Book Display on Ireland

"Have read little and understood less" from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

As images of shamrocks and ‘Kiss Me I’m Irish’ shirts begin to pop up around us, Ireland’s mythic past is brought to mind. However, with the recent Sinn Fein resurgence in Irish government this year, one must consider the construction of the contemporary national identity and the future of Ireland. The works chosen for this display present an intersection of 20th century Irish history and the work produced out of it. It begins with the Irish Revival and Modernist movements. Then the bulk of the texts engage with the historical and cultural context and content of the Troubles and beyond. This display hopes to ask the question: How can a contemporary Ireland begin to understand identity and culture beyond the binaries of Nationalist and Unionist or Protestant and Catholic? Irish identity is in itself a concept in flux — constantly redefining itself through the written word to be understood.

Curated by Paige Oamek ‘20​, English and philosophy.