A collection of essays on Irish literary and national identity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Risings traces two unfolding dramas: the renaissance of Irish identity through the Irish Literary Revival and and the parallel quest for Irish nationhood. This cultural movement came to serve as a crucial impetus for Ireland’s reemergent sense of self, while establishing Ireland as a worldwide literary force. 

This book includes four original essays: two by masters in the field of Irish studies and two by master Irish storytellers. R.A. Foster, author of the definitive biography of poet W.B. Yeats and numerous histories of modern Ireland, provides an overview of the Irish literary and political movements of the early twentieth century. Colm Tóibín, acclaimed Irish novelist and essayist, writes of James Joyce and the meaning of his characters’ names. Belinda McKeon, Irish playwright and novelist, views Yeats through his avocation as a collector. Scholar James Pethica, at work on the authorized biography of Lady Gregory, looks at her role as a political advocate and prime mover in the development of Irish cultural nationalism.