The current "decade of centenaries" and commemorations on both sides of the Irish Sea is providing an opportunity both to reflect upon significant events and challenges that the island of Ireland has been confronted with in the past, and also to contemplate and focus on the future. This multi-disciplinary volume owes much to the ongoing debate within Northern Ireland, as an integral part of the conflict transformation process, on how to build a shared and better future for all citizens out of a divided and traumatic past. Drawing on the cross-disciplinary nature of Irish Studies, the authors from the fields of history, literary and cultural studies, politics and sociology explore the legacy of the Troubles and the consequences for Northern Ireland more than twenty years after the Good Friday Agreement.

The relationship between Ireland and the diversity of its diasporas has always been complex and multi-layered, but it is not until recently that this reality has really been acknowledged in the public sphere and indeed, amongst the scholarly community generally. This reality is partly a consequence of both "push-and-pull" factors and the relatively late arrival of globalization trends to the island of Ireland itself, situated as it is on the Atlantic seaboard between Europe and the US. Ireland is changing however, some would say at an unprecedented speed as compared with many of its neighbours, and the sense of Irish identity and connection to the home country is changing too. What is the relationship of Ireland and the Irish with its diaspora communities and how is this articulated? The voices who speak in New Perspectives on the Irish Abroad: The Silent People?, edited by Micheal O hAodha and Mairtin O Cathain, "talk back" to Ireland and Ireland talks to them, and it is in telling that we see a new story, an emerging discourse-the narratives of the "hidden" Irish, the migrant Irish, the diaspora whose voices and refrains were hitherto neglected or subject to silence.