Ethnonational movements have proliferated throughout the world since the American and French Revolutions first gave birth to the consciousness that every nation has a right to self-determination. Whether these ethnic-based nationalist movements are a new phenomenon which is rooted in the Industrial Era of Europe, or are just a recent stage in an ethnic struggle that began during the initial cultural contact between two ethnically different groups and has persisted ever since, determines the point at which an analyst will choose to begin his or her investigation. Ultimately, the selection of this starting point determines the conclusions drawn about the cause and nature of ethnonational movements. In this thesis, the exploration of Irish ethnonationalism begins in the twelfth century when the Anglo-Normans invaded Ireland. The formation and development of the Irish ethnic group is analyzed, and self-identification found to be the key criterion for determining group membership. As social cleavages between the "Irish" and "colonizer" hardened, institutions and structures emerged to maintain and reinforce the ethnic boundary between these two groups. The thesis concludes with a detailed analysis of the operation of one mechanism of self-segregation--separate education—using ethnographic data and autobiographical accounts of the childhood experiences of people who were born and raised in Northern Ireland. In this thesis, it is argued that Irish ethnic consciousness was brought into awareness when the invading Anglo-Normans threatened to dissolve into chaos the existing Gaelic social order. It is contended that the ethnic struggle in Ireland which began in the twelfth century and still persists today in Northern Ireland, has no single cause, but was and still is fundamentally a cultural conflict which continues to be fuelled by a long history of "remembered" grievances—cultural, political, and economic--most of which predate industrialization and the American and French Revolutions. This past is kept alive by the institutions, structures, and practices which maintain and reinforce the ethnic boundary between Catholics and Protestants in contemporary Northern Ireland, thus ensuring that the Irish nationalist movement will continue to have at its disposal a sharply defined ethnic group which it can mobilize when necessary, and from which it can recruit new members. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

This thesis seeks to delineate what change in divided societies such as Northern Ireland is possible. Two steps are necessary to answer this question: first, to explain the potency of nationalism. I contend that taking the evolutionary history of humans and a human need to belong into account is essential for an understanding of A.D. Smith's ethno-symbolist approach to nationalism. We need to acknowledge that human beings emerged from small-scale settings and are therefore conservative beings who seek those patterns of familiarity that make up the ordinary ‘everyday'. They are also prejudiced beings, as prejudice helps to break down a complex world into digestible pieces. The ethnic state excluding an ethnic ‘other' is an answer to these calls for simplicity. By establishing an apparent terra firma, a habitus, symbols of an ethnic past and national present speak of nationalist narratives that provide a sense of ontological security. In (Northern) Ireland, ethno-national communities based on prejudiced understandings of history have long been established. In this second step I maintain that change that violates the core potent national narratives cannot be achieved. The Provisional IRA's change from insurrection to parliament became feasible because a radical break with republican dogmas was avoided. Sinn Féin, despite a rhetorical move towards ‘reconciliation', still seek to outmanoeuvre the unionist ‘other'. The history of Irish socialism, on the other hand, has been a failure, as it embodied a radical attempt to banish the ‘other' from the national narrative. Regarding ‘post-conflict' Northern Ireland, I argue for a peacebuilding approach that leaves the confinements of hostile identity politics, as these mass guarantors of ontological security possess only limited potential for relationship transformation. We need to appreciate those almost invisible acts of empathy and peace that could be found even in Northern Ireland's darkest hours.