Mobilising classics : reading radical writing in Ireland / edited by Fiona Dukelow and Orla O'Donovan.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Dukelow, Fiona, editor.

O'Donovan, Orla, editor.

Series:

Manchester Political Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature and society--Ireland--History.

Literature and society.

Radicalism in literature.

Radicalism--Ireland--History.

Radicalism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 217 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This book provides a series of rich reflections on the interaction between the radical ideas and political action in Ireland. It aims to provide insights into how selected mobilising classics have framed or have the potential to frame Irish social movement discourses and oppositional activity. The book provides an account of the contributor's personal encounters with the classic text, some by word of mouth from their parents, others through copies passed around in activists' groups, and others still through serendipitous reading. The classic text were published over a period that spans three centuries. Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man, published in 1791, is the oldest text considered, whereas Our Common Future, published in 1987 by the UN-established World Commission on Environment and Development, is the most recent. In Hilary Tovey's commentary on Our Common Future, the work of a committee, she reveals tensions within the classic text and argues that its key concept 'sustainable development' is an inspirational but confused one. Orla McDonnell's essay on The Myth of Mental Illness by Thomas Szasz considers his ideas about the huge social costs of the medicalisation of 'the problems of living'. In contrast, Orla O'Donovan's reflections on Ivan Illich's Tools for Conviviality, consider how his ideas can springboard our thinking beyond the prisons of visionlessness or circumscribed political imaginations. Eileen O'Carroll's essay on William Thompson's Practical Education for the South of Ireland traces early Irish articulations of socialist feminism.

Contents:

Thomas Paine's The rights of man / Bernadette McAliskey

William Thompson's Practical education for the south of Ireland / Eileen O'Carroll

James Connolly's Labour in Irish history / Fintan Lane

Robert Tressel's The ragged trousered philanthropists / Rosie Meade

Simone de Beauvoire's The second sex / Fiona Dukelow

Thomas Szasz's The myth of mental illness / Orla McDonnell

Kwame Ture and Charles Hamilton's Black power: the politics of liberation / Robbie McVeigh

Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the oppressed / Mark Garavan

Ivan Illich's Tools for conviviality / Orla O'Donovan

Adrien Rich's On compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence / Tina O'Toole

The Brundtland Committee's Our common future / Hilary Tovey.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 10 Jul 2026).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-7190-9501-8

OCLC:

1394872251