UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The New Interculturalism: Race, Gender and Immigration in Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0k75g3rv Author McIvor, Charlotte Ann Publication Date 2011 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The New Interculturalism: Race, Gender and Immigration in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland by Charlotte McIvor A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy in Performance Studies and the Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Peter Glazer, co-chair Professor Shannon Steen, co-chair Professor Paola Bacchetta Professor Eric Falci Spring 2011 The New Interculturalism: Race, Gender and Immigration in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland Copyright © 2011 by Charlotte McIvor Abstract The New Interculturalism: Race, Gender and Immigration in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland by Charlotte McIvor Doctor of Philosophy in Performance Studies and Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality University of California, Berkeley Professor Peter Glazer, Co-Chair Professor Shannon Steen, Co-Chair “There are wonders that I want to perform” says the name of Ireland’s first African-Irish theatre company, Arambe Productions, which derives from the Nigerian saying ara m be ti mo fe da. The company performs stories of the African-Irish community, yet their dramatizations ponder a larger reality of an Ireland that has gone from a country of emigrants to a nation re-shaped by inward-migration. The sudden shifts brought on by the mid-1990s Celtic Tiger economic boom and unprecedented immigration have plunged the Irish population at large into a state of wondering. What does it mean that the non- Irish born population residing in the Republic grew from less than 5% to more than 12% in a little over a decade? How will Ireland model a vision of interculturalism that avoids the failures of multiculturalism in Western Europe and the U.S.? How have race and gender created a hierarchy amongst migrant communities and subjects? Through performance, Arambe Productions transforms such wondering into a process of “working together,” signaling a second meaning of the company’s name: harambee in Swahili means “work together.” The company’s collective labors aim to create a post-Celtic Tiger intercultural vision of Irish identity and belonging. But can this vision be performed into existence? My dissertation project, “Performing the ‘New Irish’: Race, Gender, and Interculturalism in the Post-Celtic Tiger Nation,” argues that performance is at the center of conceptualizing interculturalism as social policy, philosophy and aspiration in contemporary Ireland. While some might see interculturalism as referring to two cultures meeting in the moment of performance, I argue, rather, that in Ireland today, the term refers to the process of inventing a new pluralistic Irish identity, one that accommodates 1 Irish-born as well as migrant communities. Irish interculturalism connotes practical policy measures regarding integration, access to social benefits and services, and public eduction about racism, but it also translates into cultural initiatives that stress the arts as a zone of contact between diverse populations. My research examines theatres, public festivals and arts/social organizations that make use of performance to theorize interculturalism as embodied practice. Theatre companies like Arambe, Camino de Orula Productions, Calypso Productions, and NGOs like Spirasi, Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, and the Forum on Migration and Communication bid for cultural recognition of minority groups through performance, arts, and media activism. These efforts are endorsed by diverse governmental and non-governmental bodies, which range from the Office of the Minister of Integration, the now-defunct National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, to the Irish government Task Force on Active Citizenship. The diverse sponsors and forums for these projects, however, generate tension between state-managed visions for interculturalism and the goals of community-based or non-governmental groups advocating for an interculturalism from below which remains critical of the Irish state’s treatment of minority groups and management of inward-migration more generally. My investigation of the interplay between social and aesthetic theories of interculturalism exposes the embodied challenges of analyzing relationships between the Irish state, minority communities and the nation at large. Using ethnographic methods, I position performance as the crucible in which Irish theories of interculturalism are tested and reimagined through the work of bodies who must bear the labor of social change. I trace the struggles to craft an analytical language around race and ethnicity in Ireland frames these projects, and how the intersection of gender with these former categories complicates this task. My sites range from the Abbey Theatre stage to the Migrant Rights Center’s photography exhibit by domestic workers and the Dublin St. Patrick’s Festival Parade in order to capture the diversity of venues in which performing bodies are called upon to embody post-Celtic Tiger social change. My case studies interrogate whether these projects have the power to push against material limits of social access, paths to citizenship and racism/discrimination and reveal that these performances frequently reinscribe relationships of power between minority and Irish-born communities by falling back on top-down models of interculturalism. Perhaps it is through the reiterative power of performance that the wonders of an egalitarian Irish interculturalism can come into being, but these moving bodies must first be situated in broader matrixes of power which index the role of race and gender in shaping the future of post-Celtic Tiger Irish identities. 2 Dedicated to my parents, Richard McIvor and Mary Anne Cochrane-McIvor, and my husband, partner and best friend, Ramin Haghjoo i Contents Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... iii Chapter One ................................................................................................................................... 1 Performing the ‘New Irish’: Interculturalism as the Embodied Future of the Irish Nation Chapter Two .................................................................................................................................. 39 Frederick Douglass, Donal O’Kelly and The Haunted Stages of Irish History Chapter Three ................................................................................................................................ 62 Widening the Stage: Minority Ethnic Artists and the Future of the Post-Celtic Tiger Theatre Chapter Four ................................................................................................................................. 85 A (New) Portrait of the Artist (as Immigrant): Community Arts and Upstate’s Louth International Theatre Project Chapter Five ................................................................................................................................ 115 Opening Doors to Elsewhere: Imag(in)ing Women’s Bodies After the Citizenship Referendum Chapter Six .................................................................................................................................. 155 Essences of Social Change: Festivals, Cultural Citizenship and the Rhetoric of Recognition Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 193 After the Fall: The Future of Irish Interculturalism? Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 198 ii Acknowledgments This project would not have been possible without the support of my devoted and inspiring committee- my co-chairs, Peter Glazer and Shannon Steen, Paola Bacchetta and Eric Falci. All four of these individuals have been with me since the beginning of my intellectual journey at UC Berkeley, and have deepened my project immeasurably through their unique insights, diverse methodological and disciplinary approaches and their ability to not only push me on my weaknesses, but encourage me to push my work in the direction of my own strengths. My experience as a graduate student in the Department of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies has been characterized by functioning as a member of a true ensemble where staff, professors, lecturers, and graduate students work together to make our department run even if we do not work in the same area, belong to the same cohort, or have the same job title. TDPS’s front office staff including Marni Glovinsky, Josh Hesslein, Meghan LaBelle, Grace Leach, David Kim and Michael Mansfield have not only helped me navigate all administrative difficulties, but made coming to work every day a true pleasure. Graduate Affairs Officers Mary Ajideh and Robin Davidson have supported me in more ways than can be named, and deserve more thanks than can be articulated in words. The Production Staff- Cour Dain, David Elliot, Brian Fugelsang, Kate Mattson, Eugene Palmer, and Wendy Sparks among others- have