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The article "A New Irish Eighteenth Century" discusses the first volume in a series covering Irish literature from 1700 to the present, focusing on the transitions and complexities of the Irish eighteenth century. Editor Moyra Haslett's analysis of William Dunkin's poem highlights the cultural variegation of eighteenth-century Irish society, challenging historical readings of Ireland as divided along religious and cultural lines. The volume explores various themes such as philosophical and political frameworks, local and transnational contexts, genre, gender, and transcultural influences, offering new perspectives on eighteenth-century Irish literature that transcend traditional boundaries and certainties. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines the representation of the female body in Emilie Pine’s (2018) personal essay ‘Notes on Bleeding & Other Crimes.’ Drawing on vulnerability studies and feminist criticism, I argue that the vulnerability and shame surrounding women’s bodies are reframed as agentic forces, motivating Pine to craft a distinctly feminist narrative. Through a confessional and feminist style that resonates with French feminists’ concept of “écriture féminine,” Pine’s writing transforms personal experience into political critique. The first part of the analysis is dedicated to the representation of the body and its vulnerability, especially in relation to the bodily elements of menstruation and scars. More specifically, I make use of Elaine Scarry’s (1985) formulation of the stages of the “projection of the body,” to examine the journey Pine undergoes in the conceptualisation of her own body: from being ashamed to unashamed. The second part of the analysis explores how Pine’s style of writing leads to the reclaiming of the female body along the lines of what Hélène Cixous (1976) advocates in her influential essay ‘The Laugh of the Medusa.’ Ultimately, Pine’s text illustrates a reconfiguration of vulnerability – not as something negative, but as a source of potential and resistance.

Arguably, Brian Friel’s 1964 work Philadelphia, Here I Come! is one of the most influential plays in 20th-century Irish literature, as it focuses on emigration, a pivotal political and cultural phenomenon that recurs in both modern and contemporary Irish history. Crucially, Friel invents a protagonist with split personalities, Public Gar and Private Gar, representing the conflicted mentality of a migrant who finds it necessary to leave their motherland. By reading Friel’s Philadelphia, Here I Come! from the perspective of migration, this paper examines the necessity of departure for Gar and the difficulty of his arrival. I argue that Gar’s conflicts are not accidental but are consistent with a typical Irish mentality. However, the play suggests that the Irish protagonist’s endeavor to shun troubles via voluntary emigration can hardly promise a better tomorrow.

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article explores the significance of fun and solidarity in constructing national belonging. Drawing inspiration from Erving Goffman's analysis of social occasions, the article examines the establishment of an Irish‐American Gaelic Athletic League in New York City from 1904 to 1916. Tracing the gradual shaping of the games, it shows how organizers used sporting competitions to draw participants and regulate the interactions between immigrants from different counties in Ireland. Successful regulation of the games allowed immigrants from various counties in Ireland to engage each other in a spirit of friendly competition and develop solidarity. Far from being an obstacle to national belonging, these differences became the basis for fun sociability, leading to broad Irish belonging and pride. The enjoyment derived from participation in well‐regulated occasions contributes to the formation of social bonds and solidarity among potential members, ultimately fostering national identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the lack of diversity in recent Irish Studies publications, such as Irish Literature in Transition and The Routledge International Handbook of Irish Studies, which were predominantly authored by scholars from Europe and North America. Despite the global reach of Irish Studies, there remains a gap between the diversity seen at conferences and the lack of similar representation in academic publications.

The article focuses on the role of rumination and imagination in Anna Burns's "Milkman" highlighting the protagonist's retreat from a violent and politically charged community. Topics include the psychological impact of patriarchal violence, the political potential of introspection and solitude as resistance, and the ways in which rumination and reading shape middle sister's understanding of herself and her relationships with others.

