This collection of essays focuses on issues of gender and sexuality in Irish history, biography, language, literature and drama. While the contributors employ a variety of methodological and critical perspectives, they share the conviction that the gendering of Ireland - not only of the nation, but of actual Irish men and women - is a construction of culture and ideology and not simply one of nature. The essays address such topics as: the recent divorce referendum; homoerotic desire in the Irish literary renaissance, and in recent drama and film; Irish women's history; intersections of gender with nationalism and feminism; contemporary Irish poetry; the significance of gender in emigration from Ireland to the United States; and the political importance of the work of Irish religious women in the first half of the century. The book's concern with gender and sexuality makes possible a series of interweaving narratives that create an understanding of what it means to be Irish. Contributors include: Guinn Batten, Angela Bourke, Carol Coulter, Elizabeth Cullingford, Mary Daly, Adrian Frazier, Dillon Johnston, Margaret MacCurtain, Lucy McDiarmid, Maureen Murphy, Antoinette Quinn, Catherine Shannon and Margaret Ward.