An Irishman in America: Irishness and Belonging in Roddy Doyle’s Oh, Play That Thing

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyse Roddy Doyle’s representations of Irishness and Ireland in Oh, Play That Thing (2004). The novel is the second instalment in Doyle’s The Last Roundup Trilogy, a historical fiction describing the making of the Irish nation through the adventures and misadventures of Henry Smart, its protagonist. In the novel, constructions of Irishness are projected onto the outside world through Henry’s picaresque travels in the United States. The article examines how Irishness is constructed in the book and how it becomes intertwined with identity construction in other minority groups.