Ireland and Cultural Theory is a timely collection of new work in Irish studies, assessing how theoretical readings of "Ireland" have begun to question the established grounds of debate in Irish culture. Through analyses of film, television, literature, emigration, and institutional critical practice these essays examine how the notion of the "authentic" interacts with and underlies the construction of Irish identity and its cultural forms and politics. The collection brings together assumptions from cultural theory and post-colonial theory, complicating the application of post-colonial models to Ireland and challenging the suggestion that post-colonial theory unproblematically underwrites a triumphant Irishness. Through its diversity of approaches, disciplines and subjects, Ireland and Cultural Theory acts as a focal point for contemporary directions in the study of Ireland and maps out the critical terrain for future developments in the field.