From Patrick O'Sullivan

From our friends in Polonia...


1. Erdmans reviewed...

The review begins with a meditation on the phrase 'manifest destiny' - the Sullivans have
a lot to answer for...

Reviewed for H-Urban by Thomas J. Jablonsky
Mary Patrice Erdmans. _Opposite Poles: Immigrants and Ethnics in
Polish Chicago, 1976-1990_. University Park: The Pennsylvania
State University Press, 1998. x + 267 pp. Tables, notes,
bibliography, and index. $50.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-271-01735-X;
$19.95 (paper), ISBN 0-271-01736-8.
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=26438959366532

2.
CALL for PAPERS

Through WWII, masses of Poles were forcefully deported to exile in
Soviet labour camps. Some fled or were permitted to leave during
the brief "amnesty" period 1941-42. Some repatriated to Poland
after the war. Others, for various reasons, remained in the Soviet
Union, or trickled out in later years. Since WWII, masses of Poles
were scattered around the world, resettled from Argentina to
Australia, in many instances called to labour for their freedom.
Many encountered established Polish communities. Others
created new Polonia communities.

But what has happened with these Poles? How have they
contributed to their work, family, and community life, both as
Polonia and as new citizens in new homelands? And what of the
experiences of the repatriated Poles and those remaining in the
former Soviet Union?

I am editing a book on Polish deportees to exile in Siberian labour
camps [Sybiraki] and am seeking papers on the topic of global
Polonia in the above context. Welcome approaches include
sociological, historiographical, some poetry/prose and visual art.
Papers should be chapter length [2,500 - 5,000 words] and might
consider the following either as "stand-alone" or in comparative
discussion. Other proposals are also welcome:

- repatriated Poles
- Poles in diaspora
- Poles in the former Soviet Union [kresy]
- consideration of other similar deportations; of Poles and/or other
ethnic groups
- orphans
- consideration of efforts of international aid agencies
- immigration patterns and policies of receiving nations and/or of
other migrations
- organizational dynamics of Polonia
- comparative consideration of [Sybiraki] Poles with other groups -
comparative consideration between two or more receiving
countries
- labour/class/gender consideration - socio-economic analysis -
women's experience
- Polishness in relation to new or emerging national
identities
- subsequent generations; consideration of ethnicity,
identification with Polonia
- intergenerational relations

Send proposal to Email address:

hmacdonald[at]trentu.ca

or

hel.mac[at]sympatico.ca

or call 905-983-9667. Deadline for paper copy: 01 December
2000.

Helen Bajorek MacDonald
Frost Centre, Trent University
Peterborough, ON K9J 7B8
CANADA

- --
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 284 1580
Fax International +44 870 284 1580

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

From: MacEinri
Subject: Re: Ir-D Bullan


Ray Ryan has emailed a colleague here to say the the latest issue (which is
indeed published by U. of Notre Dame Press) is already out and 'on the
newstands'. Not sure if this applies to this side of the Atlantic as well...

Piaras Mac Einri

Piaras Mac Einri, Stiurthoir/Director
Ionad na hImirce/Irish Centre for Migration Studies
Ollscoil Naisiunta na hEireann, Corcaigh/National University of Ireland,
Cork
Faics/Fax 353 21 903326 Guthan/Phone 353 21 902889
Idirlion/Web http://migration.ucc.ie Post Leictreonach/Email
migration[at]ucc.ie

From: Kerby Miller
Subject: Re: Ir-D Bullan

I've been wondering, too, but today I received an issue dated "Winter
1999/Spring 2000" (Vol. IV, No. 2).
Kerby.


>From Patrick O'Sullivan
>
>
>I have been asked if I know anything about the present state of the Irish
>Studies journal,
>Bullan, or the whereabouts of its General Editor Ray Ryan. I have not
>seen an issue of
>Bullan since the 1998 edition - and I really had to chase that one up.
>Evidently there
>was some administrative confusion when the journal moved its base from
>Oxford, England, to
>Notre Dame, Indiana.
>
>There is a bit of gossip in the usual place...
>Bull·n: Irish Studies Journal
>An Irish-American Bull·n. Has Bull·n died the death? On 17 March 1997 we
>received a letter
>from the editors of...
>http://www.ulst.ac.uk/faculty/humanities/lang+lit/iasil/newslett/archive/vol_4-
>01/03_bulla
>.htm
>
>And Bullan's new Web site with its new publisher seems to be maintained...
>Univerity of Notre Dame Press Bull·n
>Bull·n. Bull·n is a twice-yearly, inter-disciplina... journal of Irish
>Studies. It makes
>available new work from established...
>http://www.undpress.nd.edu/undpbullan.htm
>
>[As usual, note that your own line breaks might fracture these long Web
>addresses.]
>
>But no news of anything in the pipeline. Does any one know more?
>
>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 284 1580
>Fax International +44 870 284 1580
>
>Irish Diaspora Research Unit
>Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
>University of Bradford
>Bradford BD7 1DP
>Yorkshire
>England

From: Patrick Maume
Subject: Re: Ir-D Bullan

From: Patrick Maume
It certainly hasn't arrived here yet - keeping an eye out for it.
Yours sincerely,
Patrick


On Tue 6 Jun 2000 13:49:00 +0000 irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk wrote:

