Queering Community: Reimagining the Public Sphere in Northern Ireland

Abstract

The ‘two communities’ model of Northern Irish culture has contributed to the erasure of a discursive space, a public sphere, to which Northern Irish subjects might have access. The essay suggests that these ‘two communities’ (unionist/loyalist and nationalist/republican) actually comprise at least four publics (unionist, nationalist, loyalist and republican). The rhetorical conflation of these publics as ‘two communities’ reifies their opposition, limits political discourse, and replaces a public sphere with a set of clashing ‘cultures’. The essay concludes by examining the Northern Irish queer counterpublic and suggesting the ways it constitutes a more imaginative and effective model for public discourse by imagining a public sphere.

Key Words:

• public
• counterpublic
• Northern Ireland
• queer

Acknowledgements

I want to thank the Institute of Governance of Queen’s University Belfast for providing the opportunity and space to have a challenging, creative and interdisciplinary conversation about Northern Irish politic thought. I would also like to thank my colleague at the University of Kansas, Dr Joseph Harrington, whose comments on my earlier work helped me to recognise the argument I am putting forth here.