Did you know that the Mounties were founded by an Irishman? That St. Valentine's bones are kept in a church in Dublin? That Christopher Columbus was inspired to discover the New World by a story that he heard in Galway? Or that the IRA gang which raided an Essex armoury loaded their getaway van so heavily that they were overtaken by the local bobby on his bicycle?

All is revealed in this new collection of amusing, amazing and arcane facts relating to Ireland and the Irish.