11 - Elastic Paddies
from Part III - The Second Generation
Summary
In September 2009, Fintan O'Toole wrote an article in the Irish Times in tribute to the late second-generation Irish poet, Michael Donaghy. Born in the Bronx, Donaghy lived most of his life in London and, through his work, epitomized the ambivalent yet undeniable attachment to Ireland experienced by many of the second generation. In the article, for which O'Toole coined the term I have used to title this chapter, he makes the following statement about Irishness:
Irish culture is nothing if not persistent. It can sometimes seem so elastic, so open to infinite variation and appropriation, as to be virtually meaningless. Yet this elasticity also makes it stretch, not just through space (the many Irelands of the diaspora) but also through time. While cultural nationalists fear that its lack of definition makes the vague idea of Irishness easy prey to the obliterating homogeneity of globalization, it is often this very quality of adaptability that makes it linger.
By inventing the expression ‘Elastic Paddy’, O'Toole provides a clever lexical counterpoint to the derogatory term ‘Plastic Paddy’ which had been used since the 1980s (mainly by Irish-born members of the Ryanair generation) to refer to people of Irish descent whom they perceived as having bogus or dubious claims on Irishness. By so doing, he emphasizes the positive characteristics of second-generation Irishness that Philip Ullah identified in the 1980s, i.e. its resilience and adaptability.
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- Information
- London Irish FictionsNarrative, Diaspora and Identity, pp. 172 - 186Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2012