This article offers an empirical critique of recent social and educational policy responses to cultural diversity in an Irish context, with a particular focus on antiracism, integration and intercultural education policies developed during the socalled ‘Celtic Tiger’ era. Combining ethnographic and discourse analytic techniques, I highlight the centrality of the Celtic Tiger economy and corporate interests in influencing the particular version of interculturalism promulgated by the Irish state. I argue that broader macro processes and discourses operating at the level of Irish state policy can impact the local school level, resulting in negative consequences for ethnic minority students, particularly those who are least endowed with the cultural and linguistic capital valued by the school and wider society.