Celtic Tiger

The unprecedented economic growth and immigration that Ireland experienced between 1995 and 2007 did not only challenge national but also ethnic, social, and gender identities. The contributions to this volume explore how films tackle these challenges and help to make sense of Ireland’s altered position in a globalised world. Among the films discussed are some of the most critically acclaimed Irish films of recent years, including Once (2006), Adam & Paul (2004), Garage (2007), and The Secret of Kells (2009), as well as the work of Oscar-winning director and writer Neil Jordan. The volume is completed by an extensive interview with award-winning director Lenny Abrahamson, and his collaborator, screenwriter and actor Mark O’Halloran.

This book is about the role that the imperfect, the disquieting and the dystopian are currently playing in the construction of Irish identities. All the essays assess identity issues that require urgent examination, problematize canonical definitions of Irishness and, above all, look at the ways in which the artistic output of the country has been altered by the Celtic Tiger phenomenon and its subsequent demise. Recent narrative from Ireland, principally published in the twenty-first century and/or at the end of the 1990s, is dealt with extensively. The authors examined include Eavan Boland, Mary Rose Callaghan, Peter Cunningham, Emma Donoghue, Anne Enright, Emer Martin, Lia Mills, Paul Muldoon, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Bernard O'Donoghue, Peter Sirr and David Wheatley.

The South of Ireland never experienced the full impact of the Industrial Revolution but in 2005 was defined as the ‘most globalised economy in the world’ (IDA Ireland). Global companies, primarily North American, outsourced operations to the Republic, attracted by a skilled and flexible workforce where direct cost of employment is among the lowest in Europe and, what continues to be, the lowest rate of corporation tax in Europe.

The title of the project is inspired by a widely utilised flexible economic management system responsive to the needs and demands of the global market which is intended to be implemented not only at the level of the factory floor but critically, to extend to the nation state itself.

The Breathing Factory (2002-2006) addresses the role and representation of labour and global labour practices in this newly industrialised landscape. Global industrial practices are characterised by fleeting alliances, transient spaces as capital moves when and as required. In such an ephemeral, precarious and globalised context, the project focused specifically upon the Hewlett-Packard Manufacturing and Technology Campus, part of a cluster formation of multinational complexes, in Leixlip in the east of Ireland.

Having begun onsite in 2003, following nine months of negotiation regarding access due to the sensitive nature of this highly secure environment and completed over a 20 month period, each visit was pre-scheduled and pre-cleared, being accompanied at all times and thus, the policing of the project is a central concern. The outcome of a practice-led doctoral research project framed by ethnographic understandings in its undertaking, the full installation includes photographs, text-based work, digital video and sound archival material as critical re-representation.


The Breathing Factory (ISBN No. 3-89904-216-6) is a hardback edition with 180 pages & 69 colour photographs/interview excerpts/artefacts.  Essays have been commissioned by Sean O Riain, Chair of the Sociology Department, National University of Ireland, Maynooth and author of The Politics of High Tech Growth: Developmental States in the Global Economy (Cambridge University Press, 2004) and Martin McCabe, lecturer and Programme Chair of the BA Photography, School of Media and researcher within the centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice in the Dublin Institute of Technology.

In Ireland, generic international cinematic forms have provided an important means through which filmmakers have attempted to tell Irish stories while engaging international audiences. However, in general Irish filmmakers have been less inclined until recent years to turn to that most overused and familiar of film genres, the horror. Indeed, its over familiarity may well have been a contributory factor in directors' hesitancy to adopt the horror form for their films until the mid-1990s. Since then, and particularly from the early 2000s, Irish filmmakers have increasingly turned to horror as a form through which to explore aspects of Irish society, culture, history and, indeed, their representation. While reflecting providing an overview of these films, this article focuses in particular on a feature film sometimes credited kicking off the most recent series of Irish horror films, Conor McMahon's Dead Meat (2004), a film preceded by his 2001 award-winning short The Braineater. While Dead Meat and The Braineater are heavily indebted to previous international horror work, including films by Sam Rami, Peter Jackson, George A. Romero and Lucio Fulci, a striking feature in both is the use of elements and motifs associated with indigenous Irish culture and sport, in particular the Gaelic game of hurling, within their narratives. These films also, in common with other recent horror works, reject and critique previous touristic depictions of Ireland (an important determinant of representations of Ireland in international productions throughout the 20th century) while providing an 'allegorical moment' both for the exploration of trauma in Ireland's distant and more recent past and a critique of Celtic Tiger Ireland itself.

