This inspiring anthology presents a wide-ranging selection of Irish women's letters, from that of St Brigid, who founded a renowned monastery in the fifth century, up to the late twentieth century. These letters, intimate and personal, and written by women from every conceivable background - the big houses of the Anglo-Irish gentry, small farms scattered throughout the Irish countryside, urban slums, middle-class houses in cities, and Irish emigrants abroad - offer us an unusual insight into the reality of Irish women's lives through the centuries, the concerns they felt, their sorrows and joys, their friendships, their thoughts on art and politics, and their love for both kin and country. Expressing pathos, and sometimes despair, the letters also show an often indomitable humour.