The revelation of Ireland, 1995-2020

Ireland is a strikingly different country now to the one it was in the mid 1990s. The decline of the traditionally powerful Catholic Church, revelations about abuse and corruption and increasingly-secular debate about such topics as abortion and same-sex marriage indicated the scale of the social and cultural transformation as did the new diversity of the population. The peace process, that saw an end to war in Northern Ireland and culminated in the first reigning British monarch’s visit to the Republic in 100 years, indicated the new Anglo-Irish dynamic. And in the wake of the 2008 recession, Ireland recouped and rebuilt to great success but remained plagued by health and housing failures. Economic recovery, ever closer European involvement and Anglo-Irish highs were followed by Brexit lows and fresh talk of Irish unity. Diarmaid Ferriter tries to make historical sense of post-1990s Ireland.