Two book fairs are being held on opposite sides of the same street in Dublin next Monday. The Boro Book Fair opens at 10 a.m. in the Masonic Hall, Molesworth Street, and it is expected to have in the region of 25 booksellers offering thousands of publications, prints maps and other ephemera.

Of particular interest will be a number of rare histories being offered by Davidson Books of Co Down, including Cusack's History of Cork (dating from 1875), Gordon's two volume History of Ireland (1806) and Fitzgerald and McGregors 1826 History of Limerick, again in two volumes with plates.

Over at Buswell's Hotel, again starting at 10 a.m., the Dublin Book Fair ought to draw the usual substantial attendance. Now in its 15th year, the fair includes a stand by De Burca Rare Books of Blackrock, which is exhibiting four first editions of plays for young people written and published by Jack B Yeats; the earliest of these, Jack Flannery, dates from 1901.

P & B Rowan of Belfast is offering an early printed description of the natural history, geography, geology and climate of this country, Ireland's Natural History by Gerald Bonte, which dates from 1652. The same booksellers will also be selling an eyewitness account of the famine period, Mrs West's A Summer Visit to Ireland in 1846.