First published 2021
Fintan O'Toole begins his story in 1958, the year Ireland opened itself to foreign investment and American popular culture. Born into a working class Dublin family, he grew up as an altar boy watching American Westerns on television while cattle still wandered through city streets. O'Toole weaves his personal experiences with Ireland's dramatic social changes over four decades. He witnesses the Catholic Church's collapse through scandal and grassroots activism, particularly by women. He observes how the violence in Northern Ireland turned most Irish away from militant nationalism. America becomes Ireland's guiding star, from Kennedy's triumphant 1963 visit to the tech boom of the late 1990s that eventually led to financial disaster in 2008. O'Toole examines Ireland's peculiar tendency toward "deliberate unknowing," the way myths of national greatness survived even as their foundations cracked. Through sharp prose and compassionate observation, he reveals how one nation transformed from a conservative backwater into an almost completely open society within a single lifetime.
Genres: history, irish-literature, 20th-century, biography-memoir, 21st-century, activism, cultural-studies, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-journey, social-commentary
Setting: Dublin, Ireland, Northern Ireland
Period: 1958, 1963, 1990s, 2008
570 pages · Hardcover · Head of Zeus Ltd