Chapter 11 - Ireland’s Real Economy: Postcrash Fictions of the Celtic Tiger

Summary

This chapter examines four novels published since the Irish economic crash and set in Dublin during the late boom and early bust years. Kevin Power’s Bad Day in Blackrock (2008), Anne Enright’s The Forgotten Waltz (2011), Claire Kilroy’s The Devil I Know (2012), and Paul Murray’s The Mark and the Void (2015). Each of these novels details the effects of economic developments on the live, finances, and psyches of Irish citizens, while also exploring how a culture of accumulating indebtedness has altered the nature of contemporary Irish reality and the real ties that band society together. Reading these novels in the context of a recent turn in Irish Studies away from cultural concerns and toward a focus on Ireland’s “real economy,” I show how these novelists pay attention to the economy while not being afraid to explore world views, ideologies, desires, and feelings that serve to make it real.