The "Others" of the Celtic Tiger: Intercultural Encounters in Roody Doyle's Short Fiction

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse how Roddy Doyle’s short fiction reflects Ireland’s multicultural reality in the twenty-first century. This award-winning writer attempts to reflect on the theme of multiculturalism not only from the viewpoint of the Irish, but also from the perspective of the incoming migrant. These two opposing viewpoints are reflected in the two short stories “The Pram” (from the 2008 collection The Deportees and “The Slave” (from the 2011 collection Bullfighting). While in “The Pram” Doyle privileges the outsider’s perspective by entering the distorted mind of a Polish woman who ends up killing her Irish boss, in “The Slave” he offers the viewpoint of an Irish-born character who feels estranged in the face of the Other. Both stories offer a rather gloomy portrayal of the ‘Ireland of the Welcomes’ by revealing the various tensions which may emerge between the Irish host and the foreign guest. The aim of this chapter is to examine carefully Doyle’s interest in conveying multiculturalism through such different viewpoints and his use of various artistic resources to portray the difficulties involved in the Irish and non-Irish intercultural encounter.