Who do you think you are? Irish nurses encountering ethnicity and constructing identity in Britain

Abstract

This article draws upon interviews with twenty-six Irish nurses in Britain, who mostly migrated in the 1950s–1970s. It aims to contribute to understandings of the processes involved in constructions and negotiations of Irish identity in Britain. As a predominantly white ethnic group, Irish migrants in Britain occupy an ambiguous position as white, European insiders, but cultural outsiders. Focusing on a number of ‘construction sites’, such as hospitals, nurses’ homes and social venues, the article examines not only how the women experienced and expressed their identities as Irish migrants but also how they encountered ‘other’ ethnicities. Rather than a simple, one-dimensional notion of Irish ethnic identity, the study analyses the complex, multi-layered and shifting dynamics within these ‘construction sites’ and how intersections of gender, location and occupational status impacted on both ascriptions and experiences of Irishness.