From: Bronwen Walter
Subject: Re: Ir-D Domestics

I don't know of any specific reading on this, but I discuss the issue -
including the absence of data - in my forthcoming book 'Outsiders
Inside; whiteness, place and Irish women' (Routledge, should be
September 2000), which contrasts the experiences of Irish women as
domestic servants in the US and Britain. It is extraordinary that so
much detail is available for the US and so little for Britain. The
percentage increased in Britain towards the end of the nineteenth
century as British women moved into other areas of work and Irish women
were seen as more 'civilised'than in the mid-century.

Bronwen Walter



On Fri 24 Mar 2000 10:12:00 +0000 irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk wrote:

>
>
> From: "Thomas J. Archdeacon"
> Subject: Irish Domestics
>
> A student of mine and I were discussing the topic of Irish female domestics
> and American historiography. Thinking out loud, I commented that some
> percentage of domestics in England must have been Irish. Neither my
> student nor I, however, could think of a specific reading on the subject.
> Therefore, I pose two questions. 1. Does anyone have an estimate of the
> share of Irish among domestics in England in the late 19th and early 20th
> centuries? 2. What would be the most relevant reading in the general
> subject area?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Tom
>
>
> Thomas J. Archdeacon, Prof. Office: 608-263-1778/1800
> Department of History Fax: 608-263-5302
> University of Wisconsin -- Madison Home: 608-251-7264
> 5133 Humanities Building E-Mail: tjarchde[at]facstaff.wisc.edu
> Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1483
>
> [Moderator's note:
> I deduce from internal evidence that Tom is using the word 'domestic' in the sense of
> 'household servant'...
> P.O'S.]
>

----------------------
Bronwen Walter
B.Walter[at]anglia.ac.uk

From: Jeanne Armstrong
Subject: racism in Britain

Awhile ago this Ir-D list had a discussion of racist attitudes toward the Irish
in contemporary Great Britain. I thought I had saved some of the messages
but can't locate them. This June I am giving a paper at the ACIS in Ireland
on three films, one of which is In the Name of the Father and would like to
locate some background material on racism toward the Irish especially during
the 1970s including the assumption that Irish are all terrorists. Thanks for
your assistance.

Jeanne Armstrong
Western Washington University
Bellingham, Washington
United States

From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Dymphna=20Lonergan?=
Subject: Re: Ir-D Faction Fights 2

Thanks everyone who responded to my query on faction
fighting. In the words of Clive James 'I know more now
than I did before' - however, the second part of my
query was when did 'we' (the settled community) stop and
why, if you like, do the travellers apparently
continue? One for the sociologists perhaps.
Thanks again

Dymphna Lonergan
The Flinders University of South Australia
Dymphna_1[at]Yahoo.com

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com

I thought it worth sharing this H-Net review with the Irish-Diaspora list, since it
touches on our interests...

P.O'S.


- -----Original Message-----
From: H-NET List on Ethnic History [mailto:H-ETHNIC[at]H-NET.MSU.EDU]On
Behalf Of Josef Barton
Sent: 28 March 2000 22:42
To: H-ETHNIC[at]H-NET.MSU.EDU
Subject: H-ETHNIC: BOOKS: Clay McShane on Krieger et.al., _Mapping
Boston_


H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-Urban[at]h-net.msu.edu (March, 2000)

Alex Krieger and David Cobb with Amy Turner. _Mapping Boston_.
Cambridge and London: The MIT Press, 1999. ix + 277 pages. Maps,
Photographs, tables, notes, time line, cartographic glossary,
bibliography, and index. $60.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-262-11244-2.

Reviewed for H-Urban by Clay McShane ,
Department of History, Northeastern University

This extremely handsome book traces the cartography of Boston and
its region from discovery by Europeans to the present. At its heart
are full color reproductions of 72 original maps, largely from the
collection of Boston developer Norman Leventhal. Hundreds of
smaller reproductions and other illustrations accompany the maps.
Leventhal not only contributed the maps, but must have subvened the
book otherwise, since the MIT Press could hardly have produced a
book as lavish as this for only sixty dollars otherwise. Levanthal
has been exceedingly kind at sharing his collection with the public,
placing several of these maps on display at downtown buildings and
recently putting a number of them on display at Boston Public
Library.

While theoretically covering the whole gamut of Boston history,
there are more plates of seventeenth century maps than twentieth, a
reflection of the book's focus. The book also contains seven
essays, one of which, a literary appreciation by James Carroll,
seems a little out of place. Sam Bass Warner, Jr. has written a
superb ten page introduction to the city's history. The detailed
histories of map-making and map-buying in Boston (all emphasizing
the eighteenth nineteenth century) by Barbara McCorkle, David Bose,
and David Cobb are major contributions. Nancy Seashole's lengthy
topographic history of Boston updates and, if a bad pun may be
excused, fills in Walter Muir Whitehill's classic book.[1] A useful,
but hardly exhaustive, bibliography augments the book.

The plates themselves are set off from the text with "vignettes"
(photos, blow-ups of sections, and smaller copies of other maps,
prepared by Anne Mackin and ably explained in an accompanying text.)
This organization has the virtue of fully setting the context for
each map, but has the drawback of creating some redundancy with the
essays. The coverage is especially strong for the colonial period,
the revolutionary era, and the mid-nineteenth century.

Remarkably, twenty of these maps are available at
http://www.mappingboston.com. It is probably unfair to ask for more
from an already overwhelming book, but twentieth century Boston has
a cartographic legacy as well, in the cultural and social maps of
such authors as Kevin Lynch, Michael Conzen, and George Lewis.[2]
The various authors are kinder about twentieth century urban renewal
than I would be. Finally, two small errors. Ronald Formisano's
first name is not Donald, and James Michael Curley was born in the
South End, not South Boston. These are minor flaws.

This is an extremely valuable work. I don't know of anything
approaching its thoroughness and quality for any other city. No
scholar will ever be able to use a map of Boston again, without
checking this book to find out its origins and limitations.
_Mapping Boston_ enormously enriches our understanding of the city's
history and of the history of urban cartography.

