We Are (Not) Who We Were: Irish Cultural Nationalism and the Battle over Tara

• In Event: 254 - Section on Environment and Technology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 13. Social Movements

Abstract

This paper traces the controversy over the construction of a major motorway through the heart of one of Ireland’s most iconic and treasured heritage sites: The Hill of Tara. Through the analysis of environmental activists’ discursive strategies, the author reveals how key nationalistic themes that have been repeatedly utilized by Irish political actors during historical episodes of contention and state-building are reactivated within this contemporary political struggle. This is a theoretically compelling exercise because it demonstrates how citizens make sense of themselves in terms of their past and how cultural heritage sites play a particularly meaningful role in the process of national identity construction. It also provides insight into the strategic aspect of identity formation as it is linked to frame alignment processes in a manifestly inter-connected and globalizing world. In the case of Ireland, this process is complicated by conflicting pressures of modernity and the allure of economic prosperity that also vie for pre-eminence as national interests.

Author

• Julia Miller Cantzler, University of San Diego