The Anthropology of Ireland

--Where and what is Ireland? --What are the identities of the people of Ireland? --How has European Union policy shaped Irish people's lives and interests? This book argues that such questions can be answered only by understanding everyday aspects of Irish culture and identity. Such understanding is acheived by paying close attention to what people in Ireland themselves say about the radical changes in their lives in the context of wider global transformation. As notions of sex, religion, and politics are radically reworked in an Ireland being re-imagined in ways inconceivable just a generation ago, anthropologists have been at the forefront of recording the results. The first comprehensive book-length introduction to anthropological research on the island as a whole considers the changing place in a changing Ireland of religion, sex , sport, race, dance, young people, the Travellers, St. Patrick's Day and much more.

Thomas M. Wilson is Professor of Anthropology, Binghamton University. Hastings Donnan is Professor of Social Anthropology at the Queen's University of Belfast.