> From:irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk> Date: Tue 6 Jun 2000 13:49:00
+0000
> Subject: Ir-D Bullan
> To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
>
>
> From: MacEinri
> Subject: Re: Ir-D Bullan
>
>
> Ray Ryan has emailed a colleague here to say the the latest issue
(which is
> indeed published by U. of Notre Dame Press) is already out and 'on
the
> newstands'. Not sure if this applies to this side of the Atlantic as
well...
>
> Piaras Mac Einri
>
> Piaras Mac Einri, Stiurthoir/Director
> Ionad na hImirce/Irish Centre for Migration Studies
> Ollscoil Naisiunta na hEireann, Corcaigh/National University of
Ireland,
> Cork
> Faics/Fax 353 21 903326 Guthan/Phone 353 21 902889
> Idirlion/Web http://migration.ucc.ie Post Leictreonach/Email
> migration[at]ucc.ie
>

From: "Peter Holloran"
Subject: Re: Irish in Canada

For a New England Historical Association (NEHA) conference panel on October
21 near Boston, we are seeking a few more papers on the history of the Irish
in Canada (any era). Inquiries welcome by July 1.

Peter Holloran
NEHA Secretary
Worcester State College
Department of History
Worcester, MA 01602

From: MacEinri
Subject: Re: Ir-D The Irish Diaspora - new book

Dear Colleagues

I have to say, to my own considerable embarrassment, that the list of
contributors sent with the last announcement was incorrect. The correct list
is as follows:

Akenson, Donald H
Bielenberg, Andy
Campbell, Malcolm
Connolly, Tracey
Courtney, Damien
Davis, Graham
Delaney, Enda
Gray, Breda
Halpin, Brendan
Harris, Ruth-Ann
Holmes, Michael
Mac Einri, Piaras
Mac Laughlin, Jim
McCarthy, Angela
McCracken, Donal P
McCready, Richard
McKenna, Patrick
Miller, Kerby

Sincere apologies to my colleagues here, Breda Gray and Jim Mac Laughlin,
and to Donal McCracken in South Africa. All the more reason, though, to
order the book!

Piaras Mac Einri, Stiurthoir/Director
Ionad na hImirce/Irish Centre for Migration Studies
Ollscoil Naisiunta na hEireann, Corcaigh/National University of Ireland,
Cork
Faics/Fax 353 21 903326 Guthan/Phone 353 21 902889
Idirlion/Web http://migration.ucc.ie Post Leictreonach/Email
migration[at]ucc.ie

From: Dymphna Lonergan
Subject: Research in Ireland

I'm putting together a funding application to do some
research in Ireland for my topic The Irish Language in
Australian Literature and sub-Literature. I would
appreciate advice from members who have researched in
Ireland on where to start. I have some specific
queries:

Where can I see copies of The Nation and The Freeman's
Journal?

Where can I see Irish convict records (ie the
information from which the official transportation
records were made)

Is a visit to the Ulster Folk Museum a worthwhile one
for my study?

Which are the most important collections?

Any information or contacts would be appreciated

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

From: MacEinri
Subject: The Irish Diaspora - new book

Dear colleagues

On the principle that if you don't blow your own trumpet no-one else is
likely to do it for you, I'd like to mention the recent publication (by
Longman/Pearson) of _The Irish Diaspora_, edited by Andy Bielenberg. This
book is based very largely on our _Scattering_ conference in 1997 and brings
together a series of articles which provide an overview of the Irish
Diaspora from a global perspective. It combines a series of survey articles
on the major destinations of the Diaspora; the USA, Britian and the British
Empire. On each of these, there is a number of more specialist articles by
historians, demographers, economists, sociologists and geographers. The
inter-disciplinary approach of the book, with a strong historical and modern
focus, provides the first comprehensive survey of the topic.

Contributors:

Akenson, Donald H
Bielenberg, Andy
Campbell, Malcolm
Connolly, Tracey
Courtney, Damien
David, Graham
Delaney, Enda
Doyle, David N
Halpin, Brendan
Harris, Ruth-Ann
Holmes, Michael
Mac Einri, Piaras
McCarthy, Angela
McCreedy, Richard
McKenna, Patrick
Miller, Kerby

Further details can be found at http://migration.ucc.ie/book.htm and you can
also visit the publisher's website at
http://www.pearsoneduc.com/titles/0582369975.html

The book was launched here in Cork on 12 May by Fintan O'Toole, Irish Times
columnist and writer. If you have RealAudio on your pc you can listen to
contributions by Fintan, Professor Willie Smyth, Professor Dermot Keogh,
Andy Bielenberg and myself at http://migration.ucc.ie/booklaunch.htm

The book is a solid (pp376) contribution to Irish migration scholarship. We
hope you will all buy a copy and tell your colleagues as well!

Piaras Mac Einri

Piaras Mac Einri, Stiurthoir/Director
Ionad na hImirce/Irish Centre for Migration Studies
Ollscoil Naisiunta na hEireann, Corcaigh/National University of Ireland,
Cork
Faics/Fax 353 21 903326 Guthan/Phone 353 21 902889
Idirlion/Web http://migration.ucc.ie Post Leictreonach/Email
migration[at]ucc.ie

From Patrick O'Sullivan

News of a publication date, later this year, for Judy Scally's study of Irish pub/bar
entrepreneurs...

