Life In Ireland

This is the story of life in Ireland – a story half a billion years in the making. With its castles, crannogs and passage tombs, Ireland is a land where history looms large, but the saga of life on this island dates back millions of years before the first people set foot here. In Life in Ireland, Conor O’Brien guides the reader on a journey around the island to explore the history of natural life here, from the Jurassic Coast of Antrim to the great Ice Age bone-beds of Cork. Along the way, we’ll meet some of the astonishing creatures to have called Ireland home through the ages: shelled monsters; huge marine lizards; armoured dinosaurs; giant deer; mighty mammoths. Vital strands in the story of life on Earth have left their mark here, including some of the first creatures to crawl onto land or take to the wing. This epic journey will take us from the first fossils to the present day, to see how our wildlife has adapted to the human age and explore what the future might hold for life in Ireland.

Now available in paperback, this brilliant history of medieval Ireland evokes life as lived by the ordinary people rather than the small elite of nobles and warriors who have dominated discussions to date.

The central premise of Collision Culture is that Ireland's experience of economic boom has resulted in the collision of incompatible ways of life. These cultural collisions in Irish life today occur between the local and global, between traditional and modern, between Catholic and secular, and between rural and urban. They have become apparent in a variety of changes - changes in patterns of rates of suicide, in patterns of consumption, in representations of Irish celebrities, in patterns of home ownership, in the rise of tribunals, and in a variety of other points of public discourse and Irish culture. The authors argue that the above categories clearly are not starkly divided, but rather are analytic reference points that are useful in trying to understand the conflicts behind various social problems in Ireland. By investigating cultures of everyday life - driving, housing, music, religion, consumerism, fashion, and sexuality, among others - the book shows how recent social transformations are manifest at the everyday level.

'Who were Ireland's first settlers? How did they live? What did they believe? The answers to these questions and more are to be found in the late Laurence Flanagan's acclaimed guide to pre-Celtic civilisation, 'Ancient Ireland: Life Before the Celts'

In a society born of conquest, beset with famines and plagues, and where the staples of life were everything from spies and corruption to witch trials and warfare, life in medieval Ireland was seldom dull. Witches, Spies and Stockholm Syndrome, Finbar Dwyer offers a unique portrait of life as it was lived in medieval Ireland. Against the backdrop of what was often a violent and chaotic period of history, Dwyer explores the personal stories of those whose recollections have been preserved, finding in them continual relevance and human interest.

An Expat's Guide to Ireland describes the experiences of the author who left the United States in order to build a new life in Ireland, including the necessary bureaucratic steps such as sorting out customs, work permit and the perils of apartment hunting in Dublin. Scattered throughout the book are anecdotes about the pitfalls of navigating Irish life as an expat, in between extensive useful information and tips and tricks for moving and getting the most out of life in one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

Frances Ruane, Director, Economic and Social Research Institute Irish and international scholars continue to be curious about Ireland’s exceptional economic success since the early 1990s. While growth rates peaked at the turn of the millennium, they have since continued at levels that are high by any current international or historical Irish measures. Despite differences of view among Irish economists and policymakers on the relative importance of the factors that have driven growth, there is widespread agreement that the process of globalisation has contributed to Ireland’s economic development. In this context, it is helpful to recognise that globalisation has created huge changes in most developed and developing countries and has been associated, inter alia, with reductions in global income disparity but increased income disparity within individual countries. This book reflects on how, from a social perspective, Ireland has prospered over the past decade. In that period we have effectively moved from being a semi-developed to being a developed economy. While the book’s main focus is on the social changes induced by economic growth, there is also recognition that social change has facilitated economic growth. Although many would regard the past decade as a period when economic and social elements have combined in a virtuous cycle, there is a lingering question as to the extent to which we have better lives now that we are economically ‘better off’.

Provides a portrait of life in Celtic Ireland, from A.D. 400 to 1200, through an examination of legends, ancient texts, artifacts, art, and architecture of the time.

A deft interweaving of architectural and social history