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Rule-breakers : why 'being there' trumps 'being fair' in Ireland / Niamh Hourigan.

By: Publication details: Dublin : Gill & Macmillan, 2015.Description: 232 p. ; 24 cmISBN:
  • 9780717166206 : (pbk.)
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 23 305.8
Subject: We have built a nation on a value system that equates 'being good' with 'being there for each other', although simply keeping the rules is not considered an equivalent form of goodness. As a society we favour 'minding our own' over 'doing what we're told'. So far, so Irish. But, apply this conflict to the economic crash, to Irish Water, or to political cronyism, and we learn how the role of insider intimacy amongst elites, and our weak rules in regulating this intimacy, gets us into trouble. And despite their criticisms of bankers and political elites, the Irish middle classes themselves use favours generated within relationships to get around the rules they encounter. Niamh Hourigan's ground-breaking survey paints a picture of the Irish national character, from its colonial history to its current-day dramas. The Ireland that emerges is a country where outcomes are often decided by who rather than by what you know, and where - for good or for bad - rules are sometimes made to be broken.
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Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode
Loanable Book Library Irish Collection 305.8 HOU (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 000449950

Includes bibliographical references and index.

We have built a nation on a value system that equates 'being good' with 'being there for each other', although simply keeping the rules is not considered an equivalent form of goodness. As a society we favour 'minding our own' over 'doing what we're told'. So far, so Irish. But, apply this conflict to the economic crash, to Irish Water, or to political cronyism, and we learn how the role of insider intimacy amongst elites, and our weak rules in regulating this intimacy, gets us into trouble. And despite their criticisms of bankers and political elites, the Irish middle classes themselves use favours generated within relationships to get around the rules they encounter. Niamh Hourigan's ground-breaking survey paints a picture of the Irish national character, from its colonial history to its current-day dramas. The Ireland that emerges is a country where outcomes are often decided by who rather than by what you know, and where - for good or for bad - rules are sometimes made to be broken.

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