Scapegoating in post ‘Celtic Tiger’ Ireland: framing blame in crisis times

Irish society continues to reel in the aftershock of the 2008 global financial crisis, particularly since the government socialised the massive liabilities of private banks. Sensitized to antagonistic social relations using group conflict theory, frame analysis and Marxian informed critique, this paper reflects on some of the corrosive social consequences of the crisis. In particular, we interrogate hegemonic discourses which scapegoat various targets, such as public sector workers and social welfare recipients. While scapegoating is understood anthropologically as the ‘transference of evil’ our sociological interest is in the transference of blame and privately accumulated debt as part of a class project that has served finance capital and its representatives so well. In conclusion, we suggest that Ireland serves as an example of the power and dominance of the financial sector under late capitalism, and of the ideological means by which its socially corrosive ends are currently facilitated.