Among the most admired of Desmond O'Grady's many poetry collections, The Wandering Celt was first published in 2001 and has been unavailable for some years. A work of enormous ambition and scholarship, the book sees O'Grady trace the history and movements of the Celts, from the creation of paper to their continuing influence on contemporary Europe, on the way touching on the Semites, Greeks, Romans and Arabs among others, and including an entire new translation of The Song of Songs.DESMOND O'GRADY was born in Limerick in 1935 and has travelled extensively, living in Paris and Rome, and in America where he took his M.A. and PhD. in Celtic Languages and Literatures and Comparative Studies at Harvard University. He has also taught at the American University in Cairo and at the University of Alexandria. His most recent books from Dedalus are On My Way (2005) and the reissue of his Ten Modern Arab Poets (2007), first published in 1992. Desmond O'Grady is a member of Aosdána,