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From the Courtroom to the Marketplace: The Shamrock as a Marker of Irishness

Des tribunaux aux marchés : le trèfle comme marqueur de l’identité irlandaise
Lauren Brancaz-McCartan
p. 149-165

Résumés

Le trèfle est largement utilisé comme marqueur de l’identité irlandaise en République d’Irlande, où il est l’un des emblèmes officiels de l’État depuis 1985. Par son utilisation en Irlande et au-delà de ses frontières, il contribue à la formation d’une identité irlandaise qui se fonde sur le concept de communauté imaginée. Il est également repensé par la diaspora irlandaise et réimporté en Irlande comme un marqueur de nationalisme à longue distance. Cet article se concentre sur les caractéristiques du trèfle en tant que symbole actuel de l’identité irlandaise pour déterminer comment, pourquoi et par qui il est utilisé.

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Introduction

  • 1 See Meggle website.
  • 2 Ronan O’Reilly, “Crowning the Shamrock”, Irish Daily Mail, 15 March 2013.
  • 3 Anne Warden, “Race to Capture EEC Office for Britain”, The Times, 6 August 1986, p. 18.
  • 4 “Protection and Use of State Emblems”, Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment website.
  • 5 Anne Warden, “Race to Capture…”, p. 18.
  • 6 “Die Meggle Story”, Meggle website. Meggle continues to use a blue shamrock as its logo to this day

1In the 1980s, a court case pitted Coras Tráchtálá, the Irish Export Board, against Meggle, a German milk and dairy company.1 As the latter owned a blue shamrock as its trademark, it had sued the Irish Export Board for infringement of that symbol. The Irish had initially lost the case and had been banned from using the shamrock on goods sold in Germany. The case had gone from local courts to the West German Federal Supreme Court, eventually involving Taoiseach Charles Haughey and German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.2 This injunction was overturned when Coras Tráchtálá won its appeal in 1985, making it legal for Irish firms to use the shamrock in West Germany again.3 The same year, the Republic of Ireland notified the World Intellectual Property Organisation of its use of the shamrock as a state emblem.4 This legal dispute between the Republic and West Germany occurred in the context of discussions related to the creation of a European Community Trademark Office to “allow the registration of a single mark to cover all member states”, at a time when both London and Munich were contenders to become the site of the office.5 The fact that Meggle had used its Kleeblatt as a logo since 1929, but that it had only sued the Irish in the 1980s, further suggests that this legal battle had deeper European implications.6

  • 7 “Protection and Use of State Emblems”, Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment website.

2The decision of the Republic of Ireland to protect the shamrock as a state emblem stems from that tussle with the Milchindustrie. Ever since then, the shamrock has been protected by the Irish state as a marker of Irishness. If any company considers adopting the shamrock as a trademark, it has to submit an application to the Intellectual Property Unit of the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment of the Republic, as it is a protected state emblem. Thus, as per sections 9, 62, 97 and 98 of the Trade Marks Act, 1996, the minister of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment may prohibit the use of the shamrock as a company’s trademark if it misleads consumers into believing that the goods and services it provides are of Irish origin.7

  • 8 “Use of State Emblems”, Intellectual Property Office of Ireland website.

Whilst there is a very restrictive policy of granting consent for the use of the State emblem of the Harp and, generally speaking, such use is reserved for use for the organs of State only, authorisation to use the Shamrock can extend to use in a commercial sense where it can clearly be established that there exists a real and substantive link between the goods in question and Ireland.8

  • 9 “1918 – The Shamrock as a Symbol”, Panathinaikos FC website.

3The fact that the shamrock is one of the state emblems of the Republic does not mean that it is exclusively Irish. It has for instance been adopted by the Greek football club Panathinaikos since 1918 as “an ancient spiritual symbol for good luck and balance between the body, the soul and the spirit”.9 Nonetheless, the shamrock has played a crucial role in promoting and transmitting Irishness within and outside the island of Ireland.

  • 10 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism [1983] (...)

4This article will draw on Benedict Anderson’s concept of “imagined community”, the idea that it is impossible for all the members of the imagined community to meet and interact with one another on a daily basis. However, they are all connected together mentally through the conviction that they share similar values.10 Similarly, the Irish and people of Irish descent settled overseas are arguably emotionally attached to each other, even if they do not know each other, because they believe that they share a common heritage. This paper not only means to demonstrate that the shamrock has served to build such an imagined community, but also to show how this symbol has been exported and re-imagined overseas before being re-imported into Ireland.

  • 11 Karl Gerth, “Consumer Nationalism”, in Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture, Dale Southerton (ed.), Lon (...)
  • 12 Enric Castelló, Sabina Mihelj, “Selling and Consuming the Nation: Understanding Consumer Nationalis (...)

5Furthermore, this research means to prove that the use of the shamrock as a marker of Irishness has been reinforced through collective patterns of consumption. It will therefore explain how consumer nationalism, namely the buying and the consuming of the shamrock as a cultural and political marker of Irishness, has helped promote it in the Republic, on the whole Island of Ireland, and amongst the Irish diaspora.11 Consumer nationalism is not to be understood here in the exclusive sense that consumers should reject foreign goods and services, and solely consume domestic ones, but in the sense that the public sector, the private sector and the people have been collaborating in shaping understandings of their collective identity.12

The shamrock as a national label

  • 13 “About Us”, Fáilte Ireland website.
  • 14 “Fáilte Ireland: Refreshing Ireland’s National Tourism Authority”, RichardsDee website.
  • 15 Fáilte Ireland, “Realising the New Vision for the Irish Home B&B. Classification and Categorisation (...)

6As the Republic of Ireland’s “national tourism development authority, responsible for supporting Ireland’s tourism industry and sustaining Ireland as a high-quality and competitive tourism destination”, Fáilte Ireland can be construed as a national platform for advertising the Republic and its national identity.13 The new logo of Fáilte Ireland, revamped in 2021 from the original 2003 one, is a dark green shamrock placed inside a circle made out of three strokes representing “the sky, the land, and the sea”, to symbolise the agency’s partnerships with “communities, customers, and industry partners”.14 The shamrock also features on Fáilte Ireland’s “quality assurance signs” ensuring the quality of its accommodation. Fáilte-Ireland-approved B&Bs display signs with their top half representing a light green shamrock and dark green tick of approval (forming the stem and edge of two of the shamrock’s leaves) against a white background, whereas their bottom half primarily consists of white text on a dark green background, specifying the type of facilities and services provided – “B&B FAOFA Approved Fáilte Ireland” and the 3*, 4* and 5* quality levels.15

  • 16 Enric Castelló, Sabina Mihelj, “Selling and Consuming the Nation…”, p. 12.

