Wild Dublin: nature versus culture in Irish literature

Abstract

“Wild Dublin: nature versus culture in Irish literature” explores the relationship between a country's environmental performance, its attitudes towards environmental conservation, and the representation of its environment in literature and culture. Dublin's environmental performance is curiously low compared to that of other European cities; it ranks closer in performance to cities in Eastern Europe (largely ones haunted by Cold War era mismanagement) than to others in Western Europe. How could this be in a country known as ‘The Emerald Isle’? Ireland's landscape has often been used as a political tool (in terms of colonialism, tourism and nationalism) and when compared to the realities of Irish life and to the priorities of the Irish Free State, this creates an enduring ‘country versus city’ divide in Irish culture that contributes to the current poor environmental record within the country. This divide is significant when examining Irish writing, both in terms of its content and its reception, and examining the current interest in urban ecology alongside the changing presence of nature in Irish writing proves to be a useful way to explore the ways in which culture influences a community's response to and sense of responsibility towards its environment.