In this excellent monograph, Eleanor O'Leary sets out to examine the social realities of teenage culture in 1950s Ireland and, in doing so, to challenge dominant perceptions of mid-twentieth century Ireland as insular and backward looking. Underscoring the need to nuance and respond to popular cultural depictions of the period, O'Leary's research reveals a far more outward-looking culture. She argues that we see roots of 1960s social developments appearing in the 1950s and suggests that these were spearheaded by public attitudes and in particular by the actions of young people. While many scholarly presentations of this period have tended to focus on economic rather than social or cultural factors—for instance, in explaining the stark levels of youth emigration in this period—O'Leary suggests that popular culture was a key factor in altering people's perceptions of appropriate standards of living, and that analysis of this gives us a greater understanding of everyday life and of social change.

Youth and Popular Culture in 1950s Ireland is well researched and framed within extant historical literature both on international youth culture and on postwar Ireland, reflecting and building on these contributions. O'Leary draws on a vast range of sources in order to piece together the experience of Irish youth in this period, including newspapers, magazines, autobiographies, documentaries, ethnographic studies, political papers, and advertisements. She asks what impact and meaning teenage culture had in 1950s Ireland, considering how international (and, particularly, American) trends related to the particular political, social, and cultural context of Ireland. Ireland's postwar economic boom was modest in comparison to that of most other Western nations, meaning that Irish youth in general had less disposable income than did their American and British counterparts. Given this distinct situation, there could be “no simple transference of international teenage culture” to Ireland (171). Consequently, O'Leary uses these global developments as a comparative framework, looking for the influences of international culture but also emphasizing movements unique to Ireland's particular social circumstances. In summary, her focus is on “how young people in Ireland filtered their identities through international forms of teenage and mass culture” (7), following, adapting, and reshaping international trends to suit their means.

The book begins with an analysis of the economic and social situation faced by Irish adolescents. Chapters 2 and 3 explore patterns of education and employment, the expectations placed on young people, and the opportunities open to them. In making this analysis, O'Leary attends to the significance of factors such as class, educational level, gender, access to well-paid and consistent employment, position in the family (whether they were inheriting or non-inheriting family members), and geography. While there may have been material restrictions affecting the ability of Irish youth to participate in new teenage trends, O'Leary emphasizes that their lack of engagement should not be interpreted as a lack of knowledge or of interest. In chapter 4, she looks for evidence of emerging teenage culture, for example through the growing use of the term “teenager” in the media, and for evidence of young people being catered to by radio stations and department stores and being targeted in advertisements. Increasing access to international media brought Irish youth into contact with international discourses of youth culture, and even if many could only “enjoy modern material culture vicariously through the movies” (84), they could still participate in certain popular “crazes” such as hula-hooping, which became popular in Ireland. In chapter 6, O'Leary examines the spaces available to youth across 1950s Ireland and how accessible these were, considering how far it was possible for teenagers to appropriate the available spaces and shape these to meet their own needs “within the limits of social conventions and institutions that surrounded them” (116). One of the tactics teenagers could adopt in order to increase their access to teenage material culture was to pool resources by listening to records together and passing round the popular horror comics and romance magazines of the day (explored in detail in chapter 7).

In sum, this book provides an excellent study of 1950s Irish youth, giving due attention to both local and international contexts. O'Leary is careful always to note the significance of geographies within Ireland, and the very different levels of access to participation in youth culture in rural versus urban areas. Location was obviously paramount to youth experience, most particularly in terms of the social and commercial spaces to which they had access. A particular strength of O'Leary's work is the foregrounding of the role of Irish teenagers as actors, filtering and adapting international trends and carving out their own spaces and opportunities for involvement in a transnational youth culture. They sought out ways to participate, criticized and challenged the expectations and agendas of the church and state in 1950s Ireland, and in many cases voted with their feet and left for what they saw as better opportunities elsewhere. In this way, change was “brought about from bottom-up not top-down” (20). In highlighting “points of resistance” in the everyday practices of teenagers in 1950s Ireland, O'Leary repositions them as “more than passive victims of economic failure and cultural control” (12).