7Since the role of Fáilte Ireland is to increase Ireland’s attractiveness as a tourist destination and to boost the Irish economy, it plays a key role in promoting the association of the shamrock with the Republic in the eyes of both foreign tourists and domestic ones who are keen on rediscovering their own land. As such, the shamrock can be interpreted as a national quality label of Irishness, a form of “political consumer nationalism (PCN)”, defined by Enric Castelló and Sabina Mihelj as “requir[ing] a more or less explicit involvement of institutional actors, such as states, political parties or civil society groups”.16 Furthermore, parallels can be drawn between Anderson’s concept of imagined communities and tourism, as the latter provides tangible experiences in the hospitality industry and the visiting of sites which help build an official discourse of nationalism. As Michael Pretes notes:

  • 17 Michael Pretes, “Tourism and Nationalism”, Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 30, no. 1, 2003, p. 139

Tourism sights, like censuses, maps, and museums, may contain a discourse of nationalism, allowing hegemonic cultural producers to project their values of national identity and national inclusivity. […] Whether the sites are public monuments, private businesses, or science parks, each encodes a shaping of a common national identity. These sights, presented as aspects of a national heritage, help to construct an imagined community.17

Anderson himself did not focus on tourism or national tourism agencies in his work, but research drawn from it, such as that of Pretes, has shed light on how states use tourism and heritage sites to shape national identity, and on how tourism can contribute to imagining the nation.

  • 18 “The Aer Lingus Brand through the Years”, Aer Lingus website (link no longer active).
  • 19 “Aer Lingus Unveils Brand Refresh”, 17 January 2019, Aer Lingus website.
  • 20 Rytis Beresnevicius, “New Livery for the Irish Flag Carrier, Aer Lingus”, Aerotime, 17 January 2019 (...)
  • 21 “Aer Lingus Unveils Brand Refresh”.

8Within and outside the tourism sector, a broad range of Irish businesses have adopted the shamrock as part of their logos, one of the most famous examples being Aer Lingus. Initially founded by the Irish government in 1936, Aer Lingus has been using the shamrock as a distinctive sign since its early years, but it is only in the late 1950s that it became a prime symbol on the tail of its aircraft.18 The shamrock logo as well as the Aer Lingus livery were rethought in the second half of the 20th century, its last brand refresh occurring in 2019 to better reflect Aer Lingus’s international dimension and its role in showcasing Ireland to the world.19 It presents the latter as “[a] society that is open, progressive, liberal, outward-looking and dynamic, an Ireland that is proudly European and has become the destination of choice for inward investment”.20 The latest shamrock logo was deliberately given a tilt to symbolise the “dynamism and speed” of the company, the heart-shaped leaves representing its “warmth” and “hospitality”.21

  • 22 Enric Castelló, Sabina Mihelj, “Selling and Consuming the Nation…”, p. 10.
  • 23 “Committing to Net-Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050”, Aer Lingus website.
  • 24 Irish Ferries website.

9The shamrock makes Aer Lingus a flying ambassador for Ireland. This can be interpreted as fostering a type of “buycott”, which “consists of purposefully choosing services or brands of companies that follow ethically responsible or otherwise positive practices”.22 In this case, the Irish are urged to buy domestic, i.e. travel Aer Lingus to discover the world, and tourists are encouraged to choose them as a reliable company to travel to Ireland, even more so as Aer Lingus presents itself as “part of the first airline group in the world (IAG) to commit to having net-zero carbon emissions by 2050”.23 The shamrock symbol and the Shamrock (in reference to Aer Lingus’s call sign) serve to create a link between the Republic and the people, be they Irish or tourists. The same arguably applies to Irish Ferries, albeit on a smaller scale, as its logo is a white shamrock against a light blue, green and dark blue diagonally-striped background, the stripes giving the impression of a flag blowing in the wind.24 As a local ferry company which sails between France and Ireland, Ireland and Wales, and France and England, Irish Ferries therefore also plays a role in associating the shamrock with Ireland in the minds of its users.

  • 25 Shamrock Gift Company website.
  • 26 “Our Story”, Shamrock Gift Company website.
  • 27 Shamrock Holidays website.

10Similarly, a variety of Irish companies have adopted the term “shamrock” as part of their names and / or the shamrock symbol as part of their logos. Such is the case of the Dublin-based firm Shamrock Gift Company, which presents itself as a leading manufacturer and provider of Irish souvenirs, “one of the most innovative and progressive [ones] in the world”.25 Its logo is a green 3D shamrock tied with a bow. It connects its foundations to the shamrock pot, “an at-home shamrock growing kit” that was trendy in the late 1980s.26 Likewise, the logo of the Dublin-based travel agency Shamrock Holidays incorporates a shamrock growing out of the “o” in “Shamrock”. The two-toned heart-shaped leaves of the shamrock may imply that clients will love the experiences provided. The word “Holidays” is made to look like a tag attached to a suitcase when travelling. It binds the words “Shamrock” and “Holidays” together. The two orange lines linking the tag to the green, white and orange flying aeroplane remind one of the string used to attach the tag and of the contrails of an aeroplane.27

  • 28 Enric Castelló, Sabina Mihelj, “Selling and Consuming the Nation…”, p. 15.

11These logos all use variations on the protected state emblem of the Republic, as regulated by the Intellectual Property Unit. As there is a clear link between Ireland and the goods and services the above-mentioned companies offer, a connection further highlighted by the featuring of photos representing emblematic landscapes of Ireland or by the white, green or orange colour scheme of the websites in reference to the national flag of Ireland, these businesses contribute to promoting Ireland, its culture, and its heritage. As such, they illustrate symbolic consumer nationalism, i.e. “the reproduction of nationalism by means of consuming, using, buying or wearing products or services that are either produced nationally or otherwise recognized as national”.28 These companies serve to exemplify how cultural symbols can be transformed into brand assets that generate a sense of national pride and unity amongst domestic consumers and authenticity amongst international ones.

  • 29 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities…, p. 7.
  • 30 Enric Castelló, Sabina Mihelj, “Selling and Consuming the Nation…”, p. 2.

12Moreover, the fact that some Irish businesses have adopted shamrock logos or the word “shamrock” as part of their names suggests that the shamrock symbol has been appropriated by the Irish, who have bypassed the official channels to make that emblem their own. The shaping of Irishness through the shamrock is not exclusively state-led. On the contrary, modern nationhood may be shaped by the people themselves. This corroborates Anderson’s vision of the nation being “a deep, horizontal comradeship”.29 This also fits with what Castelló and Mihelj refer to as “‘bottom-up’ dynamics linked to consumers and everyday life”.30 The multiplicity of shamrock symbols to designate the Republic convey the idea that it is a badge of Irish national identity that can be embraced by state / national bodies, businesses and people alike, and that it has become part of everyday life.

13The shamrock as a national label of Irishness serving to shape an imagined community is thus closely connected to a market of consumers of shamrock-shaped shortbread, shamrock-flavoured crisps, shamrock jewellery, lucky-charm mugs and pop-culture shamrock-printed clothing. The horizontal consumption of the shamrock may be conscious, when it comes to purchasing such items, which are tangible representations of Ireland’s emblem. It may also be less conscious, when it comes to buying an Irish souvenir from a gift shop, visiting Ireland on the recommendations of a travel agency, having a drink and a meal in a restaurant, or staying overnight at an inn.31

The shamrock as a symbol of political and economic unity across borders

14Although the shamrock is a state emblem of the Republic, it is not restricted to within the borders of the Irish state. It has appeared on the UK coat of arms to represent Ireland, alongside the Tudor rose for England and the thistle for Scotland, since the 1800 Acts of Union, when Ireland was incorporated into the Kingdom of Great Britain.32 In spite of the partition, the shamrock stands for both the Republic and Northern Ireland in various contexts. Its analysis as a symbol of political unity across borders is thus relevant to this study.

