She Moves Through the Boom
Publication Date: February 2000
€10.00
She Moves Through the Boom by Ann Marie Hourihane
What’s happening in Ireland? Behind the triumphalist headlines of the boom, there are changes going on – in the way people work, speak, eat, even the way they think – that cannot be quantified by statistics nor squared with the hollow cliché of the Celtic Tiger. She Moves through the Boom is a book about these intangible changes, and it paints a picture the newspapers and tourism propagandists are missing.
Ann Marie Hourihane talks to working mothers, Mullingar wine importers, the organizer of a rural water scheme, shop assistants, a Nigerian preacher, teenaged removal men, and other exemplary – because ordinary – members of Irish society. These people aren’t talking about the boom; they’re living it, sometimes without even noticing, and they speak its languages – of social liberation, stubborn tradition, banal consumerism, and others.
She Moves through the Boom presents a quirky, kaleidoscopic view of contemporary Ireland. By turns hilarious and dark, it is a fascinating snapshot of a singular moment in our history.
‘Hourihane’s new book is a powerful exploration of death, dying and rituals in Ireland.‘ – Patrick Freyne, The Irish Times
‘Splendid.’ – Fintan O’Toole, The Irish Times
‘A wry, excellently observed account of Ireland’s mocha years, written at the height of the Celtic Tiger, when things were so bubbly (and getting bubblier) that 2008’s crash was unimaginable.’ – Customer review
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ANN MARIE HOURIHANE writes for the Sunday Tribune. She lives in Dublin. Read more.
| ISBN | 9781903305034 |
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| Weight | 0.5 kg |
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| Dimensions | 135 × 215 mm |
| Publication Date | February 2000 |
| Format | Paperback, 250pp |
Lilliput Press –
“A idiosyncratic, in the trenches account of how Ireland was changed by its economic boom–I decided to read this book after hearing the author interviewed on the radio recently; she’s writing a sequel called something like She Moves Through the Gloom, or Doom about what has happened since the world wide economic crisis. Part of the fun of reading is trying to decode Irish life references and idioms.” JAYLIA
Lilliput Press –
“The talk 5 years ago was of the “Asian Tiger”. At the time, I arrived to live with my family in Malaysia, on the Island of Borneo. There we witnessed as the Tiger turned on the economy and left it struggling to stay afloat. The boom surely affected the peoples of the region, but not everyone’s lot was changed for the better. I hope the Celtic Tiger will be kinder to Ireland when it’s time comes. Rapid growth can sometimes create veritable chasms between society’s already separate economic layers. Anne Marie Hourihane gives us an un-biased picture of first-hand experience though the ideas and (sometimes) idealistic points of view of the people she’s talked to. I thoroughly enjoyed reading “She Moves Through the Boom” and the images the author has presented of the changing Ireland which I love so well.”