Ireland Is My Home

Abstract

The representation of outsiders is a common theme in Irish drama as a method to interpret and reinterpret Irish national identity. More recently, Irish theatre has explored the meaning and experiences of the “new Irish” (Salis 2010, 43). This paper, through a postcolonial analysis, compares the experiences of the returned Irish migrant in Tom Murphy’s Conversations on a Homecoming (1985) to the fragility of tolerance exhibited toward the “other” by the native Irish in Donal O’Kelly’s Asylum! Asylum! (1994) and contrasts asylum to the celebration of Irish residency in The Cambria (2005). The analysis highlights perceptions on migration from Ireland and the complications of immigration to modern-day Ireland. The notions of home, Irishness and citizenship are explored against a backdrop of racism, othering and multiculturalism.