Online version of entire article available here: http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/article.php?id=513&feature

Change to diametric structured oppositions was
a key preoccupation of both Lévi-Strauss’ interrogation of
myths and Freud’s understanding of obsessional neurosis.
Based on Downes (2012), recovery can be reinterpreted
in depth psychological terms as movement from such
diametric spaces of exclusion and towards contrasting
concentric spaces underpinning experience. Governing
myths, organising collective meaning in Irish society, have
included nationalism, Catholicism and the ‘Celtic Tiger’.
Important features of each of these have arguably been
locked within a diametric framing structure of exclusion.
Growth in Irish society requires not simply new myths but
new structures of myth beyond diametric ones.

This article contributes to the discussion on Irish identity by considering a set of empirical data from ethnographic research carried out in Pakistani communities in Dublin. The article considers views on 'Irishness' through the lens of young second-generation Pakistani Irish men. The data presented highlight how the Celtic Tiger experience reproduced cultural and ethnic narratives of Irish identity, but simultaneously initiated a new, more civic-oriented view of 'Irishness'. Of particular concern in the minds of young Pakistani men include the secularisation of Irish society and the role that 'whiteness' plays in processes of 'othering' in Ireland. The article reveals that the current period of Irish history provides an opportunity for the Pakistani Irish to challenge some of the assumptions currently associated with Irish identity. Ultimately, the article calls for a broader understanding of Irish identity through the lens of civic national principles, which can better serve Ireland's increasingly diverse population.

This report aims to investigate the conditions faced by Polish migrant labourers in Ireland; their reasons for leaving Poland and why those who came to Ireland were attracted here, and the impact of Irish social policy on them. It shall explore the social and economic changes in Poland since that country's 2004 accession to the European

Employing the critical juncture theory (CJT), a discursive institutionalist approach, this paper examines the nature of the changes to social partnership policy at the end of the decade of the 2000s.  Did these changes constitute a transformation in social partnership policy, or were they a continuation of a previously established policy pathway?  The CJT consists of three elements – economic crisis, ideational change, and the nature of the policy change – that must be identified for us to be able to declare with some certainty if the changes to social partnership policy constituted a critical juncture.  In this context, ideational change is very important, constituting the intermediating factor between a crisis and the subsequent nature of the policy change.  Our findings will help explain the nature of the changes to social partnership policy at this time.

Employing the critical juncture theory (CJT), a discursive institutionalist approach, this paper examines the nature of the changes to social partnership policy at the end of the decade of the 2000s.  Did these changes constitute a transformation in social partnership policy, or were they a continuation of a previously established policy pathway?  The CJT consists of three elements – economic crisis, ideational change, and the nature of the policy change – that must be identified for us to be able to declare with some certainty if the changes to social partnership policy constituted a critical juncture.  In this context, ideational change is very important, constituting the intermediating factor between a crisis and the subsequent nature of the policy change.  Our findings will help explain the nature of the changes to social partnership policy at this time.

Abstract:
Although the socio-economic situation of Ireland has improved in the last decade, the situation of women continues to be unequal to men and there are certain limitations in their rights. Despite well-known exceptions, women have tended to be underrepresented in Irish politics. However, in the last elections some of them decided to run for the Republic’s presidency as well as to become the first female Irish Prime Minister. In this sense, this research paper will try to contribute to the representation of women in the 2011 campaigns. Both general and presidential referendums will be under analysis. Our sample will consist of the most representative TV broadcasts of the main political parties (i.e. Fianna Feil, Fine Gael, Sinn Fein, among others).

