ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the changing definitions of, and approaches to, the rural, using ideas and debates from Irish and English academic and lay discourses. This investigation redefines the rural as not just a physical space but also as a social construction made up of a whole set of different political, social and cultural meanings. Examination of the symbolism associated with rurality and how these symbols or myths have become attached to the term rural through everyday social practice, is therefore crucial. In the light of the changing definitions of the 'rural', Ireland's 'unusual amalgam of backwardness and modernity', provides a conducive backdrop to debates on rurality and rural idylls and the influence that such an idyll carries in the Irish psyche. Irish rural heritage can be approached from a number of vantage points. These vantage points, which inevitably form the nucleus of most aspects of Irish life, are those of nationalism, language and religion.
