The Irish Soul: In Dialogue

Does modern Ireland still have a soul? From the evidence of the sixteen deeply personal interviews in this book, the answer is a resounding yes.

The Irish have always been a soulful people, both in the spiritual sense and in their depth and passion. Yeats wrote that Man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick, unless soul clap its hands, and sing and louder sing for every tatter in its mortal dress. This depth of soul has been evinced throughout Irish history under the rubrics of art, music, religion, philosophy, literature, psychology, sports and politics. The men and women interviewed in this volume have been selected as representing that cross-section in contemporary Irish culture.

The author's compilation of names is eclectic, including, among others, Sinn Fin President Gerry Adams, monk/philosopher Mark Patrick Hederman, novelist Roddy Doyle, and Irelands newest Cardinal, Desmond Connell. Each questioning involves, at an intimate level, a questing after something for nobody is completely at home in himself or his world. The personalities encountered in these pages, with their passions and prejudices, will inspire, interest and intrigue. They offer a plurality of possibilities and perspectives. Searching still and, sometimes, succeeding. Remembering and recording. The Irish soul, then, in dialogue with itself.

Reviews

"It's not often that a book of interviews attracts the sort of attention that Dr Stephen Costello's The Irish Soul: In Dialogue has received . . . " David Quinn, The Sunday Times

About the Author

Stephen J. Costello lectures in philosophy and psychoanalysis at University College Dublin and Trinity College and is the author of The Search for Spirituality and Credo: Faith and Philosophy in Contemporary Ireland.