The contributors to this volume deal loosely with the notion of belonging - how it evolves, manifests itself, is shaped and challenged - across a range of contexts in contemporary Ireland. In Belongings: Shaping Identify in modern Ireland, the reader is invited to contemplate recent developments in Irish society through the eyes of sociologists, who scrutinise a series of events and issues relevant to the years 2005 and 2006.
Belongings: Shaping Identify in modern Ireland provides sociological insights into such diverse topics as the Michael Neary case, the Miss China Ireland pageant, Paddy Power’s provocative advertisements and the Breakfast Jumbo Roll. It re-visits events such as the 2006 commemoration of the 1916 Rising, the opening of the Dundrum Town Centre and the Irish Ferries dispute. Issues such as apartment-living, new planned communities, the busyness of everyday life, the attraction of self-help books, and the fervour of ‘Munster mania’ are examined in a fresh and engaging way.
PART 1: ECONOMIC IMPERATIVES
1. The Pope’s Children and the Economisation of Change
2. Irish Ferries, Labour Migration and the Spectre of Displacement
3. Higher Education Policy: Banishing a Vital Power?
4. New Places, Non-Places and the Changing Landscape of the Irish Pub
PART 2: ECLECTIC IDENTITIES
5. Miss China Ireland 2006
6. Stuck in a Ruck: The Impact of Rugby on Social Belonging
7. What’s in a Name? The Meaning of the Irish Language in Contemporary Ireland
8. Contemporary Apartment Living: Living above Place?
9. Home and Belonging: A Study of Women in Prison in Ireland
PART 3: PAST PREFERENCES
10. 1916 in 2006
11. Paddy Power and the Tenacity of the ‘Traditional’
12. But at least I’m aware I’m ignoring it!’ Reflexive Catholicism in Ireland
13. JBR
PART 4: DISCIPLINED BELONGINGS
14. The Neary Case
15. Reading Self-Help Books
16. Jesus in Dundrum: Between God and Mammon
17. Busy Ireland
18. Communities of ‘Limited Liability’