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After Ireland?...

The elements that today might form a national culture – language, religion, nationalism – are no longer so readily identifiable here, where the effect of Tiger affluence was not individualism but conformism... THINGS ARE often studied only when they start to go wrong. The end of things is the moment when we start to understand them: and only when they are understood do we begin to realise what might be lost. For instance, sociology emerged as a discipline in that era when society was no longer felt to fit like a glove. Perhaps the fairly recent development of Irish Studies on campuses is less a cause for celebration than a warning: that the identities which it sponsored were, in effect, being codified before their possible eclipse. Such fears have, of course assailed Irish people long before now. After the defeat at Kinsale, the poets of the 1600s proclaimed the collapse of Gaelic Ireland, but in lines of such throbbing vitality as to rebut that very thesis. A tradition lived on in the...

Recessionsaurus...

Your essential guide to language in the 21st century economy... It's happened to us all. One minute you're in your element, waxing lyrical about the big match over a bag of peanuts down the pub, the next the talk turns to the markets and you're left clutching at more straws than an octopus playing Kerplunk. Worry no more. Like a white knight with a big dictionary under his arm, The Times today charges to the rescue with the Recessionsaurus — Robert Cole's guide to modern vocab. We've listed and defined some of the most common phrases to have cropped up over the past few months, and we hope you find them useful. But this is an interactive service — we want your input, too. Use the Have your Say box below to query any economic tongue twisters and terminology to have come your way recently. We'll monitor your feedback and add new entries, quicker than you can say quantitative easing. Well, almost... Administration One step from bankrupt...