Last Friday John A Murphy, Emeritus Professor of Irish History at UCC, presided over the launch of As Others Saw Us: Cork through European Eyes (The Collins Press). This anthology is edited by Dr Grace Neville of UCC and Dr Joachim Fischer of the University of Limerick, assisted by a flurry of translators and, although without an index, providing an essential biography of each contributor.

The aim was to "broaden out the debate and to refract the image of the city of Cork through the lens of foreign language visitors". Accompanied by page-by-page translations, most of the texts are in French or German (with a few Dutch entries).

There is no British material in the collection, as the focus was on less easily accessible texts. The editors perhaps found discrimination a little difficult, with the result that some accounts are too long, although the quality of the material compensates. For local readers the book has an extra resonance: the references to people, places and conditions which we know have changed, or disappeared altogether, can induce a mild melancholy.

This however should be lifted by the appearance, last Thursday, of Serving A City (The Collins Press); this comprehensive history of Cork's English Market is the work of brothers Donal and Diarmuid Ó Drisceoil and traces the fortunes of a unique retail experience from its beginnings in 1788 to its present cosmopolitan fame.