Abstract

A decade ago, with its economy and cultural confidence surging, and with new political alignments possible in the North, Ireland seemed to have ‘arrived’ on the world stage by conventional measures of success. Yet the recent financial storms and accompanying social pressures are a reminder of the challenges as well as the opportunities of leaving behind old certainties and becoming ‘global’. It has equally meant reappraising values, attitudes and practices seemingly consigned to the past, and questioning the verities that have driven the heady but uneven transformation of modern Ireland. This volume explores the Irish experience, both within the contemporary period and over a much longer historical span, as a process of discovery and unpredictable encounter, dislocation and complex connectedness, of navigating between ‘here’ and ‘elsewhere’. In keeping with the multi- and interdisciplinary character of EFACIS, this volume features papers drawn from the fields of history, literature, politics, film studies, cultural geography, diaspora studies, economics, social sciences and visual culture.