`Ethnicity': The Irish in Scotland--Football, Politics and Identity.

ABSTRACT One of the central arguments of this paper is that football in Scotland has acquired characteristics which make it a nationalistic, political and cultural repository. An examination of football allows us to examine characteristics of identity in Scotland otherwise unclear. These identities have their origins in the post-Reformation period in Scotland, Irish immigration into Scotland and Scotland/Britain's historically contentious relationship with Ireland. This paper examines some of the main features of these identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]