The Irish Diaspora and a Cross-Cultural Stereotype
A study of ethnic-entrepreneurship and power

Judy Scully
University of Warwick
UK

Research in Migration and Ethnic Relations Series

This study of Irish bar entrepreneurs is a valuable contribution to ethnic
entrepreneurship literature, promoting a wider understanding of how people at the cutting
edge of stereotype deal with the perceptions that others hold of them. Class, race and
gender divisions are all examined in relation to the Irish diaspora experience.

October 2000 c 177 pages Hardback 1 85972 585 6
c £3250

Published by Ashgate.
There is a Web site, which gives a discount
http://www.ashgate.com

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 284 1580
Fax International +44 870 284 1580

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

From Patrick O'Sullivan


Also of interest...

Two books edited by Anne Kershen...

1.
Language, Labour and Migration
Edited by Anne J. Kershen
Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, UK

Studies in Migration
'This pioneering collection shows how mother tongues can sometimes act as a bridge to
acceptance and mobility, but often end as a cul de sac where only the sounds of silence,
isolation and reluctant conformity are heard.'-Robin Cohen, Professor of Sociology,
University of Warwick

A multi-disciplinary exploration of the problems of 'language and labour' in an alien
society. The role of language in migrants' assimilation, racialization and employment
opportunities, together with broader aspects of employment and welfare, are explored.

Contents: Introduction. Language: Mother tongue as a bridge to assimilation?: Yiddish and
Sylheti in East London; 'Do not give flowers to a man': refugees, language and power in
twentieth century Britain; 'Shamrocks growing out of their mouths': language and the
racialization of the Irish in Britain; Health advocacy in medicine; Becoming a diaspora:
the Welsh experience from Beulah Land to Cyber-Cymru. Labour: 'I asked how the vessel
could go': the contradictory experiences of African and African diaspora mariners and port
workers in Britain, c. 1750-1850; Patterns of resistance: Indian seamen in imperial
Britain; From Shangdong to the Sommne: Chinese indentured labour in France during World
War I; It's not working: refugee employment and urban regeneration; Are the UK's ethnic
minorities at a disadvantage when they get older?

Index. June 2000 268 pages
Hardback 0 7546 1171 X
£42.50

2.
London: The Promised Land?
The migrant experience in a capital city
Anne J. Kershen, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, UK Studies in
Migration
"... offers a fascinating set of insights into aspects of immigrant London.... -Urban
Studies
1997
Hardback 178 pages 1 85972 630 5
£39.00

Both published by Ashgate.
There is a Web site, which gives a discount
http://www.ashgate.com

I have posted, as a separate email, the Urban Studies review of Kershen, ed., London: The
Promised Land?

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 284 1580
Fax International +44 870 284 1580

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

Title: London: The Promised Land? The Migrant Experience in a Capital City.(Review)
(Review) (book reviews)

Summary: ANNE J. KERSHEN (Ed.), 1997 Aldershot: Ashgate 197 pp; [pounds]35.00 hardback
ISBN 1 85972 630 5. London has been host to many immigrants over its history.

Source: Urban Studies
Date: 12/1998
Citation Information: (35 12) Start Page: 2369(3) ISSN: 0042-0980
Author(s): Boal, Frederick W.
Document Type: Article; Reviews

London: The Promised Land? The Migrant Experience in a Capital City.(Review)
(Review) (book reviews)

ANNE J. KERSHEN (Ed.), 1997 Aldershot: Ashgate 197 pp; [pounds]35.00 hardback ISBN 1 85972
630 5

London has been host to many immigrants over its history. London: The Promised Land?
explores aspects of the experience of five groups - Jews, Afro-Caribbeans, Bangladeshis,
Huguenots and Irish. Most of the discussion focuses on the first three. In her
introduction, Anne Kershen raises a number of questions that are intended to provide a
framework for the subsequent contributions. Most central here is the issue regarding where
the 'promised land' actually is (or was) for members of the immigrant groups - is it to be
found in the various immigrant destinations or in the immigrant homelands of origin? More
narrowly, is it to be found in central London or in the suburbs? Moreover, no matter where
the promised land is seen to be, has this perception been borne out by reality?

Colin Holmes opens the discussion with a review of immigration into London. He reports
that no attempt has yet been made to pull together the various existing strands and the
many loose ends of the history of immigration into London. Eighty-four footnotes over ten
pages certainly provide a substantial listing of 'existing strands'. He concentrates his
attention on immigration from the late 19th century onwards, addressing issues such as
"Why London?", the degree of tolerance (or intolerance) experienced by the incomers and
the contribution that the various immigrant streams have made to London life - economic,
intellectual, religious and political. Overall, he provides a broad-brush description of
20th-century immigration. Additionally welcome, however, would have been some consistent
attempt to quantify the flows. Perhaps such data are only to be found in the 'loose ends'
of the London immigrant story?

