Instead of asking how globalization can help us understand Ireland today, this article starts from the premise that Ireland may be useful for an understanding of globalization. Always at a crossroads culturally and through its huge migration overseas, contemporary Ireland is seen as the epitome of a globalization success story. The article examines the constant (re)creation of Irish identity and its complex (re)constitution in the era of globalization. It concludes that if an Ireland did not already exist, globalization theory would have to invent it.