Ireland's underground communities

DarraghCorrigan

I am planning a project, which I hope to do over the next year or so, in which I will be looking at the many "underground" communities in Ireland, by this I mean groups of people with a shared interest which becomes a defining force in how they live their lives, influencing their dress, mannerisms, appearance (haircut, piercings etc.), to some extent their outlook and opinions, and their social habits. Generally this feeling of community would come from a sense of difference to the rest of society.
An important point is that it should be a lifestyle choice based on an interest, not something resulting from an unavoidable part of their lives such as addiction (not getting to it basis in lifestyle choice), sexual preference or emotional/phsycological factors.

While not exposing the details, the idea is to look at these communities and how the people involved view the community, and their place in Irish society as a whole, bearing in mind that Ireland not so long ago was a very traditional place with a set of distinct social codes put in place by society and church influence, but not over stressing this point.

My question is do you have any suggestions for communities which I should investigate, I want it to be interesting and broad, but balanced, so I will include communities that I believe fit these criteria, but not communities who I feel might only be included to "sex it up", or provide a shock factor.

An example of this is transexuals, I will include them if I feel that members of the community are making a lifestyle choice, but not if they feel it is for medical (intersex) or overtly sexual reasons. I don't want to be exploitive, and I don't want to be sensationalist.

So far I am considering the (some emerging) trends of:
Roller Derby girls,
Greasers (50's enthusiasts),
1920's enthusiasts, including the popularity of burlesque,
Body Modification enthusiasts,

These two are ideas which I will have to consider based on the community aspect and whether the mechanics and social aspect of the two communities justify there inclusion, and then whether they should be included as two separate categories:
Heavy metal communities,
Punk Communities,

Considering, based on what way my views on the difficult aspects involved play out:
Transexuals

I realise that these ones I have mentioned all seem to be similar in ways, they are to one side of the alternative spectrum, I'd also like to include other communities such as people living off the land, or more earthy cultures, if I find communities that are comparable with those listed above in terms of how their members identify with a "community".

I want to be careful to make sure the content is always balanced, in ways such as emotional impact and relevance. I don't know if it is really wise to include a discussion of the recent popularity of roller derby with the concept of transexuals, as I feel the emotional and societal weight behind the transgender and intersex elements would dwarf the feminism and community spirit of roller derby.

Also it's important there is an identifiable set of trends in the scenes, to pull the whole thing together, for example "musicians" is far too broad, as is "poets" or "film makers", while there is a scene there, it tends to be a meta-community comprised of many other subcultures, varying in the intensity of their fanbase.

I would like to know what facets of Irish society need to be included, I will end up choosing between 7 and 10 communities to study, and even then it will depend on my ability to fund the project.
Please reply with your thoughts and ideas, and any information on people to talk to/places to go to find out more and talk to people in these scenes.

shannasaed

Yes, I also have many questions about ireland & scottland or the u.k. in general in this area...because I am an historian in the monasterial ranks of the reformation era, I realize that the issues reguarding the dissolution had more to with charity being disolved & xxx cathouses being setup...during that time before the armada went into action to overthrow these prolifergate indulgences. I also recognize that today the same traditions within communal houses must be carrying on these subvertive , if not immoral tendencies. So with a little more than incentive in the anti-trafficking investigations already being boohood by these 'traditionalists'...I would love to hear about some real effectively honest evaluations of these 'communes'. I beleive they are backwoods in scottland areas inasmuch as I am aware of a pornographic clan who are pretending to convert out there, it is obvious these houses have become taxbased shelters of disreguard, as they ever were. Was ireland coasts the target of hungry vikings due to these communal heretics calling themselves 'protected'....I know these were considered 'fair targets'...so is it time to access once more the need for 'housecleaning' ?...I dont think these 'communes' are the povertystricken minority whatsoever...they are the elite clan of religeous license who claim to be untouchable. In that case, you may research before you proceed & then with caution. I am here in america & these entities are veracious in their appetites after dissolving charity for generations...its their bloodline. So , if this is worth your questioning a relevant cause out there...this is one I would love to put hands & feet to since I can not be there to do this myself, on any level as I am their kin also.
I am an irishcanadian immigrant thrice removed yet my history there is my mainstay...& has at this point become a world concern for anti-trafficking.
Yes, it is the worthiest cause I know of...it is our banking system & its fall.
as at the plague...
there is true funding to be had in this agenda also...take back what they stole from our heritage to charity long ago...

