Saint Jack and the Áras
In 1990 Ireland experienced an unusually vivid succession of public moments: a European presidency, a breakthrough summer in football, Nelson Mandela’s visit, a presidential election that overturned political expectations, and a landmark change in criminal law. Together they gave the Republic an outward-looking appearance that contrasted with everyday insecurity. Unemployment remained high, emigration was familiar to many households, and the Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrats coalition under Charles Haughey governed a country still emerging from the fiscal and economic crises of the 1980s. In Northern Ireland, the conflict continued to take lives even as tentative new political thinking appeared.
