Professor Jennifer Todd
UCD School of Politics and International Relations
UCD Humanities Institute of Ireland
Prof Jennifer Todd
Funding under PRTLI3 was awarded for an "Identity, Diversity, Citizenship" programme, within the UCD Geary Institute, led by John Coakley, Alice Feldman, Tom Inglis and Jennifer Todd. The most important activity was the ‘Changing Irish Identities’ research project, where Dr Theresa O’Keefe carried out more than 120 open-ended interviews, North and South, between 2003-2005, in order to see how far people in Ireland today highlighted different aspects of their identity (nationality, religion, ethnicity); how they understood these aspects and what values and meanings they associated with them. These interviews, transcribed and coded, form a crucial resource for understanding Ireland in the early 21st century while the ‘Celtic tiger’ was still strong.
They show the ongoing shift in processes of reflection and identity even in paramilitary dominated estates in Northern Ireland, and point to the different sorts of self-understandings of different sections of the population. They also show the different ways of talking about the nation, North and South.
The interviews have formed the basis for many scholarly articles and presentations – most recently a joint article on ‘Protestants and the remaking of ethno-religious identity’ in National Identities (autumn 2008).
