Contested Categories, Changing Meanings and Identity Disjunctures on the Island of Ireland

National identities are complex and contested. They are defined in part by categories – British or Irish – that give a name to the nation and that are today affirmed in census returns and function as badges of citizenship. But categories don’t tell us much about the peoples they bound off from each other, how they understand themselves, others, and their society and politics. A national category doesn’t show how the elements traditionally associated with it – the name, territory, cultural attributes, local and regional practices, sense of solidarity and political obligation – are interconnected. National categories may stay the same over many centuries, while the meanings, resonances, and interconnections of the elements change, shaping how groups understand themselves, their guiding norms, and how they relate to others.