HarperCollins Ireland seizes Barry’s ‘stunning’ coming-of-age story of Ireland 3.0

HarperCollins Ireland has acquired journalist and broadcaster Aoife Barry’s Social Capital, described as “the coming-of-age story of Ireland 3.0 set against the backdrop of the tech boom.”

Catherine Gough, commissioning editor at HarperCollins Ireland, bought all language world rights directly from the author, who is an outgoing assistant news editor at TheJournal.ie. Social Capital will be published on 27th April 2023.

The publisher says: “Social Capital is a stunning piece of journalism that explores the cultural consequences of Ireland’s unique position as a haven for many of the world’s largest tech multinationals.

“Aoife explores what it is to be a person online, taking in some of the major internet moments in Ireland to illustrate what we’ve experienced and what we have – or haven’t – learned from it. Threaded throughout Social Capital are her own learnings, as a ‘very online’ person who worked for an online news outlet, only to find herself questioning the impact of social media on her life.”

Barry said: “Since my first teenage forays online, which usually involved the pre-Google search engine AltaVista to find chat rooms, I’ve been fascinated by the good and the bad of how people behave on the internet. It was exciting to get the opportunity thanks to HarperCollins Ireland to speak to other people about their lives and experiences online, and to delve deeper into the most pertinent and controversial internet behaviour affecting people in Ireland – from bullying to harassment and influencing.

“Social Capital takes stock of where we are online right now, as well as the impact the tech boom has had on Dublin city, so that together we can figure out where to go in the future. I hope readers find the journey as illuminating as I found writing the book.”

Conor Nagle, publisher, said: “Technological developments over the past two decades have revolutionised the ways we live in, interact with, and think about the world around us. And here in Ireland, our experience of these changes has been unique; Ireland is, after all, home to both a community of particularly eager social media users, as well as the European base for many of the world’s leading tech companies.

“[Tech companies] have remapped our psychology, rebuilt vast swathes of our capital city and helped form new communities while hastening the decline of others. Social Capital is a wide-ranging and profound work of reportage that seeks to reckon with this revolution, taking stock of our gains and losses along the way, all the while sketching the uncertainty of our future. It couldn’t be more urgent or necessary.”