This edited volume brings together the best St. Patrick’s Day and Irish Studies scholars from the fields of history, anthropology, sociology, Irish studies, diaspora studies, and cultural studies.
The volume thematically explores how St. Patrick’s Day has been consumed from the symbolic to the literal, the religious to the political. By doing so, it offers a fresh examination of its importance in contemporary society. This volume will thus appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students of Irish diaspora studies, and Irish historians and scholars, as well as to anthropology, sociology and cultural studies students interested in exploring St. Patrick’s Day as a case study of globalization, migration and commoditization.
Dr Dominic Bryan is Reader in Social Anthropology at the Queen’s University Belfast, where he is also Director of the Institute of Irish Studies. He is an anthropologist researching political rituals, commemoration, public space and identity in Northern Ireland. He is the Chair of Diversity Challenges, a member of the Living Memorial sub-group of Healing through Remembering, and has worked with the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council.