Subject: Ir-D Ignatiev
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-ID:

Daniel Cassidy is right - there is a lot to be said about Ignatiev's
book.

For information... The book is
Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White.
New York & London: Routledge, Chapman & Hall, September 1995.
ISBN: 0-415-91384-5

Some Ignatiev stuff on the Web...

1.
Noel Ignatiev's own comments can be found at
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~dnd/issues/302/thenew.html
The New Abolitionism
By Noel Ignatiev
'Race is a biological fiction...'

2.
There is a review of The book at
http://www.afn.org/~dks/race/wald-ignatiev.html
This review appeared in The Boston Globe, November 7, 1995
"The Irish, the Blacks and the Struggle with Racism,"
by Elijah Wald, Globe Correspondent
© 1995 The Boston Globe
[I have posted this review as a separate item to the Irish-Diaspora
list.]

3.
The Maoist International Movement patronisingly approves of the book at
http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/mn/mn107.html
Maoist International Movement

4.
There is a personal response to the book at
http://www.commonb.com/issue3/words/irish/index.html
a review written by Regina Raiford

5.
It is one of the books mentioned in Denis Dumortier's essay plus links
page at
http://uhbhic.uhb.fr/langues/cei/dumornet.htm
LES IRLANDO-AMERICAINS SUR INTERNET : ENTRE IRLANDITE ET AMERICANITE
Denis DUMORTIER (Université Paris 13 - CRIDAF)
[Denis Dumortier's page will not usually be found by English-language
search engines.]

Generally my impression is that Ignatiev has been absorbed into the
discussion of 'whiteness' in the United States - usually coupled with
David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness, 1991. See for example Henry A
Giroux, 'Rewriting the discourse of racial identity: Towards a pedagogy
and politics of whiteness', Harvard Educational Review, Summer 1997
ISSN: 0017-8055; Vol. 67 No. 2; p. 285

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/diaspora

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

Subject: Ir-D ACIS at the AHA
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-ID:

Forwarded on behalf of Gary Owens

------- Forwarded message follows -------
This is a reminder to those who will be at the AHA conference in Washington
about the reception at the Irish embassy which will take place on Friday, 8
January. Please rsvp Michael Moloney at the embassy if you plan to attend
so that he can have an idea of how many to prepare for. His e-mail address
is: Embirlus[at]aol.com.

Hope to see you there!
Gary Owens
History Rep
ACIS

Subject: Ir-D New Year
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-ID:

The January 1, 1999 issue of the Washington Post should settle once and for
all any doubts that our Majordomo is ahead, way ahead, of his time. In the
newspaper's Annual List of What's Out and In for 1999, the entry before 'VW
Bugs' caught my eye: 'Diasporan Studies'. Under IN, of course. None of the
other entries have an obvious Irish link. Well, maybe the IN phrase 'at the
end of the day...", which is now set to become an American cliche. Apart
from the mixed company, is this Diasporan business good news, Paddy? While
awaiting your insights, belated First Birthday Greetings to the List and
Happy New Year to our Moderator.

Brian McGinn
Alexandria, Virginia
bmcginn[at]clark.net

Dear Patrick-

Happy New Year! And thank you for the Boston Globe Review of Mr. Ignatiev's
book.

Peter Quinn's review "How the Irish Stayed Irish" can be found in America,
3/16/96, vol 174, issue 9, p 14.

I did two articles: "The Real Black Irish" in The Irish Herald (San
Francisco), 3/98, and an Op-Ed piece, "Churches of Fire" ,in the San Francisco
Chronicle, 7/29/98 that approach the issue from a different (& less
teleological) slant.

I am currently at work on a documentary (working title "The Lost Chord")
that will deal with some of the subjects addressed in Ignatiev's book. I would
be interested in corresponding with anyone on the Ir-D list that has an
interest in these matters.

Thanks Again,

Daniel Cassidy
Director
Irish Studies program
An Leann Eireannach
New College of California
San Francisco
dancas1[at]aol.com

Subject: Ir-D Happy New Year
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-ID:

Dear Paddy,

I just wanted to wish you a Happy New Year and to thank-you for all your
hard work in providing a forum for all us scholars of Ireland and all
things Irish. It really means something to me to feel a part of a larger
community, stuck out here as I am in Arizona so far from home.

Thanks again,

Adrian
______________________________________________
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Adrian N. Mulligan
Department of Geography & Regional Development
Harvill Building Box #2
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
adrianm[at]u.arizona.edu
______________________________________________
///////////////////////////////////////////////
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
///////////////////////////////////////////////

Subject: Ir-D 2001 UK Census
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-ID:

British-based Irish-Diaspora list members may have seen the piece in
yesterday's Guardian (Society section) about the proposed changes
to the 2001 Census. A white paper due out later this month will include
the suggestion that the next census incorporates a category for 'Irish'
alongside the existing 6 ethnic origin groupings.

This change would clearly have far-reaching implications for the
study of the Irish diaspora. The Guardian piece suggests that it
will give a truer picture of the size of the Irish population in
Britain, currently only detectable by the number who record Ireland
as their place of birth.

It seems to me, however, that the opportunity to define oneself as
ethnically Irish will open up a whole new set of problems for those
using census data for the study of the Irish population. How and why
will people choose to record their ethnicity as Irish? I suppose the
introduction of this new category alongside the existing ones,
might encourage greater analytical comparisons between the Irish and
other ethnic groups, but for historians of the Irish in Britain who
have long been busy trying to find ways of estimating the size of the
second generation Irish population, will the new arrangements
proposed for 2001 help or hinder?

Any thoughts?

Louise Miskell
post-doctoral research assistant
University of Dundee.