Children's Literature and Young Adult Literature in Ireland

Irish children’s and young adult literature is a rich and complex field of inquiry. While the history of Irish children’s publishing can be traced to the eighteenth century, the emergence of a robust, independent, and definably Irish publishing market—and the emergence of a distinct critical discussion around these books—is relatively recent. By the late 1990s, there were a growing number of Irish presses specializing in material for young readers producing a wide range of work in Irish and in English. The increase in output is echoed by the rise of professional networks dedicated to the promotion and study of Irish children’s and young adult literature. The Children’s Literature Association of Ireland (established 1986) and the Irish Children’s Book Trust (established 1989) merged to form Children’s Books Ireland in 1997. IBBY Ireland was formed in 1998. With the formation of research societies such as the Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature (established 2002) and the creation of specialist undergraduate and postgraduate courses in a number of Irish universities and third-level institutions, there is now a sense that Irish youth literature is a robust and generative field of critical interest. The key areas of critical interest reflect the key themes of children’s and young adult fiction. Just as Irish writers for children have focused on ideas of space and place, on concerns with history and historical fiction, on stories that engage with and develop images from mythology, so too have critical discussions of Irish children’s and young adult literature developed around these same themes. Critical studies of Irish children’s literature have also opened up new and ambitious conversations about gender and on the representation of minorities: this critical interest reflects and responds to changing ideas about gender and sexuality, and to changes in the island’s racial and cultural population. More recently, a renewed interest in archival studies has created fresh insight into the origins and development of Irish children’s literature, asserted the central value of children’s literature in heritage collections and special collections, and generated new critical discussion into the history and the future of children’s and young adult literature across the island.

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