Notes

[1]. Walter Muir Whitehill, _A Topographical History of Boston_
(Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1959).
Harvard University Press has an updated version of this Whitehill
book in press.

[2]. Michael P. Conzen and George K. Lewis, _Boston: A Geographical
Portrait_ (Cambridge: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1976) and Kevin
Lynch, _The Image of the City_ (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1960)

Copyright (c) 2000 by H-Net, all rights reserved. This work may be
copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to
the author and the list. For other permission, please contact
H-Net[at]H-Net.MSU.EDU.

From: "alex peach"
Subject: Re: Ir-D Irish in Britain

Re: racism and the Irish.

Try these.
See Curtis, L., Nothing But the Same Old Story, Information on Ireland
Publication, London, 1984. A good overview with some great illustrations of
newspaper cartoons racialising the Irish from the Nineteenth century through
to the 1980s

Curtis Liz Ireland : the propaganda war : the media and the 'battle for the
hearts and minds' / London : Pluto Press, 1984. Speaks for itself.

More up to date is,
Mary J. Hickman and Bronwen Walter Discrimination and the Irish community
in Britain : a report of research undertaken for the Commission for Racial
Equality
London Commission for Racial Equality 1997

Two old chestnuts dealing with the 19th century are,

Curtis, L. P., Anglo-Saxons and Celts : A Study of Anti-Irish Prejudice in
Victorian England, New York University Press, New York, 1968.

Which should be balanced by,

Gilley, S., "English Attitudes to the Irish in England 1789-1900" in Holmes,
C., (ed.) Immigrants and Minorities in British Society, Allen and Unwin,
London, 1978.

On of my friends at Warwick produced a very useful bibliography with short
introductionary essays from a sociological viewpoint.

Lloyd, C., The Irish Community in Britain: Disadvantage and Racism: An
Annotated Bibliography. Irish Studies Centre Occasional papers Series
Number 7. University of North London Press, 1995.

There is an interesting website named THE RACED CELT: 1840-1890 An
Electronic Primary Text Sourcebook
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~dnp5c/Victorian/index.html which looks at
the historical angle with some good pictures to download (useful for the
OHP).

I personally am a fan of Jones W. R. "England against the Celtic Fringe: A
Study in Cultural Stereotypes". The Journal of World History XII (1) 1971.
Which is not really about the 1970s but is a good exposition of the roots of
it all.

I hope these are of some use.

Best Wishes

Alex Peach

Historical and International Studies
DeMontfort University
Leicester
UK




- -----Original Message-----
From: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Date: 29 March 2000 09:19
Subject: Ir-D Irish in Britain


>
>From: Jeanne Armstrong
>Subject: racism in Britain
>
>Awhile ago this Ir-D list had a discussion of racist attitudes toward the
Irish
>in contemporary Great Britain. I thought I had saved some of the messages
>but can't locate them. This June I am giving a paper at the ACIS in Ireland
>on three films, one of which is In the Name of the Father and would like to
>locate some background material on racism toward the Irish especially
during
>the 1970s including the assumption that Irish are all terrorists. Thanks
for
>your assistance.
>
>Jeanne Armstrong
>Western Washington University
>Bellingham, Washington
>United States
>

For Jeanne Armstrong

Jeanne
re Ir-D discussion of Irish in Britain.

It is possible to retrieve all the relevant Ir-D list messages, if you have not saved
them.

Every now and again, usually once a day, the software which manages the Ir-D list
automatically makes a file containing a bundle of recent Ir-D list messages and puts it in
an archive. This software is called Majordomo, and this archive is called
irish-diaspora-digest.

Anyone can easily get the files from this archive.

For example, to get the files containing the recent discussion about the Irish in
Britain...

Send an email to
majordomo[at]bradford.ac.uk

The Subject line of this email does not matter - put in something to
help yourself remember what you are trying to do.

The text of the email should take this form

get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n304
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n307
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n308
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n310
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n330
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n331
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n332
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n333
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n334
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n335
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n336
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n337
end

Note that you have to end with the word
end
on a line by itself.

You could just copy and paste that chunk of instructions into a new email.

The Majordomo software will then send you an email, acknowledging your
message. It will also send you all those files as separate emails.

Those are the files that contain the Ir-D messages discussing the Irish in Britain. Those
files contain much other material too, of course.

Ir-D list members might like to know that all Ir-D messages are also archived and indexed
here on my computer, in my favourite database IDEALIST. It is the perfect database for
writers, and other innocents. You can simply chuck chunks of text into it, and it will
index EVERY WORD.

IDEALIST is now a product of the Bekon company at www.bekon.com

Theoretically it would now be possible to distribute the Ir-D list archives as searchable
IDEALIST databases, on discs or CD - if there was interest, and if we had funding.

P.O'S.

- - --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Personal Fax National 0870 0521605
Fax International +44 870 0521605

Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

From Patrick O'Sullivan

People may have noticed that the good citizens of the United States of America are
currently in the process of choosing our planet's leader for us. Thanks, guys.

Meanwhile, our attention has been drawn to the following item...

> List members might be interested in an article appearing on "Salon"
(3/6/00) by Michael Lind. The author begins with a historical survey of
American party politics from an ethnocultural perspective, then applies it
to the current political situation. In particular, he discusses what he
believes the McCain candidacy reveals about the major parties. The article
can be found at


P.O'S.


- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

I have been asked by Ir-D members who do not have full Web access if they can see the text
of the H-Net review of Frank Neal's book.

Here it is...

P.O'S.


