Document Type
Theses, Masters
Disciplines
6. HUMANITIES, Arts
Abstract
This thesis examines how on-screen masculinity changed from the fallout of the Celtic Tiger to Ireland's years of austerity, and why popular productions deploy “Mancession” narratives. This popularises tropes such as ‘Craic Merchant’ from key popular shows such as Hardy Bucks (2008), Love Hate (2010) and Young Offenders (2016). The term ‘Mancession’ (Perry, 2008) was coined following the global 2008 recession, which led to assumptions that men were more economically affected than women. Domestically, this was relayed in popular on-screen media through the ‘Celtic Bromance’ genre, which developed the trope of male friendships as a coping mechanism amid austerity and the recession. ‘Celtic Bromance’ is a subgenre of Irish media that allows for exploration of masculine portals post the Celtic Tiger. This negotiation unfolded through denial, deferral, and deflection in Irish Media, both narratively and visually, with the ‘Craic Merchant’ becoming a significant framing device for these motifs. A wider range of cultural productions from the recession period, such as newspapers, political figures and cultural commentary, articulate and reproduce “Mancession” narratives, and this study considers the extent to which these representations resonate with and construct a broader cultural zeitgeist among Irish men.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21427/xdsn-nk84
Recommended Citation
Sweeney, Michael, "“Soccer before Sex, always” - Popular on-screen Depictions of Irish Masculinty during the Recession (2008 – 2020)" (2026). Masters. 52.
https://arrow.tudublin.ie/appamas/52
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Publication Details
Thesis submitted for the award of Masters, Visual and Critical Studies, Technological University Dublin, 2026.
doi:10.21427/xdsn-nk84