There is much that remains unclear or that is contentious about the evolution of childhood and its present-day manifestations.

The object of the inaugural Seamus Heaney Lectures and, by extension, of this collection is to present a variety of perspectives on childhood from across a range of disciplines that will inform debates about its variegated and complex nature among educators, policymakers, academics, students, and general readers. The eight essays here by noted Irish and American educators examine such topics as the origins of our contradictory images of children, the cosmopolitan family, the historical validity of memoirs of Irish childhood and curricular developments in Irish primary schools, the experience of children in violently divided societies, Jewish girl survivors of Transnistria, and education and happiness.

Joseph Dunne and James Kelly teach at St. Patrick's College.