William Fishman discusses the Irish and the Jews in the East End - "Allies in the Promised
Land". Fishman is more than a scholar researching a subject - he and his forebears have
lived through the East End immigrant experience itself. While touching on Irish-Jewish
alliances against Nazism, he is at his most insightful when discussing the Jewish
experience - for instance when he refers to the ghetto "as much self-created as externally
imposed" (p. 43). He also provides some nice links to subsequent immigrant groups in the
area, seeing parallels between the function of the synagogue for Jews in the late
19th-century East End and the West Indian exiles in their "homespun Revivalist chapels".
The dynamics of urban ethnicity are also pinpointed by the fact that the children of the
immigrant Irish and Jews have now fled the East End, leaving behind "a few surviving
ancients, worn-out Jewish tailors and superannuated Irish dockers [who] wander aimlessly
through the new 'alien' streets that have been transmogrified into colourful Bangladeshi
enclaves" (p. 48).

Whilst many immigrant groups have areas of first settlement, some of them (or their
descendants) may move away to other locations within their 'adopted' city. Thus Andrew
Godley traces the movement of East European Jews over the period 1880-1914. He claims that
regional mobility can be seen as a barometer of relations between different social groups
as well as an indicator of improved financial well-being. He sees the outward migration of
the Jews as a sign of their move from the periphery to the centre of the labour market.
Thus, by the beginning of World War I over one-quarter of London's East European Jews were
living in areas of secondary settlement. In the final chapter of London: The Promised
Land?, Stanley Waterman follows this movement up to the present, noting 'the return of the
Jews into London' - that is, a movement of some Jewish households back to central London,
but not to the original settlement areas. This tendency towards an increasing Jewish
population in central London is reinforced by Jewish migrants from elsewhere in the UK and
Ireland and by a significant inflow of immigrants from Israel. Noting this, Anne Kershen,
in her introduction, observes that for these Israelis the promised land has made the most
radical move of all!

The role of religion becomes a central theme in Kershen's own examination of the
Huguenots, Jews and Bangladeshis in Spitalfields. To what extent can motivations driven by
religious belief explain economic success? Her answer leaves the matter in an ambiguous
state. Some Jews and some Huguenots were highly successful as managers or as owners of
specialist clothing enterprises. For the majority of both groups, however, poor working
conditions and high levels of poverty were their lot. As she puts it "many glimpsed the
future, few partook of the fruits" (p. 75). With the Bangladeshis, the jury is still out.
Indeed, it is not clear where the promised land actually is - London, or one of the
'Londoni' villages in Sylhet which, for many, was the ultimate locational aspiration.
However, the myth of return is weakening; educational levels are improving; and ethnic
entrepreneurship is expanding - signs, pcrhaps, of a greater propensity (at least among
the second generation) to stay in London.

John Ede continues this theme in "Keeping the Options Open: Bangladeshis in a Global
City". The early immigrants did not see Britain as the promised land in the sense of
permanent settlement. Rather, the ancestral villages were the promised land. The
Bangladeshi immigrant settlement in Tower Hamlets was characterised by high levels of
segregation, together with a vigorous 'British Bengali' economic, political and cultural
life. As time passed, attachment increased not only to Tower Hamlets, but more generally
to London and even to the British countryside. Ede concludes by claiming that - in the
global age - the issue of a promised land for any individual becomes extremely
complicated: Britain, Bangladesh or a location in the Middle East where Sharia Islamic law
is paramount?

Another major segment of immigrant London gains the attention of Philip Nanton in his
chapter on "The Caribbean Diaspora in the Promised Land". He wishes to challenge the
legitimacy of applying the term diaspora to the Caribbean population and also to challenge
the notion of London as the promised land. His challenge is not helped by a rather
confused discussion of the meaning of diaspora. However, as his analysis proceeds, he
develops a very interesting dichotomisation of the Afro-Caribbean population - on the one
hand, the elderly first generation, many of whom having become returnees to the West
Indies; and, on the other hand, the later generations characterised by a reduction in the
amounts they send back 'home' as remittances and by increasing numbers of permanent unions
with white women. Disturbingly, however, Nanton observes an increasing dependency of many
of London's Afro-Caribbeans on aspects of the British state - functioning predominantly as
a public sector workforce, disproportionate occupation of publicsector housing, high
welfare dependency due to unemployment, and criminalisation. In addition, there has been
the emergence of many community groups, admirable in its own right but nonetheless heavily
dependent on government financial support. In all this Nanton notes a change in the nature
of the population, from individual islandfocused communities to a metropolitan-focused
racialised minority group. So where and what is the promised land?

Finally, the volume provides us with a further examination of the Bangladeshi community,
this time in Bethnal Green. Mike Fenton notes that Bethhal Green has an image of being
populated by groups with poor levels of economic activity. He considers this view to be
basically incorrcct - rather the area is a starting-place for much economic advancement.
Undoubtedly there is considerable segregation, though the factors that originally caused
this (lack of purchasing power, public housing procedures, fear of racial violence) arc
less significant now. However there is less out-movement of Bangladeshis from Bethnal
Green than might have been expected. Indeed, only one-tenth of Bangladeshis reported a
desire to move out. Housing conditions are improving, educational levels are rising and
significant levels of business services are developing. At the same time, Fenton does
express concern at the high levels of ethnic segregation in schools, with a polarisation
of enrolment between overwhelmingly Bangladeshi schools on the one hand and overwhelmingly
'white' schools on the other, thereby threatening a fragmentation of local communities.
The future is not clear, but at least assumptions regarding the association of upward
economic mobility with residential suburbanward relocation need to be closely questioned.

