The Crane Bag Ireland: Dependence & Independence Vol. 8 No 1, 1984

The Crane Bag was an Irish magazine that showcased contemporary cultural issues in articles written by literary and artistic figures. This issue contains lectures originally delivered at University College Dublin focusing on the source of Ireland's economic and social ills in the 1980s. These include the worship of Yeats' vision of a rural Ireland (when most people live in cities), the effect of the country's partition, British indifference to the problems of its smaller neighbor, the continuing impact of the Catholic Church, the failure of economic nationalism, and the dangers of perpetually pursuing a special notion of "Irishness" when in fact the population is virtually indistinguishable from the English. 96 pages.