The Revelation of Ireland: 1995-2020

(Paperback, Main)

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THE NUMBER 1 IRISH TIMES BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 An Irish Times Book of the Year 2024Ireland 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.

Reviews

Sets the bar high for good writing and scholarship * Financial Times *
An excellent account of Ireland's recent history * Independent, Books of the Month, September 2024 *
Ferriter's impressionistic literary style... is reminiscent of Annie Ernaux, and is highly effective at capturing the mentality and feel of a time. The breadth of his reading is extraordinary * Irish Times *
A monumental analysis of a most mouvement period in Irish history... Ferriter is a serious historian and his researches are oceanic * Sunday Times *
Realistic yet hopeful, Ferriter is a fine chronicler not just of Ireland, but of writing about Ireland too * Observer *
Ferriter tells the latest chapter in Ireland's story with authority and insight, deftly weaving together economic and political upheavals with equally tumultuous societal and cultural shifts * Financial Times *
A remarkable book ... Ferriter writes about as history events that are still relatively close in time and keenly felt. It is a tour de force. * Church Times *
Anybody who cares about Ireland as much as Ferriter clearly does will be consulting this landmark publication for many years to come. * Irish Independent, Best Books of 2024 *
No one could be better-informed, more judiciously-minded or more engaging to read than Ferriter. * Belfast Telegraph *
A punchy, opinionated portrait of Ireland in the last 30 years... There is no better guide than Diarmaid Ferriter * Herald *
Forensic and insightful... A major achievement. Ferriter delivers his material with the authority and conviction of a born teacher * Irish Independent *
What makes Diarmaid Ferriter such a compelling and readable historian is not just his deep understanding of the past but how that understanding makes sense of the present * Irish Examiner *
A judicious assessment of recent Irish developments * Sunday Telegraph *
Ferriter's strengths are the thoroughness of his research and his ability to compile a coherent case... his analysis here is nuanced [and] the writing as fluent as ever * Literary Review *
Diarmaid Ferriter currently carries the flag for the historian-as-commentator, and does it with considerable lan... Delivered in rapid-fire style ... Ferriter maintains a beady eye on the challenges of writing contemporary history at a time when the sources of knowledge and record are themselves changing exponentially. * Spectator *
Provides sterling analysis... Among Ferriter's assets as an analyst and a historian is his flair for literary allusion. * The TLS *
Praise for Diarmaid Ferriter: 'Ferriter is the outstanding Irish historian of our time: robust, intellectually sophisticated and a master of the sources * Prospect *
Ferriter's work is a judicious mixture of the serious and the hilarious, the comic and the tragic * Literary Review *
Ferriter is interested above all in the sources, what is preserved and what is forgotten and the oblique shafts of light which they cast on a disputed history * Spectator *
[Ferriter] brings considerable acumen and authority... among his assets as an analyst and a historian is his flair for literary allusion. [He] provides a sterling analysis of the ins and outs of the peace negotiations [and] doesn't shy away from the disastrous policies and outcomes * Times Literary Supplement *

Author Bio

Diarmaid Ferriter is Professor of Modern Irish History at University College Dublin and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. His previous books include The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000, Occasions of Sin, Ambiguous Republic , A Nation and not a Rabble, On The Edge, Between Two Hells and the international bestseller The Border. He is a regular broadcaster on radio and television and a columnist for the Irish Times.