Irish national identity was unresolved and shaped by dispersion.
Evidence
The terms “English” and “Irish” have been used in the preceding discussion for convenience. … The Irish peoples had been in the process of achieving a national identity and a national culture since the Norman-led conquest. They had not done so when the time came for the mass relocation that has marked their collective history for the past 200 years. Theirs is, then, a national identity deeply marked by the Irish dispersion. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 266
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- DEFINE: Clarifies the meaning of ‘Irish’ as a people whose national identity is defined by diaspora, anticipating how Robinson will treat ‘Black’ identity similarly.
- XREF: Directly parallels the diasporic formation of Black identity that the reader is tracking for the Black radical tradition.