Papers (peer-reviewed) by ASIER ALTUNA GARCIA DE SALAZAR
Abstract. Ebun Joseph Akpoveta was born in Nigeria in 1970. She is originally from Okpe in the St... more Abstract. Ebun Joseph Akpoveta was born in Nigeria in 1970. She is originally from Okpe in the State of Edo but she was later raised in Benin City. Her primary degree is in Microbiology from the University of Benin in Nigeria. Her professional career started in the State of Lagos and she was the Administrative Secretary for the Nigerian Britain Association before she moved to Ireland back in 2002. Since her arrival in Ireland, Ebun Joseph Akpoveta has been engaged in various activities and has been a prolific and pro-active member of the Nigerian community in her new home country. While in Ireland she has also furthered her academic instruction and has been a student of various postgraduate programmes. She obtained a Master’s degree in Education, Adult Guidance and Counselling from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. She was recently awarded a Ph.D. by the UCD School of Social Justice in Equality Studies, one of her many passions apart from literature and writing. Ebun Joseph Akpoveta is also an equality activist, a career coach and a motivational speaker. She is an IACP-accredited counsellor and has great experience working with immigrants in Ireland. With this main cause in mind she founded The Unforgettable Women’s Network – TUWN which advocates for equality between men and women. She is a founding member of the African Women Writers Ireland, a Member of RTÉ Audience Council, and a columnist for the African Voice Newspaper.
Ebun Joseph Akpoveta’s first book, Becoming Unforgettable. Uncovering the Essence of the Woman (2012), had the format of a counselling, self-help volume for women who need to articulate their experiences and cope with different plights. Her debut into fiction was with the harrowing novel Trapped: Prison without Walls (2013); here she embarks on the narration of difficult ordeals by immigrant African women in their new “host” country, Ireland. With this novel, Ebun Joseph Akpoveta interrogates the manner by which literary discourses in post Celtic Tiger Ireland challenge, elide or accommodate issues of globalization, immigration, and the notion of multiculturalism. With her fiction, Ebun Joseph Akpoveta questions much-used celebratory accounts of Irish multiculturalism, at least in media and political discourses, as integrationist and inclusive of the “Other”, and in particular, the female Other.
Ebun Joseph Akpoveta lives in Dublin with her beloved family. I would like to thank her for her patience and kindness in collaborating to expand and finalise the present written version of her interview through e-mail.
This article breaks new ground in examining how “new Irish”
immigrant women have responded to the... more This article breaks new ground in examining how “new Irish”
immigrant women have responded to the collapse of Ireland’s Celtic
Tiger economy and the different forms of gender discrimination
and marginalisation they face both within their minority ethnic
communities and the Irish host society. It approaches Ebun Akpoveta’s
Trapped: Prison Without Walls (2013) as an exemplary work of fiction
which exposes unresolved injustices and inequalities suffered by
immigrant women. Akpoveta creates a narrative that complicates
previous representations of cultural encounters between newcomers
and long-established members of Ireland’s host society, not least
because her Nigerian female protagonist arrives as a postgraduate
student rather than an asylum seeker or refugee. She fictionalises
female experiences of marginalisation, gender-based violence and
family dysfunction within an all-Nigerian family that outwardly
appears to be a model of integration and social inclusion in an open
and welcoming Irish multicultural society.
Back in 1976 Edna O’Brien published a series of essays entitled Mother Ireland in which her
aim ... more Back in 1976 Edna O’Brien published a series of essays entitled Mother Ireland in which her
aim was to portray an eternal and contemporary Ireland that seemed to be anchored in a
line of ancestry and remembrance, legend and truth. This paper revisits that Mother Ireland
of O’Brien’s fiction that has transformed herself into a (M)other Ireland best expressed
through a new contemporary portrayal of her plights and predicaments. In Antarctica (1999)
and Walking the Blue Fields (2007), short story writer Claire Keegan’s compelling fictional
skills do not only offer a re-visioning of those eternal ideals of Ireland’s past. Among many
other issues, Claire Keegan’s short fiction revisits O’Brien’s “Mother Ireland” and questions
traditional and hegemonic approaches to this eternal Irish feminine within a new
discourse of Ireland. Her fiction does not represent a commemoration of loss nor a return
to nostalgia; but, rather, a celebration of a twofold newness in Irish society as a whole and
in the role of the Irish woman in particular. Keegan delves into a sociological depiction of
this new Ireland. Her short stories approach the Irish identity from within, narrating the
present from a close distance.
