Every country needs one: an integrated, detailed and readable account of its geology. For over a quarter of a century, Charles Holland's book and its forerunners have filled this publishing niche for the island of Ireland. The book was first published in 1981 by Scottish Academic Press as A Geology of Ireland, then rewritten and expanded for 2001 as the more assertive The Geology of Ireland, published by Dunedin. It is impressive to see a new edition published only eight years later, particularly as, once again, it is a substantially altered volume.
The organization of the volume broadly follows that of the first edition, with fifteen chronological chapters preceded by an introduction and followed by chapters on offshore geology, onshore geophysical evidence, and the history of Irish geology. There has been some tinkering with the chapter order and scope. The Ordovician of the north is now dealt with separately from that of southern Ireland, and – a little uncomfortably – before the chapter on the Grampian Orogeny. The chapters on late Caledonian orogeny and magmatism are combined. The onshore geophysics chapter moves from before the Cenozoic material to after the Holocene chapter.
There have also been changes in chapter authorship. Ian Sanders acts as co-editor with Charles Holland, and as a co-author on the introduction and geophysics chapters. David Chew takes over the Grampian and late Caledonian orogenies formerly described by Adrian Phillips. Chris Stillman helps John Graham with the southern Ordovician. Mike Simms takes over the Permian and Mesozoic and Steve McCarron joins Peter Coxon on the Tertiary and Quaternary. Richard Bradshaw's separate Holocene chapter has been taken over by Fraser Mitchell, and Pat Shannon partners David Naylor on the offshore geology. All the authors are from Irish institutions and, as in previous editions, the strong majority are from Trinity College Dublin. This local expertise gives a reassuringly authoritative flavour to the whole book.
The degree of revision of chapters from the first edition is naturally quite variable. Sampling of their new content suggests that most have been brought adequately up to date, for instance with citations to recent literature. The level of detail in the text makes it a useful reference source for the professional geologist, whilst still being accessible to university students and informed amateur geologists. More obvious than the revision of the text in this edition is the redrafting of most of the diagrams in colour and the colour replacement of the monochrome photos. This change certainly makes the book more visually appealing.
With this new edition, The Geology of Ireland continues as a valuable companion to the stylistically similar ‘The Geology of . . .’ volumes on Scotland and on England & Wales published by the Geological Society of London. There is, however, a sizeable contrast in price: the Dunedin Irish volume is one-and-a-half times the cost of the Geological Society volumes in hardback and two-and-a-half times the cost in paperback. Hopefully this high cost will not markedly affect sales of a book that deserves to be widely used.