The document from Shaw: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies provides information on upcoming volumes, calls for papers, and events related to Bernard Shaw and his works. It highlights Shaw's complex relationship with Ireland, his international perspective, and the efforts to restore his Irish identity within the literary canon. The document also mentions various conferences, symposiums, and scholarships related to Shaw studies, inviting scholars and researchers to contribute to the ongoing discourse. [Extracted from the article]

Considering Irish writer Kate O'Brien in the context of sapphic modernisms might seem misguided as her fiction is traditional in form. Still, revisiting her writing has illuminated its play with modernist themes, and her radical establishment of transnational feminisms in her juxtaposition of Ireland and Spain. Referencing theories by Nira Yuval-Davis and the work by Jane Garrity that map the intersection of gender, sexuality and citizenship, this article argues that O'Brien presents alternative possibilities for women's relationship to nationhood in her representations of Spain in her 1936 novel, Mary Lavelle, and her 1937 Farewell Spain. The travelogue, chronicling O'Brien's sojourn in Spain accompanied by Mary O'Neill, her life partner, is an elegy to her experiences of a country ravaged by Franco's fascist forces. Tracing the sapphic erotics that course through her love letter to the "femme fatale among countries," from the language of ecstatic pleasure in her description of bullfights, and her adoring depictions of gendered, anthropomorphized towns, O'Brien presents a love of Spain in sapphic terms that is itself an object of queer devotion. As a result, her relationship with Spain revises perceptions of women's connection to nationhood, even if temporarily, and opens new spaces for a queer nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores Alfred Arteaga's poetry collection "Cantos" and his engagement with Irish voices, particularly Molly Bloom and John Riley, in the context of Xicano identity and transnational connections. Arteaga's work reflects a hybridity of cultures and histories, drawing parallels between Irish and Xicano experiences. The text delves into Arteaga's poetic representations of Malinche and Molly Bloom, as well as the San Patricios in the Mexican-American War, highlighting the interconnectedness of Irish and Xicano narratives. Through Arteaga's poetry, the article emphasizes the fluidity of identity and the complexities of cultural affiliations across borders and time. [Extracted from the article]

The author reflects on the seasonal transition in Minnesota and the evolving landscape of Irish Studies, emphasizing its dynamic growth and sustained scholarly engagement. Topics include the celebration of Irish poetry through the O'Shaughnessy Award, the expansion of New Hibernia Review's digital accessibility and academic reach, and a diverse selection of essays exploring historical and contemporary aspects of the Irish language, literature, and political history.