Key words: Irish feminine, “Mother Ireland,” re-visiting Ireland, nostalgia, Irish short
stories.
Robert Jephson’s farce Two Strings to Your Bow (1791) is an Anglo-Irish
exemplar of the use of ... more Robert Jephson’s farce Two Strings to Your Bow (1791) is an Anglo-Irish
exemplar of the use of stock characterisation, i.e., the representation of the comic and
humorous wit inherent to the native Catholic Irish mainly according to the English and
Anglo-Irish audiences of the time. Behind this particular use of characterisation many
Protestant Anglo-Irish authors made reference to the religious, social and economic discourses
present in Ireland at the time, which represents a translation from literary uses to
the plights at the social level. Through the recourse to Spanish archetypes –in Jephson’s
case Lazarillo of Valencia – together with a new-historicist use of the “anecdote” of food
we examine how Robert Jephson provides an analysis of the circulation and negotiation
of social energy at large in Ireland and the Anglo-Ireland of the ascendancy at the end
of the eighteenth century.
Key words: Robert Jephson, Lazarillo, picaresque, stock-characterisation, Anglo-Ireland,
new historicism, circulation of textuality, Anglo-Irish theatre, farce, religious discourse.
Abstract: To commemorate the fourth centenary of the publication of the first part of the Spanish... more Abstract: To commemorate the fourth centenary of the publication of the first part of the Spanish
masterpiece of all times Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, this article approaches in an introductory
manner some of the literary productions which sprang from Cervantes’s original within the Irish context.
In the case of Ireland the Cervantine inspiration, albeit minor and neglected, has also been present; and, it
is most probably the nineteenth century which provides the most ample and varied response to Cervantes’s
masterpiece in many a different way. Our aim is to see briefly how the legacy of Don Quixote found
distinct expression on the Emerald Isle. Indeed, all these Cervantine contributions from Ireland during the
nineteenth century were also deeply imbued with the politics of literature and society in a country which
experienced historical, social and cultural turmoil. The reference to Cervantes as a key writer in Spanish
letters will not only be reduced to his masterpiece of all times; but, will also be tackled in critical pieces of
importance in Ireland.
Key Words: Don Quixote, Cervantes, The Dublin University Magazine, Chenevix, Maxwell, Wellington,
Anglo-Irish
This brief approach aims at analysing and extracting some general guidelines on the much-neglecte... more This brief approach aims at analysing and extracting some general guidelines on the much-neglected discourse which
arose from the representation of Spain and Spanish references in Irish literature between 1789 and 1850. It focuses
on the ways in which a number of canonical and non-canonical Irish and Anglo-Irish writers use Spain, her history,
traditions and culture to construct the contemporary Irish discourse. The history of Spain, Spanish tradition and
literature were topics much referred to by a number of Irish writers at the turn of the eighteenth century. These
authors and their discourse deserve a new approach; for, though they have been the focus of some research, many
of these poets, novelists and playwrights have been considered minor in importance by traditional literary criticism
on the grounds of their lack of aesthetic quality and politically partisan bias, among many other issues. Our aim is to
propose some guidelines for further study.
Books by ASIER ALTUNA GARCIA DE SALAZAR
Chapter of Books by ASIER ALTUNA GARCIA DE SALAZAR
Family and Dysfunction in Contemporary Irish Narrative and Film, Sep 15, 2016
Emer Martin’s fiction has always been characterised by approaches to family dysfunction. Her firs... more Emer Martin’s fiction has always been characterised by approaches to family dysfunction. Her first novel was published back in 1996 and since then she has dealt with family dysfunction in realms that encompass diaspora, dislocation, exile, oppression, violence, patriarchy and the clash of civilizations. This writer was selected on account of her continuous delineation of family dysfunction in different contexts that have Ireland as a starting point or a final fictional destination.