Frank Neal. Black '47: Britain and the Famine Irish. London: Macmillan Press and New York:
St Martin's Press, 1998. xv + 292 pp. . $69.95 (cloth), ISBN 0-333-66595-3.
Reviewed by Ron Weir, Department of Economics, University of York.
Published by EH.Net (March, 2000)


During the 1980s there appeared to be developing a minor academic industry popularly known
as 'The Irish in ....' It was concerned with describing the experiences of Irish
immigrants in nineteenth century Britain and seemed destined to embrace every British
city. In fact this research was never quite so all inclusive as its critics suggested and
focussed predominantly on Dundee, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Salford,
and York. It could also be justified in terms of the quantitative dimensions of Irish
immigration, particularly during the decade of the Great Famine. Between 1841 and 1851 the
Irish-born percentage of the population of England and Wales rose from 1.8% to 2.9%, or
from 291,000 to 520,000. In Scotland the proportionate increase was even greater, from
4.8% to 7.2%, or from 126,000 to 207,000. Nevertheless, the sheer volume of such single
city studies did pose the question whether further research was likely to yield more than
marginal gains to our existing knowledge of the Irish in Britain.

In Black '47 Frank Neal, Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of
Salford, proves conclusively that there is still a lot to be learned. That this is so,
owes much to five features of his research. First, he adopts a very narrow time horizon,
essentially the events of a single year, 1847. Secondly, he concentrates on a tightly
focussed area, Lancashire, the county that exceeded all others in the number of Irish-born
residents, and in particular on Liverpool, the main port of entry for famine refugees.
Outside London, Liverpool had the greatest number of Irish-born within its boundaries and
the greatest proportion of its population who were Irish-born. By comparing Liverpool with
Glasgow, Manchester, and Salford, the four towns which accounted for 27% of all Irish-born
in Britain in 1851, the sheer concentration of Irish immigration and the resulting
problems are starkly revealed. Thirdly, he is aware that much previous research has been
'going over old ground' and responds by utilizing a wider range of primary source
material, including county and church archives, newspaper reports, and personal testimony.
Fourthly, he regards what might be described as the mechanisms of migration, that is the
behaviour of the shipping companies and the nature of the passage, as vital to
understanding the condition of the refugees when they arrived in Britain. Finally, he has
two clear objectives: to employ statistical evidence to establish 'the parameters of
sensible discussion' and to evaluate the nature of individual experiences. The resulting
analysis never loses sight of the individual yet offers a clear explanation of public
policy and its consequences.

The book is also carefully structured. After an introductory review of recent work on the
Famine, eight chapters take us through the nature of Irish settlement in urban Britain
before the famine, the escape from Ireland, the arrival in Britain, the Irish fever (the
typhus epidemic of 1847) - this is examined in separate chapters on Liverpool, and Glasgow
and South Wales - survival and dispersal, removal, and the cost of famine immigration.
Well before the influx of famine refugees, living conditions for the immigrant Irish were
extraordinarily bad. At the bottom of the housing market with low incomes and intermittent
employment, the Irish endured a wretched lifestyle and their presence was increasingly
subject to unfavourable press comment. Yet at the same time their importance to the
regional economy was recognised, not least because they were more mobile than English
labourers subject to the laws of settlement. Whilst the volume of immigration swelled with
the Famine, Neal argues convincingly that the ordinary workings of the labour market
continued throughout 1845 to 1851. A perceptive analysis of the economics of shipping
explains why. Human cargoes had always taken second place to goods and livestock, but as
food exports from Ireland fell, competition between shipping companies intensified and
fares were varied to suit whatever level the traffic would bear. The destitute found the
fare either by selling their remaining assets or by assistance from ratepayers and
landlords. In an unregulated market, terrible conditions were tolerated because 'Irish
paupers had no friends in high places' and, unlike livestock, had no market value. On
arrival the Irish had no legal claim to long term poor relief and were subject to the laws
of removal. On the other hand, the poor law unions had a legal obligation to ensure that
nobody died of starvation, malnutrition, or 'the want of the necessaries of life.' It is
the resolution of this essential paradox which forms Neal's core theme and he displays
great skill in interpreting it at several different levels: ratepayers, Boards of
Guardians, clergy, medical officials, and individual paupers. He also makes the first
attempt to estimate the cost of famine immigration: for Liverpool in 1847 this amounted to
#33,159 on a tax base of #929,645; for England and Wales as a whole perhaps #155,000 or 2%
of all expenditure on the poor. Whilst coping with famine refugees did exert pressure on
ratepayers, in what was a disastrous year for the economy, it was not a disaster for
wealthier or business ratepayers, nor did the working class finance the payment of poor
relief to the Irish. The extra rates burden amounted to 9s7d, roughly the equivalent of
half a week's wages for a labourer. However, as so often with refugees, it was perceptions
rather than facts that counted; the belief that the Irish were diverting funds from
Britain's own poor damaged inter-communal relations.

Despite the harrowing nature of individual testimonies, Neal's overall judgement of the
performance of the poor law authorities during 1847 is that they fulfilled their
responsibilities to the welfare of Irish famine refugees. They increased spending in
proportion to the numbers seeking relief, they kept deaths from starvation to low levels
(a maximum of 22 in Liverpool in 1847), they acted swiftly to deal with the much more
serious problem of famine related diseases and, by doing so, averted a much greater
crisis. Above all, they shouldered a burden whose ultimate duration was unknown - in
Liverpool it was not till 1854 that Irish immigration dropped dramatically - and which
ought properly to have been borne by national government rather than local ratepayers.
Generous they were not, but the poor law was not generous to the British poor. Neal's
conclusion is that social class rather than ethnicity determined the response to the
crisis.

Citation: Ron Weir . "Review of Frank Neal, Black '47: Britain and the Famine Irish,"
EH.Net, H-Net Reviews, March, 2000. URL:
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=28462952719610.

Copyright © 2000, EH.Net and H-Net, all rights reserved. This work may be copied for
non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to the author and the list. For other
permission questions, please contact hbooks[at]h-net.msu.edu.

Here is the H-Net review of Akenson, Montserrat...

P.O'S.

Donald Harman Akenson. If the Irish Ran the World: Montserrat, 1630-1730. Joanne Goodman
Lectures, 1997. London and Buffalo: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1997. xi + 273 pp.
Notes, maps, appendices, bibliography, and index. $55.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-7735-1630-1;
$22.95 (paper), ISBN 0-7735-1686-7.
Reviewed by Bruce Taylor, University of Dayton.
Published by H-LatAm (April, 1999)


If the Irish Ran the World is a delightful collection of stories and one-liners about the
Irish in Montserrat. While Akenson does not tell us enough to make a judgement about what
kind of world the Irish would have made if given the chance, or even what kind of slave
society they actually made in the Caribbean, by the time one finishes the book, the reader
has forgotten the title anyway.

