Annals of the American Academy

Instead of asking how globalization can help us understand Ireland today, this article starts from the premise that Ireland may be useful for an understanding of globalization. Always at a crossroads culturally and through its huge migration overseas, contemporary Ireland is seen as the epitome of a globalization success story. The article examines the constant (relcreation of Irish identity and its complex (re)constitution in the era of globalization. It concludes that if an Ireland did not already exist, globalization theory would have to invent it. G. Honor Fagan is a lecturer in sociology at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Her doctorate was awarded from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, i n 1991. Her current research interests include cultural politics, globalization and culture, civil society, and conflict resolution. She has done field research on early school leavers in Dublin for her book Cultural Politics and Irish Early School Leavers: Constructing Political Identities (1995) and on women in South African townsh~ps. She is currently liuing in Ireland and researching for a book titled Globalization and Culture: Reposi-