On being asked about issues such as multiculturalism, migration, globalization and, more importantly, how these feature in her renderings of dysfunctional families, Emer Martin believes that her characters represent not only Ireland’s past but also an “unresolved” present. For her, “every country is dysfunctional in its own unique way […] and each nationality brings its own baggage”. But, it is in the case of Ireland that Martin sees dysfunction as distinctive. Many of her characters have to leave family and country “to escape all the legacies of dysfunction” and start anew. This, for Martin, was not new in Ireland and not easy. The “legacies of dysfunction” had seeped through all layers. For her, the “Ireland of today has undergone a massive psychic transformation since the 1990s” [...] after years of suppression”. For Martin, the approaches to dysfunction, especially in the family, always have to deal with ideas of obscurity, power, enforcement or poverty, but the new immigrants, the new multiculturalism may bring light out of all the dysfunction. Martin advances the idea that the way Ireland is facing “taboo issues” that affected the family such as divorce, and same-sex marriage “has a lot to do with a more inclusive, less judgemental open society”. Accordingly, she believes that seeing new forms and modes of family should not be regarded as negative and dysfunctional. For her, “once people realize this fear is manufactured and not actually a reality then they stop being afraid and understand that Gay families, single mothers, non-traditional families, and any outsiders are not a threat”. Escaping all these fears and oppressive institutions that have had a real say in the family cell in Ireland may be difficult; but, for Martin, it is the only way to establish a new society. She believes that once Ireland has escaped from all this dysfunction “a new mode of family relationship will be necessary to survive”.
Family and Dysfunction in Contemporary Irish Narrative and Film, Sep 15, 2016
This chapter looks at the phenomenon of the dysfunctional family in intercultural and multicultur... more This chapter looks at the phenomenon of the dysfunctional family in intercultural and multicultural novels. From his perspective, when family dysfunction in Irish fiction is approached during the period between 1980 and 2010 the multicultural and transcultural prisms offer new insights into those factors that have traditionally informed dysfunction in the family cell in Ireland. This chapter abounds in tenets that have featured highly within the idea of dysfunction in the Irish discourse, such as poverty, emigration, drinking problems, domestic violence, rejection, diaspora, displacement and sexual abuse, to name but a few. However, all these will be seen encapsulated in other “new” discourses that have recently appeared within the Irish context: net immigration, ethnic diversity, religious and linguistic diversity and identity transformation. As a result of all these variants, Irish society and her institutions would undergo substantial changes at all levels, which are still ongoing, and which would emerge in Irish fiction at large. The family in Ireland will be one of those key institutions that would be deeply affected by all these new social, economic and identitarian discourses that have appeared over the last decades. The literary representation of family dysfunction seen through the multicultural and transcultural prisms would address these “new” transformations. This depiction will be part and parcel of any approach to the effects of the Celtic Tiger in Ireland since the 1990s.
Chapter in Words of Crisis, Crisis of Words. Ireland and the Representation of Critical Times, Ma... more Chapter in Words of Crisis, Crisis of Words. Ireland and the Representation of Critical Times, María Losada-Friend, Auxiliadora Pérez.Vides and Pilar Ron-Vaz (eds.), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016, pp.91-103
Romantic Ireland: From Tone to Gonne; Fresh Perspectives on Nineteenth-Century Ireland, Paddy Lyons, Willy Maley and John Miller eds., 2013, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 310-323, ISBN: 978-1-4438-4420-8
Europe - Space for Transcultural Existence?, Martin Tamcke, Janny de Jong, Lars Klein, Margriet van der Waal eds., 2013, Göttingen Universitätsverlag ISBN: 978-3-86395-062-0
Glocal Ireland: Current perspectives on literature and the visual arts, Marisol Morales-Ladron and Juan F. Elices-Agudo eds., 2011, Cambridge Scholars Publishing ISBN: 978-1-4438-2979-3
To Banish Ghost and Goblin. New Essays on Irish Culture, David Clark and Rubén Jarázo eds., 2010, Coruña (La) Editorial: Netbiblo ISBN: 978-84-9745-501-5
In the Wake of the Tiger: Irish Studies in the Twenty-First Century, David Clark and Rubén Jarázo eds., 2010, Coruña (La) Editorial: Netbiblo ISBN: 978-84-9745-547-3
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Papers (peer-reviewed) by ASIER ALTUNA GARCIA DE SALAZAR
Ebun Joseph Akpoveta’s first book, Becoming Unforgettable. Uncovering the Essence of the Woman (2012), had the format of a counselling, self-help volume for women who need to articulate their experiences and cope with different plights. Her debut into fiction was with the harrowing novel Trapped: Prison without Walls (2013); here she embarks on the narration of difficult ordeals by immigrant African women in their new “host” country, Ireland. With this novel, Ebun Joseph Akpoveta interrogates the manner by which literary discourses in post Celtic Tiger Ireland challenge, elide or accommodate issues of globalization, immigration, and the notion of multiculturalism. With her fiction, Ebun Joseph Akpoveta questions much-used celebratory accounts of Irish multiculturalism, at least in media and political discourses, as integrationist and inclusive of the “Other”, and in particular, the female Other.