Akenson is up to his usual impish self as he punches holes in arguments, digs up little
known data, and applies a relentless intelligence to his on-going inquiry into the nature
and effects of the Irish diaspora. And, like the Irish he writes about, his story telling
is always a delight, if perhaps not always germane to the discussion.

His thesis suggests that despite the fact that the Irish experienced English imperial
oppression, when given the chance, they behaved no better as slave holders than their
English neighbors. "Do unto others as they have done unto you!"

He begins with a nod to his Canadian lecture audience by noting the Irish presence in
Ontario as a lead in to the case of Montserrat. Irish was the dominant ethnic group in
early British Canada and contributed to an ethos which marked that province even today,
"... a civilized, gentle place, the kind of world that the Irish might have created, the
earth around, had they had a bit more power" (p. 5). That is about the last kind word
about the Irish as civilizers in the pages that follow. Montserrat was not Canada.

Montserrat is one of the small Leeward Islands tucked nicely into formation along with the
other members of the Leeward and Windward archipelago stretching in an arc from Puerto
Rico to Venezuela. It was named by Columbus after a monastic town in Spain that the Romans
had called Mount Serrat, and which, like Montserrat, featured a serrated landscape.

Akenson then discuses his sources which, for his inquiry, seem abundant enough. He relies
much on census data, compilations of law, and legislative acts. Although he has apparently
not visited UK's Public Record Office archives in Kew, where colonial office
correspondence is housed, he has obtained other sources which contain materials in enough
quantity to support his findings. He also has a good selection of secondary sources to
inform his study, although one should point out an error in the bibliography: Bryan
Edwards is listed as "Bryan, Edward."

Chapter Two is entitled "Ireland's Neo-Feudal Empire 1630-1650." The reference is to a
royal patent given to the Earl of Carlisle in the 1630s which entitled him to control all
affairs in Montserrat including the holding of all land. It is probably best to label this
form of colonial activity feudal remnant since the spirit was commercial and not military,
and the pattern of landholding made it more manorial, at least initially. European
settlement began in the early 1630s with the arrival of the Irish from a variety of
venues. Survivors from the Amazon, rejects from Virginia, migrants from St. Christopher
and maybe Nevis, and colonists recruited by an Irish entrepreneur (with Italian ancestry)
formed the first wave of settlers. A long aside on the history of this Irish/Italian
family is the first of a series of well-told stories that enliven the narrative.

An analysis of the arriving Irish reveals a complex pattern of immigration. Included are
representatives of the original Celtic inhabitants of Ireland; Norman invaders who became
Catholic and culturally Irish; later English invaders who often displaced the Irish as
well as the Norman families that controlled them; and finally the Scots-Irish.

Akenson then discusses various tensions in the island's developing society. Catholics
could only worship in private and were only intermittently served by priests visiting the
island; indentured servants chaffed at their exploited condition; former servants were
eager to find economic opportunity; and the archetypal sugar/slave plantation began to
impact the early small holding tobacco planting regime. There were also issues of
governance and taxation which, however, effected directly only those with substantial
economic resources.

Chapter Three extends the survey from 1650 to 1680. The island during this period began to
"catch up" with the prevailing British Caribbean and experienced the increasing influence
of sugar and slavery. Since the Irish were already here, Cromwell's victims were often
sent to Montserrat because it was presumed that the Irish leadership there knew how to
handle them. Institutional change included the decline of the old patent model in favor of
a crown appointed governor, land granted in fee simple, and the emergence of the usual
pattern of governance including an appointed council and elected assembly. One notable
event marked Montserrat as unique. In 1667, a band of French raiders along with Carib
allies invaded the island. Not only did a significant number of Irish support the French,
but they also rose in rebellion even after the French left. Order was not restored until
early in 1668. Reprisals followed.

Chapter Four, "Capitalism at a Gallop," describes the further development of a slave
economy complete with the usual social result of white emigration. But Akenson does not
see a cause and effect pattern. He sees the Irish making rational decisions to maximize
their opportunities elsewhere and not being driven out by slave labor. But they did begin
to suffer religious discrimination from the Anglican English. When the island was in the
first stages of development, religious differences did not matter. Nor did they feel
pressure under the restored Stuarts in the 1660s. But following the 1688 "Glorious
Revolution," which saw the Protestant William on the Throne, the catholic issue could no
longer be ignored. Despite being denied participation in government by the penal laws, the
Irish managed to occupy first place in the ownership of sugar plantations. And these elite
were just as alarmed at support offered to the Jacobite cause by less wealthy Irish.

Chapter Five provides a brief look at the history of Montserrat after 1730. The economy
trended downward through the century followed by increasing pressure from abolitionists to
end the slave trade and then slavery. In the early nineteenth century, both catholic
emancipation and slave emancipation arrived together! Catholic relief from civil
restrictions became practical as the number of white males on the island dropped below the
point where it made any sense to exclude them from political or administrative activity.
Following emancipation of the slaves, Montserrat continued to suffer a decline in its
fortunes and the whites on the island "took to the boats." Akenson then sums up the whole
story of the Irish on Montserrat: "... they came; they used; they discarded; and they
levanted" (p. 170).

Chapter Six is a nice concluding chapter on the need for identity creation by people in
this part of the world whose lives have been disrupted and roots so lost that they
desperately need to construct traditions useful for self worth. Historical investigation,
in which we try to find out what really happened is always at odds, Akenson reminds us,
with our self-serving version of that past.