As with any other discipline, we are periodically drawn towards reviewing the trajectory of Irish Studies, contemplating possible future directions: What is happening now? What should come next? Four scholars at varying stages of their academic careers and located in tertiary institutions in Ireland, USA, and Australia address these questions with specific reference to the transnational or global aspects of Irish Studies, a key focus of this special issue. Their brief "snapshots" take us on a journey starting with gendered migrant histories and the methodological challenges facing the often-disappointed researcher seeking the experiences of Irish-speaking diasporas, before engaging with new ways of confronting age-old questions about both Irish migrants' implication in the dispossession of Indigenous populations and the historical racialisation of Irishness in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. We are then introduced to research into revolutionary Ireland's collective global consciousness and the development of a Global Irish Studies which seeks to create a sustainable dialectic between Irish and non-Irish-based scholars, finishing with the assertion that Ireland has always been a porous and transnational space, and that while it may have been hiding in plain sight as it were, the international and relational aspect of national literatures are profound and unavoidable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inspiration behind this paper came from both authors' long-term collaboration with our friend and colleague, Professor Ralph Kenna. This connection emerged initially through his interest in Rathcroghan and in our paper, 'Exploring the Nature of the Fráoch Saga', which we concluded with the statement that we believed it 'presents a case that will hopefully ignite conversation between disciplines'. This led us to consider the potential value for researchers of compiling a template list of useful and reliable sources and resources to consult, in other words a type of starter toolkit or guide for any individual from an alternative discipline or background, who might possess, or, in time, develop a personal or professional interest in Early Ireland and Early Irish literature. In doing this, we decided for ease of illustration, to take the example of the location name Rathcroghan/Cruachan Aí, (the prehistoric Royal Site of Connacht in the west of Ireland and the place that we both work in and interact with on a daily basis), as a case study in order to demonstrate an initial methodological approach to not only the types of resources and information available, but also to highlight some potential pitfalls that may arise in the course of an investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much contemporary Northern Irish literature appears to be firmly localist. However, this writing is always already in the process of 'worlding,' registering the imprints of transnational forces. For example, authors' attentions to the local symptoms of climate change are necessarily means of diagnosing global disorder. Seamus Heaney's poetry, often touted as a triumph of regional specificity, develops a 'sense that ... threats to the planet are intuited in the local place' (District and Circle bookjacket). Likewise, texts that treat the post-conflict 'neutralisation' of Belfast's city centre signal broader forms of resistance to global neoliberalism. As writers like Leontia Flynn and Glenn Patterson suggest, efforts to entice tourists to the North by reinventing Belfast as a global 'anycity' are forms of what Rob Nixon calls 'slow violence': erasing the conflict for the sake of visitor dollars does sociopolitical violence to historical memory, and turning the city centre into a glass-and-concrete playground for upwardly mobile elites does material violence to working-class communities. Moreover, such writing activates a politics of vulnerability: disclosing one's own wounds can also be, as Judith Butler notes, a way to 'furnish ... a sense of [broader] ... community' (22), and local susceptibilities can thus be transmuted into forms of cross-border empathy and coalition-building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the legacies of Melmoth, the title character of Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer (1820), in the context of the Irish Gothic tradition. I argue that Melmoth's corporeal monstrosity is symbolically reified in subsequent texts, and that consequently Irish Gothic fiction is both possessing of and possessed by Melmoth. Exploring this in-between space where Melmoth is re-fashioned and re-imagined, I ask what this means for the Irish Gothic tradition and the processes of reflection and self-reflection these texts enact. I therefore trace Melmoth's influence by surveying the works both of Anglo-Irish writers and of Irish Gothic writers outside this particular tradition. In particular, my argument examines tropes of doubling and mirroring in such texts so as to highlight Melmoth's presence as a symbolic and semiotic revenant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Lengas is the property of Presses Universitaires de la Mediterranee and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 2018, Ireland's Eighth Amendment was repealed following a national referendum, and in January 2019, abortion became legal in the Republic of Ireland up to twelve weeks of gestation. Historically, Irish institutions have attempted to eliminate abortion through forced pregnancies in Catholic "mother-and-baby homes" and censorship laws designed to suppress information about reproductive health. However, abortion narratives in Irish literature reflect the realities of abortion in Ireland, including the networks of women who have helped people terminate pregnancies. For example, in Maeve Binchy's Eighth Amendment-era short story "Shepherd's Bush," an Irish woman is assisted by friends and acquaintances who provide her with lodging, medical appointments, and camaraderie in London. Several works published in 2017, amidst the campaign to repeal the Eighth, depict young protagonists who share their abortion narratives and become activists. Many Irish people still rely on groups such as Women Help Women and Women on Web to safely access abortion medication, and the sharing of information and experiences remains relevant and necessary as Ireland transitions into an era of reproductive rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction presents the special issue of ELOPE (Vol. 21, No. 2, 2024; guest eds. Aidan O'Malley and Anamarija Šporčič), which focuses on Irish literature and non-anglophone Europe.

The article reflects on the author's experience as a Spanish early-career researcher exploring comparative representations of HIV/AIDS in Irish and American theatre. Topics include the role of associations like AEDEI and AFIS in promoting EDI in Irish studies, the author's personal research contributions to the field, and the evolving themes of Irish studies conferences in Spain.

The article examines how themes of identity, social change, and belonging shape modern Irish literature, with a particular focus on race and racial ideologies. John Brannigan highlights the influence of Ireland's racial history on cultural representations, calling for a closer examination of racial ideologies within Irish cultural nationalism.

