This book re-visits and re-thinks some recent defining events in Irish society. Some of these are high profile and occupy a prominent place in public consciousness, such as the announcement of the banking guarantee and the publication of the Ryan report into clerical child abuse, while others are 'fringe' events which attracted less attention, such as the launch of Indymedia.ie, or were widely discussed in popular culture, like the publication of Donal Óg Cusack's autobiography or the opening of Dundrum Town Centre. The book critically explores issues of equality, belonging and rights as they impact on diverse communities in Ireland, be they older people, migrants or LGBT people.
As focal points for each chapter, all of the events covered in the book provide rich insights into the dynamics of Irish society in the twenty-first century. All expose underlying and complex issues of identity, power and resistance that animate public debate. In so doing, the book ultimately encourages readers to question the sources of, limits and obstacles to change in contemporary Ireland.
This book brings together in a single volume the experience, research and analysis of critical commentators from a diverse range of disciplines across the social sciences, and provides an important contribution to discourse about social, economic and cultural issues in today's Ireland. This makes for an original, timely and genuinely inter-disciplinary text.

1. Introduction - Rosie Meade and Fiona Dukelow
2. The birth of Indymedia.ie: a critical space for social movements in Ireland - Margaret Gillan and Laurence Cox
3. In the way of development: Tara, the M3 and the Celtic Tiger - Conor Newman
4. Carts, horses and carriages: love and (same-sex) marriage in the 21st century - Angela O'Connell
5. Making 'race' an issue in the 2004 Irish Citizenship Referendum - Steve Garner
6. 'The centre of everything': Ireland at the Dundrum Town Centre - Denis Linehan
7. 'Taking back the neighbourhood': the introduction of ASBOs - Paul Michael Garrett
8. All that shimmers is not gold: the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and garda accountability - Vicky Conway
9. State to the rescue: the bank guarantee and Ireland's financialised neo-liberal growth model - Fiona Dukelow
10. Worlds turned upside down? The older people's uprising 2008 - Rosie Meade
11. Cutting back on equality - John Baker, Kathleen Lynch and Judy Walsh
12. The Ryan Report: reformatory and industrial schools and twentieth century Ireland - Eoin O'Sullivan
13. Gay in the GAA: the challenge of Dónal Óg Cusack's 'coming out' to heteronormativity in contemporary Irish culture and society - Debbie Ging and Marcus Free
Index

Rosie Meade and Fiona Dukelow are Lecturers in the School of Applied Social Studies at University College Cork