Ireland is suffering from a crisis of authority. Catholic Church scandals, political corruption, and economic collapse have shaken the Irish people's faith in their institutions and thrown the nation's struggle for independence into question. While Declan Kiberd explores how political failures and economic globalization have eroded Irish sovereignty, he also sees a way out of this crisis. After Ireland surveys thirty works by modern writers that speak...

Kiberd argues, in this a collection of his work over 25 years, that political conflict between Ireland and England resulted in cultural confluence and that writing in the Irish language was hugely influenced by the English literary tradition. He also covers Anglo-Irish literature, the fate of the Irish language and the Celtic Tiger.

Explores the lessons that modern readers can draw from Joyce's classic work, revealing how "Ulysses" presents a vision of a more tolerant and decent society in which the seemingly banal hero, Leopold Bloom, represents ordinary wisdom that can offer a model for living.