Why didn't Kevin Keegan play for Ireland? Contrasting narratives of the Irish in Britain

Abstract

This article considers a range of contrasting narratives about the Irish in Britain that are sometimes overlapping and sometimes contradictory. These narratives reflect the complexity of the Irish immigrant experience itself, from integration to alienation, and help to explain the persistence of cultural stereotypes. The contradictory nature of this experience also helps to understand the ways in which the Irish have contributed to wider popular culture in Britain, especially in the case of the second-generation Irish who came of age in the 1970s and 1980s.