John Bull’s Other Ireland: Manchester-Irish Identities and a Generation of Performance Item Type Thesis or dissertation Authors O'Sullivan, Brendan M. Citation O'Sullivan, B. M. (2017). John Bull’s Other Ireland: Manchester- Irish identities and a generation of performance (Doctoral dissertation). University of Chester, United Kingdom. Publisher University of Chester Download date 28/09/2021 05:41:52 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10034/620650 John Bull’s Other Ireland Manchester-Irish Identities and a Generation of Performance Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Chester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Brendan Michael O’Sullivan May 2017 Declaration The material being presented for examination is my own work and has not been submitted for an award of this, or any other HEI except in minor particulars which are explicitly noted in the body of the thesis. Where research pertaining to the thesis has been undertaken collaboratively, the nature of my individual contribution has been made explicit. ii Table of Contents Preface .......................................................................................................... 2 Locating Theory and Method in Performance Studies and Ethnography. .. 2 Chapter 1 ..................................................................................................... 12 Forgotten but not Gone ............................................................................ 12 Chapter 2 ..................................................................................................... 29 A Nation Once Again? .............................................................................. 29 Chapter 3 ..................................................................................................... 61 From Masks to Voices .............................................................................. 61 Chapter 4 ..................................................................................................... 91 Intimacy and Distance .............................................................................. 91 Chapter 5 ................................................................................................... 177 Terry Christian ........................................................................................ 177 “Who the f*** does Terry Christian think he is?” ..................................... 177 Chapter 6 ................................................................................................... 211 Steve Coogan ......................................................................................... 211 “I’m a bit Irish… mmm you know what I mean”. ...................................... 211 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 279 Considerations and suggestions for further research ............................. 284 The Final Word? ..................................................................................... 287 Appendix A ................................................................................................ 312 Spreadsheet of Contributors................................................................... 312 Appendix B ................................................................................................ 314 Example email follow up to initial telephone conversation ...................... 314 Appendix C ................................................................................................ 317 Interview prompts ................................................................................... 317 Appendix D ................................................................................................ 320 Consent form .......................................................................................... 320 iii Abstract This thesis provides an auto-ethnographically informed ‘making strange’ of the mise-en-scène of Irish working class domesticity in the North West of England as it was lived during the 1960s, 1970s and into the 1980s. The liminality of being a child of migrant parents is considered and the interstices of experience and identity in and of England and Ireland, Englishness and Irishness are explored. The first chapter of the thesis draws the reader into the initial frame of reference, the personal childhood ethnography that inspired this wider study, and considers Bhabha’s ‘shadow of the nation’ falling ‘on the condition of exile’ as one context for the development of individual identities. The second chapter examines the ways in which a performance studies approach provides a useful method for interrogating matters of place, personhood and citizenship whilst the third chapter introduces performance theory as a mechanism for exploring the ways in which quotidian and cultural performance have been harnessed as tools of negotiation. These are sometimes resistant, sometimes affirmative and sometimes celebratory acts in the construction of new identities. Ongoing performances reveal the embodied histories of individual performers, shaped in part by culture and memory, masking and unmasking to both construct and reveal layered identities. The fourth chapter, provides the most obvious example of traditional fieldwork, and draws on interview extracts to provide key insights into aspects of the diasporic context, identifying and analyzing the many rehearsal and performance opportunities provided by growing up in Irish households in England, where identities were initially formed, informed, and performed. Bridging the distinction between autoethnography, performance ethnography and the ethnography of performance, this chapter engages in discussion with a range of contributors defamiliarising the domestic mise-en-scène whilst simultaneously recognizing a commonality of experience. These interviews are themselves a celebration of Irish identity performance and form an important bridge between the theoretical framework explored in the opening chapters and the subsequent case studies. iv The final section of the thesis searches out a mirroring of these processes in the construction of theatrical and mediatised performance – providing opportunities to both utilize and observe performance ethnography and the ethnography of performance. It is suggested that Terry Christian provides an affirmative yet angry celebration in a complex performed response to a complex mise-en-scène. A new reading of Steve Coogan’s work then suggests three modes of performance: first, Coogan the outsider satirises British mores; second, Coogan plays sophisticated games of revealing and masking multiple versions of self; third, a searching and ultimately serious engagement with his engagement with Ireland. The application of a performance theory perspective, in the context of this fraction of the Irish diaspora, reveals a playful and generous spirited approach to complex and serious matters of identity and place in the world – to the ways in which lives are led and meanings made through and for the generation of performance. v Acknowledgements I would like to express deep gratitude to my supervisor Professor Peter Harrop. Spotting potential in early drafts he has propelled my work from being, in his words, “the beginnings of the first third of an idea” to the thesis presented here. Having worked closely together in the Faculty of Arts and Media and now having supervised this thesis, Peter probably knows more about me than just about any other living person. My appreciation goes to Professor Darren Sproston, Associate Dean and Head of the Department of Performing Arts for his unswerving optimism and incalculable levels of personal and professional support. Thanks must also go to Faculty Administrators Wendy Miller and Debbie Wilkinson who have supported me and the faculty through some very demanding times. I am also most grateful to the University of Chester and many university colleagues who recognized and engineered the flexibility required to engage in such study. I am particularly appreciative to Steve Coogan and Terry Christian, who took time to share their personal reflections with me in support of this research, and to all of those who agreed to be interviewed for this study. Though you are mostly anonymised in the pages of this thesis you have brought to life, in a most illuminating and compelling way, the complexity and the fun of being raised in Irish households in England during the latter half of the twentieth century. In writing this thesis I must recognise my Brother and Sister, Paul and Marie, who have intrinsically informed this work. Those nights performing as The Bards of Bantry will live long in the memory. Also to Paul, Andy and Kieran who wrote and performed now long forgotten songs by The Quiet Men. My wife, Caroline, deserves particular thanks for not “pampering life’s complexities” yet understanding my anxieties and shortcomings and who, alongside Peter, ensured that I kept this work on track. I genuinely could not have completed this work without her love and support. Also my beautiful daughter Leah, who kept me both grounded and confused, diluting my vi authorial pretentions by reminding me that I was simply writing about “people who were half-Irish” First and last, this thesis is dedicated to my father and in memoriam my mother. vii John Bull’s Other Ireland Manchester-Irish Identities and the Generation of Performance. Well now we’re second generation and we’ve lived here all our lives