Recent sociological and cultural narratives have suggested that there exists a current «crisis» in masculinity. This crisis has been explained and defined in many ways; it is a burgeoning sense of victimised identity in reaction to the feminist movement, a confused response to the complex and contradictory narratives of contemporary masculine identities, or traditional masculine working practices and behaviour being eroded by modern consumer societies . The purpose of this book is to locate this sense of crisis within Irish contexts, fill a current gap in academic discourse surrounding literary, theatrical and cinematic depictions of Irish masculinity, and discuss how fictional representations of masculinity and maleness in contemporary Ireland have addressed, explored and discussed images of men in states of anxiety, crisis and chaos.
