College histories tend, by their nature, to be uninspiring accounts of buildings, student activities and personal stories of some notable past pupils. It takes an unusual combination of factors to make such publications interesting to readers other than those immediately connected with the establishment. John Cunningham's history of St Jarlath's achieves that aim - with this unconnected reviewer, at least. But then Jarlath's seems to have been an unusual college - from its inapposite birth as a "prepastory school for Maynooth" with the permission of the Protestant Archbishop of Tuam, through its role as a Catholic diocesan college, to become "a place where a young gentleman may become schooled in all the essentials of a polished and useful education". In pursuit of that, the curriculum included Latin, Greek, Logic, Metaphysics, Elocution and Belles Lettres among many other subjects. Discipline was strict - in the early years two students were excommunicated for attending a duel (they were later reprieved), while a future canon was "drastically punished" for playing marbles - in the study hall, it must be added. That was then. Now Jarlath's boasts a record of students prowess in exams and on the playing fields and is clearly a well-loved institution. John Cunningham has done the place a well-deserved honour with this book.