Irish indigenous identity is being invoked to stir up antagonism towards immigrants

At an academic conference I attended this summer, an Irish Druid presided over an opening ceremony. She blessed the proceedings and shared reflections on Irish indigeneity, spiritual beliefs and our connection to the land.

The conference was focused on decolonial theory and practice. It was therefore all the more worrying to see how the white, settled (as opposed to travelling), Irish identity positioned as an indigenous experience.

It is the majority culture in Ireland but was being presented as somehow akin to the Māori of Aotearoa (New Zealand), the Sámi of Scandinavia, the Maya of Iximulew (Guatemala) or the Lakota people of Turtle Island (North America) – or to Ireland’s own indigenous minority, the nomadic Traveller or Mincéirí community.

Claims to indigeneity have become common in new-age Celtic spirituality. Druids and other affiliates are seeking to reclaim pre-colonial and pre-Christian beliefs and practices. This may seem harmless, but there is more at play here than meets the eye.

These activities are often based on only a tenuous understanding of Celtic spirituality and can involve the unacknowledged appropriation of the beliefs and practices of other indigenous people. This appropriation at times comes hand in hand with essentialist views around race and gender.

More unfortunate is the increasing crossover between Celtic spiritualists and ethnonationalists. The latter push an imaginary of a “pure” white, Celtic ancestry where “Ireland is for the Irish”.

This discourse is being harnessed by an increasingly belligerent and empowered Irish far-right. Parties and vigilante groups now widely espouse ahistorical claims about threats to a supposed Irish “indigenous” identity posed by non-white, non-Catholic migrants.

Indigenous identity

The global indigenous population is an estimated 400 million people. Though the diversity that exists between indigenous populations means that no strict definition exists, the UN recognises that indigenous people are minoritised populations who have “historical continuity” with a place before it was colonised or settled. They have a “strong link to territories and surrounding natural resources; distinct social, economic or political systems; distinct language, culture and beliefs”.

The indigenous rights movement came to the fore in the 1990s, seeking to bring attention to genocidal violence and the oppression, marginalisation and social exclusion of indigenous people. The goal was always to recognise their right to self-determination. This is a political movement which challenges the historic impact of colonisation as well as resistance to neo-colonial projects.

With our own history of colonisation, settlement and occupation, many Irish people feel an affinity towards indigenous rights and decolonisation movements. They have expressed this through solidarity with many different anti-imperial struggles, including the brigadistas who fought on the republican side of the Spanish Civil War and Indian independence.

More recently, many Irish people have demonstrated an affinity with Mexico’s Zapatistas and the Palestinian struggle.

But the invocation of indigenous identity by white, settled people can lend to false equivalencies between struggles. Irish people certainly have a basis for anti-colonial solidarity in the continued British sovereignty over Northern Ireland. There, those identifying as Irish nationalists or expressing Irish culture have been systematically discriminated against.

But the Republican struggle in Northern Ireland is more often than not framed as a sovereign, nationalistic or religious, rather than indigenous, struggle. The white, settled, majority in southern Ireland has, since independence, never been denied language or other ethnic, religious or cultural rights by the Irish state.

Claims to indigeneity from the settled population are challenged by the existence of the nomadic Irish Traveller – Mincéirí – community. There are 32,000 Mincéirs in Ireland, making up an estimated 0.7% of the population.

They are understood as a nomadic culture which diverged from settled Irish culture about 400 years ago. They have experienced systematic discrimination and exclusion under the modern Irish state which denied their status as an ethnicity for years, refusing them basic rights and accommodations that would support the survival of their nomadic culture.

The community finally achieved recognition from the Irish state as a distinct ethnic group, with their own culture, language, beliefs, traditions and social organisation, in 2017 after decades of advocacy.

Political manipulation

In the run up to the general election on November 29, there has been a proliferation of far-right parties. Their candidates openly support anti-immigrant, “Ireland is full” platforms, while glossing over our continued history of mass emigration and the fact that migrants make up a mere 2.7% Ireland’s population.

Government representatives and opposition parties have been feeding into anti-immigrant narratives. To appease (and even appeal to) anti-immigrant sentiment within their support base, these parties have blamed immigrants for a lack of housing, the poor state of the health service and even the cost-of-living crisis.

Diluting the meaning of indigenous identity, whether intentionally or otherwise, does not help this situation. Rather, it lends legitimacy to spurious claims of threats to Irish identity and culture posed by migrant populations.

Aisling Walsh receives funding from the Irish Research Council.