Akenson takes some delight in blazing away at accepted historical interpretations in a
field where he is not a recognized authority. He charges "analytic" historians with
failure to notice the impact of particular personalities on the shaping of events (pp.
58-59); attacks such notables as Hilery Beckles, Jill Shephard, and Eric Williams on their
assumption that Barbadian history of indentured servitude can be generalized to include
the other Caribbean islands and that the distinction between white indentured servants and
black slavery should be widened. "White indentured servitude was so very different from
black slavery as to be from another galaxy of human experience" (p. 49). He attacks
Williams again for his generalization that whites grew tobacco and blacks worked sugar and
Shepherd again for her allegedly incorrect account of the origin of "redlegs" as a term to
describe white servants in Barbados (pp. 50-51). He chides historians who claim or assume
that West Indian land was held in fee simple in the early days of colonization and reminds
them that the lands either were worked by servants or tenants and that the land owner was,
in reality, only using the land under the terms of the controlling patent issued by the
crown (pp. 76-78).

While the work is informative and entertaining, it is not about how the Irish mistreated
African slaves. Akenson is most concerned, and understandably so, with the Irish diaspora,
its arrival in Montserrat, and how Irish faired afterwards. The Irish are detailed in
their various positions on the social pyramid of the island. They are governors,
entrepreneurs, estate owners, tenants, and servants. They were exploiters and exploited,
catholic and protestant, loyal and rebellious, immigrants and emigrants. He dutifully
reminds his readers of his thesis from time to time, but does not provide much systematic
data on the treatment of slaves by the Irish other than to note that it was harsh. He does
not contribute to our understanding of the various kinds of "treatment" in play in any
slave regime. Categories of analysis such as work loads, living conditions, social
relationships, opportunities for cultural expression, methods of escaping the system,
legal status, economic opportunities, educational/skill levels, are not systematically
employed in the discussion. One tantalizing reference to the "Black Irish" of northern
Montserrat is not pursued, nor is there much information about the lives of racially mixed
people or free people of color.

Nor does Akenson make a good case for the Irish being a repressed people under the British
system. Indenture, although often experienced as arbitrary and cruel, was not marked by
long periods of service. Former servants were free to sell their labor, lease or sharecrop
land, and, eventually, even acquire land in fee simple. They had left Ireland of their own
free will and could leave Montserrat to seek better opportunities. On that score, they
were aware of the range of wage rates and conditions so that a rational choice was
possible. Their experience as Catholics within an Anglican system did not seem to weigh
that heavily. The lower class Irish who participated in the 1667 rebellion did so,
according to Akenson, from economic frustration and nationalistic feeling, as well as
anti-Catholic prejudice. The more wealthy Irish, moreover, did not participate. Akenson
tells us that the Irish on Barbados had a more significant cause for rebellion than did
those on Montserrat!

Akenson makes much of the fact that the Irish continued to hold slaves up until the time
of emancipation in 1834. But it should come as no surprise since the system was up and
running in the Caribbean when the Irish arrived and there would be no reason to oppose it
in the formative years of Montserrat's shift form tobacco to sugar in the late 17th
century. Neither Anglicans nor Catholics, moreover, voiced much concern about the fate of
the slaves.

What we are left with is a not very surprising psychological observation that oppressed
people often are quite able to victimize others when given the chance. Yet, it would seem
that the Irish were not treated badly enough to test out that generalization, and,
furthermore, there is not enough data to indicate in what ways and to what degree the
treatment of their slaves was harsh anyway.

What if the Irish ran the world? No clue, but Akenson's narrative is an enjoyable and
informative account of their sojourn in the Caribbean.

Library of Congress call number: F2082.A34 1997
Subjects:
Irish -- Montserrat -- History
Montserrat -- History.
Montserrat -- Ethnic relations.
Citation: Bruce Taylor . "Review of Donald Harman Akenson, If the Irish Ran the World:
Montserrat, 1630-1730," H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews, April, 1999. URL:
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=14613925395644.

Copyright © 1999, H-Net, all rights reserved. This work may be copied for non-profit
educational use if proper credit is given to the author and the list. For other permission
questions, please contact hbooks[at]h-net.msu.edu.

From: Kerby Miller
Subject: thanks

Many thanks to all those who kindly responded to my inquiry with
suggestions of books on Scottish and Welsh history for my colleague's and
my seminar on the "new British history." I look forward to reading them
all (if I can only find the time!).
Kerby Miller.

From: Jeanne Armstrong
Subject: RE: Ir-D Archive

thanks,

Jeanne Armstrong

- -----Original Message-----
From: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
[mailto:irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2000 5:26 AM
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Ir-D Archive



For Jeanne Armstrong

Jeanne
re Ir-D discussion of Irish in Britain.

It is possible to retrieve all the relevant Ir-D list messages, if you have
not saved
them.

Every now and again, usually once a day, the software which manages the Ir-D
list
automatically makes a file containing a bundle of recent Ir-D list messages
and puts it in
an archive. This software is called Majordomo, and this archive is called
irish-diaspora-digest.

Anyone can easily get the files from this archive.

For example, to get the files containing the recent discussion about the
Irish in
Britain...

Send an email to
majordomo[at]bradford.ac.uk

The Subject line of this email does not matter - put in something to
help yourself remember what you are trying to do.

The text of the email should take this form

get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n304
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n307
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n308
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n310
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n330
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n331
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n332
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n333
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n334
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n335
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n336
get irish-diaspora-digest V01.n337
end

Note that you have to end with the word
end
on a line by itself.

You could just copy and paste that chunk of instructions into a new email.

The Majordomo software will then send you an email, acknowledging your
message. It will also send you all those files as separate emails.

Those are the files that contain the Ir-D messages discussing the Irish in
Britain. Those
files contain much other material too, of course.

Ir-D list members might like to know that all Ir-D messages are also
archived and indexed
here on my computer, in my favourite database IDEALIST. It is the perfect
database for
writers, and other innocents. You can simply chuck chunks of text into it,
and it will
index EVERY WORD.

IDEALIST is now a product of the Bekon company at www.bekon.com

Theoretically it would now be possible to distribute the Ir-D list archives
as searchable
IDEALIST databases, on discs or CD - if there was interest, and if we had
funding.

P.O'S.

