Balancing Diversities: Multiculturalism and Cultural Identity in a Selected Number of Works of Modern Irish Fiction

Since the mid-1990s Ireland has rapidly changed into a multicultural society and the migrant population is increasingly becoming a well-established part of modern Ireland. This article is linked to one of the conference themes, 'literature as multicultural criticism', and is a contribution to the wider debates in the Irish media and academic circles on multiculturalism and cultural diversity in Ireland. From the beginning of the new millennium, these topics have started to have an impact on Irish literature. The article discusses a small number of Irish literary texts (by Hugo Hamilton, Dermot Bolger and Roddy Doyle, published between 2001 and 2007), which explore, articulate and reflect the development of Ireland into a multicultural society and its associated challenges. Irish identities, as represented in these stories, are in a process of significant change, with the concept of ‘Irishness’ becoming increasingly diffuse.