Introduction

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Melanie Swiatloch
only arranged through language. Further aspects will be considered in chapter
three.
3. Irish Identity and Stereotyping
“Taigs! Filthy stinking Ta-igs!”
Where They Were Missed, Lucy Caldwell
(2006, 22)
Like many colonised peoples the Catholics in Northern Ireland have come into a
diasporic situation (although in 2001 Catholics made up 40 per cent of Northern
Irish population and are losing their minority status (Mitchell 2006, 22)). This
situation surely differs from that of African slaves brought to North and South
America and it differs much from the Jewish history of living outside the Holy
Land, but in the case of the Irish it is possible to speak of diaspora as well, as they
were indeed not taken forcefully away from their homeland but their homeland
was occupied, altered and gradually transferred into a country with a generally
British lifestyle. Consequently, the Irish had to adapt to a different mode of living.
However, the question remains whether Northern Ireland can be included in the
field of British colonialism. There are several aspects that speak for this assumption,
which will be discussed in the following chapters.
3.1. The Colonial Discourse – “England’s Oldest Colony”
“It’s like a war.”
One by One in the Darkness, Deirde Madden
(1996, 95)
“More than three-quarters of the people living in the world today have had their
lives shaped by the experience of colonialism” state Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths
and Helen Tiffin in their joint work The Empire Writes Back (1). This is also valid
for Ireland. Since the beginning of its early conquest in 1171 Ireland has been time
and again subject to British intrusions. As one of the first colonies Ireland thus
stands at the beginning of a long era of British imperialism and could theoretically
be grouped together with for instance India, the Caribbean, Japan, Australia and
parts of Africa, to name just a few. Simultaneously, critics for a long time had to
face the problem whether to include Irish literature in the series of postcolonial
writing at all, since the Irish as “functionaries” of the British had also been engaged
in colonial affairs overseas (Döring 97). Ashcroft, Griffith and Tiffin for
example do not include Ireland in their list of postcolonial literatures though they
acknowledge it is worth examining Ireland in these terms (Ashcroft 24). That it