It's a diverse group of characters who populate "Great Irish Heroes" by Danny Conlon and Alan Barter. But this book shows that you can go a bit too far in trying to tap into the vast Irish-American reading market. The authors manage to find room for Michael Collins and Tom Barry, but also Billy the Kid, President Teddy Roosevelt (some of whose distant ancestors came from Antrim in 1729) and even all the residents of the Great Blasket Island. To some readers the authors' loose, even random definition of "Irish" (or for that matter "hero") may be a bit excessive. Still, if one entry falls flat, there's another just a few pages away. A broader problem with this book is its jumbled layout, which features written entries for some figures, but mere photographs and captions for others. This is quite a slapdash effort, but at least the authors include great Irish writers, singers and artists as well as rebels and U.S. presidents. ($13.95 / 234 pages / Trafalgar Square)