Episteme, nation-builders and national identity: the re-construction of Irishness*

Abstract

Abstract. There are many disagreements among the three main paradigms of the nationalism literature. Yet most modernists, ethno‐symbolists and constructivists agree that elites play a key role in inventing and re‐inventing nations. Notwithstanding this insight, none of these schools of thought has generated a compelling answer to the question of why the inventors of a certain nation build, out of an infinite number of possibilities, a particular nationness. Analysing the case of twentieth century Irish identity, this article seeks to shed light on this question by inquiring into the process through which elites come to imagine the nation that they seek to build. I argue that epistemic understandings of the world delineate which kinds of national identity are conceivable for, and plausible to, nation‐building elites.

A Clash of Racializations: The Policing of ‘Race’ and of Anti-Muslim Racism in Ireland

“…In the case of Irish Muslims, the experiences of participants in this research suggest that uncontested Irishness is equally inaccessible to them. If national identity is to be understood as relational, then the dominant imagining of Irishness, which was once defined primarily against Britishness (Kornprobst, 2005; Tovey and Share, 2003), is at this point in history inter alia constructed in opposition to a Muslim Other.…”

Relocating nationalism: on the geographies of reproducing nations

“…And yet, it is clear that the role ascribed to nationalist leaders by various theorists varies considerably (see Table I) (Kornprobst 2005, 403–4). Modernists, as noted above, believe that nations are overwhelmingly the product of the modern period and tend to portray a top‐down vision of the reproduction of nations, in which nationalist leaders are seen as the sole driving force behind the definition of national sentiments.…”

The Constantinopolitan Greeks in an era of secular nationalism mid-19th century to 1930

“…12 For a discussion on these major schools of thought see Özkırımlı 2000. Specifically for the way the elites are treated in these theoretical models see Kornprobst 2005. 13 Brass 1991.…”