Other People's Diasporas: Negotiating Race in Contemporary Irish and Irish-American Culture

With the economic rise of the "Celtic Tiger" in the 1990s, Irish culture was deeply impacted by a concurrent rise in immigration. A nation tending to see itself as a land of emigrants suddenly saw waves of newcomers. In this book, Moynihan takes as her central question a formulation by sociologist Steve Garner: "What happens when other people's diasporas converge on the homeland of diasporic people?" Approaching the question from a cultural rather than a sociological vantage point, Moynihan delves into fiction, drama, comedy, and cinema since 1998 to examine the various representations of and insights into race relations. "Other People's Diasporas" draws upon the recent fiction of Joseph O'Connor, Roddy Doyle, and Emma Donoghue; films directed by Jim Sheridan and Eugene Brady; drama by Donal O'Kelly and Ronan Noone; and the comedy of Des Bishop to present a highly original and engaging exploration of contemporary Irish discourses on race.