Sport, migration and national identity in contemporary Irish media

ABSTRACT

Taking a “cultural studies” approach that focuses on the ways in which media negotiate the intersections of nation, race and ethnicity, this article examines Irish print and broadcast media discourses of migration surrounding the Irish national soccer team and Gaelic games following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. It argues that the focus on the Irish soccer team’s “home-grown” diversity has superficially celebrated a developing national cosmopolitanism and embrace of migration, but against the backdrop of declining national team fortunes and recruits from the emigrant descendant “diaspora” in Britain. Profiles of immigrant players in Gaelic games have engaged critically, to a degree, with nativism and racism, but offer a benign and future-orientated representation of these games. While significant, both are limited as vehicles for collective national retrospection and introspection with regard to racism in Irish sport and society.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport
• migration
• Ireland
• national identity
• soccer
• Gaelic games

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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2. Sport Ireland, Irish Sports Monitor, 46.

3. Miles and Brown, Racism, 101.

4. Carrington, “What I Said was Racist,” 86.

5. Van Sterkenburg, “National Bonding,” 389, 395; and Campbell and Bebb, “He is Like,” 157.

6. Adjepong and Carrington, “Black Female Athletes,” 170.

7. Turcott and Ariyo, “Disrupting the Global.”

8. Van der Meij et al., “The Downfall.”

9. Engh et al., “The Ball,” 80.

10. Toffoletti and Palmer, “Invisible,” 337.

11. Poli, “The Denationalization.”

12. See Nunn et al., “Beyond Integration”

13. Agergaard, “Nationalising Minority,” 132.

14. Spaaij et al., “Sport, Refugees,” 10.

15. Hall, “Spectacle”; and Van Sterkenburg et al., “Race, Ethnicity,” 821.

16. Van Sterkenburg, 394; and Van Sterkenburg et al., “Race, Ethnicity,” 823, 828.

17. Luque and Van Sterkenburg, “Exploring Discourses”; and Van Lienden and Van Sterkenburg, “Representations of Race/Ethnicity.”

