Definitions of' Irishness' and 'Englishness' have been inflected by the historic relationship of Ireland with England, a relationship of the colonized and the colonizer. Accordingly, the two identities have been constructed within a colonial discourse which has always described the colonized in opposition to the colonizer, using imagery and language related to the concept of wilderness to define them as, variously, barbarian, pagan, ape, female, but always subordinate and inferior. More recent studies analysing the reciprocity of the possible relationships between the colonizer and the colonized identify their discursive positing to be so entrenched that no aspect of their identity can safely be assumed to be inherent. A re-thinking of such concepts as 'Irishness' and 'Englishness' is advocated in favour of an unprejudiced and pluralistic sense of identity which would transcend disabling stereotypes and oppositions. After attempting to examine the two main paradigms of definition that have fixed 'Irishness' in stereotyped readings of identity (referred to as barbarism and Celticism respectively), the paper concludes with reference to Brian Friel's play, Dancing at Lughnasa, which brings into play given stereotypes of Irishness and raises questions related to ways of defining identity.
