The subject of Ireland: Introduction to special issue on contemporary Ireland
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The subject of Ireland: Introduction to special issue on contemporary Ireland Michael O’Loughlina,* , Ray O’Neillb and Carol Owensc a
Adelphi University, 15 Laurel Drive, New Hyde Park, NY 11040, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
b
Dublin City University & Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. E-mail: [email protected] c
Dublin, Ireland. E-mail: [email protected] *Corresponding author.
Abstract
The contributors to this issue have chosen to interrogate Irish identity by tackling historical, linguistic, literary, and social aspects of the Irish experience. All are careful not to essentialize the experience of being Irish, nor to make sweeping claims about capitalism, neoliberalism, colonialism, or Roman Catholicism. Their writings, however, shed light on the power of psychoanalysis to puncture grand narratives and to offer a critical lens to unconceal the ways in which a society may resist change, despite the ostensible progress that is represented by rapid economic, educational, technological, and capitalist advancement. In their introduction, the editors offer some details on the sociohistorical and cultural context of contemporary Ireland, and present summaries of the individual contributions, indicating how they have approached the issue of the subject of Ireland, individually and collectively. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society (2020) 25, 303–311. https://doi.org/10.1057/ s41282-020-00191-4; published online 7 July 2020 Keywords: chosen traumas; Ireland; Irish subjectivity; Irish identity; master signifiers
In pre-pandemic Europe, a palpable shift to the right was beginning to emerge in European politics. Although driven in part by anti-immigrant sentiment and a backlash against Angela Merkel’s open-door policy, this shift also bore similar levels of resentment against globalization and the
2020 Springer Nature Limited. 1088-0763 Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society Vol. 25, 3, 303–311 www.palgrave.com/journals
O’Loughlin et al.
expansion of neoliberal capitalism that, paradoxically perhaps, had driven the rise of Donald Trump in the United States, and the triumphalism of the Brexit movement in the United Kingdom. Populist movements emerged in many countries. While France’s ‘‘Yellow Vests’’ movement, involving both the far-left and far-right, seemed singularly focused on comprehended inequalities, the rise of far-right parties in regions of both Eastern and Western Europe raised the specter of fascism as some politicians fanned the flames of homophobia, xenophobia, and white supremacy, and proffered a brazen attack on the very idea of critical thought or the possibility of dissent. The relocation of Central European University to Vienna after it was strong-armed out of Budapest is perhaps emblematic of this disturbing trend. Meanwhile, the Republic of Ireland, which proclaimed its independence with the Easter Rising of 1916 to ultimately establish itself as a republic in 1949,1 appears to be emerging from a claustrophobic social conservatism to successfully straddle the Celtic Tiger of ne
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