- - --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Personal Fax National 0870 0521605
Fax International +44 870 0521605

Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

From: Jeanne Armstrong
Subject: RE: Ir-D Irish in Britain
Dear Alex,

Thanks very much for your great suggestions.


Jeanne Armstrong


- -----Original Message-----
From: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
[mailto:irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2000 5:25 AM
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Ir-D Irish in Britain



From: "alex peach"
Subject: Re: Ir-D Irish in Britain

Re: racism and the Irish.

Try these.
See Curtis, L., Nothing But the Same Old Story, Information on Ireland
Publication, London, 1984. A good overview with some great illustrations of
newspaper cartoons racialising the Irish from the Nineteenth century through
to the 1980s

Curtis Liz Ireland : the propaganda war : the media and the 'battle for the
hearts and minds' / London : Pluto Press, 1984. Speaks for itself.

More up to date is,
Mary J. Hickman and Bronwen Walter Discrimination and the Irish community
in Britain : a report of research undertaken for the Commission for Racial
Equality
London Commission for Racial Equality 1997

Two old chestnuts dealing with the 19th century are,

Curtis, L. P., Anglo-Saxons and Celts : A Study of Anti-Irish Prejudice in
Victorian England, New York University Press, New York, 1968.

Which should be balanced by,

Gilley, S., "English Attitudes to the Irish in England 1789-1900" in Holmes,
C., (ed.) Immigrants and Minorities in British Society, Allen and Unwin,
London, 1978.

On of my friends at Warwick produced a very useful bibliography with short
introductionary essays from a sociological viewpoint.

Lloyd, C., The Irish Community in Britain: Disadvantage and Racism: An
Annotated Bibliography. Irish Studies Centre Occasional papers Series
Number 7. University of North London Press, 1995.

There is an interesting website named THE RACED CELT: 1840-1890 An
Electronic Primary Text Sourcebook
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~dnp5c/Victorian/index.html which looks at
the historical angle with some good pictures to download (useful for the
OHP).

I personally am a fan of Jones W. R. "England against the Celtic Fringe: A
Study in Cultural Stereotypes". The Journal of World History XII (1) 1971.
Which is not really about the 1970s but is a good exposition of the roots of
it all.

I hope these are of some use.

Best Wishes

Alex Peach

Historical and International Studies
DeMontfort University
Leicester
UK




- -----Original Message-----
From: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Date: 29 March 2000 09:19
Subject: Ir-D Irish in Britain


>
>From: Jeanne Armstrong
>Subject: racism in Britain
>
>Awhile ago this Ir-D list had a discussion of racist attitudes toward the
Irish
>in contemporary Great Britain. I thought I had saved some of the messages
>but can't locate them. This June I am giving a paper at the ACIS in Ireland
>on three films, one of which is In the Name of the Father and would like to
>locate some background material on racism toward the Irish especially
during
>the 1970s including the assumption that Irish are all terrorists. Thanks
for
>your assistance.
>
>Jeanne Armstrong
>Western Washington University
>Bellingham, Washington
>United States
>

From: "Charles E. Orser"
Subject: Re: Ir-D USA Ethnic politics


Paddy:
It's important to remember that about 30% of Americans are in the process
of choosing the next world leader!
Charles Orser

At 01:27 PM 3/29/00 +0000, you wrote:
>
>From Patrick O'Sullivan
>
>People may have noticed that the good citizens of the United States of
America are
>currently in the process of choosing our planet's leader for us. Thanks,
guys.
>
>Meanwhile, our attention has been drawn to the following item...
>
>> List members might be interested in an article appearing on "Salon"
>(3/6/00) by Michael Lind. The author begins with a historical survey of
>American party politics from an ethnocultural perspective, then applies it
>to the current political situation. In particular, he discusses what he
>believes the McCain candidacy reveals about the major parties. The article
>can be found at
>
>
>P.O'S.
>
>
>--
>Patrick O'Sullivan
>Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
>Email Patrick O'Sullivan
>Irish-Diaspora list
>Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/
>
>Irish Diaspora Research Unit
>Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
>University of Bradford
>Bradford BD7 1DP
>Yorkshire
>England
>
>
>
****************************************************************************
Charles E. Orser, Jr.
Distinguished Professor of Anthropology,
Founding Editor, International Journal of Historical Archaeology, and
Adjunct Professor of Archaeology, National University of Ireland, Galway

Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Campus Box 4660
Illinois State University
Normal, IL 61790-4660

Phone: 309.438.2271
Fax: 309.438.5378
e-mail: ceorser[at]ilstu.edu
field school website: www.ilstu.edu/~ceorser/field_school.htm
****************************************************************************

From: "Brian McGinn"
Subject: St. Patrick's Day, March 17 in Montserrat

The following report on St. Patrick's Day activities in
Montserrat is forwarded courtesy of Susan and Eddie
Edgecombe and Betty Dix of Tradewinds Real Estate, Box 365,
Olveston, Montserrat, West Indies. I've added a few
explanatory comments at the end--Brian McGinn.
__________________
Tradewinds Newsletter
February-March 2000