Manach

Morlocks.

DarraghCorrigan

Hi Shanna,
I'm not sure if we are really talking about the same things here, I'm talking about a project which explores subcultures in our society, it's nothing to do with pornographic clans or subvertive, immoral communes. I think you may have misunderstood my aim?
I also don't entirely follow what it is you're trying to say in your post.

Sleepy

Most sub-cultures as defined by "sharing a common interest" will have huge overlaps with others: atheists/agnostics, those with an interest in marijuana, politicos, new age travellers / crusties, body mod enthusiasts, metal heads, Burlesque enthusiasts, Swing Dancers etc.

I know people that belong to all of the above sub sections and others who belong to one or more.

What I'm trying to say is that by and large any conclusions your study comes to based on such pigeon-holing are bound to be wrong. People don't fit into neat little boxes that we can study academically, particularly when the definition of those boxes is based on interests: I know priests who read black bibles, Accountants with Prince Alberts, teachers in Catholic schools that are confirmed Atheists and Burlesque dancers, Programmers that are punks and stay at home mammies that enjoy attending BDSM parties.

DarraghCorrigan

Hi Sleepy,
I understand the cross overs, and that is part of the difficulty, for example I know that there is a massive overlap between Greasers, punks and tattoo/bodymod enthusiasts. Alternative culture is by it's nature a web of venn diagram-type structures.
This isn't an academic study trying to fit people into little boxes and draw conclusions, it's more of a general interest look into these sub cultures, looking at the people who hold these interests very close. I'm not trying to put people into boxes, I'm aiming more at looking at the interactions between people in these cultures and how they view it as a community.
People have a wide array of interests, I know people who play in psychobilly bands who have loads of tattoos, but they really care about psychobilly and the 1950's punk resurgence. This guy would be good to cover when dealing about Greasers, he has a lot of friends in this culture and gets flown to different european destinations by people in the greaser community to play shows there, which the band does for free.
While he has loads of tattoos, he is more suited to the Greaser section because that's his principle interest which we are covering. The tattoo/bodymod section would benefit more from some of the people I've met who have done flesh hook suspensions and save all of their spare cash for more tattoos, and who are looking into becoming tattoo artists themselves. They might be punks, but for them tattoos are important to their lives, it is a special interest and they move in circles of people who have the same interests.
This isn't about saying this person Mr.X is a tattoo artist, he only knows and speaks to people who love tattoos and he has no other interest. Ms. Y is a burlesque dancer, and that's it.
The idea is to focus on each area individually, and the people who are part of that community, no one is saying that if you identify with one culture you can't identify with another as well.

Glitter

Hi Darragh, sounds like a really interesting premise.

Just a super quick note, transsexualism is never a lifestyle choice.

You could possibly look at other sections of the broader transgender community under the aegis of your thesis (cross dressers, political genderqueers etc) but being an actual transsexual is a recognised medical condition for which one seeks appropriate treatment.

No one "chooses" to seek gender reassignment surgery for the love of having gender reassignment surgeries.

DarraghCorrigan

Hi Glitter,
I understand that transexualism is not a lifestyle choice, that's what I meant to get across in my first post, that's why it wouldn't fit with this project. It wouldn't be right to try and equate gender dysmorphism with music, fashion and lifestyle choices, the main threads of the other sub communities.
Apart from that it is a topic with too much gravity to suit this piece, it would require too much to try and approach it properly in the scope we have, and it would out weigh everything else presented.
A project on transexuals in Ireland would be very interesting to pursue as well but it would require a more careful and balanced approach, maybe in the future when I have more experience in working with people I'll try it.