Deconstructing Ireland examines the course by which the history of modernity and colonialism has constructed an idea of Ireland , produced more often as a citation than an actuality. The author’s approach - using Derridean deconstruction in alliance with positions in postcolonial and subaltern studies - illuminates the way in which this concept of the nation plays across discourses of authenticity, fiction and fantasy in a fascinating range of material. Successive chapters examine the utopian musings of Ignatius Donnelly, John Mitchel and Sean Hillen; the continuing reinvention of Irish criticism; the relation of the figure of the intellectual-artist and the people in James Joyce; the tension between postcolonialism and nationalism in the Field Day project and the political thought of John Hume and Richard Kearney; the relation of gender and nation in stories by Gerry Adams and Frank Delaney; the complex appeal to authenticity in political philosophy, tourism and advertising; and the resonant cultural meanings of Irish ephemera and kitsch.