As regards methodology, we will aim for the combination of critical discourse analysis  and multimodal critical discourse analysis in order to observe the main visual representation of politicians as social actors (van Leeuwen, 2008), and consider the possible similarities and differences between women and men politicians. The study aims to observe if there are as many women as men politicians in the broadcasts of the 2011 election campaigns in Ireland and to pay attention to the way women and men politicians are portrayed in the broadcasts under analysis. The analysis will show that politicians are portrayed as elite individuals, that there is a general positive representation of the candidates and that women are underrepresented in Irish politics, which points out that it continues being a challenge for democracy the participation of women in politics since their representation or role is not equal compared to men.

Resumen:
Aunque la situación socio-económica de Irlanda ha mejorado enla última década, la realidad de las mujeres continúa siendo distinta a la de los hombres y hay ciertas limitaciones en sus derechos. Las mujeres siguen estando infrarrepresentadas en la política irlandesa con algunas excepciones. Sin embargo, en las últimas elecciones, algunas se presentaron como candidatas a la presidencia y también a optar a ser primera ministra. En este sentido, este artículo es una contribución al estudio de la representación de las mujeres en la campaña política del año 2011.
Tanto las elecciones generales como las presidenciales son objeto de análisis. Nuestro corpus consiste en los videos políticos usados por los principales partidos políticos (Fianna Feil, Fine Gael, Sinn Fein, entre otros).
Con respecto a la metodología, se combinará el análisis crítico del discurso y el análisis crítico del discurso multimodal con el fin de observar la representación de los/as políticos/as como actores sociales (van Leeuwen, 2008) y considerar las posibles diferencias entre las mujeres y los hombres políticas/os. El estudio tratará de observar si hay tantas mujeres como hombres en los videos de las elecciones de 2011 en Irlanda y prestará atención al modo que se las representa el los videos objeto de estudio. El análisis mostrará que los/as políticos/as son representados/as como élite, que predomina la representación positiva y que las mujeres aparecen infrarrepresentadas en la política irlandesa, hecho que pone de manifiesto que la participación de las mismas en la política sigue siendo un reto para la democracia debido a que su representación o papel no es igual al de los hombres.

Although the socio-economic situation of Ireland has improved in the last decade, the situation of women continues to be unequal to men and there are certain limitations in their rights. Despite well-known exceptions, women have tended to be underrepresented in Irish politics. However, in the last elections some of them decided to run for the Republic’s presidency as well as to become the first female Irish Prime Minister. In this sense, this research paper will try to contribute to the representation of women in the 2011 campaigns. Both general and presidential referendums will be under analysis. Our sample will consist of the most representative TV broadcasts of the main political parties (i.e. Fianna Feil, Fine Gael, Sinn Fein, among others). As regards methodology, we will aim for the combination of critical discourse analysis  and multimodal critical discourse analysis in order to observe the main visual representation of politicians as social actors (van Leeuwen, 2008), and co...

Director Lenny Abrahamson and screenwriter and actor Mark O'Halloran have established a formidable partnership in recent years that has produced some of the most distinctive and celebrated work to emerge in Irish cinema. Their low-budget debut film Adam & Paul (2004) enjoyed commercial success in Ireland and critical acclaim internationally, winning awards at the Sofia International Film Festival, the Gijón International Film Festival, the Evening Standard British Film Awards as well as the Irish Film and Television Award for best director. Their follow up feature, Garage (2007), won 11 major international festival awards including the C.I.C.A.E. Award at the Cannes Film Festival. They were also responsible for the acclaimed television mini-series “Prosperity” (2007). This contribution was given as part of a public interview chaired by Seán Crosson and Mark Schreiber on the occasion of the 7th EFACIS Conference, University of Vienna, 5 September 2009.