Ebun Joseph Akpoveta lives in Dublin with her beloved family. I would like to thank her for her patience and kindness in collaborating to expand and finalise the present written version of her interview through e-mail.
immigrant women have responded to the collapse of Ireland’s Celtic
Tiger economy and the different forms of gender discrimination
and marginalisation they face both within their minority ethnic
communities and the Irish host society. It approaches Ebun Akpoveta’s
Trapped: Prison Without Walls (2013) as an exemplary work of fiction
which exposes unresolved injustices and inequalities suffered by
immigrant women. Akpoveta creates a narrative that complicates
previous representations of cultural encounters between newcomers
and long-established members of Ireland’s host society, not least
because her Nigerian female protagonist arrives as a postgraduate
student rather than an asylum seeker or refugee. She fictionalises
female experiences of marginalisation, gender-based violence and
family dysfunction within an all-Nigerian family that outwardly
appears to be a model of integration and social inclusion in an open
and welcoming Irish multicultural society.
aim was to portray an eternal and contemporary Ireland that seemed to be anchored in a
line of ancestry and remembrance, legend and truth. This paper revisits that Mother Ireland
of O’Brien’s fiction that has transformed herself into a (M)other Ireland best expressed
through a new contemporary portrayal of her plights and predicaments. In Antarctica (1999)
and Walking the Blue Fields (2007), short story writer Claire Keegan’s compelling fictional
skills do not only offer a re-visioning of those eternal ideals of Ireland’s past. Among many
other issues, Claire Keegan’s short fiction revisits O’Brien’s “Mother Ireland” and questions
traditional and hegemonic approaches to this eternal Irish feminine within a new
discourse of Ireland. Her fiction does not represent a commemoration of loss nor a return
to nostalgia; but, rather, a celebration of a twofold newness in Irish society as a whole and
in the role of the Irish woman in particular. Keegan delves into a sociological depiction of
this new Ireland. Her short stories approach the Irish identity from within, narrating the
present from a close distance.
Key words: Irish feminine, “Mother Ireland,” re-visiting Ireland, nostalgia, Irish short
stories.
exemplar of the use of stock characterisation, i.e., the representation of the comic and
humorous wit inherent to the native Catholic Irish mainly according to the English and
Anglo-Irish audiences of the time. Behind this particular use of characterisation many
Protestant Anglo-Irish authors made reference to the religious, social and economic discourses
present in Ireland at the time, which represents a translation from literary uses to
the plights at the social level. Through the recourse to Spanish archetypes –in Jephson’s
case Lazarillo of Valencia – together with a new-historicist use of the “anecdote” of food
we examine how Robert Jephson provides an analysis of the circulation and negotiation
of social energy at large in Ireland and the Anglo-Ireland of the ascendancy at the end
of the eighteenth century.
Key words: Robert Jephson, Lazarillo, picaresque, stock-characterisation, Anglo-Ireland,
new historicism, circulation of textuality, Anglo-Irish theatre, farce, religious discourse.
masterpiece of all times Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, this article approaches in an introductory
manner some of the literary productions which sprang from Cervantes’s original within the Irish context.
In the case of Ireland the Cervantine inspiration, albeit minor and neglected, has also been present; and, it
is most probably the nineteenth century which provides the most ample and varied response to Cervantes’s
masterpiece in many a different way. Our aim is to see briefly how the legacy of Don Quixote found
distinct expression on the Emerald Isle. Indeed, all these Cervantine contributions from Ireland during the
nineteenth century were also deeply imbued with the politics of literature and society in a country which
experienced historical, social and cultural turmoil. The reference to Cervantes as a key writer in Spanish
letters will not only be reduced to his masterpiece of all times; but, will also be tackled in critical pieces of
importance in Ireland.
Key Words: Don Quixote, Cervantes, The Dublin University Magazine, Chenevix, Maxwell, Wellington,
Anglo-Irish
arose from the representation of Spain and Spanish references in Irish literature between 1789 and 1850. It focuses
on the ways in which a number of canonical and non-canonical Irish and Anglo-Irish writers use Spain, her history,
traditions and culture to construct the contemporary Irish discourse. The history of Spain, Spanish tradition and
literature were topics much referred to by a number of Irish writers at the turn of the eighteenth century. These
authors and their discourse deserve a new approach; for, though they have been the focus of some research, many
of these poets, novelists and playwrights have been considered minor in importance by traditional literary criticism
on the grounds of their lack of aesthetic quality and politically partisan bias, among many other issues. Our aim is to
propose some guidelines for further study.
