Outside the Glow collection: Protestants and Irishness in independent Ireland

Collection of 94 oral history interview transcripts that were gathered by Dr. Heather Crawford as part of the study entitled 'Protestants and Irishness in independent Ireland: an exploration'. The study explored the southern Irish Protestant experience since independence, and enquired into the nature of the southern Irish Protestant relationship to Irishness in light of the dominant construction of national identity as Catholic and nationalist, with iconic status attributed to the Irish language.

Between 2004 and 2005, one hundred oral testimonies were collected by Dr. Crawford from representatives of both confessions, namely 36 Catholics and 64 Protestants living in the Republic of Ireland. Interview participants were drawn from a wide range of backgrounds, with an age range of 17 to 102 years, and comprised 68 women and 32 men. The interviews make reference to a number of locations around Ireland, therefore the geographical range of the data encompasses most of the island. Dr. Crawford's research resulted in the book publication 'Outside the glow: Protestants and Irishness in independent Ireland' (2010, UCD Press, see Related Material below).

Of the one hundred testimonies collected, 94 transcripts have been deposited with the Irish Qualitative Data Archive (five interviewees chose not to include their transcripts in the archive, while one interviewee consented to placing their transcript in Maynooth University Library on the condition that it can be added to the archived collection after a 30 year period). The archive includes support documentation which gives a background to the study and a discussion of some of the key findings of this research, including a legacy of marginalisation of Irish Protestants, and other minorities, from dominant ideas about national identity and how this legacy continues to perpetuate difference.