Rule Breakers Why Being There Trumps Being Fair In Ireland

Ireland is a nation on a value system that equates 'being good' with 'being there for each other'. As a society we favour 'minding our own' over 'doing what we're told'. So far, so Irish.It's become a commonplace to refer to the excesses of the Celtic Tiger years as an aberration, the product of a short-lived and inexplicable mania for cheap credit and unregulated consumption. But what if the roots of Ireland's economic crisis ran far deeper than the property boom or the hubris of the establishment elites who enabled it?In this, a ground-breaking survey of the Irish national character from its colonial history to its current day dramas, acclaimed sociologist Niamh Hourigan draws on a wealth of new and compelling research to reveal the fundamental conflict at the heart of the Irish society: that between our traditional faith in the politics of intimacy, all handshakes and favours, and the ruling systems in which we've invested power.The Ireland that emerges from her research is a country where outcomes are decided by who rather than what you know, and where – for good or for bad – rules are very much made to be broken.'Probing, perceptive and highly readable exploration of the Irish value system'J. J. Lee, New York University'Compulsively readable'Kathy Sheridan, The Irish Times'Lucid, engaging and persuasive ... every politician should read this – and so should every voter'Colin Murphy, The Guarantee

In this, a ground-breaking survey of the Irish national character, Niamh Hourigan draws on a wealth of new and compelling research to reveal the fundamental conflict at the heart of the Irish society: that between our traditional faith in the politics of intimacy, and the ruling systems in which we've invested power.

The Routledge Handbook of Irish Criminology is the first edited collection of its kind to bring together the work of leading Irish criminologists in a single volume. While Irish criminology can be characterised as a nascent but dynamic discipline, it has much to offer the Irish and international reader due to the unique historical, cultural, political, social and economic arrangements that exist on the island of Ireland. The Handbook consists of 30 chapters, which offer original, comprehensive and critical reviews of theory, research, policy and practice in a wide range of subject areas. The chapters are divided into four thematic sections: Understanding crime examines specific offence types, including homicide, gangland crime and white-collar crime, and the theoretical perspectives used to explain them. Responding to crime explores criminal justice responses to crime, including crime prevention, restorative justice, approaches to policing and trial as well as post-conviction issues such as imprisonment, community sanctions and rehabilitation. Contexts of crime investigates the social, political and cultural contexts of the policymaking process, including media representations, politics, the role of the victim and the impact of gender. Emerging ideas focuses on innovative ideas that prompt a reconsideration of received wisdom on particular topics, including sexual violence and ethnicity. Charting the key contours of the criminological enterprise on the island of Ireland and placing the Irish material in the context of the wider European and international literature, this book is essential reading for those involved in the study of Irish criminology and international and comparative criminal justice.

Politics in the Republic of Ireland is now available in a fully revised sixth edition. Building on the success of the previous five editions, it continues to provide an authoritative introduction to all aspects of the government and politics in the Republic of Ireland. Written by some of the foremost experts on Irish politics, it explains, analyses and interprets the background to Irish government and contemporary political processes. It devotes chapters to every aspect of contemporary Irish government and politics, including the political parties and elections, the constitution, the Taoiseach and the governmental system, women and politics, the role of parliament, and Ireland’s place within the European Union. Bringing students up to date with the very latest developments, especially with the upheaval in the Irish party system, Coakley and Gallagher combine substance with a highly readable style, providing an accessible textbook that meets the needs of all those who are interested in knowing how politics and government operate in Ireland.

This book examines the recent expansion of Ireland's literary tradition to include home-grown crime fiction. It surveys the wave of books that use genre structures to explore specifically Irish issues such as the Troubles and the rise and fall of the Celtic Tiger, as well as Irish experiences of human trafficking, the supernatural, abortion, and civic corruption. These novels are as likely to address the national regulation of sexuality through institutions like the Magdalen Laundries as they are to follow serial killers through the American South or to trace international corporate conspiracies. This study includes chapters on Northern Irish crime fiction, novels set in the Republic, women protagonists, and transnational themes, and discusses Irish authors’ adaptations of a well-loved genre and their effect on assumptions about the nature of Irish literature. It is a book for readers of crime fiction and Irish literature alike, illuminating the fertile intersections of the two.

This book offers an accessible and comprehensive introduction to criminology in Ireland. Logically structured and clearly written, this book explores theory and empirical research through real-life examples from an Irish context. Engaging and challenging, this book encourages critical thinking about, and understanding of, crime and crime control in Ireland, North and South. The book covers the canon of criminological theory, from classical and psychological approaches right through to the contemporary. It offers an overview of the Irish criminal justice system, including the police, prisons and alternatives to punishment. It covers key criminological themes such as victims and victimology, gender, the drug trade and its regulation, terrorism and political violence, and desistance and the life course. Key features include: Critical assessment of key criminological theories, which are later woven into discussions of key thematic areas Case studies of historical and contemporary Irish events, including the Magdalene Laundries, gangland feuds and the decriminalisation of drugs Extensive reading lists of key academic texts and relevant Irish literature, movies, music and art This book is the only comprehensive criminology textbook specifically designed for the Irish undergraduate curriculum. It is essential reading for all criminology students in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and will also be of interest to postgraduates and academics looking for an overview of Irish Criminology.

The 2011 general election in the Republic of Ireland, which took place against a backdrop of economic collapse, was one of the most dramatic ever witnessed. The most notable outcome was the collapse of Fianna Fail, one of the world's most enduring and successful parties. In comparative terms Fianna Fail's defeat was among the largest experienced by a major party in the history of parliamentary democracy. It went from being the largest party in the state (a position it had held since 1932) to being a bit player in Irish political life. And yet ultimately, there was much that remained the same, perhaps most distinctly of all the fact that no new parties emerged. It was, if anything, a 'conservative revolution'. A Conservative Revolution? examines underlying voter attitudes in the period 2002-11. Drawing on three national election studies the book follows party system evolution and voter behaviour from boom to bust. These data permits an unprecedented insight into a party system and its voters at a time of great change, as the country went through a period of rapid growth to become one of Europe's wealthiest states in the early twenty-first century to economic meltdown in the midst of the international Great Recession, all of this in the space of a single decade. In the process, this study explores many of the well-established norms and conventional wisdoms of Irish electoral behaviour that make it such an interesting case study for comparison with other industrialized democracies.

Ireland's experience of Europe's most spectacular financial bubble, bust and recovery is narrated and dissected by a central banking insider.