Utopianism in Eighteenth-Century Ireland

They move from dialogue to satire, from aisling to polemic, from visions of a golden age, to an imagined Eden far away to realistic discourses of improvement, self-reliance and patriotism. This book explores the varieties of utopianism in eighteenth-century Ireland. Based on what is recoverable and what has been recovered to date, it reveals that a distinct utopianism emerged in the early decades of the eighteenth century based on the improving visions of the Dublin Society, the imperative to improve, the interface between the languages, Irish and English, between the cultures of the Catholic and Protestant communities, and between colonial and anti-colonial writings. Utopianism, beyond all the definitional difficulties, is basically a process, one that is continually being reworked. The philosophy of Irish utopianism of the eighteenth century grew steadily during the subsequent centuries and contributed to the formation of an identifiably modern society in Ireland.