this book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th international symposium on solving irregularly structured problems in parallel, irregular98, held in berkeley, california, in august 1998.the 26 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion from several dozen submissions. also included are abstracts of four invited talks and 6 invited presentations given during minisymposia held in parallel. the book presents a unique overview on algorithmic, applicational, and systems aspects arising in the development of efficient parallel solutions to irregularly structured problems.