"When I was a young boy in primary school, we were taught that post-independence Ireland was poor but uniquely virtuous. Today, we are taught that it was poor and uniquely wicked. There is an attention-seeking particularism to a lot of Irish writing that can get in the way of understanding the country: we were never as different as people have made out. Those traditional rural values that we once correctly celebrated can still be found in agricultural communities around the world; the Magdalene Laundries that we correctly condemn have their counterparts elsewhere as well. We are a nation of navel-gazing drama queens – and perhaps not even that makes us unique."