Different and the Same is a folk history of the Protestants of independent Ireland. Using their own words, this work tells the stories of their own and their ancestors’ experiences as members of Ireland’s biggest cultural minority. In the process, what emerges is a broader understanding of Protestants as a socio-economically diverse element of Irish society united by shared narratives, of their engagement with Irish tradition and history, and of the particular traditions and experiences that have historically defined them as a distinctive cultural group.

Drawing principally on extensive ethnological field research and on individual submissions to the National Folklore Collection elicited for the purposes of this book, Different and the Same explores a rich body of primary material that explores the nature of the Protestant experience of Irishness.