MIRCOM is a research project that aims to explore the role of Jewish and Protestant minorities in nation building in three European countries with Catholic majorities: France, Ireland and Italy. To achieve this, the project examines the relationship between minorities and majorities during the formation of nation states, focusing particularly on the processes and dynamics at work in the construction of national identities (modernisation, pluralisation, and secularisation). It will pay attention the internal and external tensions in identity formation, whether it be that of the Nation or that of the communities themselves. This will allow the team to explore further how these tensions influence the states, politicians and religious communities.

Although the integration of these two minorities into the Nation has often been viewed through the prism of assimilation and homogenisation, we should also consider how these religious minorities have contributed to redefining the very contours of national identities as ‘imagined communities’, beyond the acknowledgement of the religious pluralisation of the societies under study.

This comparative project proposes to move away from a compartmentalised approach in order to examine the conceptions, beliefs and discourses of actors au raz des sources, by combining a ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ approach. It will rely on written sources (administrative and institutional archives, correspondence, press, accounts, school textbooks, sermons), as well as iconographic and oral sources (posters, advertisements).

The multidisciplinary team consists of researchers from France, the United Kingdom and Romania.

The project has several objectives:

• organising two international events (a symposium in 2025 and a conference in 2026),
• mapping the archives relevant to the study of these minorities
• publishing a special issue of an academic journal and an edited volume.

Through these different aspects, the team aims to identify the factors that facilitate or hinder the development of more inclusive ‘imagined communities’ in France, Ireland and Italy.