Irish emigration in the 1970s: The ‘problem’ discourse of political elites

Abstract

Using Wodak’s discourse-historical approach, this article analyzes documented examples of ‘emigration-as-problem’ discourse from elite Irish discourse of the 1970s. Noting that elite discourse uses perpetuation strategies of argument to frame emigration as a negative phenomenon, the author suggests that such strategies serve important social functions in regards to creating a strawperson argument for the government and in contributing to the image of the Irish at home. The article calls for a closer look at the ways elite discourse set the terms of debate for private discourse in the range of data collected about Irish emigrant experience.