  • 33 “Areas of Co-Operation”, North South Ministerial Council website.
  • 34 “About Us”, Tourism Ireland website.
  • 35 The shamrock symbol was also endorsed by Tourism Northern Ireland until 2019, when it launched its (...)
  • 36 “Tourism Ireland”, DesignWorks website.
  • 37 Tourism Ireland, Brand Guidelines 2019 – Version 1, 2019, p. 11.

15Following the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), several partnerships were established between Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland and the Republic, and the Republic and the United Kingdom. Since tourism is one of the “six Areas of Co-Operation” under the North South Ministerial Council,33 Tourism Ireland was set up to “marke[t] the Island of Ireland overseas as a leading holiday destination”.34 Therefore, it cooperates with both Fáilte Ireland in the Republic and Tourism Northern Ireland35 in showcasing the thirty-two counties, collectively referred to as Ireland and represented by a shamrock logo conceived by DesignWorks in 2001.36 The shamrock’s top and left leaves are dark green, whereas its right one is of a lighter green which is reminiscent of an arm bent at the elbow, possibly to symbolise strength and endurance. Tourism Ireland explains that it chose the shamrock because it is “the holy trinity, the guiding star, the most iconic symbolic representation of Tourism Ireland. It is sacred. Do not change it”.37

  • 38 Ibid., p. 14.
  • 39 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities…, p. 11-12.

16With its especially developed font IOI (for Island of Ireland), meant to combine modernity and “the old uncial type used in traditional script across the Island of Ireland from the 4th Century AD”, Tourism Ireland has chosen symbols of early Christian Ireland which stand for the whole island.38 Consequently, visitors to Ireland, be they Irish or foreign, are prompted to associate the shamrock with their tourist experiences in both the Republic and Northern Ireland. Tourism Ireland’s strategy is to use Ireland’s Celtic and Christian heritage as a sign of unity that extends beyond the political borders of the Republic and of the United Kingdom. This echoes with Anderson’s concept of imagined communities: “If nation-states are widely conceded to be ‘new’ and ‘historical’, the nations to which they give political expression always loom out of an immemorial past, and, still more important, glide into a limitless future”.39 The shamrock has been embraced in Ireland to create a sense of cultural continuity with an ancient past and a sense of political neutrality amongst nationalist and unionist communities.

  • 40 The practice of using the shamrock as part of a sports club’s logo is common in the Republic of Ire (...)
  • 41 Irish Rugby Football Union website.
  • 42 “About / Membership”, Gymnastics Ireland website.
  • 43 Cricket Ireland website.
  • 44 Hockey Ireland website.

17This practice is common in the field of sports too, where sports organisations across the island have incorporated the shamrock into their logos.40 Such is the case of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), the governing body for rugby union for the whole of Ireland, fielding teams in the annual Six Nations Championship and the Rugby World Cup. Its logo is made up of a trio of shamrocks supporting a centralised rugby ball in a trophy-like formation.41 Similarly, Gymnastics Ireland, the “National Governing Body for the sport of gymnastics in Ireland”, which has clubs all over the island, uses three two-toned 3D-effect stylised leaves of a shamrock as its brand image.42 Likewise, Cricket Ireland, which runs all-Ireland competitions across the provinces of Ireland and whose Ireland Men and Ireland Women teams represent the whole island in international tournaments, has chosen three shamrocks linked together at their stems, incorporated into a white cricket ball, as its logo.43 Hockey Ireland too uses a shamrock as its emblem. It is set above the toe of a hockey stick, which brings to mind a hockey ball being hit and launched by the stick.44

  • 45 “About the GAA”, Gaelic Athletic Association website.
  • 46 See John Spain, “How President’s Soccer ‘Insult’ Led to War with GAA”, Irish Independent, 25 Septem (...)

18Admittedly, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), viewed as “Ireland’s largest sporting organisation”, has not incorporated any shamrock into its logo, although Gaelic football and hurling are closely connected to Ireland’s cultural identity.45 Nonetheless, smaller regional GAA clubs, such as Shamrock Gaels (County Sligo), Shamrock GAA (County Cork), and Loughgiel Shamrocks GAC (County Antrim), have adopted “Shamrock” as part of their names or representations of shamrocks as part of their logos. Could the fact that the GAA’s official logo differentiates itself from that of IRFU or Hockey Ireland be a relic of Rule 27, a ban in place between 1905 and 1971 which prevented members of the GAA from playing or watching sports viewed as foreign (i.e. English) such as soccer, cricket, rugby, and hockey?46

19Although sports such as rugby and cricket have historically been viewed as upper-class sports in Ireland, recent studies have demonstrated that they have grown in popularity and that the Irish media have played a role in popularising them, mainly in the Republic. Marcus Free, who has researched into the Irish rugby union and class issues, argues:

  • 47 Marcus Free, “Rugby Union, Class and ‘Middle Ireland’ in Irish Media”, Sport in Society, vol. 27, n (...)

Media representations of Irish rugby contribute to the rhetorical elision of class differences by presenting the game itself as embodying a shared cultural sensibility, while providing vehicles for players to engage in frequently humorous performative accommodations between urban, rural and class backgrounds as stylistic variations.47

  • 48 Wilfried Lemke, “Promoting the United Nations Values through Sport”, 23 October 2016, Peace and Spo (...)
  • 49 “Sport is sociologically important to nationalism because it constitutes a charged interaction ritu (...)
  • 50 “Ireland Rugby Jerseys, Shirts & Accessories”, Canterbury website.

Considering that sport “brings people together regardless of their origins and backgrounds, creates strong social cohesion and bonds, and facilitates mutual understanding and dialogue”,48 it is noteworthy that the shamrock should be associated with the whole island of Ireland, through the logos of sports which used to be discriminated against in the context of Rule 27. The shamrock may thus appear as a symbol of peace and dialogue between the Republic, Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, an inclusive symbol transcending not only social borders, but also political borders. As such, the use of the shamrock in sports competitions and events in Ireland can be interpreted as enabling the Irish to collectively imagine themselves as being part of the same cultural community, a six-nation Ireland, where inclusivity and team spirit prevail over political and social tensions. Irish rugby may therefore represent an interaction ritual which helps create and maintain an imagined community where players and supporters of a six-nations Ireland can commune with each other.49 This is also precisely what businesses selling training kit and supporters’ apparel capitalise on: “Nothing shows your national pride more than adorning [sic] an Ireland Rugby Shirt whilst watching the latest test match”.50 Again, imagined communities and consumer nationalism appear to go hand in hand together. One does not consume a sports club, but one consumes an experience and the paraphernalia that goes with it.

  • 51 James Cox, “White House St. Patrick’s Day Visit: Shamrock Ceremony Origins, Role in Peace Process, (...)
  • 52 Ibid.

