Rethinking Irish History

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vi

   PDF

2. Introduction: National Identity and Cultural Contradiction in Twentieth-century Ireland

   • Patrick O’Mahony, Gerard Delanty, Jo Campling

   Pages 1-14

3. Nationalism and the Construction of Identity

   • Patrick O’Mahony, Gerard Delanty, Jo Campling

   Pages 15-32

4. Origins and Context of Irish National Identities

   • Patrick O’Mahony, Gerard Delanty, Jo Campling

   Pages 33-59

5. Nationalist Mobilisation and the Cultural Construction of the Irish Nation

   • Patrick O’Mahony, Gerard Delanty, Jo Campling

   Pages 60-93

6. The Alignment of Nationalist Politics: Self-Determination as Goal and Achievement

   • Patrick O’Mahony, Gerard Delanty, Jo Campling

   Pages 94-129

7. The Institutionalisation of National Identity in the Irish Free State

   • Patrick O’Mahony, Gerard Delanty, Jo Campling

   Pages 130-156

8. Social Change and the Transformation of National Identity

   • Patrick O’Mahony, Gerard Delanty, Jo Campling

   Pages 157-180

9. Conclusion: Nationalism in Contemporary Ireland

   • Patrick O’Mahony, Gerard Delanty, Jo Campling

   Pages 181-189

10. Back Matter

    Pages 190-222

    PDF

This book provides a critical interpretation of the construction of Irish national identity in the longer perspective of history. Drawing on recent sociological theory, the authors demonstrate how national identity was invented and codified by a nationalist intelligentsia in the late nineteenth century. The trajectory of this national identity is traced as a process of crisis and contradiction. One of the central arguments is that the negative implications of Irish national identity have never been fully explored by social science.

• identity
• Institution
• Nation
• national identity
• nationalism
• social change
• sociological theory
• sociology
• transformation

• University College, Cork, Ireland

  Patrick O’Mahony

• The University of Liverpool, UK

  Gerard Delanty

GERARD DELANTY is Professor of Sociology at the University of Liverpool. He is co-author of Nationalism in the Modern World.

PATRICK O'MAHONEY is Lecturer in Sociology at University College Cork, Ireland. He is co-author of Nationalism in the Modern World.

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