Selling Irish Republicanism: Alliances, Culture, And Ideology, 1970-2000

Realpolitik, Race, and Irish Republicanism: Multiracial Alliances in a Cold War Context, 1980-1998. This paper explores the stratified relationships between Sinn Féin, Noraid, Irish American republican grassroots activists, and various communities of color, activist groups, and “Third World” liberation struggles. In doing so, it disrupts dominate trends in Irish and Irish American historiography regarding Irish and Irish American social and political ties with people of color and places Irish and Irish American multiracial alliances within a Cold War and post-Cold War context and climate. “Each Dollar a Bullet,” Each Grand a Ballot: Selling Conflict, Culture, and Change in Irish America, 1970-2000. This paper explores how, what I define as, Irish American republican material and experiential culture both facilitated and reflected Noraid and Sinn Féin’s appeal to wealthy elites over their traditional working class white ethnic base. Through analysis of the shift in the kind and cost of events hosted, merchandise sold, and experiences offered, this paper traces Sinn Féin and Noraid’s political strategy through new and innovative means and methods.