REINVENTING IRELAND (Contemporary Irish Studies)

Over the last decade the Irish economy has experienced a period of unprecedented growth which has earned it the title Celtic Tiger. This success has been interpreted by academic commentators as marking a social and cultural transformation, what some have called the reinvention of Ireland. The essays in this book challenge the largely positive interpretation of Ireland's changing social order. The authors identify the ways in which culture and society have been made subservient to the needs of the market in this new neo-liberal Ireland. They draw on subversive strands in Irish history and offer a broader and more robust understanding of culture as a site of resistance to the dominant social order and as a political means to fashion an alternative future.