20Another form of political cooperation across borders, exemplifying the bonds formed between Ireland and its diaspora, is the bowl of shamrocks annually offered by the Taoiseach to the US President on St Patrick’s Day at the White House. This practice started in 1952 when Irish Ambassador to the United States John Hearne, the first official Irish ambassador since the formation of the Republic, delivered a box of shamrocks to President Harry Truman, who was then away on holiday. In the context of the Republic’s refusal to take part in World War II, this gesture was viewed as an Irish effort to reconnect with the United States as an ally and partner during the Cold War.51 Over time, this annual ceremony evolved into a popular media event, notably under John F. Kennedy, the first Irish-American Catholic president of the United States, and under Bill Clinton, whose administration acted as a peacemaker between the Republic, Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom in the context of the Troubles and the GFA.52 Over seventy years later, the shamrock ceremony continues to reinforce Irish-American relationships and showcase Ireland as an attractive tourist destination. Arguably, this does not illustrate consumerism as such, but it corresponds to an annual diplomatic event that evolved into a bilateral economic partnership which has repercussions on the Irish economy.

  • 53 “Irish-American Heritage Month: A Commemorative Observances Legal Research Guide”, Library of Congr (...)
  • 54 “Irish American Heritage Month and St. Patrick’s Day: March 2023”, 30 January 2023, United States C (...)
  • 55 “Irish / American Heritage Month”, 28 February 2018, DVIDS US Department of Defense website.
  • 56 “Irish-American Heritage Month”, 9 February 2022, United States Census Bureau website.

21Likewise, as the month of March coincides with St Patrick’s Day, it has been established in the United States as Irish-American Heritage Month since 1991.53 Not only does it commemorate the contributions of Irish-Americans to American history, but it also acknowledges the strength of the Irish diaspora in the United States. 31.5 million Americans, i.e. 9.5% of the American population, claim Irish ancestry.54 Posters released for Irish-American Heritage Month feature shamrocks – or mistakenly, four-leaved clovers55 – to symbolise Ireland.56 Through the shamrock ceremony at the White House and Irish-American Heritage Month, the shamrock symbol appears to have become an economic emblem of the transnational partnership existing between Ireland and the United States.

  • 57 Benedict Anderson, The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia, and the World, London, (...)
  • 58 Nina Glick Schiller, “Long-Distance Nationalism”, in Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refug (...)
  • 59 Ibid., p. 578-579.

22As Anderson argues, nationalism may not be confined to the borders of the nation-state, a concept known as “long-distance nationalism”, which explains how migrants have had a powerful awakening of their nationality in their territories of adoption.57 In Nina Glick Schiller’s study of long-distance nationalism, the latter is defined as “a set of identity claims and practices that connect people living in various geographical locations to a specific territory that they see as their ancestral home”.58 The shamrock has a transnational dimension because it has a significance in more than one country. As Schiller further argues, “governments of states that fuel long-distance nationalism of dispersed population see emigrants and their descendants as an important resource”.59 This is evidenced in the words of Seán Fleming, the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of Ireland, who stated in December 2023 that:

  • 60 “A Message from Ireland’s Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Seán Fleming – 10 (...)

There are almost one thousand US companies in Ireland, employing over two hundred thousand people directly. […] [Our] economic relationship is truly two-way; some one hundred thousand people are employed in the U.S. by over 650 Irish-owned companies, across all fifty states. Indeed, Ireland is now the ninth largest source of foreign direct investment in the United States.60

  • 61 “The Early Days of the Partnership”, 11 April 2024, Irish American Partnership website.

This declaration was made as part of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Ireland. Likewise, the Boston-based Irish American Partnership, endorsed by the Irish government, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the British government, has for the last three decades urged Irish-Americans to raise funds for the homeland. It is believed to “have raised more than $58 million to support the island of Ireland. More than 650 primary schools, higher educational institutions, and community organizations have received assistance”.61

23These examples go beyond the study of the shamrock as a tool of consumer nationalism. However, they place it within the context of a long-standing transnational economic partnership between both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, where governments, businesses and private individuals are encouraged to recognise key symbols of Irishness – the shamrock being one of them – and consume them in various common ways.

Re-imagining and reimporting the shamrock as a symbol of long-distance nationalism62

  • 62 For practical purposes, this article only focuses on the Irish diaspora in the United States becaus (...)
  • 63 “Basis Principles of the American Party of Virginia”, 1856, Duke University Libraries Repository Co (...)
  • 64 “Thomas Nast Anti-Irish Cartoons”, 22 January 2018, Catholic Historical Research Center of the Arch (...)
  • 65 Amanda Beyer-Purvis, “The Philadelphia Bible Riots of 1844: Contest over the Rights of Citizens”, P (...)
  • 66 Ibid., p. 388.

24Irish immigrants in the United States were the victims of racism, especially from the 1840s and 1850s, following the Great Hunger. For instance, the Know Nothing Party was founded to counteract German and Irish immigration into the United States and “to preserve [America’s] political institutions in their original purity and vigor, and to keep them unadulterated and unimpairied [sic] by foreign influence […]”.63 Its propaganda built on anti-immigrant fear and anti-Catholicism, making their members believe that Irish immigrants would undermine American democracy. The US media played a role in spreading such anti-Irish feelings. Political cartoons, such as those of Thomas Nast, portrayed Irish immigrants as primitive ape-like creatures prone to violence, which fuelled nativism and nativist riots.64 Such was the case in 1844, when the Philadelphia Bible Riots broke out, “the most deadly and destructive the city had seen”.65 As the number of Irish immigrants grew and as they came to have a stronger voice in American communities, Catholics fought to gain the same rights as American citizens.66

  • 67 John P. O’Connor, “The Shamrock of New York, the First Irish-American Newspaper”, New York Irish Hi (...)
  • 68 Ibid.

25The maintenance of links between the homeland and its diaspora was key to the survival of Irishness overseas. The earliest English-language newspaper found to date, set up for Irish migrants in the United States, appears to have been The Shamrock, or, Hibernian Chronicle. Its logo was an American eagle holding three shamrocks in its beak and brandishing a shield on which a harp was featured, to emphasise the close-knit communities that Irish migrants had established within their country of adoption. Originally designed to comment on Irish news in Ireland, the paper also came to focus on the activities of Irish-Americans in the New World, including political ones, such as in 1816, when it published letters by Thomas Addis Emmet, the brother of Robert Emmet, who had been executed following his failed attempt in 1803 to stir national agitation against the British Crown.67 Initially started in New York in 1810, The Shamrock eventually ceased to be published under its original title in 1817, with a final reference to a revised Shamrock paper in 1824 in the Catholic Miscellany of Charleston.68

  • 69Shamrock”, in Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland, Laurel Bra (...)
  • 70 However, this does not mean that the shamrock was exclusively used in Ireland as a nationalist symb (...)
  • 71 Margaret O’Callaghan, “Pigott, Richard”, in Dictionary of Irish Biography, Royal Irish Academy, 200 (...)
  • 72Shamrock”, in Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism…, p. 569.
  • 73 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, p. 35-36.

