An Age of Innocence

Irish life between 1930 and 1960 is normally presented as a sort of cultural wasteland. In a radical re-examination of the period, Brian Fallon challenges this stereotype and argues that Ireland's cultural and artistic life was vigorous, continuous and fertile. He argues that despite literary censorship, literature flourished with such substantial writers as Flann O'Brien, Patrick Kavanagh, Sean O'Faolain, Frank O'Connor and Liam O'Flaherty, together with dozens of less celebrated but...
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Irish life between 1930 and 1960 is normally presented as a sort of cultural wasteland. In a radical re-examination of the period, Brian Fallon challenges this stereotype and argues that Ireland's cultural and artistic life was vigorous, continuous and fertile. He argues that despite literary censorship, literature flourished with such substantial writers as Flann O'Brien, Patrick Kavanagh, Sean O'Faolain, Frank O'Connor and Liam O'Flaherty, together with dozens of less celebrated but nevertheless important figures. In the visual arts, figures as diverse as Evie Hone, Mainie Jellett, Norah McGuinness, Louis le Brocqauy and Patrick Hennessy all either established or consolidated their careers. In addition, the period saw the firm establishment of a public broadcasting service in Ireland and its sponsorship of a national symphony orchestra. Fallon's provocative and passionate survey of this period rescues it from the neglect into which it has fallen and will prompt a lively reassessment of these important decades.