First of all, I should say that Declan Kiberd is something of a hero of literary criticism for me. I can't quite put my finger on what it is about his work - but I suspect it has something to do with the witty erudition of his prose style. At times compassionate, at times irreverent, he's never afraid to take the road less travelled when it comes to interpretations of Irish writers. And this, I believe, has sometimes brought him into direct conflict with other critics - most notably, I recall, with Denis Donoghue over a postcolonial interpretation of Yeats's poem 'Leda and the Swan.'However, returning to 'Inventing Ireland' - this is just a masterpiece of lit crit. Kiberd powers his way through Irish literary history, drawing the readers' attention to themes which recur time and time again: the misrepresentation of the Irish for the benefit of the English reading public, the use of language as a signifier of identity, the twin roles that Protestantism and Catholicism have played in the formation of Irish history. It's a book which I found simply invaluable, both as a student and as a reader with a general interest in Irish literature: probably the single most useful guide to Irish literature I've ever encountered.