Maria Edgeworth's attitude toward the Irish language is often characterized as either hostile or indifferent but the reality was more nuanced. Edgeworth deemed the language a remnant of Ireland's barbaric past and reacted to it as a symbolic threat to her hybridic identity. As her career progressed, however, she slowly made space for an Irish-language subjectivity within her construction of Irishness, if in a strictly subordinate position. Yet when Edgeworth traveled into the wilds of Connemara in 1833, a region where the language still dominated, she was confronted by an Irish-speaking population that resisted her efforts at cultural containment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to identify various ways in which women's amateur filmmaking becomes obscured in both film archives and in the academic scholarship on film and filmmaking. Recognising that amateur film is marginalised and undervalued in relation to commercial and professional filmmaking, the article uses the case study of one Irish amateur filmmaker to identify the processes and practices that have resulted in her work being obscured and overlooked. The filmmaker, Sr Maureen MacMahon, was practicing amateur filmmaking from the 1960s to the 1970s and her work is held at the Irish Film Archive. Investigation of Sr Maureen's filmmaking drew from a variety of sources including the films and film materials, film metadata recorded at the archive, newspaper archives, an archive held at Sr Maureen's religious order and an interview with Sr Maureen. Analyses of these materials has resulted in three findings: firstly, the dispersal of materials and information pertaining to Sr Maureen across multiple sites posed challenges for our construction of a coherent narrative about her; secondly, Sr Maureen turned her hand to many creative and pedagogic activities beyond filmmaking, and, in her own estimation, she was an arts educator more than a filmmaker; and, finally, the films are not easily categorised as they are generically and stylistically diverse, making auteurist approaches difficult. Drawing from these findings we discuss the challenges that this creates for foregrounding women's contributions to film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although graduates of elite Irish fee-paying schools are disproportionately represented in the Irish men's national rugby union team, Irish international games are among the most popular on Irish terrestrial television, signifying rugby's growth as a spectator sport in Ireland. This article examines the role of Irish print, broadcast media and related publications in popularising elite-level Irish rugby. Employing a principally Bourdieusian theoretical perspective it analyses how media representation obscures the significance of class background and elite schooling in facilitating players' individual and collective social advancement and material gain prior to, in and beyond rugby careers. One is by highlighting players' relatability and transcendence of class privilege as the antithesis of the popular Irish caricature of an arrogant, privately educated former schools rugby player, Ross O'Carroll Kelly. The second is the displacement of class, in media representations, onto narratives, and performances, of regional and stylistic variety that are contained within an all-encompassing, inclusive conceptualization of 'middle Ireland'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the representation of the Irish Asylum system – known as Direct Provision – by an artist and a writer who have experienced it first-hand. Vukašin Nedeljković's art project Asylum Archive (2007 –) and Melatu Okorie's short stories "Shackles" (2010) and "This Hostel Life" (2017) respectively engage in the visual and literary representation of unlivable life in this carceral system, both articulating a compelling critique of the necropolitical violence exerted in and through its operations. Their work foregrounds the spatial and time dimensions of detention, highlighting the vulnerability of international protection applicants whose lives are not only bounded by confinement but also deferred in indefinite waiting. Besides, this article contends that these works go far beyond critique, offering very powerful critical insights into the inmates' affective responses to the injustices of the asylum regime, and how these can potentially open spaces of dissent and resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article, "Narratives of the Unspoken in Contemporary Irish Fiction: Silences that Speak," explores the theme of silence in Irish literature. The collection of essays, edited by Maria Teresa Caneda-Cabrera and José Carregal-Romero, examines how silence is embedded in language, culture, society, and institutions. The essays cover various well-known Irish authors and analyze the role of silence in historical novels, aesthetics, gender, shame, and the cultural shift post-Celtic Tiger. The book offers a profound exploration of silence as a powerful force shaping Irish identity and narratives, inviting readers to contemplate its significance in actions, beliefs, and erasures. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of ABEI Journal: The Brazilian Journal of Irish Studies is the property of Associacao Brasileira de Estudos Irlandeses and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Traditional Irish literature has valorized women through idealized female stereotypes. This sanctification was promoted to liberate their nation and retrieve their motherland from their colonizers. Due to this idealization and abstraction, Irish women were deprived of any actual power amid the nationalistic, patriarchal culture. However, a precise distinction between men and women has become problematic in the increasingly multicultural world since the late twentieth century. This debunking of sexual essentialism often arises in tandem with other changes in politics, history, and religion. Patrick McCabe's Breakfast on Pluto illustrates this phenomenon. By reading Breakfast on Pluto, this paper discusses the protagonist's longing for an alternative sexuality, and why adhering to the traditional identity, whether personally, sexually, or nationally, is no longer feasible in contemporary Ireland. I argue that McCabe purports to challenge established fixities surrounding (post-)Trouble writing by adopting an extremely marginalized protagonist, thereby debilitating constructed foundations of gender and politics and anticipating an alternative framework of post-Trouble history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages with various Irish phrases and sayings such as urchar bodaigh i bpoll móna ('a random shot') and demonstrates how particular terms have been lexicographically described by Dineen and Ó Donaill. Irish expressions have embodied terms with multiple meanings that contribute to the complexity of various expressions and how various terms can be paired together. Lexicographers note the widespread deployment of the words bod and bodach (and a range of related terms) to spawn, in various combinations, a swathe of terminology relating to aspects of the natural world and the firmament. The disparate and versatile lexical capacity of bod and bodach and their derivatives adumbrated in botanical, icthyological, ornithological, meteorological and astronomical nomenclature is quite striking, not least because of its sexual dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Éilís Ní Dhuibhne's elegant essay, '"The Old Woman as Hare": Structure and Meaning in an Irish Legend', published in Folklore, delivers the outcome of considerable reading and thinking in just six pages of text, while notes and references take up another two. Gendered readings of Irish oral tradition were rare in the early nineties, especially in such readable form. I happily urged this example of Éilís's work on my students of Modern Irish and retained most of her findings in memory. Rereading it thirty years later, however, I'm led among the small drumlin farms of north-west Cavan, where my maternal grandparents, Patrick and Ellen Magee, grew up. Éilís's own writings range widely, as seams of scholarship, family, memory and landscape enrich and illuminate each other. My essay reflects on my own family research, visits late in life to the border counties, and material written down in one Co. Cavan school in 1937/38 for the National Folklore Collection, and now available on www.duchas.ie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of the first X-ray fluorescence (XRF) investigation conducted on three late medieval chalices associated with Ireland: the Ó Learghusa chalice, auctioned as medieval Irish in 2021, does not have a confirmed provenance; the de Burgo-O'Malley chalice, dated 1494, and the TP-IEP chalice, dated 1589, both of Irish provenance. This study effectively addressed the knowledge gap concerning Irish medieval silver chalices composition. The analysis revealed that both the Ó Learghusa and de Burgo-O'Malley chalices were crafted from a silver-copper alloy and adorned using a fire-gilding technique. The blue and green enamels on the de Burgo-O'Malley chalice were found to be constituted by cobalt and iron/copper glasses, respectively. In contrast, the TP-IEP chalice exhibited a more intricate structure, being a composite object with partial silver gilt and with the bowl and base possibly made of a ternary silver-copper-gold alloy. The TP-IEP chalice's knop displayed glass, simulating gems with transparent, blue, and purple colorations. XRF analysis allowed identification of lead-potash glass, while the red glass displayed a rich iron content and was identified as soda-lime glass. The analysis allowed concluding that the de Burgo-O'Malley chalice had retained its original condition, including its original gilding and enamels, while the Ó Learghusa and TP-IEP chalices appeared to have undergone refurbishment. These significant discoveries contribute to a deeper understanding of the historical context and artistic craftsmanship behind these late medieval chalices, shedding light on their unique stories within Irish art and history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short article reviews some of the colonial underpinnings of the field of Medieval Irish Studies (a subdiscipline of Celtic Studies), using the career of Whitley Stokes (1830–1909) as a case study in the entanglements between British colonial activity in India and the development of philological research on medieval Irish literature in the 19th century. It then proceeds to use autoethnographic reflections from graduate students in the field of Medieval Irish Studies whose backgrounds locate them at various intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class. These reflections offer constructive pathways toward working to decolonise the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores author's personal collection, reflecting on the gaps shaped by her librarian role and life experiences. Topics include the evolution of her Ireland-focused collection, linguistic anthropology's influence, and insights into Irish culture, landscapes, and wildlife through literature and experiences.

