Because We Are Poor : Irish Theatre in the 1990s

Victor Merriman's work on Irish theatre is in the vanguard

of a whole new paradigm in Irish theatre scholarship, one that is not content to

contemplate monuments of past or present achievement, but for which the theatre

is a lens that makes visible the hidden malaises in Irish society.

That he has been able to do so by focusing on a period when so much else

in Irish culture conspired to hide those problems is only testimony to the

considerable power of his critical scrutiny. Chris Morash, NUI Maynooth.

Victor Merriman's work on Irish theatre is in the vanguard

of a whole new paradigm in Irish theatre scholarship, one that is not content to

contemplate monuments of past or present achievement, but for which the theatre

is a lens that makes visible the hidden malaises in Irish society.

That he has been able to do so by focusing on a period when so much else

in Irish culture conspired to hide those problems is only testimony to the

considerable power of his critical scrutiny. Chris Morash, NUI Maynooth.