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Diasporas and ambiguous homelands : a perspective on the Irish border
Author(s)
Date Issued
2006
Date Available
2010-07-19T15:47:03Z
Abstract
This paper proposes a diaspora framework as a useful way of conceptualizing the
relationship between the kin-state and northern Irish nationalists. The formation of
diasporas is generally understood as being a consequence of migration. People migrate
across borders and construct communities in their host states while maintaining
a strong sense of linkage with the nation’s homeland. The homeland is central to
diaspora. However, homelands are political constructs the parameters of which fluctuate.
I argue that members of the northern nationalist community are outside the
political homeland of their Irish co-ethnics as a result of boundary drawing rather
than emigration. The paper highlights the rapidity with which the southern political
elite consolidated southern statehood reflecting and further reinforcing a clear sense of north-south differentiation. Decades of divergent state building has further reinforced the relevance of the boundary in terms of southern ethnic identity, further emphasizing the rhetorical nature of calls of re-unification.
Sponsorship
Not applicable
Type of Material
Working Paper
Publisher
University College Dublin. Institute for British-Irish Studies
Series
IBIS Working Papers
62
MFPP Working Papers
12
Copyright (Published Version)
The author, 2006
Subject – LCSH
Nationalists--Ireland
Nationalists--Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland--Relations--Ireland
Ireland--Relations--Northern Ireland
Language
English
Status of Item
Not peer reviewed
Conference Details
Revised version of a paper presented at the workshop on “The Irish border in perspective”,
Queen’s University, Belfast, 1 October 2004, as part of the programme
Mapping frontiers, plotting pathways: routes to North-South cooperation in a divided
island.
ISSN
1649-0304
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
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