Introduction

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Melanie Swiatloch
1999, 113]). As Mac Póilin has stated correctly, Irish has become a matter of identity
for many Northern Irish Catholics as Ulster-Scots has become for a couple of
Protestants. Irish especially has a strong connotation to Catholic nationalism in
the North. Ulster-Scots thus became the Protestant answer to a non-Irish but
unionist cultural identity (Mac Póilin 1999, 109). A survey undertaken by Eddie
Kerr on behalf of Naíscoil na Rinne in Derry in 1994 gives an interesting insight
to what Protestants think of the usage of the Irish language:
A nineteen-year old youth thought that all Irish-speakers were ‘Taigs’
(Catholics), that the Irish language was ‘Taig-talk’, and that everybody who
spoke it was in the IRA. A 51-year old unemployed shipyard worker said: I
mean it’s a Catholic thing and to me it says it’s theirs and nothing to do
with us. It’s a political statement made by those who speak it (Mac Póilin
1999, 109).
Mac Póilin notes that the interviewed persons categorically made no distinction
between Catholicism and nationalism. The statements rather reveal a strong generalisation.
Interestingly, Eureka Street takes a similar point of view as all Irish speaking
characters in the book have an affiliation towards nationalist ideas. The proposal
here only works in one way, however. While everybody speaking Irish is of Catholic
origin, not everybody being Catholic automatically is interested in the Irish
language. Jake and his friends, although being Catholic, are neither able to speak
Irish, nor do they insist on a united Ireland. Aoirghe Jenkins, Shague Ghinthoss,
an anti-English Catholic poet from Tyrone who is nevertheless loved by the English
(McLiam Wilson 173), and the Irish speaking waitress in contrast refer to the
worldview as presented by the interviewees above as they combine Catholicism
and nationalism alike and indeed try to make a political statement by using Irish.
Yet, in Eureka Street the language conflicts arise not only between Protestants
and Catholics but also amongst Catholics themselves. For instance, Jake’s observations
of the Irish language and of Irishness generally have an underlying sense
of irony. One night he and his friends accidentally take part in an Irish poetry
reading: “An Evening of Irish Poetry Tonight 8 p.m. [a sign in the bar] said. Oh,
fuck, I replied” (McLiam Wilson 172). The poems are all about the natural beauties
of the country but Jake notices “that these were all nationalist hedges, republican
berries, unProtestant flowers and extremely Irish spades” (ibid. 175). Not
everybody present is able to understand the Irish texts, however, and they are
translated into English (a hint that Irish is not really the main language of all
Catholics). Finally, Jake expects boos and catcalls for the sentimental tone but the
audience loves the poems. “Weren’t there any Protestants here?” (ibid. 176), he
wonders. Eve Patten argues that the underlying and “pervasive” irony in Eureka
Street thus offers the characters a “distance from which to survey and destabilize
the configurations of home” (Patten 130). One could say that Jake has evolved