The Irish in Multicultural London : The Fight for Recognition as the Other

Grainne O'Keeffe-Vigneron (1, 2)

1 CRBC Rennes - Centre de recherche bretonne et celtique
2 SOFEIR - Société Française d’Études Irlandaises

The Irish in England in the post-World War II period were not recognised in official discourse as an immigrant population or an ethnic minority group. This meant that the Irish were left out of policy initiatives and financing aimed at England's recognised minorities. Taking advantage of the politicisation of ethnicity in multicultural London during the 1980s, this article shows how the Irish voluntary sector began to mobilise around the concept of ethnicity. This sector revendicated the existence and the recognition of an Irish ethnic identity in English society. Through the lobbying for the inclusion of an Irish 'ethnic' box under the 'Ethnic Group' question in the 2001 national census we will see how the Irish voluntary sector in London instrumentalised the concept of ethnicity in order to encourage the maximum amount of people to claim an Irish ethnic identity.

Mots clés: discrimination; Irish in England; cultural background; ethnicity; local authorities; minority; multicultural; white; Ireland; white minority; recognition; integration

Domaines: Sociologie

Grainne O'Keeffe-Vigneron. The Irish in Multicultural London : The Fight for Recognition as the Other. Middle Ground Journal of Literary and Cultural Encounters, 2007, 1 (1), pp.12-19. ⟨hal-00612721⟩