Measuring Mixedness in Ireland: Constructing Sameness and Difference

Abstract

This chapter examines how the categorization and classification of mixed race was introduced and has evolved in the Republic of Ireland. Human rights organizations and NGOs, the introduction of a raft of equality legislation and anti-discrimination measures in the context of the Good Friday Agreement (1998), Ireland’s changing demographics from a country of emigration to immigration, and the pressure from European bodies requiring data collection around ethnicity and discrimination are shown to have played a key role in the adoption of classifications of ethnicity and race by public bodies in the Irish state. In providing statutory tools for measuring and counting the population, the state and other public institutions provide knowledge that is utilized in the management and control of who moves in and out of the nation state, ultimately defining a sense of belonging, or not, for all who reside in Ireland. An overview of the contemporary profile of mixed race in Ireland is provided, charting changing demographics. To conclude, concerns are raised around the often assumed ‘neutrality’ of racial classifications without adequate interrogation of the specific legacies of such racial definers in particular geographical and political contexts. However, the usefulness of racial categories for those subject to such definitions in collectivizing around a common identity in advocating for their rights on this basis is also acknowledged.