The Revelation of Ireland cover art

The Revelation of Ireland

1995-2020

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

The Revelation of Ireland

By: Diarmaid Ferriter
Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £18.89

Buy Now for £18.89

About this listen

 Ireland is a strikingly different country now to the one it was in the mid-1990s. Dramatic economic, social and cultural changes, including the Celtic Tiger boom and increasingly secular debate about abortion, the status of women and same-sex marriage underlined the scale of the transformation. The new diversity of the population and literary and musical prowess also revealed a country experiencing rapid alteration.

The road to peace - that saw an end to war in Northern Ireland and culminated in the first visit to southern Ireland of a reigning British monarch in 100 years - illuminated the new Anglo-Irish dynamic. Explosive revelations about deep betrayals from the past destroyed the credibility of the traditionally powerful Catholic Church. And in the wake of the 2008 financial crash, Ireland rebounded and rebuilt to great success, but remained plagued by health and housing failures. Economic recovery, the end of civil war politics, ever closer European involvement and Anglo-Irish highs were followed by Brexit lows and increasing talk of Irish unity.

There is much to open people's eyes in this riveting account of contemporary Ireland. As the Republic enters its second century of independence, and the North continues to grapple with the legacy of the Troubles, Diarmaid Ferriter makes historical sense of post-1990s Ireland, and what lies in the darkest corners of its archives.©2024 Diarmaid Ferriter (P)2024 Profile Books Ltd Europe War Socialism Capitalism
All stars
Most relevant
I really enjoyed this book. The author uses a vast array of sources to thematically flesh out the profound social, economic and cultural changes Ireland has undergone in the last 30 years. Highly recommended

Comprehensive and variously sourced history of modern Ireland

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A follow-up to his "Transformation of Ireland - 1900 - 2000", this brings us up almost to the present day (though 2019 seems like another age - pre-Pandemic, pre-Biden, pre-Ukraine invasion...).

Excellent as a summary of the main pre-occupations of the Irish media, especially the collapse of the Catholic Church, the sexual revolution and various public scandals, but it is unconvincing on the issue of most interest to non-Irish readers: the Celtic Tiger, its dramatic demise and unheralded resurrection.

He highlights the Celtic Tiger excesses which led to the banking collapse in 2008 and then the EU/IMF austerity programme in 2011. But why did the Celtic Tiger only emerge in the mid-1990s and what of its latest extraordinary revival?

He also attributes the failings in our public services, especially in health, housing and education, to neo-liberal policies. But by his own account, these services in Ireland are a weird mash-mash of public and private service providers which has defied rational re-organisation on any known principle. And the public sector has become ever-more wasteful as public expenditure increased 50% since 2017 with little noticeable improvement in services. Slaintecare - a plan for a national health service which is now in an induced coma - should be a salutary tale for would-be Irish reformers but we are only told that vested interests in the medical profession have stymied the plan. How and why did these vested interests over-ride the work of our elected representatives?

Journalism or history-a panorama of modern Ireland

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Engaging style that draws reader in and diverse sources drawn on to tell the story

Exceptional research and writing covering a wide range of issues in Ireland’s history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.