Book excerpt: From Queen Medbh to Mary McAleese, Constance Markiewicz to Nell McCafferty, this is a collection of profiles of women who have shaped Ireland. For too long when people discuss Irish heroes and important figures, only men have been cited. Mn na hireann addresses that tendency and offers an impressive array of women who have brought change and progress to Ireland. From the mythical era, through the Middle Ages, the Plantation, the Famine, the struggle for independence and the early years of the state, right up to the twenty-first century, Mn na hireann profiles over 50 formidable Irish women.