Dublin is the city of Joyce and verbal swagger. Since the 1970s Dublin has experienced more than its fair share of excitement: a Papal visit; a period of unaccustomed stability following a damaging inflationary dash for growth; the celebration of the city's millennium; a woman elected Ireland's President for the first time in history; and in 1991 Dublin is the European City of Culture. This book examines the tensions and contradictions involved in an old, isolated culture as it surges towards a modern identity. Will the young Dubliners' quest for a pluralist and internationally aware society be crushed by what the poet Paul Durcan calls "the forces of darkness"? This book examines this and other questions in the context of the city's development.