ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the complexity of constructing Irish homeland identity in a transnational mediascape, the conflicting construction of Irish national identity based on current diasporic hostland contexts, and migratory experiences that highlight intra-ethnic conflict over the ‘correct’ interpretations and representations of a homeland history and culture. Ethnic media “reproduces and transforms cultural identity” in new locations, producing hybrid identities or situated identities that negotiate both host and homeland cultures as well as the migratory groups’ experience into a wider identity. Homeland news media resistance to representations of Irish diasporic identity at times can be exclusionary of the migratory experience, degrading it as an authentic Irish experience compared to those who have remained within Ireland and, in doing so, asserting the primacy of the homeland identity. However, diasporic media’s assertion of the legitimacy of their interpretations of homeland identity inserts a wider range of representations of Irishness into the discourse.
