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Identity Change after Conflict pp 71–95Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Grammar of Nationality, the Limits of Variation and the Practice of Exclusion in the Two Irelands

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict ((PSCAC))

Abstract

This chapter sketches the conventional understandings of nationality in each part of Ireland. It uses thematic analysis of interviews to delineate the everyday symbolic boundaries of religion and nationality, focusing on the symbolic ‘grammars of nationality’ that define the reference and meaning of national and religious categories and their relative interrelations with other fields. These grammars differ markedly in Northern Ireland (and within it) and in the Republic of Ireland, and are differentially open to incremental change. Through analyzing narratives of exclusion, the chapter reveals how these seemingly flexible grammars are mobilized for exclusionary purposes.

Parts of this chapter were originally published as ‘Partitioned Identities: Everyday ethnic and national distinctions in Northern Ireland and the Irish state’. Nations and Nationalism, 21.1, 21–42. © The author(s) 2015. Nations and Nationalism © ASEN/John Wiley & Sons Ltd 2015.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    LM2NPH1.

  2. 2.

    TM3TCS13.

  3. 3.

    See Appendix for methodology of interviewing and of analysis.

  4. 4.

    This nested construction is typical of unionist thought, see Aughey 1989, pp. 14–16.

  5. 5.

    LM2OC01. See Chap. 5, pp. 98–99.

  6. 6.

    This is typical of the wider populations, see Chap. 3, pp. 53–56.

  7. 7.

    This was the case for almost all respondents in the North, for Protestants and most English respondents in the South, and for two thirds of the Southern Catholic respondents. Only a residual third of Southern Catholics were unreflective about a national/religious identity that was so embedded in their institutions and social practices that it was never questioned: they were ‘born into it, never knew anything else’.

  8. 8.

    TF2SPA7. See Chap. 5, pp. 97–99.

  9. 9.

    For discussions of initial self-presentations see inter alia Brubaker et al. 2006, pp. 266–269 on ‘unmarked’ default categories; Lamont and Mizrachi 2012 on sensitivity, status and stigma; Stevenson and Muldoon 2010 on hot strategic nationality and cool unspoken nationality. For a more extended discussion of this case, see Todd 2014.

  10. 10.

    In the North, the likelihood to volunteer religious and national categories was unaffected by religious background or commitment, locality, generation or class.

  11. 11.

    See Appendix pp. 245–249 for discussion of the slightly different interview schedules.

  12. 12.

    For the rules as embodied in political ideology, see Elliott 1985; Hutchinson 2005; Cleary 2002; Link and Hayward 2009; McAuley 2010; and in everyday life see Buckley and Kenny 1995; Burton 1978; Harris 1972; Mitchell 2006; Cañás Bottos 2015; Millar 2006.

  13. 13.

    NF2NHP05.

  14. 14.

    Over 95% in surveys say they are Irish. For the ambiguities and difficulties for incomers, see Otukoya 2016.

  15. 15.

    LF2WPC4; LM2FPC2; TF1HPD52; TF1xPD56.

  16. 16.

    This finding coheres with the survey material. Northern Ireland Life and Times, Community Relations Module, BRITISH, IRISH, NORTHERN IRISH. Attitudes have hardened since 2012, but still less than half of Northern respondents have a singular identity. Northern Ireland Life and Times, Politics Module, IRBRIT.

  17. 17.

    These dimensions as expressed by respondents correspond closely to those put forward as defining nationality by Hutchinson and Smith 1994, 4.

  18. 18.

    TF1WPA2.

  19. 19.

    Coakley (2012, pp. 48–135) sees these as constituent elements of the nation. Billig (1995, pp. 6–7, 42–46) counts them as part of the ‘daily habits’ that reproduce nationalism. Malešević (2013), sees them as part of centrifugal ideologization.

  20. 20.

    On the varied national resonances of different sports in Northern Ireland see Sugden and Bairner 1993.

  21. 21.

    In surveys over a quarter of Southern Catholics say that the Catholic religion is an important part of being Irish (Fahey et al. 2005, p. 69). Very few of our respondents explicitly said this, all saw the state and the nation as encompassing both Catholic and Protestant religions. It is possible that those in the Eastern and border areas where we interviewed had moved farther away from traditional Catholic nationalism than the population as a whole.

  22. 22.

    In the EVS survey (1999–2000) 20% of Northern Catholics say that being Catholic is very important in being Irish and 30% of Northern Protestants say that being Protestant is very important in being British (Fahey et al. 2005, pp. 69–70). Muldoon et al. (2007) found that conceptual slippage between religious and national identity was almost universal amongst Northern Ireland young people in a school essay study.

  23. 23.

    Racism certainly exists, but it does not follow from this grammar. Rather it goes against it.

  24. 24.

    TF3FCT10.

  25. 25.

    The following counts as a national ‘we’: ‘We’ (i.e. the British, Irish or Northern Irish) are/do/think/speak about xyz. The following does not: ‘We’ (indeterminately family, cohort, religious group, fellow citizens) are British (or Irish or Northern Irish). See Appendix p. 253 for discussion of coding.

  26. 26.

    For more detail, see Todd 2015.

  27. 27.

    The English in Ireland and Irish travellers were excluded from this count. Border Protestants were less likely to use the national ‘we’ than other respondents.

  28. 28.

    NM2 DXC03; TM2SCT14.

  29. 29.

    JF1PD01.

  30. 30.

    TF1XPD56.

  31. 31.

    So, for example, Leah recounts being corrected when she said she was Irish: ‘Irish is if you’re from down South’ TF2CPA6.

  32. 32.

    TF1MCA15.

  33. 33.

    The only evident gender weighting was in reports of physical assault which were more common among men than women.

  34. 34.

    This is a radical change from the past, when Catholics felt silenced and wrong footed by official norms. For discussion of the experience and its extent, see Moxon Browne 1986; Pollak 1993, pp. 355–356 and Ruane and Todd 1996, pp. 178–202.

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  1. Geary Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Jennifer Todd

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Todd, J. (2018). The Grammar of Nationality, the Limits of Variation and the Practice of Exclusion in the Two Irelands. In: Identity Change after Conflict. Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98503-9_4

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