Irish indigenous identity is being invoked to stir up antagonism towards immigrants

By Aisling Walsh, Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Galway

At an academic conference I attended this summer, an Irish Druid presided over an opening ceremony. She blessed the proceedings and shared reflections on Irish indigeneity, spiritual beliefs and our connection to the land.

The conference was focused on decolonial theory and practice. It was therefore all the more worrying to see how the white, settled (as opposed to travelling), Irish identity positioned as an indigenous experience.

It is the majority culture in Ireland but was being presented as somehow akin to the Māori of Aotearoa (New Zealand), the Sámi of Scandinavia,…

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