The six women whose stories are recounted here are ‘terrible’ in the sense that, rightly or wrongly, many people were terrified of them. Whether they were good or bad in a moral sense I leave to those qualified to decide – or better still, to the individual listener!

What is certain is that they were all remarkable in their own way and have been, accordingly, remembered down the generations.

Eddie Lenihan turns for the first time away from his own stories and back to the traditional tales on which his own were based. However, while the stories are from the telling of others, they are not mere slavish reproductions. Each one, while staying with the traditional format, is invested with Lenihan?s native wit, and is told in a warm and original way. Vol 2: Six traditional stories form Clare and the Aran Islands, told by a master storyteller. Some are specifically Irish, while others have analogous versions in many countries. All of them are told sincerely, with wit and humour.