Foreign Fields and Foreigners on the Field: Irish Sport, Inclusion and Assimilation

Abstract

This article explores how Ireland, a country whose history was dominated by emigration, found a place on the global sporting map. The article traces the spread of the global Irish and argues that the tradition of the Irish abroad was to assimilate through sport rather than seek sporting exclusivity. The complexity surrounding Irish and diaspora identities is illustrated through an examination of Irish sporting involvement in international events. The article moves on to discuss how recent trends of inward migration have affected the Irish sporting stage. It shows how rugby, a game of recent professionalism, brought the first sporting imports to Ireland, and how these individuals were culturally repositioned as local rather than immigrant. The article closes by arguing that while the ‘new’ Irish are being assimilated by being included in traditional, indigenous Irish sports, the same process has not been apparent, in the years of the Northern Ireland peace process, with respect to the Unionist and Protestant community.