Introduction

Construction of Identity in Northern Irish Novels 239
way he behaves and it is constantly fuelled by the women’s behaviour towards
Luke: “But the best thing they gave him was their version of him. For them, he
was something special, something unique. He knew that, to them, it must have
seemed really great to be him” (ibid. 352). Like the earlier colonisers Luke is
spreading his territory and dates women all over the country in “Belfast, Derry,
Lurgan, Antrim, Ballymena, Enniskillen, Portadown” (ibid. 352) and he briefly
nourishes the idea of “going to South Africa to scour the townships and see how
he fared amongst the surprised and grateful black girls” (ibid. 351). Hence, Luke
embodies all the traits of a colonial power.
The stereotype itself as described by John Morris is in essence the “judgment
of other people by placing them in groups which relate predetermined behaviour
to physical, racial, class, or other, types” and uses methods of “prejudice, anticipation
and systematization of human behaviour” (Morris 1). This kind of stereotyping
is experienced by Chuckie during a trip to the United States. On his way
through New York together with the private eye Dave Bannon Chuckie gets in
trouble with some New York hoodlums who want to rob them. Bannon uses
Chuckie’s origin to scare the boys away by telling them Chuckie would be a member
of the IRA. Of course, they do not believe them: “‘He don’t sound Irish to
me.’ ‘He’s a Brit or Scotch or something’” (McLiam Wilson 263). When Chuckie
starts imitating the Reverend Dr Ian Paisley with set phrases such as “No Pope
here”, “Home Rule is Rome Rule 31” and “Ulshter will fight”, however, the boys
are suddenly convinced of Chuckie’s ruthlessness (ibid. 263). With the words
“‘Power to the people, man. Down with the King and everything’” (ibid. 263) they
run off. This passage is as full of stereotypes as it is with irony as all of the events
are actually mixed up. The boys obviously do not know much about Northern
Ireland and the ongoing conflict. They cannot distinguish a Northern Irish accent
from a Scottish or British one (on top there is no single British accent). Only the
mentioning of the IRA and Chuckie’s usage of the Paisleyian assertions make
them believe them. Finally, they do not realise that Chuckie’s statement of “Home
Rule is Rome Rule” completely contradicts any IRA philosophy but rather supports
the unionist counter-movement. In an underlying tone of irony that almost
never wears off in Eureka Street the narrator hints at the blended realities shown in
this passage. What the New York boys have in mind is one of the Northern Irish
stereotypes that indicate that every Irish Catholic citizen belongs to a radical group
fighting against the British monarch and who at the same time stops at nothing.
They judge Chuckie by placing him into a group that could be called ‘Irish = IRA
= dangerous’. By doing this they assume Chuckie to be a violent political activist.
“The strength of stereotypes lies in [the] combination of validity and distortion”
stresses Morris (ibid. 6). Although people do exist in Northern Ireland that might
fit the boys’ assumption only a minority actually comes into consideration.
31 The term was first used by unionists during the introduction of the first Home Rule Bill in 1886
(Mulholland 14ff).