Policy rhetoric and meaning within the cultural industries across a shared land border

The post-Brexit creation of the Shared Island Unit in 2021 within Ireland’s Department of the Taoiseach advanced all-island collaboration as a whole-of-government priority, addressing the island economy as cross-jurisdictional and common ‘strategic challenges’. Presenting findings from interpretive analysis of interviews and workshops held in 2022 with researchers, and dance and theatre practitioners and policymakers, this paper explores what ‘shared’ might mean in a post-conflict, two polity cultural industry context. Although cultural industries maintain economic, administrative, professional, and cultural ties, personal, political, and professional complications arise when ‘sharing’ becomes a key policy rhetoric within the cultural industries.