26Consequently, the shamrock may be interpreted as a symbol of immigrant heritage pride, but also resilience in the face of adversity. In comparison, Dublin launched its own Shamrock literary newspaper from 1866 to 1912 before the latter merged with The Irish Emerald until 1922.69 This may be viewed as a form of re-importation of the shamrock symbol back to Ireland, a way in which Irish immigrants inspired the Irish to assert and promote their Irish heritage in a context of British subjugation.70 The journal was founded a year before the 1867 Fenian Rising. It was launched by Irish journalist Richard Pigott, who was subsequently found guilty and imprisoned for supporting the Manchester Martyrs, when three Fenians were executed following the death of a policeman.71 In 1881, when The Shamrock and Pigott’s other periodicals were transferred to the Irish National Newspaper and Publishing Company, owned by Charles Stuart Parnell, the paper became a platform for a more political form of nationalism, which strove to give the Irish a stronger voice in Parliament.72 This echoes with Anderson’s argument that newspapers enable individuals to form a sense of belonging to an imagined community, in which they may participate daily: “[…] the newspaper reader, observing exact replicas of his own paper being consumed by his subway, barbershop, or residential neighbours, is continually reassured that the imagined world is visibly rooted in everyday life”.73 This process has made it possible for people to share a common identity across space and time.

  • 74 “Selections of Irish Immigrants’ Letters”, Re-imagining Migration website.
  • 75 “University of Galway Launches Imirce Database of Irish-American Emigrant Letters”, 8 March 2024, U (...)
  • 76 Carrie McBride, “A Bit O’ Blarney: Vintage St. Patrick’s Day Postcards”, 12 March 2020, New York Pu (...)

27Another way for Irish migrants to stay connected with the homeland was through their letters discussing their journey to America, their lives in the New World, the socio-political events at the time, their need for funding from home, or on the contrary their capacity at supporting their families back home.74 Such correspondence formed the basis of long-distance nationalism between the Irish at home and overseas. The University of Galway launched its Imirce project in early 2024, a digital database of approximately 7,000 letters that Irish-American immigrants sent to Ireland between the late 17th and the mid-20th centuries.75 Likewise, St Patrick’s Day postcards sent in the 20th century, such as the ones exhibited in the digital collections of the New York Public Library, testify to the relationships between the motherland and its diaspora.76 Every single one of those postcards features the shamrock in some form – as a central background image into which another image is incorporated, as a side feature, or as an addition to a hat or the top of a harp. 

  • 77 “St. Patrick’s Festival Set to Honour Waterford’s ‘Saints & Scholars’”, 20 January 2025, Waterford (...)
  • 78 “History”, St Augustine Celtic Music and Heritage Festival website; Michael Francis, “Uncovering th (...)
  • 79 Clodagh Doyle, “Objects Associated with St. Patrick from the Folklife Collection of the National Mu (...)
  • 80 “The History of St. Patrick’s in Shamrock, Texas”, 2025, Shamrock St Patrick’s Association website.
  • 81 “About”, NYC Saint Patrick’s Day Parade website.

28These postcards go hand in hand with the St Patrick’s Day parades held annually on or around the 17th of March. Whereas the first St Patrick’s Day parade in Ireland was held in 1903 in Waterford, the same year that St Patrick’s Day became a public holiday in Ireland,77 the very first St Patrick’s Day parade in the world is claimed to have been held three centuries earlier in St Augustine, Florida.78 Although the first St Patrick’s Day parades would not have been associated with the shamrock, since its earliest mention on St Patrick’s day dates back to 1681, as recorded by Thomas Dinely, an English traveller across Ireland, the two have undoubtedly become synonymous in today’s day and age.79 In Texas, the town called Shamrock has capitalised on its name and become the official organiser of the annual St Patrick’s Day celebrations in the whole state. It has adopted a green shamrock featuring Celtic knotwork as its logo.80 Similarly, New York City’s St Patrick’s Day Parade, the largest St Patrick’s Day parade in the United States and in the world, with approximately two million visitors every year, has incorporated a green shamrock as part of its logo.81

  • 82 Nina Glick Schiller, “Long-Distance Nationalism”, p. 573.
  • 83 “About the Festival”, St Patrick’s Festival website.
  • 84 Cate McCurry, Maeve McTaggart, “St Patrick’s Day in Dublin: Tens of Thousands Attend Parade”, Irish (...)
  • 85 “St Patrick’s Day in the USA”, Ireland.ie.

29As Schiller argues, “[t]oday’s current mass dispersal of migrants and the availability of rapid communications […] facilitate efforts to organize social movements”, not just “around a homeland politics from afar”, but around socio-economic and cultural events which generate contacts between Irish migrants and their homeland.82 It is arguably the popularity of St Patrick’s Day parades in North America which helped develop the festival in the Republic, with the St Patrick’s Festival in Dublin now being the most significant state-sponsored event in Ireland.83 It is estimated that half a million people attended the Dublin parade in 2025, compared with the two million visitors during New York City’s St Patrick’s Day Parade the same year.84 The Republic has capitalised on the popularity of St Patrick’s Day, especially in the United States, by presenting it as “a time for communities across the world to come together and celebrate Ireland’s rich culture, heritage, and global connections”.85 Again, this suggests that innovations originating from the Irish diaspora, including the connected use of the shamrock as a symbol of Irishness, have been re-imported into Ireland.

  • 86 Sheila Langan, “Timeline of the NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade’s LGBT Controversy”, 17 March 2018, Ir (...)

30This is further evidenced by the case of the 1991 St Patrick’s Day parade in New York City, when the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization (ILGO) took part in the march alongside NYC Mayor David Dinkins. The latter had managed to reach a compromise with the parade organisers, the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), providing that ILGO would march without their own banner and without displaying their sexual orientation. Nevertheless, some spectators had booed them and thrown beer cans at them. When ILGO had attempted to march again in the parade in the following years, they had been repeatedly excluded, the US Supreme Court ruling in 1995 that the parade organisers had the right to set their own participation rules.86

  • 87 Orla Egan, “Historic Victory!”, Munster GCN, April 1992.
  • 88 “Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill, 1993: Second Stage”, Seanad Éireann debate, vol. 137, no. 3, (...)

31Interestingly, news of the 1991 NYC St Patrick’s Day Parade controversy inspired LGBTQ people to march together at the Cork St Patrick’s Day Parade in 1992, the first ever LGBTQ float to participate in such an event in Ireland. It was well received there, as it even won the best new entrant prize.87 The following year, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, 1993 was passed in the Republic to decriminalise same-sex relationships between adults.88 This suggests that the Irish diaspora in the United States gave impetus to the constitutional fight for LGBTQ rights in Ireland and that the idea of it was imported from America. Conversely, support from Ireland has also contributed to shaping what it means to be Irish within and beyond the borders of Ireland.

  • 89 “St. Pat’s for All Parade”, NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project website.
  • 90 “A Letter from the President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins”, 2 March 2025, St Pat’s for All website(...)

