The Politics of Irish Memory: Performing Remembrance in Contemporary Irish Culture

Irish culture is obsessed with the past. While representations of the past have always been an integral element of Irish culture, they are now one of its most compelling subjects. The tone that characterizes this subject is trauma. Emilie Pine explores the trauma and anti-nostalgia that dominate so much of contemporary Irish culture, placing it in the context of the international memory boom. This provocative study sheds new light on writers, film-makers and playwrights, from Nuala O'Faolain to Neil Jordan, and from Frank McGuinness to Marina Carr. The book addresses the key issues that preoccupy Irish society in the early twenty-first century - the traumas of institutional child abuse, suicide, emigration, the legacy of the hunger strikes, and the question of how to commemorate the Irish dead - revealing how Irish culture plays a key role in resolving the traumas of the past.

Emilie Pine is Lecturer in Modern Drama at University College Dublin, Ireland. She has published widely on Irish theatre and film and regularly reviews for Irish Theatre Magazine. She is Assistant Editor of the Irish University Review.