Hello Everybody -
Well - lots of news this month!! Starting with St.
Patrick's Week - it was
well organized by a committee headed by Kenny Cassell.
There was a dinner at Tropical Mansions Suites, a music jam
at The Good Life Restaurant, the annual Roman Catholic
Dinner at The Vue Pointe Hotel (first time the dinner has
been held since '97). Everyone was very happy to again be
at the Vue Pointe - almost like old times, but Cedric was
quick to point out that the dinner was not a sign that the
hotel was about to open again. After dinner, there was
entertainment - Mrs. Margaret Abbott and Mrs. Maeve Kennedy
had taught some of the school children to do the Irish Jig
(they also performed at The Tropical Mansion Suites
dinner), and there was also singing (Irish songs,
of course) and a fashion show of African tie dye and batik
clothing. On St. Patrick's Day, there was a slave feast and
re-enactment of the historic St. Patrick's Day slave
uprising, masqueraders and string band music, and display
of old time artifacts- all this took place at Brades
school. The junior calypso concert, sponsored by the Union
of Teachers, was at Mooses' bar (The Bitter End) near the
ferry terminal. Other days featured hikes, tours to view
the south from the top of Garibaldi Hill, a race, lectures,
a round-the-island ferry ride, and a barbecue. Hard to
believe there was so much going on in one week - it was
just strange that after the big to-do about Festival Park
at Xmas and all the money spent on it (and the fact that it
is still set up with stage, bathrooms and vendor buildings)
that none of the March activities took place there. To top
it off, there was also an Irish film crew on island for the
week, and the Duke of York, Prince Andrew, arrived on
Commonwealth Day (March 13) for a two day visit. The Duke
was on a trip around the British Dependent Territories, and
in between his official duties and engagements, spent an
hour at St. Augustine School. He visited several of the
classrooms and the new (British donated) computer
classroom, after which the children put on a short variety
concert. All in all the entire week was successful and
leaves many with pleasant memories. A number of people came
to Montserrat for the week - some returning for the first
time after being evacuated during
the height of the volcanic crisis, others just for a
holiday.
___________________________

Irish Film Crew: There were recent reports that a
'Professor Higgins' from Ireland was on-island. This could
only be Galway's Michael D Higgins, who in 1985 narrated
and produced a fascinating Channel 4 Montserrat documentary
titled 'The Other Emerald Isle.' Eileen Sullivan and others
will await Michael D's latest effort with great
anticipation.

Garibaldi Hill: There's no evidence that the Italian
liberator visited Montserrat. According to the late
Montserrat historian Delores L Somerville, Garibaldi or
Caribaldi was a corruption of Garboldisham, from the seat
of the Molineux family 'Garboldisham Hall' in Norfolk,
England. On 17th maps of Montserrat, this location appears
as St. Patrick's Hill. So, hiking up Garibaldi Hill on
March 17th might be Montserrat's quite unintentional
equivalent of a pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick.

From Patrick O'Sullivan

The key figure in the history of Irish law and lawyers is most probably W. N. Osborough,
Trinity College Dublin, who has written numerous articles and some books. I could
construct the beginnings of a list, from material to hand - but someone else might know
where it is immediately available.

But it is a developing area - see
http://www.iap.ie/leghist.htm

and
http://www.dcu.ie/~comms/ckenny/kenny.htm
Colum Kenny's home page

This issue is of great interest to Irish Diaspora Studies, and could take us in a number
of directions.

Thus, there are the famous Penal Laws - which were, in the end, laws. I noted, in a
review of Power & Whelan, Endurance and Emergence: Catholics in Ireland in the C18th,
Irish Academic Press, 1990, that, to negotiate the Penal Laws, Catholic families had to
have their own lawyers - which is to say their own Protestants. There is an essay by
Osborough, on the Penal Laws, in that volume.

The Penal Laws, curtailing the economic activity of Catholics, in England and Wales and in
Ireland, are the missing element in discussion of Weber's 'protestant ethic' thesis. This
is especially relevant since so much of Weber's own material comes from C17th England, and
the thesis turns up in all sorts of daft (and lazy) ways in studies that impinge on Irish
Diaspora Studies. In my published comment on this, in Religion and Identity, Volume 5 of
The Irish World Wide, I said (with scholarly cowardice) that I had seen little
acknowledgement of the existence of the Penal Laws in the sociological literature which
has developed from Weber. In fact, I have NEVER seen any mention of the Penal Laws in the
sociological literature.

Then there is the whole business of lawyers as another migrating professional group, to be
put alongside the doctors and the accountants. Indeed, the idea has been floated that, in
the late eighteenth century, Irish lawyers threw their weight behind the development of
statute law in the newly-independent USA. They had had experience of the vagaries of the
common law system in Ireland and in England, and were fed up with it. True? - I don't
know. But I have it flagged here as something to look at one day.

There was also a book, a little while ago, about Irish lawyers in America - I am still
searching for the details. Anyone?

Paddy O'Sullivan

- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England




- -----Original Message-----
irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Sent: 24 March 2000 09:10
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Ir-D Irish lawyers




From: ppo[at]aber.ac.uk (Paul O' Leary)
Subject: William Smith O'Brien, etc.

From: Paul O'Leary


Eamonn Barnes, the former Director of Public Prosecutions for the Republic
of Ireland, delivered a fascinating public lecture at Aberystwyth last night
on Irish law and lawyers through history which had much to interest students
of the Irish diaspora. It would appear that from the earliest times those
involved with the law in Ireland were a particularly mobile group. Has
anybody researched this from a migration studies viewpoint?
One figure mentioned in the course of the lecture was William Smith
O'Brien who died in Bangor, north Wales. Is there a biography of Smith
O'Brien? I should be grateful if someone could provide some references.

Paul O'Leary

Dr. Paul O'Leary
Adran Hanes a Hanes Cymru / Dept. of History and Welsh History,
Prifysgol Cymru Aberystwyth / University of Wales Aberystwyth,
Aberystwyth,
Ceredigion, Wales, SY23 3DY

Tel: 01970 622842
Fax: 01970 622676

Patrick O'Sullivan

Thank you, Bronwen, for this...

We certainly look forward to reading your book - so do keep us up to date on developments.

The ignoring of the importance of women in the patterns of Irish migration remains quite
extraordinary - I have perhaps said enough about that elsewhere. But I recall how amazed
were our Polish and Polish-American colleagues, at the Polish/Irish Conference last year,
when we brought these patterns to their attention.

Looking back to Tom Archdeacon's original query... I wonder if the question should not be
put the other way round...

Irish servant girls have become, in the United States, feminist icons, heroines of the
Irish Diaspora, heroines of Irish America, feminist heroes. This is in part simply
because of the importance of women in the patterns. But I think we need to look too at
the importance of American feminist scholars (and not all feminists are women) who have
challenged and changed the research agenda. I think of Janet Nolan and Maureen Murphy...

