This chapter reviews the lessons on the ‘Beat’ – or ‘beatific’ – vision that was discussed in the previous chapters. It examines the relationship between the fifties writers and the sixties songwriters, emphasising the power of popular song to make complex religious philosophies accessible and to make the spiritual dimension of existence seem immediate. The chapter also discusses the tensions that existed within the Beatles and Bob Dylan.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, thousands of Europeans are searching for their past. A substantial number of European history enthusiasts find their past in Scotland, or rather, in a bundle of myths and images, which we have called the Scottish dreamscape. The Scots of Europe toss cabers at Highland Games, play soldiers in marching pipe and drum bands, commemorate Scottish heroes, and simulate kilted combat in historical re-enactment clubs. Scottish myths and aesthetics played an important role in the making of the modern European nations. Scottish play-acting is a social activity. There is a need for sociability and shared ritual in modern Europe, and Scottish play-acting appears to satisfy some of it. The Scots of Europe create social experience, usually without financial support and governmental guidance.

This introductory chapter discusses the Beat movement, examining the word ‘Beat’, which is generally acknowledged to refer to the beat of bebop music. It then defines several related terms, including ‘spirituality’ and ‘mysticism’, and next surveys five faiths from which the Beats took spiritual inspiration in their search for the beatific vision. The chapter ends with a section on the twofold assumption addressed in this book, which is that popular song is worth taking seriously, regardless of its status in society.

This chapter looks at how the bank guarantee epitomises the Irish case of the perverse legacy of the crisis and the contradictory path of neo-liberalism. The factors such as greed, excessive risk-taking and regulatory policy failures played a role in the Irish crisis. The chapter presents these factors both as symptoms of the deeper dynamics of a financialised neo-liberal growth model and as expressions of how neo-liberal practices and discourses have mutated in the crisis by remaining dominant despite their incongruities. The Irish case of debt displacement and repayment belongs to a broader set of responses in which enormous transfers of wealth are occurring under austerity, as state efforts to manage the crisis in market-friendly ways result in 'wealthfare'. Ireland's first encounter with financialisation occurred through the establishment of the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).

This chapter investigates how twenty-first-century Scotland relates to the Scots of Europe. It examines the Scottish approach towards international fans of Scotland, and in particular the Scottish government's recent efforts to connect with the Scottish 'diaspora'. The chapter explores the 2009 'Homecoming Scotland' campaign and the new rhetoric of 'affinity Scots'. The Scottish diaspora campaigns mainly target North America and try to profit from what has been called 'America's growing obsession with its Scottish connections'. The chapter describes clanship as a zone of contact and interaction. In the Scottish dreamscape, Scotland is a land of clans, and many play-actors hope to associate themselves with the remnants of the clan system. The chapter focuses on 'The Gathering', the Homecoming campaign's centrepiece festival, which took place in Edinburgh in 2009, following a Dutch pipe band on their journey to Scotland, the place on the map.

In Europe, North America, Australasia, and beyond, many dozens of hobbyist groups specialise in re-enacting Scottish history. This chapter investigates the European re-enactors. It examines the cultural practice that is historical re-enactment, its origins and meanings. The chapter explores the Scottish genre and the moments in Scottish history which re-enactors find usable for their performances. There are two reasons for the dominance of warfare in Scottish re-enactment. First, hobbyist re-enactment culture in general is preoccupied with martial themes, and secondly, Scotland's international image is inextricably linked with the Highland soldier. The chapter addresses the issue of authenticity and the re-enactors' efforts to separate myth from fact. Most re-enactors strive to reconstruct the past 'as it really happened', a creed which leads them into trouble when targeting Scottish history.

This chapter describes the film La ardilla roja, which is about a suicidal ex-rocker called J who takes advantage of Sofía's amnesia to convince her to be his girlfriend. It discusses the process of scripting, casting, shooting and editing the film. Medem made his cast understand the subjective truths of their fabricated characters by endowing them with genuine emotion. La ardilla roja, which was shot in nine weeks on a budget of 200 million pesetas, was ultimately to be screened at Cannes. Medem designed a fresh, natural look for the film that affected a realistic contrast to the subjectivities of the protagonists and the range of flamboyant point-of-view shots underwater, inside jukeboxes, from the perspective of the squirrel. Having initially gone begging for an American distributor, La ardilla roja was eventually sold to ancillary markets in twenty-seven countries, including all of Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and Cuba.

Chapter 1 contextualizes the study of older people’s interest organisations within the evolving politics of old age. It explores the evolving relationship between old age, the welfare state and the economy and the national and international promotion of older people’s interest organisations. It outlines the relationship between age-based social policy and economics, demographic forecasts, transnational organisations, globalisation and ideological debates surrounding the equity of specific age-based benefits.

This chapter presents an account of Julio Medem's early years and a background of his family, lineage and ethnicity. It also throws light on what made Medem politically aware and inclined him towards films. Medem's initial attempts at making films were from his own household. His educational training was in anatomy, but he never practised medicine. 1983 to 1985 are described as Medem's film buff years, when he found out that he really liked the auteurist cinema. 1984 was when he enrolled himself for a course in professional video. Medem collaborated on the script, direction and editing of José María Tuduri's Crónica de la segunda guerra carlista, which prepared him for his narrative, Vacas. In 1989, he won a commission to write, direct and edit a short feature, El diario vasco. Eventually, Medem set the bar high for a ‘New Basque Cinema’.