From Prosperity to Austerity A Socio-Cultural Critique of the Celtic Tiger and its Aftermath

This collection examines the Celtic Tiger, the Irish economic phenomenon and the subsequent financial disaster, from a socio-cultural perspective.

Employing a wide range of cultural lenses, the book critiques the cultural, political and aesthetic implications of the progression from prosperity to austerity and the impact this has had on the psyche of Irish culture. An eclectic mix of theoretical approaches enables treatment of religion, literature, popular culture, photography, gastronomy, music, gender, immigration and film, as contributors assess how the Celtic Tiger was represented, or misrepresented, in these particular spheres of experience.

This book will be of interest to academics and students who are interested in contemporary Ireland and recent Irish history, as well as to the general reader anxious to understand the effects of this period on the real lives of people as expressed through culture. It features contributions by internationally acknowledged experts in their fields and offers a comprehensive overview of the cultural consequences of the Celtic Tiger and its aftermath.

Eamon Maher is Director of the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies at the Institute of Technology, Tallaght, where he also lectures in Humanities.
 
Eugene O'Brien is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of English Language and Literature at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick.

Introduction; Eamon Maher and Eugene O'Brien
1. Crisis, What Crisis? The Catholic Church During the Celtic Tiger; Eamon Maher
2. The Celtic Tiger and the New Irish Religious Market; Catherine Maignant
3. Shattered Sssumptions: A Tale of Two Traumas; Brendan O'Brien
4.'Tendency–Wit': The Cultural Unconscious of the Celtic Tiger in the Writings of Paul Howard; Eugene O'Brien
5. Popular Music and the Celtic Tiger; Gerry Smyth
6. 'What Does a Woman Want?': Irish Contemporary Women's Fiction and the Expression of Desire in an Era of Plenty; Sylvie Mikowski
7. Topographies of Terror: Photography and the Post-Celtic Tiger Landscape; Justin Carville
8. Immigration and Celtic Tiger; Bryan Fanning
9. 'What Rough Beast'? Monsters of Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland; Kieran Keohane and Carmen Kuhling
10. Women, Fictional Messages and a Crucial Decade; Mary Pierse
11. 'A Hundred Thousand Welcomes': Food and Wine as Cultural Signifiers; Brian Murphy
12. Contemporary Irish Fiction and the Indirect Gaze; Neil Murphy
13 'Holes in the Ground': Theatre as Critic and Conscience of Celtic Tiger Ireland; Vic Merriman
14. 'Ship of Fools': The Celtic Tiger and Poetry as Social Critique; Eóin Flannery
15. Between Modernity and Marginality: Celtic Tiger Cinema; Ruth Barton
Conclusion
Index