Jiving at the Crossroads

by John Waters

A journey to the heartland of today's Ireland, its people and politicians, Jiving at the Crossroads marks a radical new departure in Irish writing. Cutting to the very core of the unresolved struggles that haunt the Irish psyche -- the past and the present, between the urban and the rural -- Irish Times columnist John Waters creates a uniquely personal insight into the dilemmas faced by a whole gerneration born since de Valera's vision of comely lads and lasses dancing at the crossroads.

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

John Waters was born in Castlerea, Co Roscommon, in 1955. He held a range of jobs after leaving school, including railway clerk, showband roadie, pirate radio manager, petrol pump attendant and mailcar driver.


He began part-time work as a a journalist in 1981, with Hot Press, Ireland’s leading rock ‘n’ roll magazine and went full-time in 1984, when he moved to Dublin. As a journalist, magazine editor and columnist, he has specialised in raising unpopular issues of public importance, including the repression of Famine memories and the denial of rights to fathers.

Reviews

[E. Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lively socio-political memoir whose occasional shrillness foreshadows Waters's current incarnation as a latter-day Witchfinder General.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up to read during a trip to Ireland. It was clearly by an Irish person for an Irish audience, so I didn't get a lot out of it. It's not that I didn't understand what was going on. It's that reading about the political infighting of another developed nation is even more boring than hearing about the political infighting in my own country.

The players all come off as kind of pompous and removed from everyday real life. I think that's the author's intent, for some of them at least. But who wants to spend time reading about people being pompous and oblivious? I suppose the same kind of people who enjoy watching the same newsbite play over and over and over on 24-hour news channels. It's not me.

For students of Irish election politics in the 90s, this is probably a great book.

[Gerard Stockil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, informative and prescient.

Good read, remember the time well. A balanced viewpoint that shows traditional Ireland has a future worth fighting for .

[Moss · Rating 3 out of 5]

When asked to chose between the world’s most beautiful system of justice and his mother, Albert Camus chose his mother

[Roger Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of John Water's deeply moving books about modern Ireland. In this early effort, Waters has yet to mature into the darker vision he has of Ireland today, but there is still much that is shrewd and penetrating.

I am deeply grateful for Water's ongoing documentation of the tragedy of modern, globalised, capitalist Ireland.

Those who feel the same as I do might just possibly be interested in my own archive of blogs on this topic: http://corjesusacratissimum.org/tag/c...

Also should be noted that Waters has a new version of this book, updated with a compelling conclusion written 20 years later ...

[Ewan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm starting to understand why the author's a contentious figure, I read this knowing nothing of him - it was on the Irish table in my local library - and found it an engaging mix of memoir, cultural analysis and political finger pointing. I read it as many would a novel or a work of historical fiction, only partly aware of the names and unsure of the facts, but it's a good read on those terms and his theories of localism winning out over accountability is interesting now, years later, as identity/personality politics receives more attention.

[SIMON WEBSTER · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part memoir, part social history lesson of an Ireland long since passed.

Part memoir, part social history lesson of an Ireland long since passed. Brilliantly written and revealing of the author's journeys in life.