Abstract
Looking back on the challenge posed to critical theory by the publication in 1999 of Sokal and Bricmont’s book, Intellectual Impostures, this essay argues that the latter was at least evidence of the ongoing vitality of the French public sphere, thirty years after most of the books indicted in it had been published. Throwing light on the French political context in which they appeared, specifically the events of May ’68, it then tries to assess the reasons why events of similar import in contemporary Ireland and Northern Ireland have not prompted the same level of debate, and points out the want of a real Irish public sphere as one possible cause.
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