London: The Promised Land? provides a rich collection of insights into the dynamics and
driving forces of immigrant settlement. One could query the order of presentation of the
chapter subject matter - an order basically from past to present, rather than a discussion
sequentially focused on each of the immigrant groups. In addition, some attempt to gather
together a comprehensive array of statistics on immigrant London-whether as a separate
chapter or as an appendix - would have been most welcome. Also to have been welcomed would
have been a concluding chapter that strives to draw together the various strands present
in the individual presentations. But, overall, London: The Promised Land? offers a
fascinating set of insights into aspects of immigrant London, while also presenting a
challenge for further work to be undertaken, both on the immigrant groups discussed here
and on those many others not included in this collection.

FREDERICK W. BOAL Department of Geography The Queen's University of Belfast

COPYRIGHT 1998 Urban Studies (UK)

COPYRIGHT 1999 Gale Group

From: Kevin Kenny

I mentioned some time back that my new book on the American
Irish was due out presently. I'm glad to announce that the
book has now been published:

The American Irish: A History
xix + 328pp, 2 maps, 16 illustrations, full bibliography
London and New York: Longman, 2000. ISBN: 0 582-27817- PPR

The book covers the full period since 1700 and is part of
the Longman series "Studies in Modern History" aimed at
students and general readers as well as specialists.

----------------------
Kevin Kenny
Associate Professor of History
Department of History, Boston College
140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Phone(617)552-1196; Fax(617)552-3714; kennyka[at]bc.edu
www2.bc.edu/~kennyka/

From Patrick O'Sullivan

H-Net have displayed two book reviews by Alan O'Day which will one of interest -
information pasted in below...

I will also forward the full text of the reviews to the Ir-D list - for those with limited
Web access, and because we have found that people like us to do that. Plus the text of
another review by Alan O'Day which he has kindly made available to us.

P.O'S.


Reviewed for H-Albion by Alan O'Day
Andy Bielenberg, ed. _The Irish Diaspora_. London and New York:
Longman, 2000. vii + 368 pp. Notes and index. $69.95 (cloth),
ISBN 0-582-36998-3; $18.00 (paper), ISBN 0-582-36997-5.
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=22870960574585


Reviewed for H-Albion by Alan O'Day
Alvin Jackson. _Ireland 1798-1988_. Oxford, UK and Malden, Mass.:
Blackwell, 1999. xii + 407 pp. Plates, maps, notes, bibliography,
chronology and index. $62.95 (cloth), ISBN 01-631-19541-6;
$26.95 (paper), ISBN 0-631-19542-4.
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=28423960303398




- --
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 284 1580
Fax International +44 870 284 1580

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

From Patrick O'Sullivan

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

Alvin Jackson. _Ireland 1798-1988_. Oxford, UK and Malden, Mass.:=20
Blackwell, 1999. xii + 407 pp. Plates, maps, notes, bibliography,
chronology and index. $62.95 (cloth), ISBN 01-631-19541-6; $26.95
(paper), ISBN 0-631-19542-4.

Reviewed for H-Albion by Alan O"Day , School of
Arts and Humanities, University of North London

Surveying Ireland

Still a young scholar, Alvin Jackson already has written impressive
studies of the Ulster Party, Colonel Edward Saunderson and Edward
Carson along with a bevy of academic articles. His work is
impressive and this new survey is an important addition to the
bookshelf. He has written a fine narrative that nicely outlines and
interprets the course of Irish history from the rising of 1798 to
the as yet unfinished peace process in Northern Ireland in 1998, a
two century period which he believes is a "discreet phase within
Irish political history...". A linking facet, he suggests, is the
consolidation of the Catholic propertied interest by the 1790s and
at the close of the twentieth century the increase in Northern
Ireland of Catholic self-confidence. He assures us that we are now
witnessing the modification of militant republicanism and militant
loyalism. The book contains a useful chronology of events, maps,
bibliography and a number of illustrations. Jackson, who teaches at
The Queen's University of Belfast, is a northerner by background
though one with experience living in Britain, the Republic of
Ireland and America and he brings this varied experience into play
in the text which gives appropriate space to the Ulster dimension of
Ireland's history. The most comparative study of K.T. Hoppen's
stimulating, *Ireland since 1800*, which, however, is less accessible
to the ordinary reader because of its topical organisation. Students
and general readers will find Jackson's book the best single volume
on the period.

The author treats the major events and themes of Ireland's history
in chronological sequence, examining the birth of modern Irish
politics, the problem of knitting together the diverse traditions,
peoples and laws of a "united kingdom", the emancipation of
Catholics, Daniel O"Connell's influence, the impact of the land
question, the rise of nationalism and unionism, the settlements of
1920=9621, the growing separation between north and south afterwards
and then the tendency towards convergence in recent times. He
concludes on an optimistic note --the end of Irish history?, which
sees the decline of sectarian feeling throughout the island; this
may prove a shade premature. Yet, a notable characteristic of the
account is a balance between events and the personalities who shaped
Ireland's destiny. Five elements are less well developed. This is
essentially a political narrative, though Jackson provides a rounded
account of land tenure and the famine, and the economy is discussed
less extensively than perhaps is merited. Cultural development, too,
is neglected, except for the years of the Gaelic revival. The book
is does not unveil the interaction between the homeland and the
diaspora to a great extent and the role of southern Protestants
receives comparative little attention. There is not a challenging
comparative dimension with national movements elsewhere in Europe
and here some reference to the writings of Miroslav Hroch and Ernest
Gellner among other would have contributed a useful ingredient.
Finally, Jackson's consideration of nationalism and unionism could
have been placed in the context of the theoretical literature. But
such comments do not detract from the overall quality of the book.

