An Anthropology of the Irish in Belgium: Belonging, Identity and Community in Europe

ISBN-13: 9783030241490 / Angielski / Miękka / 2020 / 209 str.

Sean O' Dubhghaill

Spis treści

Preface.

Chapter 1: The Irish Community at Home and Abroad.

The Irish community: an anthropological perspective

A community of individuals

'Native' takes on Irish life: the Anthropology of Ireland

Imagining Irish community at home and abroad

Chapter 2: Identity Politics, Belonging and Europe.

European identity

Mobility: Moving away from fixist models of identity

Becoming European

Mobilising Europoe: Alterity and Activity

Ireland and Europe: Concept-metaphors

What is a 'good European'?

The Irish Community in Belgium

Chapter 3: The Irish in Brussels: Culture, Language, Politics, Belonging.

(Speaking) Irish in Brussels

Schooling Europeans

The Irish in Brussels, January 1973

How Ireland became European

Irelnand's development, from poverty to prosperity an dback

Experiencing Europe: Irish culture and language

'Become Irish' on Saint Patrick's day in Brussels

Become Irish for an hour or two. Seachtain na Gaeilge

The 'Green Book': Political engagement in Ireland and Brussels

Training Europeans: European Movement International

Concluding Remarks

Chapter 4: Placing the Irish Diaspora in Place and Time in Europe.

January 31st, 2014

Locating the Irish College of Leuven in time

Exile, the past and reconnection: Heritage and lines of belonging

"The Irish are now so used to exile that it is part of their heritage"

'Closed to the public': Putting my 'self' to good use

Teaching Irish(ness) in Leuven

The Irish pub in Belgium: Cultural homes-away-from-homes

Concluding remarks

Chapter 5: Non-Irish, Irish Speakers Among the Irish Community in Belgium.

'It's fake. I mean it sounds the same, but it's fake' Language and Simulation

Philosophy and simulacra

Anthropology, otherness and fakeness

Whereabouts in Donegal are you from? Misattribution and pride

'No Irish, no Blacks and no Dogs'

The limits of pretence: "You can't pretend to speak a language!"

Passing, pride and dejection: simulation and language acquisition

Conclusion remarks

Chapter 6: Imagined Belonging: The Irish Diaspora.

What is diaspora?

Diaspora and reception abroad

The use of Irish at home and abroad: "Do something Irish!"

Yu Ming is ainm dom: Imagining the Irish language at 'home'

The imaginaries of Bruges and In Bruges

Concluding remarks

Conclusion: The Irish Community Abroad and Transnational Belonging.

Bibliography

O autorze

Sean O’Dubhghaill is an affiliated researcher at KU Leuven, Belgium, where he teaches Anthropology of Travel and researches European identity with respect to the Irish diaspora.

Blurb

The first anthropological account of the Irish diaspora in Europe in the 21^st century, this book provides a culture-centric examination of the Irish diaspora. Focusing less on an abstract or technical definition of Irish self-identification, the author allows members of this group to speak through vignettes and interview excerpts, providing an anthropological lens that allows the reader to enter a frame of self-reference. This book therefore provides architecture to understand how diasporic communities might understand their own identities in a new way and how they might reconsider the role played by mobility in changing expressions of identity. Providing firsthand, experiential and narrative insight into the Irish diaspora in Europe, this volume promises to contribute an anthropological perspective to historical accounts of the Irish overseas, theoretical works in Irish studies, and sociological examinations of Irish identity and diaspora.