The 'Border People'

This article reads Garrett Carr's The Rule of the Land (2017) as an example of narrating Irish community that is interested in carving a distinct border community beyond national or geographical boundaries.Four distinct practices of narrating community can be discerned, each of which is part of a larger process of (re)presentation.First, as Carr journeys through towns, villages, and farmlands, his interactions with the locals demonstrate that this borderland rests upon a robust sense of communal spirit.Moreover, these encounters are interspersed with personal segments where Carr, a native of County Donegal, foregrounds his personal connections to the area.Third, the borderland is imbued with historical significance and storytelling traditions which are produced by the border community and, in turn, shape the community.Last, notions of community are evident in the map created by Carr (2017b), particularly in the depiction of cross-border connections.While Carr's project is deeply personal and concerned with Irish specifics, it also points towards certain glocal or universal implications of borderland communities.Carr's project is an exemplary case of how personal agency and individual endeavours may impact on the formation of imagined narrated communities.Rooted in the materiality of first-hand border experience, Carr's project reframes dominant discursive practices; hence, in the form of representational resistance, it offers opportunities for new perceptual practices.