Books by ASIER ALTUNA GARCIA DE SALAZAR
Chapter of Books by ASIER ALTUNA GARCIA DE SALAZAR
On being asked about issues such as multiculturalism, migration, globalization and, more importantly, how these feature in her renderings of dysfunctional families, Emer Martin believes that her characters represent not only Ireland’s past but also an “unresolved” present. For her, “every country is dysfunctional in its own unique way […] and each nationality brings its own baggage”. But, it is in the case of Ireland that Martin sees dysfunction as distinctive. Many of her characters have to leave family and country “to escape all the legacies of dysfunction” and start anew. This, for Martin, was not new in Ireland and not easy. The “legacies of dysfunction” had seeped through all layers. For her, the “Ireland of today has undergone a massive psychic transformation since the 1990s” [...] after years of suppression”. For Martin, the approaches to dysfunction, especially in the family, always have to deal with ideas of obscurity, power, enforcement or poverty, but the new immigrants, the new multiculturalism may bring light out of all the dysfunction. Martin advances the idea that the way Ireland is facing “taboo issues” that affected the family such as divorce, and same-sex marriage “has a lot to do with a more inclusive, less judgemental open society”. Accordingly, she believes that seeing new forms and modes of family should not be regarded as negative and dysfunctional. For her, “once people realize this fear is manufactured and not actually a reality then they stop being afraid and understand that Gay families, single mothers, non-traditional families, and any outsiders are not a threat”. Escaping all these fears and oppressive institutions that have had a real say in the family cell in Ireland may be difficult; but, for Martin, it is the only way to establish a new society. She believes that once Ireland has escaped from all this dysfunction “a new mode of family relationship will be necessary to survive”.
Ebun Joseph Akpoveta’s first book, Becoming Unforgettable. Uncovering the Essence of the Woman (2012), had the format of a counselling, self-help volume for women who need to articulate their experiences and cope with different plights. Her debut into fiction was with the harrowing novel Trapped: Prison without Walls (2013); here she embarks on the narration of difficult ordeals by immigrant African women in their new “host” country, Ireland. With this novel, Ebun Joseph Akpoveta interrogates the manner by which literary discourses in post Celtic Tiger Ireland challenge, elide or accommodate issues of globalization, immigration, and the notion of multiculturalism. With her fiction, Ebun Joseph Akpoveta questions much-used celebratory accounts of Irish multiculturalism, at least in media and political discourses, as integrationist and inclusive of the “Other”, and in particular, the female Other.
Ebun Joseph Akpoveta lives in Dublin with her beloved family. I would like to thank her for her patience and kindness in collaborating to expand and finalise the present written version of her interview through e-mail.
immigrant women have responded to the collapse of Ireland’s Celtic
Tiger economy and the different forms of gender discrimination
and marginalisation they face both within their minority ethnic
communities and the Irish host society. It approaches Ebun Akpoveta’s
Trapped: Prison Without Walls (2013) as an exemplary work of fiction
which exposes unresolved injustices and inequalities suffered by
immigrant women. Akpoveta creates a narrative that complicates
previous representations of cultural encounters between newcomers
and long-established members of Ireland’s host society, not least
because her Nigerian female protagonist arrives as a postgraduate
student rather than an asylum seeker or refugee. She fictionalises
female experiences of marginalisation, gender-based violence and
family dysfunction within an all-Nigerian family that outwardly
appears to be a model of integration and social inclusion in an open
and welcoming Irish multicultural society.
aim was to portray an eternal and contemporary Ireland that seemed to be anchored in a
line of ancestry and remembrance, legend and truth. This paper revisits that Mother Ireland
of O’Brien’s fiction that has transformed herself into a (M)other Ireland best expressed
through a new contemporary portrayal of her plights and predicaments. In Antarctica (1999)
and Walking the Blue Fields (2007), short story writer Claire Keegan’s compelling fictional
skills do not only offer a re-visioning of those eternal ideals of Ireland’s past. Among many
other issues, Claire Keegan’s short fiction revisits O’Brien’s “Mother Ireland” and questions
traditional and hegemonic approaches to this eternal Irish feminine within a new
discourse of Ireland. Her fiction does not represent a commemoration of loss nor a return
to nostalgia; but, rather, a celebration of a twofold newness in Irish society as a whole and
in the role of the Irish woman in particular. Keegan delves into a sociological depiction of
this new Ireland. Her short stories approach the Irish identity from within, narrating the
present from a close distance.
