How Ireland wrote the modern story of progress

Defence Forces carry flag of the Republic of Ireland as they take part in the St. Patrick’s Day parade on March 17, 2024, in Dublin, Ireland. | Charles McQuillan/Getty Images One of my vacation habits is to take along a book about the place I’m visiting — which is how I found myself on Ireland’s spectacular Atlantic coast last month, paging through a copy of Fintan O’Toole’s We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland. O’Toole, a prominent Irish journalist, uses the years of his own life, beginning in 1958, to tell the story of the changes that have taken place in thi