Contemporary Irish Studies – serie

'As one would expect in a book written by authors of such varied outlook, no single vision emerges. But some fascinating material does.' Times Literary Supplement‘The breadth of material considered by the contributors to Who Are ‘The People’? provides an excellent introduction to the way in which the broad identity of Ulster Loyalism is underpinned by gender and class, expressed in work as well as social environments, and voiced through religious allusion as well as political rhetoric.’ Irish Studies Review'It confronts all the issues you're not supposed to raise in polite company. Read it and you'll have to revise many of your prejudices, while having one or two confirmed.' Camden New Journal

Recent developments in Irish literature are largely ignored in existing critical texts on Irish culture. This is the first study to make a detailed examination of the new novelists and themes emerging in the genre, as well as covering the foundations of contemporary Irish fiction. Gerry Smyth provides a broad overview of the forms and theories that comprise the traditional Irish novel and explores the ways in which modern writers challenge established notions of Irish fiction. Focusing on the work of leading contemporary Irish writers – including Roddy Doyle, Glenn Patterson, Emma Donoghue and Patrick McCabe – Smyth employs innovative techniques in his analysis, such as the relevance of post-colonial theory to Irish literature, and the links between literature and wider cultural and political developments. Also included is a previously unpublished interview with Roddy Doyle.

This book investigates the role of literary criticism in the process of Irish decolonisation since the late eighteenth century, with special emphasis on the 1950s. Drawing on the work of both Irish and international commentators – including Edward Said, David Lloyd, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Luke Gibbons – Gerry Smyth seeks to reconfigure the established relations between literature and criticism. Smyth then sets his analysis against a modular theory of decolonisation based on a reading of Irish history from the perspective of contemporary postcolonial and post-structural theory. Engaging with debates in a number of current fields, Decolonisation and Criticism challenges many assumptions and practices of Irish literary history.

This is a critical overview of the various sources of social and political identity in Northern Ireland. The book examines the key variables of sociology - status, class and gender and, in this case, ethno-religion - and explains why ethno-religious sentiment has become the principle source of political identity. A range of themes are covered: the role and status of women; the representations of the conflict and peace process in the media; sport; and the importance of popular music.

One of the poorest states in the European Union during the 1980s, the Republic of Ireland's economy has grown rapidly in the 1990s, despite an overwhelming dependence on foreign capital. Echoing the 'tiger' economies of East Asia, this has led many to dub Ireland the Celtic Tiger. In this original critique by one of Ireland's leading writers on economics, Denis O'Hearn sets Ireland's economic success in an international context and contrasts and compares its growth with the other 'tiger' economies. O'Hearn addresses some difficult but crucial questions, such as whether Ireland's apparent success is self-sustaining and what lessons can be learned from the downturn of the comparable East Asian economies. The study focuses on the importance for Ireland's rising economy of three US-led industrial sectors: computers, electrical engineering and pharmaceuticals. O'Hearn assesses who benefits and who loses from such foreign capital-led growth – in the context of working conditions, poverty, consumption and inequality – and argues that the country's apparently significant economic achievements are dominated by growth in corporate profits and professional incomes, but that there is no evidence, as yet, of 'trickle-down' to other sectors.

This book is a detailed analysis of policing in Northern Ireland. Tracing its history from 1922, Ellison and Smyth portray the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) as an organisation burdened by its past as a colonial police force. They analyse its perceived close relationship with unionism and why, for many nationalists, the RUC embodied the problem of the legitimacy of Northern Ireland, arguing that decisions made on the organisation, composition and ideology of policing in the early years of the state had consequences which went beyond the everyday practice of policing. Examining the reorganisations of the RUC in the 1970s and 1980s, Ellison and Smyth focus on the various structural, legal and ideological components, the professionalisation of the force and the development of a coherent, if contradictory, ideology.

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 neoliberal 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.

Of all the grave crises in Northern Ireland's history, the events of Bloody Sunday are perhaps the most notorious. The subject of an independent inquiry that is the longest and most expensive the British government has ever undertaken, this yet to be resolved issue continues to be one of the most significant events in the recent history of the Troubles. This book tackles the subject from a new angle that covers both the political and psychological aspects of what happened. Based on extensive interviews with families whose relatives were killed by British soldiers, it is a record of the trauma that they have suffered. Setting Bloody Sunday in social, political and historical contexts, the authors examine the events of the day itself, the aftermath, and the relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder, grief, mourning and storytelling. They conclude with accounts about state and community responses to the trauma, and the impact and implications of the Saville Inquiry, which has allowed family members to express publicly their stories about the events of Bloody Sunday.