ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author considers ways in which voices help to structure the place of the Irish in Britain. The author pursues a number of strands of this intersection of racialisation and representation. She attempts to conceptualise the issue of racialisation by voice. The author considers contexts in which Irish voices are heard and the material consequences for Irish people of identification through speech and voice. She explores strategies of avoidance and resistance adopted by Irish people to protect themselves against these negative experiences. The author examines implications of the 'loss' of Irish voices by people who identify themselves as Irish through the culture of the families in which they were raised in Britain. Finally, the author moves to positive evaluations of Irish voices which complicate notions of discrimination and negative stereotyping. Racialisation accords groups inherited characteristics, which may be biological and cultural.
