Feeling Irish: Contemporary Writing and the Edges of the Nation

Irish literature and culture are having a moment. Across newspapers, magazines, awards stages and social media feeds, journalists and critics are taking note — from Booker Prize-winning novels to Oscar-winning actors, acclaimed musicians to genre-defining TV comedies, Irish creativity is everywhere. But many of these writers and artists carry a complicated relationship with the institutions of the nation — from the furious lyrics of CMAT’s Euro-Country to the historical lamentations of Mícheál McCann’s Devotion. Their work speaks in a spirit of resistance, pushing back against narrow definitions of identity and belonging, and asking what it means to feel at the edge of a nation.

Drawing on over a decade of research and teaching at Salford, Professor Caroline Magennis will explore the creative landscape of twenty-first-century Ireland — and what it means to “feel Irish” in another place. How is culture itself another complex piece of the immigrant experience? Looking across a range of contemporary writing, this lecture pays particular attention to the voices of defiance and resilience that have become its hallmark.

Spanning literature and popular culture, the lecture asks: 'What can Irish writers tell us about the emotional politics of contemporary life? And what does it really mean to feel Irish?'

Professor Caroline Magennis:

Caroline Magennis is Professor of Contemporary Irish Literature at the University of Salford, where finds a way to bring Irish texts into almost every module. She is the author of the prize-winning monograph Northern Irish Writing After the Troubles: Intimacies, Affects, Pleasures (Bloomsbury, 2021) as well as numerous academic book chapters published by Palgrave, Routledge, Oxford and Cambridge.

Caroline’s latest book, Harpy: A Manifesto for Childfree Women (Icon Books, 2024) is blend of memoir, cultural criticism and feminist polemic. It was featured in Vogue, Marie Claire, The Times, Stylist, The Independent and The Irish Times, and was published internationally in Spanish (Alienta) and as a self-narrated audiobook (W.F. Howes).

Host or Publisher Events Team, University of Salford