The highly performative categories of 'Irish culture' and 'Irishness' are in need of critical address, prompted by recent changes in Irish society, the arts industry and modes of critical inquiry. This book broaches this task by considering Irish expressive culture through some of the paradigms and vocabularies offered by performance studies.

MATTHEW CAUSEY is Senior Lecturer and Director of Postgraduate Teaching and Learning in the School of Drama, Film, and Music at Trinity College Dublin, IrelandDAVID CREGAN is Assistant Professor of Theatre at Villanova University, USA, where he also teaches in the Irish Studies ProgramEMILY MARK FITZGERALD is Lecturer in the School of Art History and Cultural Policy at University College Dublin, IrelandHOLLY MAPLES is Lecturer in Drama at the University of East Anglia, UKCHARLOTTE MCIVOR is a PhD student in Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, USAJ'AIME MORRISON is a performer and scholar whose work focuses on the intersections between Irish Studies, Performance Studies, and Dance HistoryGABRIELLA CALCHI NOVATI is a PhD candidate in Drama at Trinity College Dublin, IrelandANNE PULJU conducts research in Irish theatre, performance, and politics, with interests ranging from community performance to the relationship between postcolonialism and modernism in the culture of the Irish Free StateE. MOORE QUINN is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the College of Charleston, USAJACK SANTINO has been President of the American Folklore Society (2001-2002) and Editor of the Journal of American Folklore (1996-2000)MATTHEW SPANGLER is Assistant Professor of Performance Studies in the Department of Communication Studies at San José State University, USASCOTT SPENCER is a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at New York University,USABERNADETTE SWEENEY lectures in drama and theatre studies at University College Cork, IrelandCARMEN SZABÓ is Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at University College Dublin, IrelandERIC WEITZ is Lecturer in Theatre Studies at Trinity College Dublin, IrelandMIKE WILSON is Professor of Drama and Co-Director of the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling at the University of Glamorgan in Wales, UK

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction: Performance Studies and Irish Culture; F.Walsh  with S.Brady PART I: TRADITION, RITUAL AND PLAY Performing Ireland: A Performative Approach to the Study of Irish Culture; J.Santino Performing Tradition; B.Sweeney Sporting 'Irish' Identities: Performance and the Gaelic Games; S.Brady 'It's beyond Candide it's ¦vejk': Wise Foolery in the Work of Jack Lynch, Storyteller; M.Wilson Traditional Irish Music in the 21st Century: Networks, Technology, and the Negotiation of Authenticity; S.Spencer PART II: PLACE, LANDSCAPE AND COMMEMORATION 'Tapping Secrecies of Stone': Irish Roads as Performances of Movement, Measurement, and Memory; J.Morrison Commemoration and the Performance of Irish Famine Memory; E.M.FitzGerald Embodying the Past for the Tourist Gaze: Performing History and Commemorations of Violence at Free Derry Corner; M.Spangler St Patrick's Purgatory and the Performance of Pilgrimage; D.Cregan PART III: POLITICAL PERFORMANCES Word, Voice, Book, and Act: De Valera and the Oath; A.Pulju Between the Living and the Dead: Performative 'in-betweens' in the Work of Alastair MacLennan; C.Szabó The Bio-politics of Performing Irish-ness; M.Causey PART IV: GENDER, FEMINISM, AND QUEER PERFORMANCE Ghosting Bridgie Cleary: Tom Mac Intyre and Staging this Woman's Death; C.McIvor Challenging Patriarchal Imagery: Amanda Coogan's Performance Art; G.C.Novati Homelysexuality and the 'Beauty' Pageant; F.Walsh PART V: DIASPORA, MIGRATION, GLOBALIZATION Taking Northern Irish Identity on the Road: The Smithsonian Folklife Festival of 2007; E.Moore Quinn Who's Laughing at What?: Currents of Humour in African-Irish Theatre; E.Weitz Parading Multicultural Ireland: Identity Politics and National Agendas in the 2007 St Patrick's Festival; H.Maples Index