32The homophobia that was experienced by the Irish communities in the United States in the 1990s led to the creation of the St Pat’s for All parade, an inclusive alternative St Patrick’s Day parade. It was founded in 2000 by an LGBTQ rights activist in the “historically Irish neighborhoods of Sunnyside and Woodside, Queens”, in New York City.89 St Pat’s for All has sought to reflect the diversity of the Irish diaspora and has received the support of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs through its Emigrant Support Programme. When this article on the shamrock was written, the home page of the St Pat’s for All website displayed an official letter from President Michael D. Higgins dated 2nd March 2025 congratulating the organisers of the event for “reaffirming a vision of Irishness that is diverse and inclusive, one that recognises the dignity of all, and that finds strength in diversity”.90

  • 91 “Past Parades”, St Pat’s for All website.

33What further highlights the endorsement from Ireland St Pat’s for All has had is the participation in it of various political representatives, such as Consul General of Ireland Helena Nolan since 2023, Ireland Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman and Leader of the Irish Senate Jerry Buttimer as special guests in 2023 and 2024, and lord mayor of Belfast Councillor Micky Murray as St Pat’s for All 2025 Grand Marshal.91 This illustrates the fact that Ireland has embraced an initiative originating from the Irish diaspora and that their partnership has enabled the Irish community to better express itself in its diversity and be recognised across borders.

  • 92 “Contact Us”, St Pat’s for All website.
  • 93 “St Patrick’s Day Accessories”, Amazon.
  • 94 “Now That’s Mint! New Shamrock Shake Arrives in McDonald’s UK for the First Time Ever”, McDonald’s (...)

34This analysis wanders away from the study of the shamrock as a symbol of Irishness, but the latter is consistently used during the event, as is illustrated on the “Contact” page of the event featuring a dog wearing a rainbow and shamrock hat and a shamrock-printed scarf round its neck.92 A quick look at the accessories the most purchased to celebrate St Patrick’s Day reveals that the shamrock features prominently, for instance on green shamrock-shaped glasses, shamrock-shaped temporary tattoos, good luck shamrock pin brooches, and shamrock headbands.93 Thus, the shamrock has arguably been transformed into a mere product of mass consumption associated with St Patrick’s Day. This is perhaps best evidenced by McDonald’s mass commercialisation in the United States, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom, around St Patrick’s Day, of the Shamrock Shake, a “peppermint-flavoured syrup blended with a creamy milkshake base”.94 Consequently, the shamrock can be interpreted as a symbol of long-distance consumer nationalism. It contributes to the association of the shamrock with Irishness through the consumption of banal everyday products within and beyond the borders of Ireland.

  • 95 “About”, The Grand Council of United Emerald Societies Inc. website.
  • 96 Ibid.
  • 97 Ibid.
  • 98 Police Emerald Society GB website.

35In spite of its commodification, the shamrock remains a symbol of solidarity between the Irish diaspora and the homeland Irish, underlining the resilience of their shared memory and imagined community. This is evident through the present-day activities of Emerald Societies in the United States. They are fraternal organisations whose members work in “important jobs like Law Enforcement, Fire Service, EMS, Education, Waste Management, Mass Transit, and Public Utilities” and who commonly share an Irish heritage.95 These separate Emerald Societies have worked together since the late 1950s, when the Grand Council of United Emerald Societies Inc. (GCUES) was formed.96 They aim at preserving and promoting Irishness in the United States across public services. They annually take part in the NY St Patrick’s Day Parade to showcase their work and identity. One way of doing that is through the shamrock symbol. The latter appears twice at the bottom of the GCUES logo along with a harp, under a map of Ireland on which the Irish flag and the American flag are superimposed. It also features in most of the logos of the Emerald Societies that are part of the Grand Council.97 This initiative from the Irish diaspora in the United States has not been re-imported into Ireland as such, but it has made its way back to the British isles in the form of the Police Emerald Society GB, set up in 2005 in London. The latter promotes Irish culture within the UK police forces, notably Irish music and Gaelic football. Its logo incorporates a harp inside a crest which is reminiscent of the Metropolitan Police crest, placed above a sprig of shamrocks.98

  • 99 Nina Glick Schiller, “Long-Distance Nationalism”, p. 571.
  • 100 See the work of the Charitable Irish Society, founded in Boston in 1737, and that of The Friendly S (...)
  • 101 “Frequently Asked Questions”, Saint Patrick’s Association, Inc. website.

36Membership to the Emerald Societies in the United States depends on the possession of Irish ancestry. However different these organisations may be from each other, their work suggests that the shamrock has again been understood as a symbol of continuity over time and space between the homeland and its diaspora. To go back to Shiller’s assessment of long-distance nationalism, the members of Irish-American societies appear to have “envision[ed] a common history with a past shared by all those with a common identification” and have “organize[d] common cultural or social projects that promote the interest of the members of the diasporic population wherever they have settled”.99 Emerald Societies can be viewed as part of a long-standing tradition of providing support to Irish emigrants in need.100 Nowadays, in addition to celebrating the contributions of Irish migrants to American society, part of the proceeds of St Patrick’s Day parades may be donated to charities. St Patrick’s Association, Inc. of Minnesota, for example, whose logo is a green stylised shamrock with heart-shaped leaves, donates “at least $10,000 annually” to local causes such as Little Sisters of the Poor and St Paul Fire and Paramedics.101

  • 102 “Irish Red Cross Received Shamrock at Dóchas Centre as a Symbol of Global Solidarity with Those in (...)
  • 103 “Deirdre Garvey: Kindness and Compassion Are a Mainstay of Irish Identity”, 18 March 2025, Irish Re (...)

37The shamrock as a symbol of charity and solidarity amongst the Irish diaspora has been re-imagined and re-imported into Ireland in recent times as a symbol of global solidarity and hope, notably through the efforts of Sabina Higgins, the wife of the current President of the Republic. In 2025, in anticipation of St Patrick’s Day, she initiated the tradition of offering the Irish Red Cross a bowl of shamrocks grown in the Dóchas Centre, in remembrance of the people “whose lives have been devastated by conflict, disaster and humanitarian crisis”.102 This initiative has mostly been driven by the hosting of over 35,000 displaced Ukrainians in Ireland since the start of the war.103 Not only do the Irish appear to be engaging with their past as a diaspora, but they also seem to be re-investing St Patrick’s Day with its original Christian values of charity and compassion. Consequently, the shamrock appears to have come full circle. Originally adopted as a symbol of Irish immigrant pride in the United States at times when the Irish were discriminated against, it has returned to Ireland as a symbol of strength and resilience, where it has been reinterpreted by a people who suffered from displacement themselves. Its international character and continued presence over the centuries have given it a universal dimension that supersedes its use as a product of mass consumption.

