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Preface and Acknowledgments
- University of Michigan Press
- Chapter
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Preface and Acknowledgments = This book is about identity in Northern Ireland. In it, I delineate and interpret a number of sites where the work of identity formation takes place in and around Ballybogoin, a town in the western region of the province. Ballybogoin, a ‹ctitious name, is a socially and politically divided place where Catholics slightly outnumber Protestants in the urban area but form a clear majority in the town’s hinterland. Both town and country receive attention throughout this book. The terms “Catholic” and “Protestant” designate political, not religious , communities in this text. Citizens in Ballybogoin refer to the broadest local group to which they belong and the group from which they differentiate themselves through these two categories. The rhetoric of religion certainly enters the politics of division in Ballybogoin, but political identities, not religious ones, constitute the major arena of struggle. “Protestant” translates into Ulster unionist and “Catholic” into Irish nationalist in this ethnography. I do not, as some social scientists do, use lowercase letters to spell these terms to index their meaning as political rather than religious entities. I maintain uppercase letters to remind the reader that these groupings are multiply formed. Religious discourses and economic discourses, among others, have worked to produce and reproduce the contested identities that concern this book, and the spellings deployed indicate that history. The research that informs this work began in the mid-1980s and continued through 1999. I lived continuously in Ballybogoin from June 1984 until December 1985 and have returned for short-term visits to Ballybogoin and its outlying areas six times since. I would have liked to be precise about the town’s location, its name, its demographics, and its speci‹c history because this book emphasizes the importance of the past and of the social context in understanding the everyday practices that make Ballybogoin’s social identities and its political conundrums. I have been imprecise to protect the privacy of the people who taught me the complexities of life in the Ballybogoin region and for reasons of safety. Ballybogoin was a violent social space and is still a frightfully con›icted one. I promised anonymity to the many consultants who steered me through the area’s complex social terrain, but I told them, as well, that total anonymity would be impossible if I told a story that would come to grips with their everyday lives. I do not use composite individuals, so people who know the area well will likely recognize persons described here. Readers familiar with Northern Ireland will likely recognize the actual place that is represented in these pages. Ballybogoin’s Irish nationalist people are the subject matter of this book. When I conceived this research, I had hoped this would not be the case. I planned to conduct ‹eldwork in two factories, a Protestant ‹rm and a Catholic ‹rm, to establish networks with what Ballybogoin people call “both sides of the house.” I was not able to do this. I worked in a nationalist factory, one I have named the Drumcoo Glassworks, and did not get a chance to work in a unionist factory. I developed ties with both communities but had the opportunity to engage Catholics to a far greater extent. I went to work with them, participated in their leisure time activities, and got to know Catholic families from a variety of places and in a multiplicity of relationships. I never became this familiar with the Protestant people from the area, but I did meet regularly with a relatively narrow network of the town’s unionist citizens. Irish nationalist citizens of the Ballybogoin area make their collective identities in constant negotiation with their unionist neighbors even when they do not speak to them. For Catholics, Protestants are an enduring presence however absent they may be from their immediate physical surroundings, homes, and neighborhoods. Protestants are in the same situation. Each constitutes the other as they go about the never-ending process of making their collective selves. This study regispreface and acknowledgments x [44.206.248.122] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 03:29 GMT) ters this. Every site analyzed has both identities present, if not with concrete individuals then with beings of their social imaginations. In the course of researching and writing this book I have incurred many debts. The greatest one is to the people of Ballybogoin. They welcomed me into their beleaguered social world and shared with me their considerable tragedies, their abilities to endure, and their wonderfully creative senses...