%0 Journal Article
%T Ethnicity monopoly: Ulster
%A Peter R Gardner
%J Irish Journal of Sociology
%@ 2050-5280
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0791603518780821
%X Ulster-Scots is a contemporary case of ethnicity-building, materialising in Northern Ireland at the end of the 20th century. As the ¡®Troubles¡¯ began to be reinterpreted as being about cultural identity in the 1980s, avenues were sought through which to find a ¡®Protestant-ness¡¯ comparative to the considerably more developed discourse of Irishness. It was at this point that Ulster-Scots emerged. While its initial decades were marked by derision, hostility, and resistance, it has gained considerable ground in recent years. This article outlines the development of Ulster-Scots from its beginnings in the late 1980s to the present. Utilising in-depth interviews with a variety of current and historical actors, I contend that this development entailed three phases. First, grass-roots educationalists operated independently while unionist elites lobbied for official recognition. In a second phase, the official recognition and institutionalisation of Ulster-Scots in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement initiated a process wherein the Ulster-Scots Agency came to be established as the key player in the field. A third phase began in the early 2010s with the Agency establishing a monopoly over the processes of Ulster-Scots peoplehood-making
%K Ethnicity
%K peoplehood
%K Ulster-Scots
%K Northern Ireland
%K nation-building
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0791603518780821