This thesis is centred on the exploration and critical reading of fictions that were produced within the Irish diasporic community in Argentina in the period 1900-1994, and that take Ireland or Irishness as their theme. The aim is, firstly, to identify the uses of cultural markers of Irishness in these narratives and, secondly, to critically evaluate them in the context of prevailing Argentine literary and cultural traditions, with a view to assessing how they challenge hegemonic perceptions of Argentine national identity. I selected three collections of short stories for this work: Tales of the Pampas (William Bulfin, 1900), Los irlandeses (Rodolfo Walsh, 2007), and Tréboles del sur (Juan José Delaney, 1994). Although some of the stories in these collections have been studied before, it has usually been from a migration and diaspora studies perspective, particularly in the case of Bulfin and Delaney. Studies on Walsh have tended to focus on his contributions to crime fiction and investigative journalism. This study offers a fresh, Argentina-oriented approach to these writers, by contextualising them against the backdrop of social, political and cultural developments in Argentina. My argument is rooted in the contention that these diasporic narratives are just as much a part of the Argentine literary tradition as those written by ‘native’ Argentinians such as Sarmiento, Mitre, or Hernández. By focusing on elements such as the description of landscape, the figure of the local vis-à-vis the foreigner, and the representation of power and authority present in these fictions, I aim to establish a connection between these discourses and more overtly political nation-building narratives, seeing both as the result of a national call for the creation of an Argentine, national literature