This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. Ireland appears to be in the process of a remarkable social change, a process which has dramatically reversed a hitherto seemingly unstoppable economic decline. This exciting new book systematically scrutinises the interpretations and prescriptions that inform the 'Celtic Tiger'. Takes the standpoint that a more critical approach to the course of development being followed by the Republic is urgently required. Sets out to expose the fallacies that drive the fashionable rhetoric of Tigerhood. An esteemed list of contributors deal with issues such as immigration, the role of women, globalisation, and changing economic and social conditions.

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

This collection of essays aims to provide new insights into the debate on postnationalism in Ireland from the perspective of narrative writing.

Accompanying DVD is a videorecording of the television program produced by Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Paul Wagner Productions in association with Radio Telefís Éireann, and originally broadcast in 2004.

Offering a comprehensive guide to economical travel in diverse regions of the world, these innovative new versions of the popular handbooks feature an all-new look, sidebars highlighting essential tips and facts, information on a wide range of itineraries, transportation options, off-the-beaten-path adventures, expanded lodging and dining options in every price range, additional nightlife options, enhanced cultural coverage, shopping tips, maps, 3-D topographical maps, regional culinary specialties, cost-cutting tips, and other essentials.

This book is the first sustained attempt to incorporate critical scholarship and thought at the cutting edge of contemporary geography, history and archaeology into the burgeoning field of Irish heritage studies. It seeks to illustrate the validity of multiple depictions of the Irish past, showing how scrutiny of heritage practices and meanings is so essential for illuminating our understanding of the present. Examining Ireland's heritages from a critical perspective that celebrates notions of heterogeneity and uniqueness, the distinguished contributors to this book scrutinise the multiplicity of complex relations between heritage, history, memory, commemoration, economy, and cultural identity within various historical, geographical and archaeological contexts. Using several examples and case studies, this book raises issues not only from a uniquely Irish perspective, but also investigates the memorialisation and marketing of the Irish past in overseas locations such as the USA and Australia.

Roy Foster is one of Ireland's leading historians, the author of the much acclaimed two-volume biography of Yeats as well as the definitive history Modern Ireland, which has been hailed as "dazzling" (New York Times Book Review) and "elegant, erudite, wise, witty" (Irish Times). Now, this brilliant writer offers a "short and combative" account of Ireland's astonishing transformation over the last three decades. Has there really been an "economic miracle"? Where does the explosion of cultural energy in music, literature, and theater come from? Has the power of the Catholic Church really crumbled? Focusing largely on contemporary events, living people, current controversies, and popular culture, Luck and the Irish explores these questions and raises other provocative questions of its own. Foster looks at the astonishing volte-face undertaken by Sinn Fein, eventually taking office in a state they had once fought to destroy. He describes how Catholicism, once the bedrock of Irish identity, has been decisively compromised, as evidenced by the exploitation and abuse scandals and the drastic decline in devotions. 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. Many old molds have been broken in Irish society over the last 30 years, and the immediate results have been breath-taking. But are these developments really as permanent or even as beneficial as they appear? Everyone curious about the recent past, the burgeoning present, and the unclear future of Ireland will want to read this superbly written and deeply thoughtful book.

This new anthology brings together the most diverse and recent voices in postcolonial theory to emerge since 9/11, alongside classic texts in established areas of postcolonial studies. Brings fresh insight and renewed political energy to established domains such as nation, history, literature, and gender Engages with contemporary concerns such as globalization, digital cultures, neo-colonialism, and language debates Includes wide geographical coverage – from Ireland and India to Israel and Palestine Provides uniquely broad coverage, offering a full sense of the tradition, including significant essays on science, technology and development, education and literacy, digital cultures, and transnationalism Edited by a distinguished postcolonial scholar, this insightful volume serves scholars and students across multiple disciplines from literary and cultural studies, to anthropology and digital studies

This book deals with the process of negotiation with the past in the present through the plays of Marina Carr. The title frames the work, connoting the path towards destruction and the sense of lethargy acquired along the way. The book offers an in-depth and extensive reading of Carr's plays. In doing so, it surveys some of the destructive issues represented in the works and provides a series of social and cultural contexts to which the concerns in the works are related. Carr is best known for her trilogy, The Mai, Portia Coughlan and By the Bog of Cats..., and more recently Woman and Scarecrow, The Cordelia Dream and Marble. The plays are regularly concerned with notions of identity in the context of self-destruction, self-estrangement and displacement. This book applies Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection to Carr's plays in an effort to structure the loss the author identifies in the works. Themes of memory, history and myth are examined in the context of these concerns in provocative and confrontational ways.

In international commentary and debate on the effects of the Great Recession and austerity, Ireland has been hailed as the poster child for economic recovery and regeneration out of deep economic and fiscal contraction. While the genesis of Ireland's financial, economic, and fiscal crisis has been covered in the literature, no systematic analysis has yet been devoted to the period of austerity, to the impact of austerity on institutions and people, or to the roots of economic recovery. In this book a group of Ireland's leading social scientists present a multidisciplinary analysis of recession and austerity and their effects on economic, business, political, and social life. Individual chapters discuss the fiscal and economic policies implemented, the role of international, and, in particular, of EU institutions, and the effects on businesses, consumption, work, the labour market, migration, political and financial institutions, social inequality and cohesion, housing, and cultural expression. The book shows that Ireland cannot be viewed uncritically as a poster child for austerity. While fiscal contraction provided a basis for stabilizing the perilous finances of the state, economic recovery was due in the main to the long-established structure of Irish economic and business activity, to the importance of foreign direct investment and the dynamic export sector, and to recovery in the international economy. The restructuring and recovery of the financial system was aided by favourable international developments, including historically low interest rates and quantitative easing. Migration flows, nominal wage stability, the protection of social transfer payments, and the involvement of trade unions in severe public sector retrenchment - long-established features of Irish political economy - were of critical importance in the maintenance of social cohesion.