If you're the kind of reader that enjoys getting stuck into a massive tome, Declan Kiberd's Irish Classics may be to your liking; although it's hardly the kind of book you'd lug along to a Mediterranean poolside for a light summer's read.

Essentially an academic study, but written in a readable and accessible style, Irish Classics is a prequel (and also something of a sequel) to Kiberd's massive study of Irish literature, Inventing Ireland, published in 1996. The two books, taken together, stand out as the most impressive contribution to Irish literary criticism in recent years.

A post-colonial reading of Irish literature, Irish Classics is unusual in that it takes a Catholic (Protestant and Dissenter) view of Irish writing.

Examining literature produced in both English and Irish, the book takes the 1607 Flight of the Earls as its starting point, surveying Irish writing right up to the first half of the 20th century, with the odd incursion into recent times.

As a critic, Kiberd is in a unique position to write such a book. Not only is he Professor of Anglo-Irish Literature at UCD, but he is also a fluent Irish speaker, at home publishing in either language.

Most importantly, the fact that Irish Classics was written in the light of the Belfast Agreement - and its consequences for a redefinition of national identity - make this a book of our times. Concepts of identity are fluid in the book, with Wilde, in particular, seen as a model for current thinking - part English/part Irish, his self-definition was open and inclusive.

While Kiberd can both enlighten and infuriate, no one seriously interested in Irish writing and cultural criticism should have this volume missing from their shelves. This is vital reading, especially now, as the new dispensation totters dangerously in its infant steps.