He traces what made Ireland tick, dissecting both the nationalist
and unionist versions of the past, also investigating critically the
various historiographic traditions. Readers may puzzle over the
reference to Michael Flatley, an American, symbolising the
re-greening or counter-revisionism of Irish history. What he
attempts to achieve, and largely succeeds in achieving, is
"plausibility". Jackson usefully points to the significance of
evangelicalism in the early nineteenth century for fostering a
cohesive Protestant identity. His chapters on the land question 1845
to 1891 and the end of the Union 1891 to 1921 are more than a
synthesis, being an original interpretation in their own right.
However, this reviewer dissents with Jackson on several
points--perhaps he over-states the sense of guilt suffered by
survivors of the great famine, the Independent Irish Party of the
1850s is dismissed too readily, the references to the Irish Church
Act (1869) fail to illuminate the issue at stake and the wider
importance of this legislation, home rule was something other than
"basically Repeal", it is retrospective reasoning to maintain that
only the Tories could deliver home rule in 1886 [H.C.G. Matthew
commented on the fluidity of the situation], nor is it obvious that
"Parnellism" was an artificial alliance any more than other
political associations such as the parallel British Liberal and
Conservatives parties or the Ulster Unionist Party so well-sketched
earlier by Jackson himself. Within certain limits the Irish party
was a flexible and innovative organisation, responsive to its
constituency. Its defect lay, if that is the right word, in the
political sociology of its base of support which did not admit to
easy accommodation of Protestants and Unionists within the "nation".
The author's comments on the Republic of Ireland's failure to gain
admission to the European Economic Community in 1962 seem odd, not
least because the proposed entries of the United Kingdom and the
Republic were linked for practical purposes just as in 1971. But,
these reservations seem modest in a tome of such length and
sophistication. Jackson's observation on Parnell, "his legacy speaks
both to the Irish upper middle classes who carry an icon of the
Uncrowned King on their notes and to ideologues of Provisional
Sinn Fein who have found a home in Dublin's Parnell Square" is worth
the price of the book!

The chapters on Northern Ireland up to 1972 and the two Irelands
1973 to 1998 are well-constructed, readable (a feature of the books
as a whole) and can be recommended a short treatment of events. The
comparison between Gerry Adams and Michael Collins may not be
greeted with universal enthusiasm but is "plausible" and even
illuminating though his treatment of David Trimble may be seen by
some as jaundiced, even as departing from the measured balance found
in the book generally. But then distancing oneself from contemporary
politicians and incidents is never simple.

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 Patrick O'Sullivan

Andy Bielenberg, ed. The Irish Diaspora. London and New York: Longman, 2000. vii + 368 pp.
Notes and index. $69.95 (cloth), ISBN 0-582-36998-3; $18.00 (paper), ISBN 0-582-36997-5.
Reviewed by Alan O'Day, School of Arts and Humanities, University of North London.
Published by H-Albion (June, 2000)

The Irish WorldWide
As Piaras Mac Einri's introduction's to this interesting set of essays observes, studies
of the diaspora, a word exemplifying a new willingness to embrace a more inclusive and
less territorially bounded notion of Irishness, are very much in vogue. Within the past
year, two collaborate volumes on the Irish in Britain alone have appeared. His efficient
prelude succinctly summarises the contributions and he also notes new emphasis on
life-history approaches, discourse analysis and feminist perspectives along with the trend
to place Irish migration in comparative context. In fact, women do not occupy much space
in this collection; politics and culture are similarly neglected. The overarching themes
of the essays are the diversity and complexity of Irish migration which is very much the
conclusion of most recent work in the area. This volume results from a conference on the
Irish diaspora held in Dublin in 1977, and follows current trends of comparative case
studies to illuminate the migration experience.

The essays are grouped into four areas: the Irish in Great Britain; in the Americas; in
the empire; and general Irish studies, though one wonders whether a thematic organisation
might have been more suitable. There are some fresh topics -- comparison of the experience
in Minnesota and New South Wales (Malcolm Campbell) and the Irish in Argentina (Patrick
McKenna) -- along those rehearsed previously, such as an overview of the Irish in Britain,
1815-1939 (Graham Davis), migration to North American (Donald Akenson) and the search for
missing friends through the Boston Pilot (Ruth-Ann Harris).

