'We've been clever and stupid, principled and corrupt. We can be kind and cruel, guilty of dopey optimism and chronic fatalism. We're friendly, but near impossible to get to know. We're proud to be Irish but often crippled with self-loathing. We think we're great, but not really. We find ourselves fascinating. Of course we do. We're a paradox.'

There's something about Irish people, about the way their minds work. But what makes them think the way they do?

In his search for the answer to this question and the key to the Irish psyche, Sean Moncrieff roams from the pub to the online world, the shop to the pulpit. Packed with observations, revelations and intriguing detours into the murkier recesses of Irish history and culture, The Irish Paradox is a roadmap of the contradictory, mutating nature of Irishness.