Conclusion

38The shamrock’s use as a symbol has migrated beyond the political borders of the Republic and the geographical ones of Ireland. It cannot be fully explained by a type of nationalism which is integral to the Republic as its nation-state. It has become a powerful marker of long-distance nationalism, which both the homeland and the global Irish can adopt in various contexts. Just like the three leaves of the shamrock, the purposes of the shamrock symbol appear to be threefold – to serve as a national label of Irishness in the homeland which is instantly recognisable by the population; to foster political and economic unity across borders, notably between the Republic and Northern Ireland, but also between Ireland as a whole and the United States; and to strengthen solidarity ties between the homeland and the global Irish. This study has focused on the Irish diaspora in the United States to show how they have contributed to the shaping of an imagined community of Irishness and to demonstrate how some of the practices initiated there have been re-imagined, re-imported and re-adapted into Ireland, as in the context of St Patrick’s Day.

  • 104 “Cultural Diversity: Census – 2021”, 28 June 2022, Australian Bureau of Statistics website.
  • 105 “Irish American Heritage Month and St. Patrick’s Day: March 2023”, 30 January 2023, United States C (...)

39To determine if the same dynamics exist between the homeland and other countries where the Irish diaspora is established, further research would need to be carried out, for instance on the use of the shamrock in Australia. In the 2021 census, 9.5% of Australia’s population, which totals approximately 27.4 million Australians, claimed Irish ancestry.104 As a reminder, 9.5% of the American population, i.e. 31.5 million people out of approximately 340 million Americans, identify as being of Irish descent.105 One may thus wonder to what extent the meaning, relevance and adaptability of the shamrock are shaped by the size of the Irish diaspora and by the multicultural context of its host societies.

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Notes

1 See Meggle website.

2 Ronan O’Reilly, “Crowning the Shamrock”, Irish Daily Mail, 15 March 2013.

3 Anne Warden, “Race to Capture EEC Office for Britain”, The Times, 6 August 1986, p. 18.

4 “Protection and Use of State Emblems”, Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment website.

5 Anne Warden, “Race to Capture…”, p. 18.

6 “Die Meggle Story”, Meggle website. Meggle continues to use a blue shamrock as its logo to this day.

7 “Protection and Use of State Emblems”, Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment website.

8 “Use of State Emblems”, Intellectual Property Office of Ireland website.

9 “1918 – The Shamrock as a Symbol”, Panathinaikos FC website.

10 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism [1983], revised edition, London, Verso, 2006, p. 6.

11 Karl Gerth, “Consumer Nationalism”, in Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture, Dale Southerton (ed.), London, Sage, 2011, vol. 1, p. 280-282.

12 Enric Castelló, Sabina Mihelj, “Selling and Consuming the Nation: Understanding Consumer Nationalism”, Journal of Consumer Culture, vol. 18, no. 4, 2017, pre-print version, p. 6.

13 “About Us”, Fáilte Ireland website.

14 “Fáilte Ireland: Refreshing Ireland’s National Tourism Authority”, RichardsDee website.

15 Fáilte Ireland, “Realising the New Vision for the Irish Home B&B. Classification and Categorisation Scheme”, 2011, online: https://www.failteireland.ie/FailteIreland/media/WebsiteStructure/Documents/eZine/FINAL-16320-FI-Classification-and-Categorisation-BB-Brochure-WEB-26-08-11.pdf.

16 Enric Castelló, Sabina Mihelj, “Selling and Consuming the Nation…”, p. 12.

17 Michael Pretes, “Tourism and Nationalism”, Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 30, no. 1, 2003, p. 139.

18 “The Aer Lingus Brand through the Years”, Aer Lingus website (link no longer active).

19 “Aer Lingus Unveils Brand Refresh”, 17 January 2019, Aer Lingus website.

20 Rytis Beresnevicius, “New Livery for the Irish Flag Carrier, Aer Lingus”, Aerotime, 17 January 2019, online: https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/23704-new-livery-aer-lingus.

21 “Aer Lingus Unveils Brand Refresh”.

22 Enric Castelló, Sabina Mihelj, “Selling and Consuming the Nation…”, p. 10.

23 “Committing to Net-Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050”, Aer Lingus website.

24 Irish Ferries website.

25 Shamrock Gift Company website.

26 “Our Story”, Shamrock Gift Company website.

27 Shamrock Holidays website.

28 Enric Castelló, Sabina Mihelj, “Selling and Consuming the Nation…”, p. 15.

29 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities…, p. 7.

30 Enric Castelló, Sabina Mihelj, “Selling and Consuming the Nation…”, p. 2.

31 For example, see The Shamrock Bar and Restaurant in County Galway, or The Shamrock Inn in County Clare.

32 “Coats of Arms”, official website of the Royal Family: https://www.royal.uk/coats-arms; Nicole Hartland, “Leek, Thistle, Shamrock and Rose: Symbols of the UK and the Elizabeth Tower”, 15 March 2021, UK Parliament website.

33 “Areas of Co-Operation”, North South Ministerial Council website.

34 “About Us”, Tourism Ireland website.

35 The shamrock symbol was also endorsed by Tourism Northern Ireland until 2019, when it launched its specific Embrace a Giant Spirit brand, in reference to Northern Ireland’s most iconic UNESCO World Heritage Site (“Northern Ireland’s Embrace a Giant Spirit Brand”, Tourism Northern Ireland website).

36 “Tourism Ireland”, DesignWorks website.

37 Tourism Ireland, Brand Guidelines 2019 – Version 1, 2019, p. 11.

38 Ibid., p. 14.

39 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities…, p. 11-12.

40 The practice of using the shamrock as part of a sports club’s logo is common in the Republic of Ireland. See the Shamrock Rovers F.C. and Fencing Ireland as examples.

41 Irish Rugby Football Union website.

42 “About / Membership”, Gymnastics Ireland website.

43 Cricket Ireland website.

44 Hockey Ireland website.

45 “About the GAA”, Gaelic Athletic Association website.

46 See John Spain, “How President’s Soccer ‘Insult’ Led to War with GAA”, Irish Independent, 25 September 2012.

47 Marcus Free, “Rugby Union, Class and ‘Middle Ireland’ in Irish Media”, Sport in Society, vol. 27, no. 6, 2024, p. 924-945, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2024.2334598.

48 Wilfried Lemke, “Promoting the United Nations Values through Sport”, 23 October 2016, Peace and Sport website.

49 “Sport is sociologically important to nationalism because it constitutes a charged interaction ritual out of which imagined national communities arise” (Anthony King, “Nationalism and Sport”, 2006, p. 6, University of Exeter Research Repository: https://hdl.handle.net/10036/70094).

50 “Ireland Rugby Jerseys, Shirts & Accessories”, Canterbury website.

51 James Cox, “White House St. Patrick’s Day Visit: Shamrock Ceremony Origins, Role in Peace Process, Modern Day”, BreakingNews.ie, 16 March 2024.

52 Ibid.

53 “Irish-American Heritage Month: A Commemorative Observances Legal Research Guide”, Library of Congress website.

54 “Irish American Heritage Month and St. Patrick’s Day: March 2023”, 30 January 2023, United States Census Bureau website.

55 “Irish / American Heritage Month”, 28 February 2018, DVIDS US Department of Defense website.

56 “Irish-American Heritage Month”, 9 February 2022, United States Census Bureau website.

57 Benedict Anderson, The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia, and the World, London, Verso, 1998, p. 58-76.

