An Irish Blessing: A Photographic Interpretation

People around the world who become sentimental recalling the rolling, green hills of Ireland, will want to glimpse the unique perspective of the Emerald Isle in Cyril and Renee Reilly's An Irish Blessing, a photographic interpretation illuminating the classic Irish Blessing. Full-color photographs adorn each phrase of this treasure of Irish wisdom, lovingly decorating its pages with breathtaking images of the country and its people. Moved by the phrasing of the "Irish Blessing" at a Catholic Mass, Renee Reilly, a former art professor at Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, immediately imagined a book illustrating the blessings of rain, light, and earth. Cyril Reilly, a former English professor at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, took every photograph in a poetic tradition, capturing the raw, powerful beauty of the coast and the lush landscape of the countryside as a visual accompaniment to the famous phrases. Both third-generation Irish-Americans, the Reillys have long felt a kinship with the Irish sense of humor, love of elaborate yarns, and good "craic" (fun). They photographed An Irish Blessing in villages where their whims carried them, experiencing the culture up-close, encountering everyone from a 90-year-old Irish-speaking grandmother to a young boy tending sheep. A warmly photographed gift book for any occasion, "An Irish Blessing" gleams like a gem in the eyes of anyone who feels a connection to the Emerald Isle.