Abstract  

The idea of Ireland as a classless society permeates a significant part of the discourse surrounding the development and running of the state. This paper seeks to understand this narrative of classlessness, and why and how it originates before challenging its merits. The notion of a classless society stems in part from the lack of industrialisation that occurred in Ireland, a process that made up an integral part of class formation in Europe. This made room for a unitary, classless identity to be pursued both in group formation and electoral politics, allowing the notion of classlessness to take hold. Such a narrative serves to mask the genuine class cleavages that exist. In order to see these cleavages within Ireland, this paper argues that the cultural capital framework offered by Pierre Bourdieu provides the best lens for the structures of class reproduction, using the education system as its example. In this manner, the paper posits a break from the Marxian dichotomous model of class reproduction, which applies to the industrialised continent from which Ireland escapes, allowing the classless narrative to take hold.

Introduction
In 20th century Ireland, the subject of class was, “as sex was, a subject best avoided in polite company” (Walsh, 1998). The common conception existed that the issues of stratification that permeated discourse in Europe could not apply to an Irish state, a state heavily rooted in agriculture. This is reflected in the notion of Ireland being a “two-and-a-half” party state in which politics was centred around civil war disputes instead of class cleavages, as was the case on the continent (Kavanagh, 2015). However, the absence of class-based analyses in political and social discourses ignores the very tangible class divisions that have existed historically and currently exist in Ireland. This paper will argue that Ireland is not a classless society, by first examining how the narrative of classlessness has developed, before showing how social stratification and social class in the Bourdieusian sense is present in contemporary Ireland, particularly how it is legitimised and reproduced by the education system. As it is difficult — particularly in analysing its development — to treat coherently the two very different states present on the island (Tovey and Share, 2000, p. 79) in one paper, my analysis will focus mainly on the twenty-six-county republic.

Social Class in Ireland
The idea that Ireland is and historically has been a classless society stems from both external reflections on an absence of hardened cleavages due to a lack of industrialisation, and also internal dynamics pursuing a unitary identity. These narratives are based on a false understanding of the mechanisms through which class both exists and operates in Ireland.

I will first discuss the external narrative of Ireland as a classless society. The notion of social class has existed for as long as there have been material interests. Contemporary understandings and interpretations of social class were originally borne out of an analysis of the Industrial Revolution. In the Marxist sense, certain characteristics of social class are “confined to modern industrial society” through a dichotomous division between wage-owners and capitalists (Dos Santos, 1970). This is reflected as a feature of modernisation theory, a theory that centres around a linear progression of society that includes a process of industrialisation with Western capitalism as its endpoint (Cousins, 1997). The notion of Ireland as a “classless society,” then, originates from Marxist conceptions of class and the absence of industrial development in the country to which the Marxist development of class sees its characteristics. The initial Ireland, since the period of state foundation, was not centred around the capitalist means of production. Instead, it was characterised by an almost entirely agricultural environment, with local dependence on neighbours as a requirement to survive. James Connolly saw classes in Ireland as “homogeneous economic units,” following the more conventional conception, but he also envisioned a small farmers and workers alliance (Hazelkorn, 1998, p. 147). This breaks with the dichotomous European model that would have opposed these two groups based on property ownership. Unlike in regions where class analysis was conducted, in Ireland, the peasant farmers had a special affiliation with land and property. The case of Ireland did not employ the “unidirectional, progressive and gradual” path that modernisation theory indicates (Cousins, 1997, p. 225). Ireland, in its development, did not exist within the confines of ‘individualism’ nor did it ascribe to the process of breaking existing social ties while shifting towards markets and bureaucracy that modernisation theory espouses (Goorha, 2010). Arensberg and Kimball saw an early Ireland emboldened by strong collective ties with a dependence on others within this small community as a requirement to survive (Gibbon, 1973). Therefore, as Cronin (2007, p. 34) points out, the Irish context proves problematic “if class is delineated in the Marxist sense by an individual’s relationship to the means of production.” In other words, Ireland is not confined to conventional understandings of class analysis and development within the Marxist sense, allowing the notion of classlessness to perpetuate.

However, it is not solely the nature of the means of production in Ireland that assists this classlessness narrative. The internal dynamics of the state, particularly with regard to the structuring of the economy and electoral politics, amounted to a deliberate effort to form a unitary identity where class cleavages were hidden or ignored. In the 1970s, the nature of work in Ireland began to shift fundamentally to a service-based economy. Absolute social mobility increased due to the decline of manual and farming occupations alongside Foreign Direct Investment and the Celtic Tiger, which substantially boosted the number of people working in managerial and professional occupations (Whelan and Layte, 2007). Despite this shift in the nature of work, the narrative of classlessness in Ireland persisted.

Throughout this period, intellectual life was dominated by “deep-seated consensualism that had roots in Catholic corporatist values” (Lynch, 2017, p. 16). There was little challenge to the practices of the state on the basis of class. While the nature of work was fundamentally changing, the idea of a unitary, classless identity in Ireland was very much kept alive. This was especially clear in the group interests that existed. Institutions that were deeply intertwined with the fabric of the state sought to keep the status quo, and the formation of class consciousness as an idea was suppressed. For example, the farmers’ union, an entity capable of drawing up class consciousness by identifying material grievances and class antagonisms, sought to blur the lines between labourer and landowner (Cronin, 2007). This narrative was successfully planted in the minds of the farm labourers who spoke of seeing themselves and the farmers on an “equal footing” despite differences in material resources and workload (Cronin, 2007).

