Insider/outsider debates: making whiteness visible in the Irish context

In this article, I elaborate on the insider–outsider positionalities that I experienced, as the researcher, within a qualitative study of the negotiation(s) of racialised belonging by the white Irish mother (who is the focus of this article) and her mixed race child (ren). More specifically, this article sets out to examine how the domain of whiteness has shaped two strands of the research encounter – namely, accessing participants and interviewing. The article concludes that, while our shared whiteness undoubtedly served to facilitate the research process, it is further fair to say that the racial dynamics of whiteness manifested in some rather insidious ways. This article makes an original contribution to positionality debates by its specific application to an under-researched population in the Irish context (i.e. white mothers of mixed race children).