Conférence SOFEIR 2014 Katy Hayward

Identity and Interculturality : An All-Ireland Perspective

This paper seeks to contextualise analysis of new forms of Irish intercultural identity in an overtly North/South framework. It begins by outlining the nature of demographic change in both parts of Ireland as a result of the recent, and relatively brief, period of net immigration, before sketching key elements of the subsequent debates around national culture and identity – both in the scholarly and in the public sphere. What is interesting, when assessing both types of discourse, is not just the comparison between North and South but also the matter of what is not discussed. In seeking to highlight some of the absences and silences in these debates the paper opens up new positions from which to consider the reconstruction of Irish identity in the post-Tiger, post-Agreement era. At the heart of this paper is the premise that the response to the ‘foreign' other is integrally connected to the ongoing struggle with internal difference. The conclusion of this paper considers public reaction – or inaction – towards the new neighbours on the street in the light of similar processes of identity construction vis-à-vis the old neighbours across the border.