Rule-breakers - Why 'Being There' Trumps 'Being Fair' in Ireland

Ireland is a nation on a value system that equates 'being good' with 'being there for each other'. As a society we favour 'minding our own' over 'doing what we're told'.

So far, so Irish.

It's become a commonplace to refer to the excesses of the Celtic Tiger years as an aberration, the product of a short-lived and inexplicable mania for cheap credit and unregulated consumption. But what if the roots of Ireland's economic crisis ran far deeper than the property boom or the hubris of the establishment elites who enabled it?

In this, a ground-breaking survey of the Irish national character from its colonial history to its current day dramas, acclaimed sociologist Niamh Hourigan draws on a wealth of new and compelling research to reveal the fundamental conflict at the heart of the Irish society: that between our traditional faith in the politics of intimacy, all handshakes and favours, and the ruling systems in which we've invested power.

The Ireland that emerges from her research is a country where outcomes are decided by who rather than what you know, and where – for good or for bad – rules are very much made to be broken.

'Probing, perceptive and highly readable exploration of the Irish value system'
J. J. Lee, New York University

'Compulsively readable'
Kathy Sheridan, The Irish Times

'Lucid, engaging and persuasive … every politician should read this – and so should every voter'
Colin Murphy, The Guarantee