.com/rainforest/2801 .

Oscar Wilde once sighed to Yeats that "we Irish have done nothing, but we are the greatest talkers since the Greeks"; Samuel Beckett claimed that Irish writers had been "buggered into existence by the English army and the Roman pope". Irish writing has always flouted and challenged, experimented and fantasized, from the great anti-novel, Joyce's Ulysses , to what some see as the great anti-play, Beckett's Waiting for Godot . Much Irish writing concerns the dysfunction of real life, but this is usually laced with wild, fantastical and spiritual imaginings; one of the country's great contemporary novelists, Patrick McCabe, claims, in a typical Irish inversion, this should be deemed "social fantastic" not "poetic realism". Authors from Swift to Roddy Doyle present us with the conflict between high ideals and sordid reality, a conflict captured by Beckett when he claimed he wanted to "sit around, scratch my arse and think of Dante." Tension has also come from writing in a language that belongs, essentially, to another tradition. This is most clearly articulated by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney who sees the conflict between his folk background, what he deems "hearth culture", and expressing himself in poetry, the most formal genre in English, as the central dynamic in his work. Thus any study of Irish literature must begin with an examination of the folk culture and tradition to which Irish writers belong.