Irish republican music and (post)colonial schizophrenia

Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom, yet its postcolonial position is subject to fierce debate among British loyalists and Irish republicans. Using Tommy Skelly’s 1972 “Go on Home British Soldiers” as its central focus, this article unpicks the various (post)colonial narratives played out through republican music in the North of Ireland, challenging the parameters of the postcolonial, and demonstrating how Irish rebel songs continue to function as a form of political engagement and cultural resistance within and against the British state.