The Revelation of Ireland 1995-2025 with Diarmaid Ferriter

Ireland today is a strikingly different place from the country it was in the mid-1990s. Economic growth during the Celtic Tiger era, alongside profound social shifts, including debates around women’s rights, abortion, and marriage equality, highlighted a rapidly changing society. The peace process in Northern Ireland reshaped Anglo-Irish relations, while revelations of institutional abuse shattered the authority of the Catholic Church.

As Ireland recovered from the 2008 financial crash, persistent crises in housing and healthcare remained. The end of civil war politics, ever closer European involvement and Anglo-Irish highs were followed by Brexit lows and strains in the Irish-American relationship.

In this lecture, Diarmaid Ferriter makes historical sense of post-1990s Ireland, and what lies in the dark corners of its archives.

Diarmaid Ferriter is Full Professor and Chair of Modern Irish History at University College Dublin. One of Ireland’s best-known historians, he is the author of numerous books, including Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland (2009), Ambiguous Republic: Ireland in the 1970s (2012), The Border: The Legacy of a Century of Anglo-Irish Politics (2019), On The Edge: Ireland’s Offshore Islands: a Modern History (2018) and Between Two Hells: The Irish Civil War (2021). His latest book is The Revelation of Ireland 1995-2020 (2024)