This book is a window on a new aspect of the Irish experience. It is one small thread in the multicultural tapestry that is Ireland today. The Irish emigrant experience of old is a fading memory but as the poems and paintings in this volume attest to, the experiences that are exile and renewal remain as perennial as human nature itself. We, who were once shoeless, now search bewildered for the second and third pair - so that we can tap the new rhythm and dance the new dance. I ndeireadh na dala, nil ach cine amhain ann agus sin an cine daonna.