In Maureen Murphy's recent work the Irish serving girls have become even more iconic,
because of their role in the sending of remittances, helping other members of families to
emigrate. This is women rescuing women, in a pattern that has great appeal to both
feminists and Irish-Americans.

There is simply nothing like this in the historiography of the Irish in Britain. There is
certainly the material to develop such a study, of women's experiences in Britain, and in
Australia.

I am in the middle of writing a play, for a local theatre group, based on Chapter 12 of
David Fitzpatrick's Oceans of Consolation (see details of this book on my web site
http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/) - this is the chapter about the Doorley family in
Bolton, Lancashire. The play, I said to the backers, is 'an Irish working class Three
Sisters...' The remnant of the Doorley family, marooned in Bolton, desperately tried, all
their lives, to get to Australia - to join the successful sister Maria, in Queensland.
Maria had found a niche as a living-in servant and seamstress, then married happily, and
did her best to rescue her mother and sisters from nineteenth century Bolton.

We have only to look at Clare Barrington's Annotated Bibliography, Irish Women in England,
1997 WERRC, Dublin, to see the patterns and the gaps in the existing literature. One of
the first photos in Clare's little book is of Irish chamber maids, in the Savoy Hotel,
London, 1957 - from the Paddy Fahey collection.

Paddy O'Sullivan


- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England


- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
[mailto:owner-irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk]On Behalf Of
irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Sent: 29 March 2000 09:25
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Ir-D Domestics



From: Bronwen Walter
Subject: Re: Ir-D Domestics

I don't know of any specific reading on this, but I discuss the issue -
including the absence of data - in my forthcoming book 'Outsiders
Inside; whiteness, place and Irish women' (Routledge, should be
September 2000), which contrasts the experiences of Irish women as
domestic servants in the US and Britain. It is extraordinary that so
much detail is available for the US and so little for Britain. The
percentage increased in Britain towards the end of the nineteenth
century as British women moved into other areas of work and Irish women
were seen as more 'civilised'than in the mid-century.

Bronwen Walter



On Fri 24 Mar 2000 10:12:00 +0000 irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk wrote:

>
>
> From: "Thomas J. Archdeacon"
> Subject: Irish Domestics
>
> A student of mine and I were discussing the topic of Irish female domestics
> and American historiography. Thinking out loud, I commented that some
> percentage of domestics in England must have been Irish. Neither my
> student nor I, however, could think of a specific reading on the subject.
> Therefore, I pose two questions. 1. Does anyone have an estimate of the
> share of Irish among domestics in England in the late 19th and early 20th
> centuries? 2. What would be the most relevant reading in the general
> subject area?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Tom
>
>
> Thomas J. Archdeacon, Prof. Office: 608-263-1778/1800
> Department of History Fax: 608-263-5302
> University of Wisconsin -- Madison Home: 608-251-7264
> 5133 Humanities Building E-Mail: tjarchde[at]facstaff.wisc.edu
> Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1483
>
> [Moderator's note:
> I deduce from internal evidence that Tom is using the word 'domestic' in the sense of
> 'household servant'...
> P.O'S.]
>

----------------------
Bronwen Walter
B.Walter[at]anglia.ac.uk

From: Paddy Walls [mailto:paddy[at]msoc.mrc.gla.ac.uk]
Subject: new book on sectarianism


Dear Patrick,

I thought users of the Ir-D List might be interested in a book due out
any day now:
Tom Devine (ed) Scotland's Shame? Bigotry and Sectarianism in
Modern Scotland, Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh

It's currently being serialised in the Glasgow Herald.

Launch of book, if anyone north of the (England/Scotland) border would like to attend -

Borders Books and Music, 98 Buchanan St., Glasgow on 11th
April at 7 p.m. - debate including contributors and drinks reception -
open to public

Paddy W



Patricia Walls, Research Scientist, MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, 6 Lilybank
Gardens,
Glasgow, Scotland, G12 8RZ (0141-357-3949)

From: "joan hugman"
Subject: Re: Ir-D Yellowbellies


Dear Paddy
what does a Yellowbelly note look like?
Joan

Subject: Ir-D Yellowbellies
Date: Thu 30 Mar 2000 19:28:00 +0000
From: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Reply-to: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk


>From Clare Barrington

Dear Paddy

Like Noel Gilzean I am from Rosslare Strand and would like to bring you up
to date on Yellowbellies. Did you know that the authorities in Wexford
issued 10,000 Yellowbelly notes on 1 January 2000 to celebrate the
millennium. Each Yellowbelly was equivalent to ú1 (punt) and was legal
tender for a month. They were accepted in shops etc. in Wexford and could
be exchanged at any bank in Wexford for ú1 at the end of January. ú1 was to
go to charity for each one not handed in at the bank. No Yellowbellies came
back to the banks and ú10,000 went to charity. We love our Ywllowbellies
!!! I am the proud owner of three myself - no offers please - I would not
exchange them even for ú sterling.
Clare Barrington



Joan Hugman
Department of History, Armstrong Building,
University of Newcastle NE1 7RU Tel 0191 222 6701

From: "joan hugman"
Subject: Irish Lawyers

Dear Paddy
A friend 'In Law' suggests a sweep of the Library of Congress' Web
would be a good way of tracking the necessary information.
best wishes
Joan

Joan Hugman
Department of History, Armstrong Building,
University of Newcastle NE1 7RU Tel 0191 222 6701

From Clare Barrington

Dear Paddy

Like Noel Gilzean I am from Rosslare Strand and would like to bring you up
to date on Yellowbellies. Did you know that the authorities in Wexford
issued 10,000 Yellowbelly notes on 1 January 2000 to celebrate the
millennium. Each Yellowbelly was equivalent to £1 (punt) and was legal
tender for a month. They were accepted in shops etc. in Wexford and could
be exchanged at any bank in Wexford for £1 at the end of January. £1 was to
go to charity for each one not handed in at the bank. No Yellowbellies came
back to the banks and £10,000 went to charity. We love our Ywllowbellies
!!! I am the proud owner of three myself - no offers please - I would not
exchange them even for £ sterling.
Clare Barrington