Within the growing field of TV series studies, little work has yet been done on Ireland. This volume fills the gap by offering new and compelling studies of contemporary Irish TV series. It argues that there is a distinctly Irish culture of TV fiction series and examines some of its finest examples, from Father Ted to Love/Hate and Sin Scéal Eile.

This book assesses association football’s history and development in Ireland from the late 1870s until the early twenty-first century. It focuses on four key themes—soccer’s early development before and after partition, the post-Emergency years, coaching and developing the game, and supporters and governance. In particular, it examines key topics such as the Troubles, Anglo-Irish football relations, the failure of a professional structure in the Republic and Northern Ireland, national and regional identity, relationships with other sports, class, economics and gender. It features contributions from some of today’s leading academic writers on the history of Irish soccer while the views of a number of pre-eminent sociologists and economists specialising in the game’s development are also offered. It identifies some of the difficulties faced by soccer’s players and administrators in Ireland and challenges the notion that it was a ‘garrison game’ spread mainly by the military and generally only played by those who were not fully committed to the nationalist cause. This is the first edited collection to focus solely on the progress of soccer in Ireland since its introduction and adds to the growing academic historiography of Irish sport and its relationship with politics, culture and society. The chapters in this book were originally published an a special issue in Soccer & Society.

Since the turn of the 21st century, the television series has rivalled cinema as the paradigmatic filmic medium. Like few other genres, it lends itself to exploring society in its different layers. In the case of Great Britain and Ireland, it functions as a key medium in depicting the state of the nation. Focussing on questions of genre, narrative form, and serialisation, this volume examines the variety of ways in which popular recent British and Irish television series negotiate the concept of community as a key component of the state of the nation.

This volume brings together current research by international scholars on the varieties of English spoken in Ireland. The papers apply contemporary theoretical and methodological approaches and frameworks to a range of topics. A number of papers explore the distribution of linguistic features in Irish English, including the evolution of linguistic structures in Irish English and linguistic change in progress, employing broadly quantitative sociolinguistic approaches. Pragmatic features of Irish English are explored through corpus linguistics-based analysis. The construction of linguistic corpora using written and recorded material form the focus of other papers, extending and analyzing the growing range of corpus material available to researchers of varieties of English, including diaspora varieties. Issues of language and identity in contemporary Ireland are explored in several contributions using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The volume will be of interest to linguists generally, and to scholars with an interest in varieties of English.

The 1871 census came to the stark conclusion that 'within relatively few years' Irish would cease to exist. Yet, over a century later, Irish became the twenty-third officially recognized language of the European Union in 2007. To believe the census returns of recent years, Irish is in a state of rude health. But is this true when half a million people claim to speak Irish, but seldom actually speak it? In the traditional Gaeltacht areas, Irish is in peril - whilst it flourishes in Gaelscoileanna, in urban areas and in cyberspace. What do these dramatic shifts mean for the language's future?A New View of the Irish Language covers issues such as language and national identity; the impact of emigration and immigration; music, literature and the media; the importance of place-names; teaching and learning Irish; attitudes towards Irish; and the state of the Gaeltacht - and probes beyond the statistics and rhetoric to explore the true situation of Irish in the contemporary world.Contributors: Ruair hUiginn, Pdraig Riagin, Liam Mac Mathna, Mirn Nic Eoin, Liam Muirthile, Gearid Tuathaigh, John Harris, Breandn Delap, Conchr Giollagin & Seosamh Mac Donnacha, Caoilfhionn Nic Phidn, Pdraig Laighin, Lillis Laoire, Anna N Ghallachair, Ciarn Mac Murchaidh, Brian Conchubhair, Aidan Doyle, Aidan Punch, Suzanne Romaine, Dnall Mac Giolla Easpaig and Iarfhlaith Watson.

An accessible, comprehensive overview of contemporary Irish cinema, this book is intended for use as a third-level textbook and is designed to appeal to academics in the areas of film studies and Irish studies. Responding to changes in the Irish production environment, it includes chapters on new Irish genres such as creative documentary, animation and horror. It discusses shifting representations of the countryside and the city, always with a strong concern for gender representations, and looks at how Irish historical events, from the Civil War to the Troubles, and the treatment of the traumatic narrative of clerical sexual abuse have been portrayed in recent films. It covers works by established auteurs such as Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan, as well as new arrivals, including the Academy Award-winning Lenny Abrahamson.