The Merriman Summer School, which was first held in Ennis, Co. Clare in 1968, has become an Irish institution with a well-earned reputation for its unique mixture of scholarship and conviviality. The 2004 Summer School theme, "Orthodoxies and Heresies: The New Ireland and its Sacred Cows", was timely as it explored a new and confident Ireland that has rejected many of its established orthodoxies and replaced them with ideas and beliefs that were earlier frequently regarded as heresies. Inevitably, the new orthodoxies will be challenged and the spiral of cut, thrust, debate and challenge will continue. Although religion is the field primarily associated with the orthodoxy/heresy dilemma, it is not the only one in which hard and polarised positions exist. Papers delivered at the 2004 Summer School touched on such diverse areas as health care, gender, culture, sport, ageing - and James Joycel