This essay investigates the literary exchanges between the Irish poet and agronomist George William Tighe and Percy Bysshe Shelley in Pisa, where the former lived with Margaret King Mount Cashell, alias 'Mrs Mason', a radical Irish writer and former pupil of Mary Wollstonecraft. After moving to Pisa in 1820, Shelley began daily visits to the Mason-Tighe household, sourcing from Tighe's library a wealth of reading material on agricultural chemistry and botany, alongside Irish political and historical titles. Tighe's previously unexamined papers showcase his interests in Irish and Italian literature, republicanism, botany, and agriculture and reveal his links with the Lunar Society of Birmingham. Taking as a case study the first poem Shelley composed in Pisa, I argue that Tighe's agricultural pursuits shaped Shelley's political and botanical imagination in 'The Sensitive-Plant' and exerted a significant influence on Shelley's later poetry as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims at analyzing two works of contemporary Irish fiction, namely, Notes from a Coma (2005) by Mike McCormack and The Fjord of Killary (2012) by Kevin Barry. I argue that both works not only mirror what Dipesh Chakrabarty calls the ‘global’ and the ‘planetary’, but also reflect the non-human space and time scales that Timothy Morton identifies as one of the properties of hyperobjects. Moreover, the two novels are deeply rooted in the history of Ireland, and especially in the semi-peripheral position occupied by the country within the capitalist world system. The intermingling of various narrative layers together with speculative and realistic tropes conveys the epiphenomenality of our lived experience, characterized by the not-yet predictable consequences of planetary climate crisis and the ever-shifting demands of global capitalism.