Key words: Irish feminine, “Mother Ireland,” re-visiting Ireland, nostalgia, Irish short
stories.
exemplar of the use of stock characterisation, i.e., the representation of the comic and
humorous wit inherent to the native Catholic Irish mainly according to the English and
Anglo-Irish audiences of the time. Behind this particular use of characterisation many
Protestant Anglo-Irish authors made reference to the religious, social and economic discourses
present in Ireland at the time, which represents a translation from literary uses to
the plights at the social level. Through the recourse to Spanish archetypes –in Jephson’s
case Lazarillo of Valencia – together with a new-historicist use of the “anecdote” of food
we examine how Robert Jephson provides an analysis of the circulation and negotiation
of social energy at large in Ireland and the Anglo-Ireland of the ascendancy at the end
of the eighteenth century.
Key words: Robert Jephson, Lazarillo, picaresque, stock-characterisation, Anglo-Ireland,
new historicism, circulation of textuality, Anglo-Irish theatre, farce, religious discourse.
masterpiece of all times Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, this article approaches in an introductory
manner some of the literary productions which sprang from Cervantes’s original within the Irish context.
In the case of Ireland the Cervantine inspiration, albeit minor and neglected, has also been present; and, it
is most probably the nineteenth century which provides the most ample and varied response to Cervantes’s
masterpiece in many a different way. Our aim is to see briefly how the legacy of Don Quixote found
distinct expression on the Emerald Isle. Indeed, all these Cervantine contributions from Ireland during the
nineteenth century were also deeply imbued with the politics of literature and society in a country which
experienced historical, social and cultural turmoil. The reference to Cervantes as a key writer in Spanish
letters will not only be reduced to his masterpiece of all times; but, will also be tackled in critical pieces of
importance in Ireland.
Key Words: Don Quixote, Cervantes, The Dublin University Magazine, Chenevix, Maxwell, Wellington,
Anglo-Irish
arose from the representation of Spain and Spanish references in Irish literature between 1789 and 1850. It focuses
on the ways in which a number of canonical and non-canonical Irish and Anglo-Irish writers use Spain, her history,
traditions and culture to construct the contemporary Irish discourse. The history of Spain, Spanish tradition and
literature were topics much referred to by a number of Irish writers at the turn of the eighteenth century. These
authors and their discourse deserve a new approach; for, though they have been the focus of some research, many
of these poets, novelists and playwrights have been considered minor in importance by traditional literary criticism
on the grounds of their lack of aesthetic quality and politically partisan bias, among many other issues. Our aim is to
propose some guidelines for further study.
On being asked about issues such as multiculturalism, migration, globalization and, more importantly, how these feature in her renderings of dysfunctional families, Emer Martin believes that her characters represent not only Ireland’s past but also an “unresolved” present. For her, “every country is dysfunctional in its own unique way […] and each nationality brings its own baggage”. But, it is in the case of Ireland that Martin sees dysfunction as distinctive. Many of her characters have to leave family and country “to escape all the legacies of dysfunction” and start anew. This, for Martin, was not new in Ireland and not easy. The “legacies of dysfunction” had seeped through all layers. For her, the “Ireland of today has undergone a massive psychic transformation since the 1990s” [...] after years of suppression”. For Martin, the approaches to dysfunction, especially in the family, always have to deal with ideas of obscurity, power, enforcement or poverty, but the new immigrants, the new multiculturalism may bring light out of all the dysfunction. Martin advances the idea that the way Ireland is facing “taboo issues” that affected the family such as divorce, and same-sex marriage “has a lot to do with a more inclusive, less judgemental open society”. Accordingly, she believes that seeing new forms and modes of family should not be regarded as negative and dysfunctional. For her, “once people realize this fear is manufactured and not actually a reality then they stop being afraid and understand that Gay families, single mothers, non-traditional families, and any outsiders are not a threat”. Escaping all these fears and oppressive institutions that have had a real say in the family cell in Ireland may be difficult; but, for Martin, it is the only way to establish a new society. She believes that once Ireland has escaped from all this dysfunction “a new mode of family relationship will be necessary to survive”.