58 Nina Glick Schiller, “Long-Distance Nationalism”, in Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures around the World, vol. 1, Overviews and Topics, Melvin Ember, Carol R. Ember, Ian A. Skoggard (eds.), New York, Springer, 2005, p. 570.

59 Ibid., p. 578-579.

60 “A Message from Ireland’s Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Seán Fleming – 100 Years of US Ireland Diplomatic Relations to Be Celebrated in 2024”, December 2023, American Irish State Legislators Caucus website.

61 “The Early Days of the Partnership”, 11 April 2024, Irish American Partnership website.

62 For practical purposes, this article only focuses on the Irish diaspora in the United States because this is where the largest number of people have claimed Irish ancestry.

63 “Basis Principles of the American Party of Virginia”, 1856, Duke University Libraries Repository Collection and Archives: https://repository.duke.edu/dc/broadsides/bdsva043298.

64 “Thomas Nast Anti-Irish Cartoons”, 22 January 2018, Catholic Historical Research Center of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia website.

65 Amanda Beyer-Purvis, “The Philadelphia Bible Riots of 1844: Contest over the Rights of Citizens”, Pennsylvania History, vol. 83, no. 3, 2016, p. 368.

66 Ibid., p. 388.

67 John P. O’Connor, “The Shamrock of New York, the First Irish-American Newspaper”, New York Irish History, vol. 4, 1989, p. 5, online: https://nyirishhistory.us/article/the-shamrock-of-new-york-the-first-irish-american-newspaper.

68 Ibid.

69Shamrock”, in Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland, Laurel Brake, Marysa Demoor (eds.), London, The British Library, 2009, p. 569. See The Shamrock: A National Weekly Journal of Irish History, Literature, Science, Arts, &c., Dublin, The Office, 1868.

70 However, this does not mean that the shamrock was exclusively used in Ireland as a nationalist symbol. Indeed, Queen Victoria invented the tradition of British army Irish regiments wearing sprigs of shamrocks in their head-dresses on St Patrick’s Day as a homage to the losses the Irish troops sustained in South Africa during the Boer War (“Irish Guards Celebrate St Patrick’s Day with the Princess of Wales and Ukrainian Recruits”, 17 March 2025, British Army website).

71 Margaret O’Callaghan, “Pigott, Richard”, in Dictionary of Irish Biography, Royal Irish Academy, 2009, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3318/dib.007335.v1 .

72Shamrock”, in Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism…, p. 569.

73 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, p. 35-36.

74 “Selections of Irish Immigrants’ Letters”, Re-imagining Migration website.

75 “University of Galway Launches Imirce Database of Irish-American Emigrant Letters”, 8 March 2024, University of Galway website.

76 Carrie McBride, “A Bit O’ Blarney: Vintage St. Patrick’s Day Postcards”, 12 March 2020, New York Public Library website.

77 “St. Patrick’s Festival Set to Honour Waterford’s ‘Saints & Scholars’”, 20 January 2025, Waterford City and County Council website; see Waterford St Patrick’s Day Festival website.

78 “History”, St Augustine Celtic Music and Heritage Festival website; Michael Francis, “Uncovering the Secrets of Spanish Florida”, 21 December 2017, PBS website.

79 Clodagh Doyle, “Objects Associated with St. Patrick from the Folklife Collection of the National Museum of Ireland”, National Museum of Ireland website.

80 “The History of St. Patrick’s in Shamrock, Texas”, 2025, Shamrock St Patrick’s Association website.

81 “About”, NYC Saint Patrick’s Day Parade website.

82 Nina Glick Schiller, “Long-Distance Nationalism”, p. 573.

83 “About the Festival”, St Patrick’s Festival website.

84 Cate McCurry, Maeve McTaggart, “St Patrick’s Day in Dublin: Tens of Thousands Attend Parade”, Irish Independent, 17 March 2025.

85 “St Patrick’s Day in the USA”, Ireland.ie.

86 Sheila Langan, “Timeline of the NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade’s LGBT Controversy”, 17 March 2018, IrishCentral.

87 Orla Egan, “Historic Victory!”, Munster GCN, April 1992.

88 “Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill, 1993: Second Stage”, Seanad Éireann debate, vol. 137, no. 3, 29 June 1993.

89 “St. Pat’s for All Parade”, NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project website.

90 “A Letter from the President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins”, 2 March 2025, St Pat’s for All website.

91 “Past Parades”, St Pat’s for All website.

92 “Contact Us”, St Pat’s for All website.

93 “St Patrick’s Day Accessories”, Amazon.

94 “Now That’s Mint! New Shamrock Shake Arrives in McDonald’s UK for the First Time Ever”, McDonald’s website.

95 “About”, The Grand Council of United Emerald Societies Inc. website.

96 Ibid.

97 Ibid.

98 Police Emerald Society GB website.

99 Nina Glick Schiller, “Long-Distance Nationalism”, p. 571.

100 See the work of the Charitable Irish Society, founded in Boston in 1737, and that of The Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick, established in Philadelphia in 1771.

101 “Frequently Asked Questions”, Saint Patrick’s Association, Inc. website.

102 “Irish Red Cross Received Shamrock at Dóchas Centre as a Symbol of Global Solidarity with Those in Need”, 13 March 2025, Irish Red Cross website.

103 “Deirdre Garvey: Kindness and Compassion Are a Mainstay of Irish Identity”, 18 March 2025, Irish Red Cross website.

104 “Cultural Diversity: Census – 2021”, 28 June 2022, Australian Bureau of Statistics website.

105 “Irish American Heritage Month and St. Patrick’s Day: March 2023”, 30 January 2023, United States Census Bureau website.

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Lauren Brancaz-McCartan, « From the Courtroom to the Marketplace: The Shamrock as a Marker of Irishness »Études irlandaises, 50-2 | 2025, 149-165.

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Lauren Brancaz-McCartan, « From the Courtroom to the Marketplace: The Shamrock as a Marker of Irishness »Études irlandaises [En ligne], 50-2 | 2025, mis en ligne le 05 décembre 2025, consulté le 24 janvier 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/etudesirlandaises/21130 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/15aa5

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Auteur

Lauren Brancaz-McCartan

Université Savoie-Mont-Blanc

Lauren Brancaz-McCartan détient un doctorat en cotutelle de l’université d’Aberdeen et de l’école doctorale Langues, littératures et sciences humaines de Grenoble depuis fin 2014. Elle travaille à l’université Savoie-Mont-Blanc depuis 2015, où elle enseigne la civilisation britannique, l’anglais des affaires, l’anglais du droit, la communication et la traduction. Ses recherches portent sur les relations États-nations, les diasporas, les mémoires collectives et les stratégies de marque nationale.

Lauren Brancaz-McCartan was jointly awarded her PhD by the University of Aberdeen and the University of Grenoble doctoral school Langues, littératures et sciences humaines in late 2014. She has been working at the Université Savoie-Mont-Blanc since 2015, where she has been teaching British history, business English, legal English, communication, and translation. Her research interests include the relationships between states and nations, diasporic movements, the shaping of collective memories, and nation branding.

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