In Ireland, the decade between 1938 and 1948 has been characterized as a time of stagnation and isolation. During these years, however, many Irish writers and artists travelled extensively across the Continent, while a number of their English counterparts arrived in Ireland. Taking these journeys as a starting point, the essays in this collection explore afresh the cultural history of this decade and the continuing impact of the events around and during the Second World War on Irish literature and culture. Contents include: Kavanagh and MacNeice in the Shadow of War * John Hewitt and the Art of Writing * Nevill Johnson, Surrealism and the Second World War in Northern Ireland * A Bombardier Writes Home: Stephen Gilbert * T.H. White, Ireland and the Second World War * English Perceptions of Irish Culture, 1941-1943: John Betjeman * Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, and 1940s Ireland * Kate O'Brien's Critique of Franco's Spain and de Valera's Ireland, 1936-1946 * 'Nine Rivers from Jordan': Denis Johnston's European Journey and Irish Search * 'Nine Rivers from Jordan': A Lost Masterpiece of Reportage * Samuel Beckett and W.G. Sebald. Subject: History, Irish Studies, World War II]