Performing Modernity

Culture and Experiment in the Irish Free State

By: Elaine Sisson, Claire Cochrane (Editor)

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Hardcover | 22 January 2026

At a Glance

Hardcover
304 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.4 x 15.6 x 2.54

Hardcover

RRP $170.00

$151.75

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An exploration of modernism''s influence on the bohemian and counter-cultural movements in theatre, popular culture and design in the post-independent Irish Free State.

Were there flappers in Ireland? Was there really a Cabaret Club in Dublin in 1924? Using photographs, theatre and costume designs, letters, newspaper accounts, novels and other historical sources this book explores an Irish Free State where people go to jazz clubs, read film magazines, watch German Expressionist theatre, are interested in Soviet design, and attend fancy dress balls dressed up as their favourite Irish products.

Exploring modernism''s influence on theatre, writing, design, art and film, as well as the importance of modernity in defining social identity, technology, urban life, fashion, reading, advertising and popular culture, Performing Modernity offers a wholly new perspective on life in the Irish Free State.

The early years of Irish independence are often characterised as impoverished and traumatic as the country recovered from the effects of a world war, a revolution and a civil war. This book argues that there was also ambition and optimism among the citizens of the new State as they embraced the promise of modernity and bohemian European ideas in theatre, film, and popular culture during the 1920s and 1930s.

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