A collection of essays first delivered as lectures in the fifth Seamus Heaney Lecture Series in St Patrick's College, Drumcondra under the theme of culture and identity in contemporary Ireland. The essays respond to the complexity of issues relating to culture and identity from a number of inter-related perspectives and traditions. These include the perspectives of migrants, Irish Travellers, and those experiencing socio-economic inequalities; the role of language and identity; the effects of globalisation on identity; and the concept of identity explored through different disciplinary lenses.