Ireland has been rated the number one place to live because it successfully combines the most desirable elements of a modern society—the world’s fourth highest GDP per person and low unemployment—with the preservation of certain cozy elements of the old, such as stable family and community life. Michael J. O‘Sullivan presents the globalization of Ireland in a context of international trends in economics, international relations, and politics. His multi-disciplinary approach uncovers many of the weaknesses that lie behind the complacent and clichéd view of the Celtic Tiger. In examining Ireland’s great leap forward from a developing to a postindustrial economy, O‘Sullivan offers valuable lessons to other countries.

Global Ireland offers a concise synthesis of globalization's dramatic impact on Ireland. In the past fifteen years, Ireland has transformed from a sleepy and depressed European backwater to the 'emerald tiger', a country with a booming economy based on knowledge and high-tech industries. Not long ago it was one of the poorest and most traditional countries in Europe, yet now it is one of the wealthiest and most cosmopolitan. Using a number of case studies of Ireland's transition, Tom Inglis explains what this means for traditional Irish culture and society, and offers an incisive social portrait of globalizing Ireland. Concise, descriptive, interdisciplinary and theoretically informed, this volume is an ideal introduction to Ireland.

At the same time, the position of women in Irish society has been transformed, with the growth of feminism, a revolution in sexual attitudes, far more women in the work force, the ascendancy of President Mary Robinson, and the movement of women to front-rank Cabinet posts - all of which have put the position of Irish women ahead of that in many European nations." "Everyone curious about the recent past, the burgeoning present, and the unclear future of Ireland will want to read this book."--BOOK JACKET.

Shows how transnational corporations use lobby groups to shape EU policy. New updated edition

Northern Ireland's Belfast Agreement has faced continual crises of implementation over a variety of security related issues. This book places the implementation of the Belfast Agreement in a wide context to provide an analysis of why implementation has been so difficult.

A collection of essays, many of which have not previously appeared in print, on Irish history and politics, contemporary Irish society and world affairs by twice former Taoiseach and respected columnist Garret Fitzgerald. Also available in paperback. Dr. Garret FitzGerald was twice Taoiseach, from 1981 to 1982 and again from late 1982 to 1987, and was the driving force behind the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. In this extensive collection, including pieces drawn from essays and speeches delivered over the past several years, Dr. FitzGerald examines the emergence of the Irish state, the Northern Ireland question and the position of Ireland in relation to Europe, the US and the wider world. Exhibited in this illuminating collection is the breadth of Dr. FitzGerald's interests, the sheer scope of his expertise and the clarity with which he presented occasionally controversial but always compelling arguments.

What role does the state have over national development within an increasingly globalized economy? Moreover, how do we conceive 'nationality' during periods of rapid economic and social change spurred on by globalization? By examining tourism in the Republic of Ireland over the past 20 years, Michael Clancy addresses these questions of national identity formation, as well as providing a detailed understanding of the political economy of tourism and development. He explores tourism's role in the 'Celtic Tiger' phenomenon and uses tourism as a lens for observing national identity formation in a period of rapid change.

As the BOTOX ECONOMY was laid bare and the financial filler of other people's money became evident, the JAGGERS, JUGGLERS and BONO BOOMERS struggled to maintain their slice of a diminished pie. However the author saw a possible solution to Ireland's quandaries. Taking a trip around the globe from Shanghai to New York, from Latin America to Central Europe, he says we can learn from history and appreciate that Ireland has a unique economic resource: OUR GLOBAL TRIBE. If we exploit the demographic potential of the Diaspora, we can re-invigorate the nation. The prosperity of future Irish generations is based on harnessing the collective power of past generations. This is the global GENERATION GAME.

In the second volume of a series that will ultimately include four, the authors consider Irish diasporic memory and memory practices. While the Irish diaspora has become the subject of a wide range of scholarship, there has been little work focused on its relationship to memory. The first half of the volume asks how diasporic memory functions in different places and times, and what forms it takes on. As an island nation with a history of emigration, Ireland has developed a rich diasporic cultural memory, one that draws on multiple traditions and historiographies of both "home" and "away." Native traditions are not imported wholesale, but instead develop their own curious hybridity, reflecting the nature of emigrant memory that absorbs new ways of thinking about home. How do immigrants remember their homeland? How do descendants of immigrants "remember" a land they rarely visit? How does diasporic memory pass through families, and how is it represented in cultural forms such as literature, festivals, and souvenirs? In its second half, this volume shifts its attention to the concept of "memory practices," ways of cultural remembering that result from and are shaped by particular cultural forms. Many of these cultural forms embody memory materially through language, music, and photography and, because of their distinctive expressions of culture, give rise to distinctive memory practices. Gathering the leading voices in Irish studies, this volume opens new pathways into the body of Irish cultural memory, demonstrating time and again the ways in which memory is supported by the negotiations of individuals within wider cultural contexts. Contributors include: Aidan Arrowsmith, Hasia Diner, Joep Leerssen, Paul Muldoon, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill