The Truth About the Irish

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 28 FEB 2000

Eagleton's very cheeky look at the Irish tickles as it informs. Relating the A to Zs of Irish life and culture in brief essays arranged by subject, the Oxford literature professor (Heathcliffe and the Great Hunger; Literary Theory; etc.) employs a mix of statistics and playful humor to point out that, among other things, the Irish are not the biggest drinkers in the world (except for Greece and Italy, they have the lowest per-capita consumption in the E.U.). Avowed revolutionaries, they harbor a tendency, says Eagleton, toward ineptitude: in the 1916 Easter Rebellion "the rebels themselves were mostly poets and intellectuals, rarely the most promising material for a military scrap." Yet they have a fine tradition of strong, independent women, from the pirate Grace O'Malley of the 16th century to revolutionary Maud Gonne and presidents Robinson and MacAleese in the 20th century. Fond of having a good time, the Irish tend to be very religious--when they aren't in one of their anti-clerical moods. The common expletive "fugghan" is the closest most of the population comes to using Gaelic (a Welsh word meaning "wild, untamed"). Eagleton emphasizes that the Irish are proud of their new economic firepower, dubbing themselves the "Celtic Tiger" and making an industry out of James Joyce, who fled Ireland to get away from them. With wry affection, he traces the roots of many customs in Ireland's history as an impoverished colony, and observes that its people may be changing with the country's recent prosperity. The Ancient Order of Hibernians may despise Eagleton's candor, but most Irish will greet it with a smile and a wink.