Well now, I happen to think the above review is quite fair. And it does say that the CDs are the real treasure here, especially considering the faults of the book. I have them, and have spent far more time listening to the CDs than I have reading the book, as I agree with Fred McCormick's asssessment that considering how close the author was to the source and the community, we didn't learn that much about them at all, that can't be gleaned from other sources. But those are really trifling criticisms. The CDs are well worth the purchase price of the book, which is also an interesting read, particularly if you don't have much background on the singing tradition. Though if it is background on the singing tradition you're after, there are better sources. Sorta circular.

But I wanted to also mention that if you are interested in this woman's body of work, you should also have the CD and booklet "Roise na nAmhran: Songs of a Donegal Woman on RTE. The tapes to this one were remastered by Harry Bradshaw, and the liner notes and transcriptions were done by Cathal Goan, who works now for TnaG, and who married into the family, so knows the subject pretty well.