, published open access in Ethnic and Racial Studies, , is now available to access via .
In the context of Brexit and the debates about the ‘Irish border’, this article looks at the history of Irish/ British relations and in so doing seeks to understand why the Irish have been so marginalised within studies of migration and ethnic and racial studies in Britain.
Through much of the 20th century, the Irish were the largest single migrant group arriving in Britain, yet in comparison with other migrants in the same era they we surprisingly under-researched. Moreover, the Northern Ireland ‘troubles’ created a cordon sanitaire around the topic which resulted in a marked lack of British sociological engagement with what was going on during the decades of the ‘troubles’ and the consequences for Irish migrant communities in Britain.
The article is deliberately provocative and aims to shift the discourse around the complex ‘Irish question’.