Health services are at the top of the public and political agenda in Ireland. They dominate media coverage, incite passion and protests, and either enable or prevent people from living longer, healthier lives. Yet much of the rhetoric and discussion is confused; much of the spin inaccurate. Most people are unable to understand why the Irish health system is the way it is. This book demystifies and explains health services in Ireland. Going beyond the political rhetoric and media hysteria, it provides an understanding of this byzantine, unequal, dysfunctional system. The book exposes the apartheid that characterizes healthcare in Ireland, drawing on ordinary people's experiences, interviews with health professionals, and policy documents. Irish Apartheid should be required reading for policymakers, politicians, and health professionals.

'Young shopworkers on Henry Street in Dublin, who in 1984 refused to handle the fruits of apartheid, provided me with great hope during my years of imprisonment, and inspiration to millions of South Africans.' Nelson Mandela Dunnes Stores cashier Mary Manning knew little about apartheid when, at the age of twenty-one, she refused to register the sale of two Outspan South African grapefruits under a directive from her union. She was suspended and nine of her co-workers walked out in support. They all assumed they would shortly return to work. But theirs were kindling voices, on the cusp of igniting a mass movement they couldn't even imagine. Despite harassment from the Gardaí and disparagement from the Irish government and even the Catholic Church, they refused to be silenced. Within months they were embroiled in a dispute that captured the world's attention. In this searing account, Mary tells the extraordinary story of their public fight for justice, as well as her emotive journey of discovery into her family's past. Mary's mother had been forced to carry a secret burden of shame for her whole life by the same oppressive establishment Mary was fighting. Striking Back is a provocative and inspiring story that epitomises the resilience of hope and the human spirit, even under the most formidable of circumstances. It shows that each of us has the power to change the world.

In the twenty years after Ireland joined the UN in 1955, one subject dominated its fortunes: Africa. The first detailed study of Ireland’s relationship with that continent, this book documents its special place in Irish history. Adopting a highly original, and strongly comparative approach, it shows how small and middling powers like Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands and the Nordic states used Africa to shape their position in the international system, and how their influence waned with the rise of the Afro-Asian bloc. O’Sullivan chronicles Africa’s impact on Irish foreign policy; the link between African decolonisation and Irish post-colonial identity; and the missionaries, aid workers, diplomats, peacekeepers, and anti-apartheid protesters at the heart of Irish popular understanding of the developing world. Offering a fascinating account of small state diplomacy, and a unique perspective on African decolonisation, this book provides essential insight for scholars of Irish history, African history, international relations, and the history of NGOs, as well as anyone interested in Africa’s important place in the Irish public imagination.

This book explores the global history of anti-apartheid and international solidarity with southern African freedom struggles from the 1960s. It examines the institutions, campaigns and ideological frameworks that defined the globalization of anti-apartheid, the ways in which the concept of solidarity was mediated by individuals, organizations and states, and considers the multiplicity of actors and interactions involved in generating and sustaining anti-apartheid around the world. It includes detailed accounts of key case studies from Europe, Asia, and Latin America, which illustrate the complex relationships between local and global agendas, as well as the diverse political cultures embodied in anti-apartheid. Taken together, these examples reveal the tensions and synergies, transnational webs and local contingencies that helped to create the sense of ‘being global’ that united worldwide anti-apartheid campaigns.

Ireland's History provides an introduction to Irish history that blends a scholarly approach to the subject, based on recent research and current historiographical perspectives, with a clear and accessible writing style. All the major themes in Irish history are covered, from prehistoric times right through to present day, from the emergence of Celtic Christianity after the fall of the Roman Empire, to Ireland and the European Union, secularism and rapprochement with the United Kingdom. By avoiding adopting a purely nationalistic perspective, Kenneth Campbell offers a balanced approach, covering not only social and economic history, but also political, cultural, and religious history, and exploring the interconnections among these various approaches. This text will encourage students to think critically about the past and to examine how a study of Irish history might inform and influence their understanding of history in general.

Histories of the Irish Future is an intellectual history of Ireland and a history of Irish crises viewed through the eyes of twelve key writers: William Petty, William Molyneux, Edmund Burke, Thomas Malthus, Richard Whately, Friedrich Engels, John Mitchel, James Connolly, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Jeremiah Newman, Conor Cruise O'Brien and Fintan O'Toole. Their analyses of the shifting conditions of Ireland and their efforts to address Ireland's predicaments are located within the wider social, political, economic and cultural anxieties of their times. The result is a pioneering interdisciplinary contribution to modern Irish history and Irish Studies that will appeal to students of politics, economic history, and philosophy.

'This true account of the traumatised memory of the people of the townships of Vaal is a meticulously written, moving account of the groundbreaking events that dramatically accelerated the downfall of apartheid.' (Publisher)

"In an eloquent and haunting book, O'Malley makes the fanaticism of [the hunger strikers] and their supporters, the obdurate and morally discredited tactics of the British Government and the hopeless combat of the Protestant and Roman Catholic factions in the Northern Ireland struggle explicable, and exposes the politics behind it."--The New York Times Book Review

For much of the twentieth century, Ireland has been synonymous with conflict, the painful struggle for its national soul part of the regular fabric of life. And because the Irish have emigrated to all parts of the world--while always remaining Irish--"the troubles" have become part of a common heritage, well beyond their own borders. In most accounts of Irish history, the focus is on the political rivalry between Unionism and Republicanism. But the roots of the Irish conflict are profoundly and inescapably religious. As Marcus Tanner shows in this vivid, warm, and perceptive book, only by understanding the consequences over five centuries of the failed attempt by the English to make Ireland into a Protestant state can the pervasive tribal hatreds of today be seen in context. Tanner traces the creation of a modern Irish national identity through the popular resistance to imposed Protestantism and the common defense of Catholicism by the Gaelic Irish and the Old English of the Pale, who settled in Ireland after its twelfth-century conquest. The book is based on detailed research into the Irish past and a personal encounter with today's Ireland, from Belfast to Cork. Tanner has walked with the Apprentice Boys of Derry and explored the so-called Bandit Country of South Armagh. He has visited churches and religious organizations across the thirty-two counties of Ireland, spoken with priests, pastors, and their congregations, and crossed and re-crossed the lines that for centuries have isolated the faiths of Ireland and their history.