McCourt's breezy history covers the story of the Emerald Isle from Pics and Celtic origins through Viking, Norman and Tudor conquests and towering figures from Yeats, Joyce, Beckett, the great patriot Michael Collins, historian Conor Cruise O'Brien, Gerry Adams, Bertie Ahern and . . . Bono. Rich in anecdote and biography, McCourt may not break new ground but he sure knows how to tell a tale.  (IRE233, $15.95)