Jim Mac Laughlin's intriguing commentary in the penultimate essay explicitly and
implicitly challenges the underlying assumptions of many of the contributions, notably the
perspective presented by Davis. His view seems to receive the endorsement of the
magnificent cover illustration, a painting by Sean Keating in 1936. Positioning this essay
immediately after the introduction could have made the volume more lively. Mac Laughlin
points to the necessity of examining migration in terms of the intersects between local
and global forces operating in specific regional and socio-historical contexts. He
suggests the importance of links between a geography of closure, by which he means the
absence of economic opportunity, and a politics of exclusion with the bourgeois classes
promoting emigration as a means of ridding the country of its poor. He posits this as an
alternative to the currently dominant hypothesis -- which portrays emigration as driven
primarily by economic opportunism -- as a natural phenomena, and indeed as indicative of
the enterprising character of Ireland's young. Looking at the 1980s emigrants, Mac
Laughlin concludes that though it contained greater numbers of the 'new' that is educated
young Irish, it was still heavily weighted with the rural, poorly qualified migrant.

The teenage generation of the 1980s, he observes, carried the double-psychological burden
of schools examinations and the presumed necessity of emigration. His pessimistic
interpretation contrasts with the optimistic accounts of Tracey Connolly, who considers
migration during the Second World War; Damien Courtney's quantification of migration in
the 1980s and 90s; and Enda Delaney's assessment of movement to Britain, 1945-1981. Mac
Laughlin returns us to emigrants as victims, but this time the oppressor is less the
British State and Protestant Ascendancy and more the Catholic middle-classes, using it as
a mechanism to secure their own interests. Mac Laughlin's contentions are controversial
but he achieves what is absent in many of the fine contributions, a theoretical construct
that attempts to explain the emigration process as a whole and overcome the current
paradigm of diversity and complexity.

Mac Laughlin does not examine the migrants' fate in new lands. This experience is treated
in differing time frames by most of the contributors. Essays addressing immigration
include, contributions on Scotland (Richard McCready), London in the 1980s (Breda Gary),
Britain generally (Davis and Brendan Halpin), the Americas (Akenson, Harris, Campbell,
Kerby Miller, and Patrick McKenna), the empire (Bielenberg, Michael Holmes, Donal
McCracken and Angela McCarthy), and lastly general studies (Mac Laughlin, Delaney and
Damien Courtney) conclude the volume. Miller on the American South, Campbell's comparison
of Minnesota and New South Wales, McKenna on Argentina, McCracken on South Africa,
McCarthy for New Zealand draw attention to the importance of local factors in the success
or its absence for many migrants in new environments. Consistent with the majority of
recent research, these and other chapters, point to the Irish migrant as adaptable, in
most places securing fairly swift incorporation, if not necessarily assimilation.

The Irish appear to have adopted strategies aimed at gaining access to the receiving
culture though the pace and success achieved differed over time and between places. In the
American South, Irish Catholics in some numbers become Protestants and reinvent themselves
as Scot-Irish. Miller usefully notes the flexible identity of this migrant stream, a point
that receives less emphasis than it might in the volume. In South Africa and India the
Irish seem to have interacted as part European minority confronted by a non-white
majority. This comes as no surprise to the reviewer who noted more than two decades ago
that the Irish National Party's involvement in imperial questions usually was motivated by
concern for the opportunities for their country persons abroad rather than broad
sympathies for other 'oppressed natives'. In Argentina the Irish got ahead by deploying a
'communal' strategy of co-operation in order to elevate their position. The editor cites
this as presenting an alternative model to individualist migration, though the dichotomy
is perhaps less sharp. Most studies of Irish immigrants stress the communal tendency in
housing, occupation, religion, politics and associational culture among the recently
arrived at least. These also point out that most settlement was not random; migrants went
to places where they family or local connections. Where scholars differ is over the pace
and reasons for incorporation.

This volume reflects the rapid advances in the field and compresses significant work
within its covers. If there are omissions, it is also certain that the individual articles
will be mined for information and insights for the foreseeable future.

Citation: Alan O'Day . "Review of Andy Bielenberg, ed, The Irish Diaspora," H-Albion,
H-Net Reviews, June, 2000. URL:
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=22870960574585.

Copyright © 2000, 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.


- --
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 284 1580
Fax International +44 870 284 1580

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

From Patrick O'Sullivan


Forwarded through the courtesy of Alan O'Day, University of North London...


Dear Paddy,
I've done the following review for History. You are welcome to put it on your internet
if you wish.
Alan O'Day


Irish Migrants in Modern Britain, 17501922. By Donald M. MacRaild. Macmillan, 1999,
x +230. £13.99Pb.

Once largely overlooked in academic circles, except in statistics for crime and social
disorder, the Irish in Great Britain are now a growth industry. Donald MacRaild, a fine
young scholar, already has made a notable contribution with his monograph on the
Irish in Victorian Cambria (1998). Yet, for all of the specialised studies published
during the past two decades, only Graham Davis, The Irish in Britain 18151914
(1991) has attempted to bring the multitudinous strands together. Time has moved
on since then and MacRaild provides a state-of-the-art treatment that neatly weaves
the threads of modern research together and also offers a convincing interpretation
of his own. While recognising that the Irish faced considerable obstacles in their
adopted land he nevertheless sees them adapting, albeit at varying rates of speed,
and the natives adjusting to them also with differing degrees of alacrity. In his words,

one of the most remarkable features of the new communities was a resourcefulness
in forming social, political and social attachments. He traces the process of
migration and settlement through a series of topics: conditions in Ireland conducive
to emigration, the labour market in Great Britain, the culture of Catholicism, the
Protestant Irish (a very welcome inclusion), politics and the responses of the native
population. There is a good bibliographical essay at the end which will be welcomed
by students and tutors.

