Abstract
Much recent presentation of Irishness in Irish governmental tourism initiatives has promoted a sense of seamlessness in the relationship between Ireland and its diaspora communities. In contrast, a great deal of fictional and autobiographical writing about the Irish migrant experience in Britain has emphasised dislocation, fragmentation and discontinuity. Edna O’Brien’s short story, “Shovel Kings” (2011), rehearses many of the archetypal motifs of male Irish exile in London through the reflections of Rafferty, a retired navvy. In contrasting this with the marginalisation of traditional storytelling practices during Rafferty’s failed return to Ireland during the Celtic Tiger years, Murray examines the role that narrative plays in voicing and mediating the dissonances and dislocations of the Irish diaspora.
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Notes
- 1.
This scarcity is also the case for Irish nurses, a popular choice of occupation for Irish women in Britain at this time. See Tony Murray (2017).
- 2.
Both of these songs were written by Dominic Behan in the early 1960s and recorded by The Dubliners in 1966 and 1983 respectively.
- 3.
For an example of such a figure from an earlier era, see the character of Moleskin Joe in Patrick MacGill’s (1914) Children of the Dead End: The Autobiography of a Navvy.
- 4.
The “subbie” (i.e. subcontractor) often had a reputation for exploiting his workforce. See Cowley (2001: 194–5).
- 5.
Press release by Fáilte Ireland, 11 May 2012, available at: http://www.failteireland.ie/Footer/Media-Centre/Taoiseach-Tanaiste-launch-The-Gathering-Ireland-20.aspx (accessed 5 January 2016).
- 6.
For an analysis of Rafferty’s sense of displacement through the work of Julia Kristeva, see Jeanette Roberts Shumaker (2014).
- 7.
See also John Nagle (2002).
- 8.
Another possible frame-of-reference is Holy Confession which, given his relationship with Roman Catholicism, one can assume Rafferty was probably practicing. See O’Brien (2011: 9).
- 9.
It is possible that O’Brien may have intended to make an ironic allusion here to the great wandering Irish bard, Antoine Ó Raifteirí.
- 10.
One of the unforeseen consequences of Ireland’s economic growth was that fact that it became a nation of net immigration rather than net emigration as migrants from countries such as Poland and Nigeria radically altered the social profile of the country’s cities and towns.
- 11.
For an explanation of the concept of “narrative diaspora space,” see Tony Murray (2012: 13).
- 12.
See Adorno (1991: 51).
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Murray, T. (2018). Rafferty’s Return: Diaspora and Dislocation in Edna O’Brien’s “Shovel Kings”. In: Devlin Trew, J., Pierse, M. (eds) Rethinking the Irish Diaspora. Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40784-5_10
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