The tyranny of transnational discourse: 'authenticity' and Irish diasporic identity in Ireland and England (pre-print version)

Abstract

Through the prism of current state discourses in Ireland on engagement with the Irish diaspora, this article examines the empirical merit of the related concepts of diaspora and transnationalism. Drawing on recent research on how Irish identity is articulated and negotiated by Irish people in England, the article suggests a worked distinction between the concepts of ‘diaspora’ and ‘transnationalism’. Two separate discourses of authenticity are compared and contrasted, the first resting on a conceptualisation of Irish identity as transnational, and the other as diasporic. It is argued that knowledge of contemporary Ireland is constructed as sufficiently important that claims on diasporic Irishness are constrained by the discourse of authentic Irishness as transnational. How this effects the identity claims of second-generation Irish people, the relationship between conceptualisations of Irishness as diasporic within Ireland and ‘lived’ diasporic Irish identities, and implications for State discourses of diaspora engagement are discussed.