ABSTRACT
Whilst alterity, or the sensation of being other, has been shown to figure large in accounts of the settlement experiences of Irish Catholics in many cities and regions across the world (Miller 1988; Boyle 2001a), the story of the Irish Catholic community in Scotland presents itself as an aberrant exception again; an anomaly in the wider experience of the Irish diaspora. Until recently it was assumed that questions of sectarianism and bigotry had by and large receded in Scotland and that the assimilation and integration of the Irish Catholic community into Scottish society, politics, economy and culture had run its course. It was widely believed that hostility towards Irish Catholics and Irish Catholic estrangement from the host population were now of mere historical curiosity. But across the past decade a vigorous debate has taken place over the continued virulence of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment in Scotland. This debate has vexed journalists, policy makers, academics, politicians, and community representatives alike. Debate over what has been labelled ‘Scotland’s secret shame’ has forced a rethink of basic assumptions. This chapter offers an overview of public disputation over the degree of anti-Irish Catholic sentiment in Scotland, as it has played out across the past decade in public debate, confessional politics, academic study, and political life. Its purpose is to clarify the position this book takes on this debate. This position is predicated upon the claim that the most serious question the debate raises has yet to be sufficiently addressed, that is; is the Irish Catholic adventure in Scotland intelligible and if so what is the nature of its meaning in history.
