Civilising the Irish

Abstract

Taking Norbert Elias’ work on the concept of civilisation as their cue, the authors explore the long history of the ‘civilising process’ in Ireland, showing how a dichotomy between the civilised and the barbarians is central to English colonialism there. Examining comparative examples such as the colonisation of North America and Australia, justifications of the violence of the colonisers are surveyed to show their reliance on the idea of civilising a racially inferior people. That inferiority can be demonstrated, in different contexts, by a nomadic lifestyle, a lack of industriousness or a different religion. ‘Civilisation’, it is argued, is the process of rendering colonial subjects fit for purpose, first by transforming resistance into subjecthood and, finally, recruiting ‘natives’ as actively co-opted citizens. This process is examined in depth in the Irish context, with particular focus on the early conquest, the seventeenth-century Plantations and the eighteenth-century Famine. The symbolic ritual humiliation that continues to be imposed on nationalists in Northern Ireland – for example, compulsory poppy-wearing – shows that the Irish are still required to prove their ‘civilisation’.

Keywords: Anti-Irish racism, English colonialism, Good Friday Agreement, Ireland, Norbert Elias, Plantation, Ulster unionism