Introduction

Construction of Identity in Northern Irish Novels 211
In dressing and writing Wilde was as English as the English themselves, if not
even more so.
When it comes to Northern Ireland, however, one cannot simply talk about
the postcolonial as the North still belongs to the realm of the United Kingdom.
The process of independence, whether territorially or in terms of selfconsciousness,
has not been completed, yet, and it is uncertain if it ever will be.
Regarding literature both Catholic and Protestant writers have largely dealt with
problems that are neither particularly Irish or British, but with Northern Irish
topics. Central here is not always the fight for Irish independence or continuing
British rule but the results of that: conflict, personal loss and grief. The novels
dealt with in this paper, Eureka Street, Where They Were Missed, and One by One in the
Darkness, do not take stands for either a Protestant or a Catholic side but deal with
the sorrows those concerned have to face.
3.2. Hints of Nationalism in a Changing Society
“She sings one last song, the song that Emer-of-the-
Yellow-Hair sings to Cúchulainn whom she loves and
whose heart she knows is leaving her. Mammy sings it
softly, like a lullaby, and her green eyes are big and
dark and shining.”
Where They Were Missed, Lucy Caldwell
(2006, 19)
“Two cultures, two identities, inhabiting the same spot but travelling in their
hearts towards different destinations” (Longley and Kiberd vii): This quotation by
Mary McAleese nicely sums up what many (but not all) people living in Northern
Ireland have experienced at one point in history. The two cultures she speaks of
furthermore have a different concept of belonging. While for example Catholics in
Northern Ireland put a strong emphasis on communality, Protestants rather believe
in the individual citizen, as has been observed by Nic Craith (2004, 111).
Nationalism in Ireland as well as in Northern Ireland has a long tradition and
becomes easier to understand when reconsidering Said’s argument that nationalism
is a form of resistance, delimitation and, in a sense, liberation from the colonial
power. As the Northern Irish Protestants were representing relics of that
subjugation the divide became almost insurmountable. Between 1900 and the
1916 Easter Rising the Irish Parliamentary Party was the leading political party of
the time. Its goal was a united Ireland. Shortly after, Sinn Féin emerged in 1912
for two reasons, unionist resistance towards a Home Rule 17 Ireland and the Irish
17 Home rule means the achievement of self-government by a dependent political unit of a central
government. In Irish history Home Rule became a movement to secure Irish independence
from Great Britain within the British Empire (Britannica 23).