Tales from the Fifth Green Field: The Psychodynamics of Migration, Masculinity and National Identity amongst Republic of Ireland Soccer Supporters in England

Abstract

Based on qualitative research on Irish soccer supporters in England in the 1990s it is argued that these supporters' substantial devotions of time, emotion, imagination and money were psychic investments through which international soccer became a symbolic means of negotiating the contingency and vicissitudes of emigrant Irish national identity. However, this projected symbolism was inevitably contradictory. While collective gathering and drinking created a 'liminal' space through which individual lives' spatio-temporal coordinates and uneven migrant biographies temporarily dissolved in rituals of national identification, these were inextricably intertwined with the construction and reconstruction of masculine identities, entailing occasions for both 'bonding' and internal mutual differentiation and disputes arising from disagreements regarding supporters' origins and commitment. These were particularly significant for 'second generation Irish' supporters whose 'Irishness' was predicated on unambiguous masculine identity and continuity despite familial histories of migration, but whose 'credentials' as such were repeatedly questioned.

Policing the Irish

“…Evidently, the fact of being born and raised in England was insufficient to exempt the second-generation Irish from the repressive effects of this Act, and in 1976 two London-Irish teenagers, Vincent and Patrick Maguire, who had been arrested under the Act, were wrongly convicted of involvement in the 1974 Guildford pub bombings (Kee, 1989). More generally, Irish-descended children were subjected to verbal and violent attacks at school and in the street, especially in the period after the Birmingham bombings (Dalton, 1999: 52; Free, 2007: 480; Whelan and Hughes, 1976: 43–4).…”

The Problem of a Subjective Authenticity and the Articulation of Belonging among the Irish in England—A Psychosocial Approach

“…Past research on the identity work carried out by those of Irish descent in England has highlighted the constraints placed upon the articulation of such identities by broader discourses of what it means to be Irish vis-à-vis what it means to be English (Hickman et al, 2005). In particular, second-generation narratives regularly feature accounts of having their Irish identities denigrated, or simply dismissed as inauthentic by those born in Ireland, either on family visits to Ireland, or by Irish migrants in England (Campbell, 1999;Free, 2007; Mac an Ghaill & Haywood, 2003;Scully, 2009;Sorohan, 2012;Ullah, 1990). An individual second-generation person attempting to articulate his or her affective sense of Irishness must therefore negotiate their subject position within these wider discourses of national identity.…”

Ligações culturais entre portugueses na Alemanha: o futebol e a gastronomia como espaços sociais para convívios internacionais

“…6 Assim como os proeminentes casos francês (Pereira 2007(Pereira , 2009a(Pereira , 2009b; Silva e Dos Santos 2009) e norte-americano (moniz 1999, 2008Leal 2009; Feldman-Bianco e Huse 1995), as comunidades luso-germânicas (Soares 2010) contam-se entre os casos bem documentados de emigração portuguesa, graças sobretudo aos estudos etnográficos longitudinais realizados por Klimt (2002Klimt ( , 2005, que abordou também as questões do lar e da pertença (2000,2003,2009), tal como Eitzinger (2010). Por outro lado, o papel do futebol entre comunidades globalmente dispersas que não portuguesas tem recebido a atenção dos estudiosos ao longo da última década (Free 1998(Free , 2007Burdsey 2006;Darby e Hassan 2007;Hognestad 2006Hognestad , 2009; millward 2010; veja-se ainda Tiesler, neste volume). Para o caso da emigração portuguesa, o papel desta modalidade desportiva foi apenas reconhecido e parcialmente estudado por Pereira (2003Pereira ( , 2007Pereira ( , 2010Pereira ( , 2011 para o caso francês, por moniz (2006,2007,2008) para o caso da Nova Inglaterra e por Wagg (2010) para o caso inglês.…”