2010-05-042010-05-042003O' Brien, E.(2003).'A Nation Once Again Towards an Epistemology of the Republican Imaginaire',in McGarry,F.(ed.), Republicanism in Ireland. University College Dublin Press, 145-166.http://hdl.handle.net/10395/325The epistemological structure of Irish republican ideology is examined through the theoretical perspective of Jacques Lacan. This paper extrapolates this position into a societal and group matrix. The Lacanian imaginary is taken here as a model which can encompass the epistemological structure of republicanism in particular as a form or sub-set of nationalism. I will explore the nature of Lacan’s concept of the imaginary order before applying it to the construction of a republican idea of selfhood. I am aware that Lacan’s theories are essentially based on the individual self, but would contend that there is theoretical justification in applying them to a more societal or group concept of identity. In Althusserian terms, society interpellates the next generation in its own image through socio-cultural and linguistic signifiers, and the epistemological structure of republican nationalism is suffused with such structures, and has successfully replicated itself in various individuals over a long period of time. Lacan’s theories of the creation of the individual self through a form of reflection would certainly seem to have some place in such structures.engEpistemologyLacanImaginaryIdeologyRepublicanPart/ Chapter of book