The New Irish Studies demonstrates how diverse critical approaches enable a richer understanding of contemporary Irish writing and culture. The early decades of the twenty-first century in Ireland and Northern Ireland have seen an astonishing rate of change, one that reflects the common understanding of the contemporary as a moment of acceleration and flux. This collection tracks how Irish writers have represented the peace and reconciliation process in Northern Ireland, the consequences of the Celtic Tiger economic boom in the Republic, the waning influence of Catholicism, the increased authority of diverse voices, and an altered relationship with Europe. The essays acknowledge the distinctiveness of contemporary Irish literature, reflecting a sense that the local can shed light on the global, even as they reach beyond the limited tropes that have long identified Irish literature. The collection suggests routes forward for Irish Studies, and unsettles presumptions about what constitutes an Irish classic.

Brazil is not usually associated with British agricultural immigrants, but in the late 1860s and early 1870s great efforts were made to stimulate interest in the country. An idealized image of Brazil was created to help persuade dissatisfied Irish and English to pack up and join settlement schemes in a country that they had previously known nothing about. This book offers a vivid picture of this migration process and new insights into linkages between Ireland, England, the United States and Brazil. Focusing on the lives of individual immigrants, this is one of the most detailed studies of life in the Brazilian government's isolated and under-funded agricultural settlement schemes.