A key point emerging in the account is the difficulty of constructing an overarching
generalisation. Overall the relationship between newcomers and natives in Great
Britain was more often creative than destructive. Even since publication of this book
some fresh work has appeared (under the guidance of MacRaild himself in part) and
certain of his conclusions are now in need of updating, a reminder of how quickly the
field is progressing. It is hoped that he will revise the text from time to time and
perhaps extend it chronologically to the 1960s. MacRailds outlook is consistent with
much recent scholarship but is sure to draw fire from those ideologues who view the
Irish experience not as successful adaptation but rather as victimisation by a State
and Catholic Church intent upon depriving the newcomers of their ethnicity.
However, for the moment at least, the laurels surely belong to this balanced,
judicious explanation of Irish migration which will be the standard work for years to
come.

Alan ODay, University of North London

From Patrick O'Sullivan

OK, it looks as if this might work...

Hello everyone...

I THINK that the email system which hosts the Irish-Diaspora list is now working again,
after a gap of 5/6 days.

Briefly, to recap...

Our host, the Computer Centre at the University of Bradford, was broken into last week.
Important equipment was stolen, including the email servers and the Web servers. All
email traffic through the University of Bradford ceased - including the Irish-Diaspora
list.

I tried, in various ways, to alert Irish-Diaspora list members to this problem. Some ways
worked, other ways did not. My thanks to everyone who helped to circulate the
information. My apologies if the information did not reach you.

And my apologies if the information reached you twice.

This was a major crisis for the Computer Centre - the staff there are very distressed.
For us, it was a minor pain. We have lost nothing - it is all archived here in my home.

But this crisis did make me look again at the ways in which we run things, and it made me
bring forward some long term plans. Immediately I am going to start making available my
back-up email address...

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

which works independently of the University of Bradford system. This can be a point of
contact when and if we do have problems.

Give me a little while now, to check a few more things, and sort things out. And then we
should have a bigger, better and busier Irish-Diaspora list...

Paddy O'Sullivan

- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Personal Fax National 0870 284 1580
Fax International +44 870 284 1580

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

From: Peter Gray
Subject: CFP: Victoria's Ireland?

Call For Papers:
'Victoria's Ireland? Irishness and Britishness
1837-1901'

University of Southampton (UK), 20-22 April 2001

The Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland's
annual conference for 2001 will take advantage of the
centenary of the Old Queen's death to reassess the place of
Victoria and Victorianism in Irish history and culture.

Proposals for 20 minute papers are requested from scholars
in any field of Irish studies.

Suggested topics include:
Victoria, Albert and Ireland
Irish Victoriana
The Irish Fin de Siecle
Women and power
'British' identities in 19th century Ireland
Integrationism and its opponents
The legacy of the Great Famine
Ireland in the Victorian world order
The Irish in Victorian art and illustration

Please send abstracts (c.200 words max.) by 31 December
2000 to:

Dr Peter Gray
Department of History
University of Southampton
Highfield
Southampton SO17 1BJ
England, UK

Tel. +44 (0)23 8059 2242
Fax. +44 (0)23 8059 3458
Email: p.gray[at]soton.ac.uk

Further details will be posted at:
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~pg2/SSNCI2001.htm


----------------------
Peter Gray
Department of History
University of Southampton
p.gray[at]soton.ac.uk

From: Neil Collins

Request for help:

Together with my colleague Mary O'Shea, I am preparing a brief publication
on corruption in Irish politics.

We are trying to place Ireland's experience in an analytical framework
drawn from the political science literature. Among our aims is to counter
the idea that Ireland only experienced corruption in recent decades.

Many accounts pinpoint the Haughey/Colley leadership struggle as marking a
seachange. We, however, start with the attempts by the Free State to
counter local government corruption in the 1920s, the impact of
protectionist policies etc as counter evidence.

As a development of this "no seachange' approach, we would like to discuss
very briefly Irish experience abroad. Tammany Hall and similar American
boss systems are well known but is there a wider literature on the Irish
diaspora and political corruption? Are there culture based models drawing
on the role of the Irish abroad that might help our understanding of
political corruption?

Thank you

Neil Collins

Professor Neil Collins,
Department of Government,
National University of Ireland, Cork,
Western Road,
Cork, IRELAND

Tel +353-21-902770
Fax +353-21-903135
E-Mail n.collins[at]ucc.ie
E-mail uccgovt[at]yahoo.com

Forwarded on behalf of Basil Walsh
Subject: Re: Catherine Hayes: The Hibernian Prima Donna


Arts/Music Announcement:

The following WEB site has recently been update to reflect the launch date
(Limerick - August 30) of this new definitive biography on the life of
Catherine Hayes, Ireland's greatest operatic singer of the 19th century.
(Limerick, was Catherine Hayes's birthplace).

On September 3, the book launch will culminate with an important celebratory
concert, entitled: "A Tribute to Catherine Hayes" featuring the RTE
Orchestra with an international operatic soloist. This also will take place
in Limerick.

Click-on the following for full details:

www.catherinehayes.com


Basil Walsh
basilwalsh[at]msn.com