A Dying Tiger: Performing Social Change on the Island of Ireland. From Republic to Pandemic

This chapter demonstrates how representations of economic austerity and Ireland's ongoing housing crisis are negotiated alongside the Decade of Centenaries commemorative schedule. ANU Productions’ Citizen X (2013) and The Performance Corporation's Beautiful Dreamers (2014) X make visible the micro-histories of Dublin and Limerick, drawing distinct parallels between the broader social contexts of the ongoing recession and its impact on everyday life within these spaces. This chapter considers how these productions pointed towards the rising tide of Ireland's housing and economic precarity, capturing through their own radical commemoration, the impact of failed state policies by using vacant high-rise commercial buildings and urban public space to re-write contemporary history.