Introduction : After Ireland? --

Beckett's inner exile --

Interchapter : A neutral Ireland? --

'Gaeldom is over' : The bell --

A talking corpse? : Sáirséal agus Dill --

A parrot in Ringsend : Máire Mhac an tSaoi --

Growing up absurd : Edna O'Brien and The country girls --

Frank O'Connor : a mammy's boy --

Interchapter : Secularization --

Richard Power and The hungry grass --

Interchapter : Emigration --

Emigration once again : Friel's Philadelphia --

Interchapter : Northern troubles --

Seamus Heaney : the death of ritual and the ritual of death --

Interchapter : Europeanization --

The art of science : Banville's Doctor Copernicus --

The double vision of Michael Hartnett --

Brian Friel's Faith healer --

Theatre as opera : The Gigli concert --

Frank McGuinness and Observe the sons --

Derek Mahon's lost worlds --

Interchapter : Irish language --

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill : Pharaoh's daughter --

Interchapter : Women's movement --

Eavan Boland : Outside history --

John McGahern's Amongst women --

Between first and third world : Friel's Lughnasa --

Roddy Doyle : Paddy Clarke ha ha ha --

Interchapter : Peace comes dropping slow --

Seamus Deane : Reading in the dark --

Reading Éilis Ní Dhuibhne --

Making history : Joseph O'Connor --

Fallen nobility : McGahern's Rising sun --

Conor McPherson : The seafarer --

Claire Keegan : Foster --

Kate Thompson and The new policeman --

Conclusion. Going global?