Reinventing Ireland: Culture, Society and the Global Economy (Contemporary Irish Studies)

Over the 1990s the Irish economy 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 volume challenge the largely positive interpretation of Ireland's changing social order. It identifies the ways in which culture and society have been made subservient to the needs of the market in this neo-liberal Ireland. It draws on subversive strands in Irish history and offers 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.