In 2005, the Republic of Ireland was defined as the ‘most globalised economy in the world’ (IDA Ireland). The significance of this position is amplified by the fact that the South of Ireland never experienced an Industrial Revolution compared to other western European countries (O’Brien 1999). In the absence of significant audio and visual representation of labour, global labour practices and globalised industrial space in the context of this accelerated economic development, this study, both in its methodological design and implementation, stakes out new terrain through the combined use of photography, digital video and ethnographic methods, further engaging with the oral testimony of workers in the multinational location/fieldsite of Hewlett-Packard Manufacturing and Technology Campus, Leixlip, County Kildare. This article addresses the rationale for the multivocal framework in which this prac- tice-led research project has been methodologically undertaken and its role in the for- mation of the installation, The Breathing Factory (2006).

Downloadable! Ireland's remarkable economic growth during the last decades, following its successful peace treaties, has caught the attention of countries with ongoing internal conflicts, such as Colombia. The Irish case's analysis must enable the extraction of valuable lessons ...

This article discusses three short stories published in Gerard Donovan’s Country of the Grand (2008). It reads one of the short story collection’s most prominent leitmotifs, the car, as a liminal space and a heterotopia of crisis. Furthermore, the article aims at linking these two concepts to ideas about Irish identity and the historical and cultural context of Celtic Tiger Ireland and it draws on a particular theoretical framework: Turner’s concept of the liminal period and the Foucauldian heterotopia of crisis. In Donovan’s short stories, the car is turned into an ambiguous symbol since it carries various meanings and connotations. It is a means by which people move and cross boundaries, which should enable progress and provide connections between places and persons but it is also a space in which characters sit still and seem isolated and static. Hence, this seemingly simple image provides insights about a tension arising between movement and paralysis which Donovan, through his use of symbols and synecdoches, describes as central to Celtic Tiger Ireland and which thus also becomes crucial for his short stories.

English:
Through the streets of Dublin and the waters of Dublin Bay, take place and intersect the vicissitudes, the wanderings and the encounters of characters of all sorts. Four of them, in particular – the last survivor of the good race of true layabouts, a young woman not quite glad to graduate and get married, a loyal friend revived at the wheel of an old Mini and an amazing donkey fallen from the sky – live the time not as a sentence but as an opportunity for freedom and (unexpected) discoveries, in spite of dogmas, conventions and (supposed) values that inhibit our humanity. A funny, parodistic and irreverent odyssey in the Irish present and past, celebrating the ambiguous charm of eternal digression and the heretical power of literary fiction.

Italiano:
Lungo le strade di Dublino e della sua Baia si dipanano e si incrociano le vicende, le peripezie e le divagazioni di personaggi d’ogni specie. Quattro di loro, in particolare – l’ultimo superstite della stirpe dei veri perdigiorno, una giovane trentenne non proprio convinta di laurearsi e sposarsi, un’amica fedele rinata al volante di una vecchia Mini e un asino unico nel suo genere piovuto da chissà dove – vivono il tempo non come una condanna ma come un’occasione di libertà e di (imprevedibili) scoperte, alla faccia di dogmi, convenzioni e (pseudo)valori che imbrigliano la nostra umanità. Una parodica e irriverente odissea in salsa irlandese, piena di spunti comici, che celebra il fascino inquietante dell’eterna digressione e la potenza eretica della finzione letteraria.

This thesis is a sustained study of Moya Cannon’s poetry that attempts to challenge the limits within which the existing scholarship engaging with her poetry has focused to date. The existing scholarship has been dominated by readings through an ecocritical lens, and the first two chapters of this thesis step temporarily outside of ecocriticism to examine Cannon’s poetry through two discrete lenses: gender and economics. This temporary departure serves to demonstrate the ways in which Cannon’s work reflects, interrogates, and critiques issues contemporaneous to the society in which she is publishing. These chapters focus specifically on the ways in which Cannon’s work engages with gender and economics in response to the particular history of this island. The final chapter returns to ecocriticism with a recognition that Cannon’s heavy use of images drawn from the land and landscape of this island lends itself to ecocritical readings, and brings the themes explored in the preceding chapters into conversation with ecocriticism. The particular focus in this final chapter is on the intersection between the social, economic, and material shifts of the Celtic Tiger period and the relationship between human and non-human nature that is central to ecocriticism.