A ‘stage Irish identity’ ‐ an example of ‘symbolic power’

Abstract

This article proposes a notion of a ‘stage Irish identity’ in a bar and applies an analytic concept which explores two intersecting stereotype images which characterise the symbolised identity. The enactment of a ‘stage Irish identity’ in a bar invokes cross‐cutting images of the Irish as inherently prone to drinking and the pub as their natural habitat. For Irish migrant bar keepers, who deploy the symbolised identity as a form of cultural capital to increase pub trade, the strategy is empowering. However, an exploration of a ‘stage Irish identity’ in this form reveals that the essence of the celebrated identity and associated imagery is shot through with ambiguities. Its own identity construct renders an ‘unresolvable contradiction’ because it necessitates Irish people to be simultaneously the target and producers of an image of Irish culture, which is positioned within a structure characterised by unequal power relations. It is my contention that Pierre Bourdieu's concept of ‘symbolic power’ mediates the ambiguities that are evident in this process of social action and contributes to our understanding of how the cultural capital of minority group members, can be positioned and utilised in a power relationship. The argument is based on comparative research on Irish bar entrepreneur ship, particularly the accounts of 42 Irish bar proprietors and their partners, who were trading in Birmingham (UK) and Chicago (USA) in 1993/94.