This article aims at examining how systemic violence is connected with social stigma and structural vulnerability in the social novel The Spinning Heart, which was published by the Irish writer Donal Ryan in 2012. This much lauded work describes the collapse of the Celtic Tiger and its devastating effects in a small rural town in Ireland from multiple viewpoints. Although there are twenty-one first-person narrators, one per chapter, Bobby Mahon stands out among them. In fact, the story of this construction foreman connects with the trajectories presented by the other characters. Through all of them, Ryan denounces the practices and procedures that powerful and privileged institutions, groups and individuals resort to in contemporary Ireland in order to assert control or authority over other less favoured members of society, thus fostering a climate of violence. Attention is drawn in this article to the nature of the patterns of aggression and hostility developed by the main characters in the novel but also to the adverse impact these unjust, oppressive and stigmatising patterns have on vulnerable subjects by burdening them physically, psychologically, culturally and financially. Michael Staudigl’s theories on systemic violence in Phenomenologies of Violence (2014), Imogen Tyler’s notions on social stigma in Stigma. The Machinery of Inequality (2020), Judith Butler’s ideas on structural vulnerability in Vulnerability in Resistance (2016) and Pierre Bourdieu’s views on patriarchy in Masculine Domination (2001) inform this work.

Jennifer Mooney’s Feminist Discourse in Irish Literature: Gender and Power in Louise O’Neill’s Young Adult Fiction, is an aptly-timed contribution to contemporary scholarship on gender, power, sexuality, and consent in texts for young adults. It is the first monograph on O’Neill’s texts and, unlike previous scholarship on O’Neill’s work, examines the potential limits of O’Neill as a feminist YA author. Mooney conducts a detailed and considered literary analysis of Only Every Yours (2014), a post-apocalyptic dystopia featuring a school “in which girls are bred for their beauty” (O’Neill qtd. in Redmond, n.p.) and Asking For It (2015), which explores the aftermath of protagonist Emma’s “brutal sexual assault” (O’Neill, “Louise O’Neill in Conversation”) by four boys. Feminist Discourse in Irish Literature uniquely contributes to existing scholarship in the field of Irish YA studies through its analysis of these popular novels and critical consideration of the contemporary cultural climate. Mooney examines the role of texts that “contain overtly feminist political ideology” (1) in perpetuating or problematising gendered stereotypes that rely on traditional norms and critiques O’Neill’s engagement in “absolutism” (3), wherein O’Neill connects her own experience of girlhood and womanhood to a universal one. Mooney argues that O’Neill’s approach to power within the narratives analysed “results in a narrow focus on sexism, with damning limitations for male and female characterisation” (1). She also draws on analysis of other Irish and international literature to make the case that O’Neill’s texts are not as politically progressive as some argue, and that these texts in fact represent gender and power in ways to the detriment of all genders of readers.

All the characters in Máirtín Ó Cadhain’s novel are dead people, but they continue to speak as if they were still alive, and have not realized they are actually dead. Another paradox may be that although all of them are dead, none is really interested in death or its metaphysics. They go on with their earthly interests and spites, abusing and offending one another, spilling out secrets and shouting out loud. Speaking is the only thing they can still do while dead, and they take advantage of it: it is often quite difficult for the reader to understand whose voice it is in the general uproar. Gradually, voices become identifiable and attributable to characters: the reader learns to recognize them by the bad language they use, by certain quirks or by the expression of individual snobbery, pretence and hatred. By taking dead people as his characters, and faithfully recording their imagined speeches, Ó Cadhain re-imagines and refashions satire as a specific Irish genre. The speaking dead stand for the Gaelic rural communities whose language the political activist Ó Cadhain’s taught and promoted as the real repository of the idea of an Irish independent nation. The particular dialogic form of the novel, though seemingly experimental and difficult to comprehend, represents Ó Cadhain’s effort to establish democracy (lacking in the real post-independence Irish state), through the multiplicity of voice polyphony implies, at least at literary level.

Elaine Feeney΄s novel As You Were offers the story of a terminal cancer patient who forsakes any medical treatment. Narrating the final moments of her protagonist’s life, the author breaks with the traditional cancer novel formula in which a bellicose stance is prescriptive. Instead, the heroine’s stay at a hospital ward with other female patients constitutes Feeney΄s point of departure for writing a state-of-the-nation novel. The article discusses how the merging of different literary traditions, such as cancer narrative, literature of witness, or experimental fiction, allows the author to paint a poignant picture of Irish society, in which women, whose rights were historically curbed, empower each other through telling their life stories as well as reclaiming the life tales of their lost sisters. The analysis focuses on metaphors and narrative strategies that customarily underpin cancer stories and which can be identified in the novel. Secondly, the subversion of the cancer narrative is taken under scrutiny to demonstrate the experimental character of Feeney΄s novel. Subsequently, the ethical dimension of storytelling is given critical attention and the work’s status as a state-of-the-nation novel is elaborated on.

Nightflowers is a 30-minute audiovisual installation by author Claire-Louise Bennett, in collaboration with photographer Mark Walsh, exhibited at the Museum of Literature Ireland in Dublin. The installation explores the (un)conscious mind of a woman through a stream of consciousness narrative, projected black-and-white images, and Bennett's voiceover. The work creates a visceral and sensory experience, contrasting with the silent written works of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett displayed in the museum. Bennett's installation adds a contemporary female perspective to the historically male-dominated literary canon and pushes the boundaries of fictional storytelling. [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on author, Daithí Ó Muirí's distinctive short stories, emphasizing his minimalist approach and the surreal, often nameless world he creates. It highlights the emotional and social isolation of his characters, who exist in a barren, dystopian landscape, and examines the magic realism that permeates his writing. It also notes the appeal of his blending of the real and the fantastical, while acknowledging the unsettling effect of his sparse, experimental style.