New beginnings: Perspectives from France and Ireland

This collection emerged from a conference held in TU Dublin at a time when the theme of New Beginnings seemed particularly apposite. In the few years prior to the gathering, COVID-19 had brought the world to almost a complete standstill. The need to recalibrate, to find new and more effective ways of dealing with the climate crisis, domestic and international politics, literary expression, and technology, was clearly felt by everyone. The fourteen essays deal with literary figures such as Jonathan Swift, George Moore, Colm Tóibín, Richard Murphy, Seamus Heaney, Michael O'Siadhail, Sally Rooney and Doireann Ní Ghríofa. Other issues broached are the diplomatic work carried out by Seán T. O'Kelly as Ireland's envoy to Paris when an independent Ireland was seeking international recognition; depictions of the AIDS crisis in Irish theatre; the Neganthropocene in the French TV series Zone Blanche; new opportunities for learning through digital archives; strategies to save the rural Irish pub; innovative strategies employed by Ireland on the world stage, and the use of science to manipulate the French public's beliefs about COVID-19. The diversity of material and approaches guarantees that New Beginnings will appeal to a large number of readers.