The 2004 Irish Citizenship Referendum: A Matter of Common Sense?

In recent years, as globalisation has extended its §reach, a tendency towards closure against Third §World immigrants has emerged in First World §countries. The expression Fortress Europe §metaphorically captures this phenomenon. §Accordingly, many European countries have pursued §restrictive measures in the field of immigration §policy combined with a reformulation of citizenship §and nationality law. The 2004 Irish Citizenship §Referendum is in line with this trend. This research §critically considers this event from a discursive §perspective. It explores the Irish government s §ideological construction of the problem by looking §into its propaganda discourses for the yes vote, §thanks to the insights offered by the Critical §Discourse Analytical paradigm. More generally, §this book stresses the importance of the §contribution of language to the production, §maintenance and change of social relations of power. §The analysis carried out in this publication should §be particularly relevant not only for students in §the Social Sciences field, but also for media §professionals, politicians and the public in §general.