The Irish In Us

   
     For my last review I thought I would take a positive spin on the discourse around the Irish people to the otherwise poorly represented and stereotyped examples of the Irish I have given. This book called The Irish in Us: Irishness, Performativity and Popular Culture is a book written by Diane Negra who writes about how in today’s society, around the world but particularly in the United States, the Irish identity has become an idealized ethnicity. This thought is extremely interesting as my prior reviews show the Irish as being depicted as the Underclass, the Primitive and altogether not highly thought of in terms of the American's, the Scottish and the English and their views of the Irish. 

Diane Negra writes how “Irishness” is rapidly becoming the ethnicity of choice, and by choosing this ethnicity, one can still reap the benefits of “whiteness”;

Seeking to explain the widespread appeal of all things Irish, the contributors to this collection show that for Americans, Irishness is rapidly becoming the white ethnicity of choice, a means of claiming an ethnic identity while maintaining the benefits of whiteness.

In contrast to what North America thinks of as Irishness, the same thoughts on the topic are not entirely viewed the same way, especially for the Irish in certain parts of Europe. Irish author Mark Tuohy who was interviewed in "Proud of My Brand of Irishness" recalls being moved from Belfast to London and how his parents did not celebrate their Irishness, instead they just tried to blend in. He then went on to say that he has a theory that Catholics from the North, used to being an oppressed minority, made a point of keeping their heads down when they moved to London (Tuohy, 2005). The feelings towards the Irish in England as well as in Scotland are not always positive. Examples of this can be found in the review I did on the Scottish football team the Rangers and their sectarian hate towards Irish, as well as my analytical review on second generation Irish in England. 

Diane Negra makes a point of saying how today, Irishness is the ethnicity of choice and that it is a means of claiming an ethnic identity while maintaining the benefits of whiteness (Negra). By stating that there are benefits of “whiteness”, Negra is in keeping with Peggy McIntosh’s use of “Whiteness” which she describes in her article White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack  as protecting her from many kinds of hostility, distress, and violence, which she was being subtly trained to visit in turn upon people of color (McIntosh, 1988). Having that protection from hostility, distress and violence that is normally directed towards people of color, benefits white people from having to endure such racist acts. However the Irish, even though they are white, have endured the same hostility from white people about their ethnicity as those of people of color. The image below is a cartoon that shows a black man and an Irish man sitting on the scale which depicts the two men of the same worth. 

Diane Negra's book on how the Irish are an idealized ethnicity today is an example of how the thoughts around Irish in America today are changing. From the discourse around Irish immigrants coming to the U.S in the 1840's during the potato famine to now when we take pride in our Irish roots and wear green on  St. Patrick's day and make it known the minute we have a chance to let others know of our Irishness.

References

McIntosh, P. (1990). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Independent School, 49(2), 31.

Negra, D. (2006). The Irish in Us: Irishness, performativity, and popular culture. Duke University Press.

Proud of My Brand of Irishness. (2005). Books Ireland, 277, 145. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.library.smu.ca:2048/stable/pdfplus/20624144.pdf