Ireland's New Traditionalists explores the efforts by Fianna Fáil in the years 1926-1938 to construct a nationalist aesthetic rooted in idealised representations of masculinity and femininity, as evident in the party's electoral ephemerae, newspapers, speeches, and film. Moreover, the book situates Fianna Fáil within the context of interwar Europe, noting especially how the party was able to navigate the anxieties and complexities of this fraught period. These efforts did much to contribute to the party's electoral successes in the 1930s that climaxed with the declaration of an independent Éire.

This book provides an overview of Irish gender history from the end of the Great Famine in 1852 until the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922. It builds on the work that scholars of women’s history pioneered and brings together internationally regarded experts to offer a synthesis of the current historiography and existing debates within the field. The authors place emphasis on highlighting new and exciting sources, methodologies, and suggested areas for future research. They address a variety of critical themes such as the family, reproduction and sexuality, the medical and prison systems, masculinities and femininities, institutions, charity, the missions, migration, ‘elite women’, and the involvement of women in the Irish nationalist/revolutionary period. Envisioned to be both thematic and chronological, the book provides insight into the comparative, transnational, and connected histories of Ireland, India, and the British empire. An important contribution to the study of Irish gender history, the volume offers opportunities for students and researchers to learn from the methods and historiography of Irish studies. It will be useful for scholars and teachers of history, gender studies, colonialism, post-colonialism, European history, Irish history, Irish studies, and political history. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

A new analysis of the difficulties in normalising opposition in the Irish Free State, this book analyses the collision between nineteenth-century monolithic nationalist movements with the norms and expectations of multiparty parliamentary democracy. The Irish revolutionaries’ attempts to create a Gaelic, postcolonial state involved resolving tension between these two ideas. Smaller economically-driven parties such as the Labour and Farmers’ parties attempted to move on from the revolution’s unnatural focus on nationalist political issues while the larger revolutionary parties descended from Sinn Féin attempt to recreate or restore notions of revolutionary unity. This conflict made democracy and opposition hard to establish in the Irish Free State.

Three years ago, the Gentle Traditionalist introduced the skeptical, secular Geoffrey to the Catholic Mystery. Now a convert, Geoffrey struggles to see with his reason what his wife Anna intuits to her horror: the steady possession of a once-Christian West by the twin forces of Secular Materialism and Secular Spiritualism—the New Secular Religion and New Age Religion. In Ireland, land of saints and scholars, the transformation is rapid and devastating: over 1,500 years of faith evaporating in just 50 years. Meanwhile, Anna’s cousin Brigid, who grew up Catholic, is now entangled with Gareth LightShadow, a slick salesman of post-Christian enlightenment—and a smooth operator with the ladies. The situation is desperate. Enter Gilbert Tracey (the Gentle Traditionalist), who deftly exposes the contradictions, confusions, and lies within LightShadow’s shallow creed “Spiritual But Not Religious,” which brackets out sin and the Cross. The result is often heartlessness, including toward the unborn child—a key theme of this very pro-life book. All of which GT demonstrates to Geoffrey with unexpected aid from the Chesterbelloc and the mysterious Emperor of Christendom! In the process, we are taken behind the scenes to the little-known but deeply influential promoters of (in GT’s words) “Eastern Occultism Without Christ.” We are left with no doubts: something profoundly disturbing, an epochal shift, is under way, driven by giant political and economic interests. It is time to wake up, time to see clearly, time to act.

From the first prehistoric inhabitants of the island to the St Andrews Agreement and decommissioning of IRA weapons, this uniquely concise account of Ireland and its people reveals how differing interpretations of history, ancient and modern, have influenced modern Irish society. Combining factual information with a critical approach, Coohill covers all the key events, including the Great Famine, Home Rule, and the Good Friday Agreement. Updated with two new chapters expanding the discussion of pre-modern Ireland, as well as developments in the 21st century, this highly accessible and balanced account will continue to provide a valuable resource to all those wishing to acquaint themselves further with the complex identity of the Irish people.