Recent Central Statistics Office (CSO, 2023) figures have shown that Ireland’s newcomer population is now over 757,000 constituting 14.3 per cent of the total population. A rise in newcomer families has resulted in Ireland’s post-primary schools now becoming increasingly multicultural and multilingual educational spaces. As a result, post-primary teachers have been required to adapt their teaching pedagogies and methodologies to be more conscious and inclusive of newcomer learners. This dual case study seeks to explore how post-primary EAL learners are construed, how they are valued, the processes that construct them and, how these processes operate within and across a DEIS and in a non-DEIS school? In choosing a DEIS and fee-paying non-DEIS school, this study purposefully explored, through qualitative methods, whether an economic and/or cultural resource disparity existed for teachers implementing language supports for newcomer learners. It also sought to examine how teachers in both settings implemented language supports to affect the inclusion of these learners. Gramscian and Bourdieusian theoretical frameworks contribute to this study’s critical exploration of cultural hegemony and reproduction, social and economic capital, and selfworth. Perceptions around social class, culture and identity especially in relation to the ‘migrant’ identity are also unpacked. Ainscow’s “ecology of equity” model provides a framework for discussion of study findings from the perspective of inclusive education. Findings and discussion suggest that school and teacher autonomy played a significant role in implementing initiatives for inclusion for students for whom English is an additional language. Finally, the study highlighted how the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated educational and social inequalities relating to learners in the schools studied. It is hoped that these findings will contribute to knowledge and practice bases relating to the construction of learners’ identities for whom English is not their first language at post-primary level. It provides evidence of the implementation of school supports aimed at the inclusion of these learners and may have implications for the development of policy in this area going forward.