18. Van Sterkenburg et al., “Constructing Racial/Ethnic Difference,” 424–5.

19. Van Sterkenburg and Spaaij, “Mediated Football,” 595.

20. Van Campenhout et al., “Who Counts,” 1072.

21. Bruce et al., “Critical Discourse Analysis.”

22. Ibid., 468.

23. Van Dijk, “Principles,” 249–50.

24. Fairclough, Critical Discourse Analysis.

25. Hall, “Introduction,” xxii.

26. Van Campenhout and Van Sterkenburg, “The Diversification,” 51.

27. Holmes and Storey, “Transferring.”

28. Hickman and Ryan, “The ‘Irish Question’.”

29. Moynihan, Other People’s Diasporas, 178.

30. Free, “Migration.”

31. Oonk, “Who may Represent,” 1048.

32. Giulianotti, “Back to the Future”; and Free, “Tales from the Fifth.”

33. Free, “Keeping them Under Pressure”; Free, “Antihero as National Icon.”

34. Ibid.

35. Hassan and McCue, “The ‘Silent’ Irish.”

36. Mauro, Youth Sport, 170.

37. McCue, “Who’s SARI Now?” 923.

38. Hylton, “Too Radical?” 243–4.

39. Carr and Power, “Inclusion through Football,” 157.

40. Mauro, Youth Sport.

41. McCue, “Who’s SARI Now?” 929.

42. Garner, “Ireland,” 49.

43. Hassan and McCue, “The ‘Silent’ Irish.”

44. Sweeney, “Kenny’s Right.”

45. Campbell, “Beyond ‘Plastic Paddy’.”

46. McDonnell, “Ireland’s Cultural.”

47. Cummiskey, “New Young Guns.”

48. Gallagher, “Embrace.”

49. Quinn, “Ireland’s Stars.”

50. Spellmann, “Stephen Kenny.”

51. Free, “Migration.”

52. Simiyu, “Players,” 411.

53. Ibid, 421.

54. Negra et al., “Broadcasting,” 855.

55. O’Riordan, “National Lottery.”

56. Jansen et al., “Nationality Swapping,” 530.

57. For example, Cummiskey, “Evolution”; and McDonnell, “Ireland’s Cultural Evolution.”

58. McWilliams, “Renaissance Nation,” 19–28, 86–91.

59. Van Lienden et al., “Sport Media.”

60. Okeleji, “The Burden.”

61. Malekmian, “Max Mauro.”

62. Mauro, Youth Sport.

63. Machowska-Kosiack and Barry, “Experiences of Second Generation.”

64. Humphries, “Croker Nobs.” In 2023 The Irish Independent and The Sunday Independent slogan for their YouTube GAA coverage promotional video was “GAA is in our DNA.”

65. Connolly and Dolan, Gaelic Games, 129–36.

66. Rouse, Sport and Ireland, 302.

67. Sport Ireland, Irish Sports Monitor; and Walsh, “Minority Report.”

68. Nakase, “Racy,” 68.

69. Rowe, “Cultural Citizenship,” 286.

70. See, for example, Mauro, “Media Discourse”; and, in an Irish context, McIntyre, Contemporary Irish Popular Culture, on emigrant Irish footballer James McClean’s use of social media to justify his refusal to wear the Earl Haig poppy.

71. Lanigan, “Time to Update.”

72. McVeigh and Rolston, Ireland, Colonialism.

73. Finn, “Why do GAA.”

74. RTÉ, “Cork GAA.”

75. Nakase, “Racy,” 67.

76. The Sunday Game Classics, June 14, 2020.

77. Nakase, “Racy.”

78. Garner, Racism, 159.

79. Shandy, “Irish Babies,” 806.

80. Asava, The Black Irish, 66–7.

81. Lentin and McVeigh, After Optimism?

82. Murphy and Maguire, Integration.

83. Robbie McVeigh, quoted in McVeigh and Lentin, “Situated Racisms,” 22.

84. Gilroy, Black Atlantic.

85. Griffin, “Director Donald Taylor Black.”

86. Mauro, Youth Sport, 124–5.

87. TG4, Éire Nua, 2021.

88. Fletcher and Hylton, “Race, Ethnicity,” 8.

89. Supervalu, “#Bring It On.”

90. Supervalu, “Boidu Sayeh and Shairoze Akram.” The choice of Sadlier as interviewer is significant. It exemplifies three common themes in Irish sports media – the interconnections between sports, the acquaintance and mutual solidarity of Irish sports celebrities from different backgrounds, and the pursuit of educational, and thereby cultural and social capital during, or following playing careers. Sadlier is a validating celebrity presence here for players from migrant backgrounds.

91. Müller et al., “Accidental Racists,” 342–3.

92. Lentin and McVeigh, Racism, 150.

93. Sambaraju, “You are Irish,” 76.

94. Titley et al., Broadcasting.

95. Fanning, Diverse, 90.

96. The Late Late Show, December 9, 2022.

97. Otukoya, “Hyphenated Citizens,” 215–7.

98. The Late Late Show, May 28, 2021.

99. The Late Late Show, October 21, 2021; and Moradi and Kelly, Life Begins.

100. Claire Byrne Live, RTÉ, May 24, 2021. See Moloney, “RTÉ Claire Byrne.”

101. Fanning, Diverse, 25–36.

102. Gallagher, Web of Lies, 155–9.

103. Nagle, Kill All Normies.

104. Siapera et al., Hate Track; and Gallagher, Web of Lies.

105. Klein, Doppelganger, 128.

106. Otukoya, “Hyphenated Citizens,” 219.

107. Lentin and McVeigh, Racism.

108. Boykoff and Carrington, “Sporting Dissent,” 846.

109. Kanai and Gill, “Woke?” 11.

110. Rhodes, Woke Capitalism, 137.

111. Joseph, Critical Race Theory.

112. Lentin and McVeigh, Racism, 8.

113. Hollifield, “Emerging Migration,” 900.

114. Engelbert et al., “Everyday Practices,” 138.