In this study, Meaney analyses the role of gender in Irish cultural change from the 1890s to the present. Including discussions of writers including James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Oscar Wilde, and Eavan Boland, the first half of the book looks at the relationships between gender and national identities and the recognized major political and cultural movements of the twentieth century. The second half of the book critiques contemporary film, television, and popular music in order to understand new modes of writing, reading and viewing Irishness.