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U2, Globalization, and the Identity Trade

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U2, Globalization, and the Identity Trade

 

Problems With Irish Identity: Hybridity, Diaspora, and Globalization

 

The last important issue in this discussion of modern Irish identity is the idea of hybridity, or the combination of local Irish culture with that of the global in a way that creates a new hybrid Irish culture (see McLaughlan and McLoone 2000 for a discussion of hybridity and Irish popular music).  This notion of hybrid culture is part of the understanding of the Irish diaspora with respect to its “hybrid” consciousness and identity (see Cleary and Connolly 2004, 117-136 for a discussion of the development of the Irish diaspora).  Here, it will help to discuss hybrid Irish culture as the result of interaction between the global and the local communities through the globalization process.

Historically, Ireland’s economy centered on agriculture, and compared to countries like the United States, Ireland was relatively independent and self-sufficient.  In the late 1950s the government of the Republic announced the end of the protectionist socio-political economic practices and the country’s previously “inward-orientated growth turned into outward-orientated growth” (Fagan 2002, 137-8).  Ireland’s induction into the European Economic Community in 1973 catalyzed the development of its agrarian economy into a manufacturing and service economy.  At that time, based on average living conditions and economic parameters, Ireland was still considered a third world country.  One might say that Ireland was virtually “local,” with minimal global relations or infiltrations.  Fortunately for Ireland, U.S. transnational corporations saw the poor little island as a profitable, high-tech location for future operations and plants.  As more foreign investors developed capitalist interests in the country, Ireland’s process of globalization followed quickly behind and at full speed.  As one example of how quickly the economy and society changed, it was reported that Ireland, which had previously been self-sufficient, imported around seventy-one percent of its clothing by 1980.  At present, Ireland’s gross domestic product is around twenty percent above the European average.

As Ireland became a world economic power, its culture became an import for the main diasporan countries.  With the increasing legitimacy of their “homeland” as an industrialized state, members of the diaspora predictably toted their Irish-ness with pride, and they also consumed all things “Irish.”  In a similar fashion to other exoticized countries, certain images, mythologies, and other aspects of Irish culture were exchanged for capital value on the global cultural industry.  For example, Leprechauns transformed from untrustworthy or scary mythological Irish creatures into friendly cartoons on American cereal boxes, while St. Patrick’s Day changed from a national religious holiday into one of the most profitable days of the year for American beer companies as a result of the “drunken Irishman” stereotype (see Luckycharms.com for example of the marketing of Irish culture).  Back in Ireland, globalization altered every aspect of life.  With the increasing presence of televisions and radios, Irish people were gaining exposure to all types of global cultures and music.  Communication became easier, dependence on foreign investing increased, and urbanization threatened to decimate the agrarian society that once was.  At the point where the external values and social relations of capitalism and globalization threatened to change the local, traditional culture, one would find the birthplace of the hybrid Irish identity.  Whereas the diaspora engaged in this syncretism from the moment of arrival in foreign countries, the Irish residents now faced the same dilemma of forming a new identity at home.  The continuous resolution of conflict between global and local Irish identity constitutes a major part of the modern ideology behind Irish nationalism.