Allen, Kieran 1954-

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ALLEN, Kieran 1954-

PERSONAL:

Born 1954. Education: University College, Dublin, B.A., 1974, M.A., 1977; Froebel College, primary teaching certificate, 1978; Trinity College, Dublin, Ph.D., 1993. Affiliated with Irish anti-war movement.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Dublin, Ireland. Office—University College Dublin, Room D205, John Henry Newman Building, Dublin Ireland. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Primary school teacher, Kilbarrack and Palmerstown, Ireland, 1979-88; sociology lecturer at various colleges, 1990-95; University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, lecturer, 1996-2002, senior lecturer in sociology, 2002—.

MEMBER:

Sociology Association of Ireland.

WRITINGS:

The Politics of James Connolly, Pluto Press (Winchester, MA), 1990.

Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, Pluto Press (Chicago, IL), 1997.

The Celtic Tiger: The Myth of Social Partnership in Ireland, Manchester University Press (Manchester, England), 2000.

(With Colin Coulter) The Irish Republic, the United States, and the Iraq War: A Critical Appraisal, Irish Anti-War Movement (Dublin, Ireland), 2003.

Max Weber: A Critical Introduction, Pluto Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 2004.

Contributor to books, including The European Union and Migrant Labor, edited by M. Cole and G. Dale, Berg (London, England), 1999; and The End of Irish History?, edited by C. Coulter and S. Coleman, Manchester University Press (Manchester, England), 2003; contributor to journals, including Irish Journal of Sociology, Saothar, and Administration.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sociologist Kieran Allen's research interests focus on contemporary Irish Society, Marxist theory, globalization, work and industry, and the writings of Max Weber. His books include Fianna Fáil and Irish Labour, a study of the dominant political party of independent Ireland, in which Allen "attempts to analyze the relationship between Fianna Fáil and organized workers from a Marxist perspective." Times Literary Supplement reviewer Richard English noted that Allen is involved with the Socialist Workers' Party and that his politics are "reflected in the book's style and argument." English felt that "in examining the complicated and often tense relationship between Fianna Fáil and organized labor, Allen raises some important points."

In his book he follows the party that came to power in 1932, as it pursued policies that appealed to the Irish working class, as well as to a broad spectrum of the electorate. It's goal was to undertake reforms acceptable to Irish republicans by eliminating those provisions of the 1921 treaty with Great Britain that they found unacceptable. Allen contends that Fianna Fáil replaced the Labour Party because the Labour Party was not radical enough.

The Celtic Tiger: The Myth of Social Partnership in Ireland is Allen's study of the booming Irish economy of the 1990s and of some of the negative results of that growth. A country of fewer than four million people, Ireland became the American gateway to European markets, in large part because of its young, educated, English-speaking workforce. But as Allen notes, workers now receive a smaller share of the wealth derived from their contributions than they previously had. In addition, social problems, as well as an increasing wage gap between economic classes, have developed. The affluent become more so, while the majority of the people endure long hours, low wages, environmental pollution, and lack of social welfare. Allen studies allegations of corruption and money passing from business to government as a way of gaining access. He also feels that union leaders no longer look out for the workers, but rather have become focused on management.

Suk-Man Hwang reviewed The Celtic Tiger for Contemporary Sociology, and noted that Allen "pays very little attention to what economic development has achieved. The economic boom has drastically reduced the number of long-term unemployed and socially excluded people in Ireland, and the country is now experiencing a labor shortage.… The more important and questionable point is whether workers would act to topple the current system, risking what the economic development has achieved." Hwang felt that The Celtic Tiger "challenges the complacent scholars who blindly praise the achievement of the Irish economy."