Furthermore, within the political landscape, such classlessness also dominated the narrative electorally. The “catch-all nature” of Fianna Fáil, who traditionally performed quite well in predominantly working-class areas, effectively “acted as a dampener on the development of a significant class basis” in Ireland (Kavanagh, 2015, p. 78). In addition to this, the Labour Party, whose foundation by Connolly aimed toward a working-class revolution, developed to view socialism as a form of “social unity,” not “class solidarity”: even in Irish left political thought, a narrative of class was replaced by a unitary identity (Hazelkorn, 1998). This has led to the narrative that class politics is absent in Ireland as “no party… has sought sufficiently hard to persuade such an alignment [of class solidarity]” (Mair, 1992). The 2020 election, however, led to an energisation of class politics. First, it represented a clean break from the ‘two-and-a-half’ party system of civil-war politics that has governed the state since its inception, with Sinn Féin emerging as the largest political party. Second, the most salient issue of the campaign was housing, a predominantly class-based issue. There were clear ideological differences in the proposed solutions to the housing crisis by the main political parties. For example, Sinn Féin’s approach on the narrative of class contributed to record popularity in working-class areas, serving as a marked difference to the ‘catch-all’ nature of politics that had existed in these areas previously (Webber, 2021).

However, despite an increasing awareness of class cleavages in the context of the 2020 general election, the narrative of classlessness still occupies swathes of contemporary Ireland, particularly in the media. The term ‘middle-Ireland’ hides the extent of material and social inequality through a process of ‘overstating’ the migration into the bourgeoisie that takes place and the shared cultural habitus of the population at large (Free, 2024). The notion of ‘middle-Ireland’ is therefore perpetuated by the media, such as with the elision of the class divisions that exist within the Irish rugby team, or the framing by political commentators of the Irish economy during the Celtic Tiger as a “middle-class nation” or a “contented majority” (Allen, 2007). This unitary framing masks the “absolute increase in levels of economic vulnerability” across the wider class spectrum during the Celtic Tiger (Whelan et al., 2017) and serves to hide the very real class cleavages that exist. I will demonstrate the existence of these persistent class divisions using the context of education.

Social Stratification Through Education
While the previous section sought to understand how the narrative of classlessness emerged, this section will challenge it through the lens of Pierre Bourdieu’s (2002) cultural capital theory. Rather than a Marxist focus on the means of production as a basis for class reproduction, Bourdieu focuses on the cultural and educational systems which reproduce social inequalities and legitimate them as natural. Bourdieu’s framework offers a means to understand class dynamics in societies like Ireland, which lack the industrial class structures typical of continental Europe.

Bourdieu’s concept of habitus refers to the system of dispositions shaped by one’s social conditions, influencing behaviour and perceptions (Bourdieu, 2002). It explains how privilege is internalised and reproduced across generations. This is particularly relevant in the Irish context, where social class distinctions often appear muted but are reinforced through institutions such as education. Bourdieu and Passeron’s (1977) work Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture argues that education systems reproduce the existing social order by rewarding the cultural capital of the dominant class while presenting success as a product of merit rather than inherited privilege.

In Ireland, this process is evident in the Leaving Certificate system, which—despite its reputation as a fair measure of ability—rewards those with the resources to navigate it most effectively. As C.D. Barra (2019) notes, while the Leaving Cert is perceived as an “equaliser,” it inherently benefits those with greater access to grinds, private schooling, and parental guidance. These advantages are masked under the guise of meritocracy. This mirrors what Mijs (2016, p. 14) identifies as “the unfulfillable promise of meritocracy,” where inequality is justified as fair because it appears based on effort and talent.

Courtois (2013) demonstrates how Ireland’s elite fee-paying schools foster exclusion and collective identity, maintaining privilege across generations through symbolic capital. These institutions operate as microcosms of class reproduction, transmitting social and cultural capital that translates directly into educational and professional advantage. Lynch (2022) similarly highlights that educational inequality in Ireland is both structural and ideological: while state discourse emphasises equality of opportunity, the system in practice rewards those with pre-existing advantages.

Educational inequality therefore reflects broader patterns of social stratification in Ireland. The persistence of class divisions is evidenced by differences in access to elite institutions, professional networks, and even recreational activities (Free, 2024). Rugby, for instance, continues to function as a marker of middle-class identity, sustained by media representations that align the sport with respectability and “Middle Ireland” (Free, 2024). This demonstrates how class distinctions are not merely economic but cultural and symbolic, shaping identity and belonging.

The notion of a classless Ireland obscures these processes by framing inequality as a matter of individual failure rather than structural reproduction. The education system, in particular, legitimises social hierarchy by presenting success as meritocratic. As Bourdieu argues, this “misrecognition” (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977) transforms arbitrary privilege into perceived fairness.

Conclusion
The image of Ireland as a classless nation is sustained by both historical circumstance and deliberate ideological construction. The lack of industrialisation and the persistence of agrarian structures enabled the formation of a collective identity that obscured class divisions. Internally, political institutions, social norms, and cultural narratives reinforced this image through appeals to unity and moral order.

However, beneath this veneer lies a deeply stratified society. Using Bourdieu’s framework, this paper has shown that class reproduction in Ireland operates not through direct control of the means of production, but through cultural and educational mechanisms that perpetuate inequality while concealing it. Education serves as a primary site of this reproduction, rewarding the cultural capital of the privileged while maintaining the illusion of fairness.

Thus, while the rhetoric of equality remains central to Ireland’s national identity, the social reality reveals enduring class divisions. Challenging the myth of classlessness requires recognising the subtle yet pervasive mechanisms through which privilege is maintained and inequality justified. Only by doing so can Ireland move toward a more honest and equitable understanding of itself.

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