Perceptions of Northern Ireland's Post-Brexit Future Among Britain's Irish Diaspora

In line with the themes of liminalityy this presentation would like to pay special attention to the post-Brexit Irish diaspora in Britain. It asks what their stance is regarding the future of the relationship between the UK, the Republic of Ireland (ROI) and the future constitutional status of Northern Ireland. It enquires how their identities have been reshaped or challenged as regards their links to both the UK and ROI in the wake of Brexit.

Political ruptures such as Brexit open spaces for hopeful projections among stakeholder social groups. Such predictions can include reviving past political projects. This paper presents an innovative photo-elicitation survey the researcher distributed to members of the Irish diaspora in Britain. It outlines key findings on how research subjects engage with the emerging discourse of a reunited Ireland while acknowledging fears of reignited sectarian strife.

It will discuss how members negotiated a difficult post-conflict present and attendant constitutional crises. One key point will be how research subjects discursively reshape counter-colonial political projects like Irish Republicanism to find space within more cosmopolitan-presenting neoliberal projects like the EU as opposed to more insular neoliberal nationalisms like Brexit. It also critiques dichotomies like this by critically comparing discourses on the free movement of EU citizens to the Direct Provision system in Ireland, another example of EU members' increasingly punitive regime for asylum seekers from outside Europe.