The Lie of the Land: Irish Identities

This collection of essays is drawn from Fintan O'Toole's writings over two decades. Its portraits of people-talk-show hosts, priests, children, pop stars--and its reports of social and political upheaval, reveal a country still in search of itself, but more at ease with the complexities of its own make-up; a country whose buried memories, tourist myths and current congtradictions might now be reworked to forge a truly modern Irish identity.

Moving statues in a rural church, millionaires with global dreams, country-and-western fans slaughtering sheep at the Halal in Ballyhaunis: images of the real or the surreal? The blurred distinction between the two says much about the contemporary state of Ireland, and about the ways in which a country constantly builds and rebuilds its own identity. From its sometimes confused sense of place, caught somewhere between Europe and America, Ireland has re-defined itself in the 1990s. Often out of necessity (the Irish Church forced to confront paedophilia among its ranks, for example), occasionally through sheer will and bravado, Ireland has changed to such an extent that it can now boast a greater 1996 per-capita GDP than the UK and a real place in the global economy. But the legacy of John F. Kennedy's visit and the relentless wave of emigration it signified, as well as arguments over nationalism, sexual politics and the Church, remain, creating a diverse, energetic and socially engaged community.

'[The Lie of the Land] is both acute and liberating. The debunking of national myths, so often the favourite pastime of academics and the intelligentsia, is nowhere more needed than in Ireland . . . O'Toole's work will be lapped up by those who enjoy living with paradox and irony.' -- Patrick West, Literary Review

'O'Toole's weapons are laconic wit, a finely tuned sense of the ridiculous or anomalous and a spare, beautiful style. The concentrated energy of these essays, the richness of reference, their mordant humour can only be indicated in quotations: they demand to be read and re-read.' -- Roy Foster, European