The central theme of landscape has long been associated with the construction and expression of Irish national identity, particularly in relation to rural Ireland, which traditionally has been regarded as an important source of national heritage and culture. Associated with this preoccupation is the rural/urban divide that has characterised traditional representations of Ireland, especially since the end of the nineteenth century. The twentieth century saw dramatic changes to both rural and urban Ireland. The Celtic Tiger economy and the post-Tiger context have also seen momentous transformations in the Irish landscape. This book analyses the relationship between the rural and the urban and explores the way it is reflected in Irish literature, culture and language from the turn of the twentieth century to the present day. Among others, the work of John Hewitt, Liam O'Flaherty, Moya Cannon, Paula Meehan, Thomas Kinsella and Eavan Boland is analysed, through a variety of perspectives including cultural studies, linguistics, literary studies and ecocriticism.

Contents: Irene Gilsenan Nordin/Carmen Zamorano Llena: Introduction: The Urban and the Rural in the Irish Collective Imaginary - Raymond Hickey: Rural and Urban Ireland: A Question of Language? - Kevin McCafferty: Belfastards and Derriers - Culchies at Heart? Urban and Rural Influences in Northern Irish English - Kieran Keohane: Ireland's Haunted Landscape: From the Deserted Homes of the 'Faithful Departed' to the Post-Celtic Tiger Social Desert - Catherine Nash: 'But the Land Itself Does Not Really Change': Diasporic Negotiations of Ancestral Connection and Difference in Ireland - Britta Olinder: The Glens of Antrim and the Streets of Belfast in John Hewitt's Poetry - Hedda Friberg-Harnesk: Between 'Pavements Grey' and Nature's Shades of Green: Rural and Urban Landscapes in Liam O'Flaherty's Novels - Irene Gilsenan Nordin: 'The Habits of Attention': Landscape and Place. An Interview with Moya Cannon - Anne Karhio: The City in a Raindrop: The Urban Ecology of Paula Meehan - Taffy Martin: 'Churning Land to Liquid': Landscape and Memory in the Poetry of Thomas Kinsella - Katharina Walter: 'Lilac Rooting in the Coldest Part of Ocean': The Topography of Maternity in Eavan Boland's Domestic Violence.