From: "Richard Jensen"


Article URL:
http://chicagotribune.com/leisure/books/article/0,2669,SAV-0103310033,FF.htm
l

THE IRISH-AMERICAN PARADOX

By Timothy J. Gilfoyle. Timothy J. Gilfoyle teaches history at Loyola
University.

Irish America: Coming Into Clover: The Evolution of a People and a
Culture

By Maureen Dezell

Doubleday, 259 pages, $24.95



New Perspectives on the Irish Diaspora

Edited by Charles Fanning

Southern Illinois University Press, 329 pages, $19.95 paper



Once upon a time, the Irish were readily stereotyped. Adjectives like
wild, superstitious, indolent and clannish were routinely attached to
the descendants of the Celts on both sides of the Atlantic. "The
Irish," charged British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, "hate our
order, our civilization, our industry." For Disraeli, Irish history
was little more than "an unbroken circle of bigotry and blood."
Sigmund Freud concluded that the Irish were the " 'one race of people
for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever.' " A century ago, the
moniker of "fighting Irish" was a term of opprobrium, not the rallying
cry of a leading Catholic university.

Not anymore. Maureen Dezell's "Irish America," and scholars of the
Irish diaspora in a volume edited by Charles Fanning, describe what
students of the Irish experience in America have argued since the
1960s: The Irish are a paradoxical people, hard to categorize and
filled with contradictions. In the U.S., for example, rural Irish
peasants transformed themselves into city dwellers. Irish-Americans
simultaneously supported the institutions of liberal democracy and an
authoritarian religion. Irish immigrants, nearly wiped out by famine,
gave birth to descendants who emerged as among the most prosperous in
the world. As historian Dennis Clark once wrote, " 'Almost anything
you can say about [Irish-Americans] is both true and false.'
"

These paradoxes are most evident in politics and religion. In the 19th
Century, New York Archbishop Michael Corrigan directed the American
Catholic Church on a provincial, dogmatic path. He was quickly
challenged by a popular parish priest, Rev. Edward McGlynn, who was
briefly excommunicated for his outspokenness. The anti-Semitic attacks
on Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal by "the radio priest" Charles
Coughlin in the 1930s were contested by Rev. John Ryan. U.S. Sen.
Joseph McCarthy's anticommunism in the 1950s was countered by Michael
Harrington and Tom Hayden a decade later. The culturally conservative
pronouncements of clerics ranging from Cardinal Francis Spellman in
the 1930s and 1940s to Cardinal John O'Connor in the 1980s and 1990s
were disputed by Irish-American dissidents ranging from Timothy Leary
to Ken Kesey to Daniel and Phillip Berrigan to Garry Wills.

The 19th Century Irish were identified as little more than illiterate
peasants. Yet by the end of the 20th Century, a significant number of
American writers boasted Irish ancestors: Eugene O'Neill, Flannery
O'Connor, William Faulkner (half Ulster stock), John Steinbeck, F.
Scott Fitzgerald, James T. Farrell, Mary McCarthy, Mary Gordon and
Anna Quindlen, to name a few. Today, 44 million Americans (one-seventh
of the population) claim some Irish ancestry. Ironically, about 55
percent are Protestant, 45 percent Catholic.

Women epitomize this revisionist understanding of Irish-American
culture. A century ago, newspaper editor Patrick Ford, a supporter of
the Ladies' Land League and industrial workers, disapproved of female
activists, and John Boyle O'Reilly, an outspoken defender of the
rights of Indians, blacks and immigrants, simultaneously considered
women's suffrage to be " 'an unjust, unreasonable, unspiritual
abnormality.' "

In fact, Irish America embodied a patriarchal, sexist culture full of
fighting feminists. Margaret Higgins Sanger founded the birth-control
movement in the U.S. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of New York and Margaret
Haley of Chicago organized female workers across the country. Irish
immigrant Mary Harris, better known as Mother Jones, proved so
effective in organizing coal miners that one public prosecutor
described her as "the most dangerous woman in America." Dorothy Day,
co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, is considered by some to
be the most important American Catholic of the 20th Century.

Dezell and the contributors to Fanning's volume dispute the many myths
that characterize Irish America. For these writers, the image of boozy
boorishness and blarney embodied by the celebrations surrounding St.
Patrick's Day erroneously passes for Irish pride. Both works explore
topics and experiences too often ignored and left out of
Irish-American group portraits, affirming what writers like Andrew
Greeley and Lawrence McCaffrey have argued since 1970: The Irish were
better educated, better off and more liberal (supporters of
affirmative action, gay rights, women's rights) than all white ethnic
groups excepting Jews.

Yet old stereotypes die hard. Self-deprecation, Dezell writes, remains
the "sine qua non in the Irish Catholic subculture." Irish America is
filled with images familiar to anyone who grew up in an Irish-American
family: the "sainted mother," the punitive silence of disapproving
relatives, tensions between "lace curtain" and "shanty" Irish, the
young female postponing marriage to care for an aged parent or
relative, drinking as the Irish way of grief, homophobic men
organizing themselves around a bachelor subculture in saloons and
bars. " 'This is a culture,' " observes one pessimistic
Irish-American, " 'where people think the light at the end of the
tunnel is a train.' "

Irish identity remains a source of dispute. Controversies over what it
means to be Irish have a long history. Early in the 20th Century, the
Ancient Order of Hibernians, historically the organizers of St.
Patrick's Day parades, attacked the dramatic realism of Irish
playwrights such as John Millington Synge. When Synge's "Playboy of
the Western World," now considered a classic in Irish drama, opened in
Boston, the coarse dialogue and sordid portrayal of certain Irish
generated boos from the audience and ridicule by conservative Irish
critics. Historian Kirby Miller points out that in 1860, when being
Irish was considered an embarrassment, only 2 percent of Americans
living in the South claimed to be Irish-born. Yet, in 1990,
one-quarter of white Southerners categorized themselves as Irish,
belatedly discovering their many Celtic ancestors who arrived in the
South prior to 1830.

Dezell is troubled that most American Irish know little about their
collective past. She complains that what often passes for Irish
culture is more a bowdlerized product of American commercialization.
Ditties like "That's an Irish Lullaby" and "When Irish Eyes Are
Smiling" are emblematic of Tin Pan Alley, not Ireland. Chicago's
Michael Flatley revitalized an Irish folk art with "Riverdance." But
do the flashier genre, hyperdramatization, faux brogues and Disneyfied
renditions of Irish dance represent cultural rebirth or commercial
sell-out? In the end, Flatley is emblematic of what native Irish
loathe and admire in their trans-Atlantic cousins. Like the Irish,
he's a paradox.

From: "C. McCaffrey"
Organization: Johns Hopkins University


John,
Thank you for your addition to the discussion. What rang bells for me was
the
statement 'the drink question in Ireland' as if there was an accepted
consensus
universally held that there WAS a drink question in Ireland which was unique
only to the Irish. It came across as a stereotypical statement without any
further explanation. I do feel that blanket statements like this are at
best
insensitive and at worst damaging and unfair to the image of the Irish. To
add
to your discussion about TV dramas - PBS recently ran some episodes of the
British soap Eastenders which were shown to me by a friend. The depiction
of the
Irish as drunkards and given to violence was appalling. Obviously this is
still
how the Irish are being portrayed in current popular drama.

Carmel

irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk wrote:

> From: Cymru66[at]aol.com
> Subject: Re: Ir-D Drunkenness and stereotypes
>
> Dear Paddy,
> I probably should not have intruded into this discussion but Carmel's
> query
> rang bells. I appreciate the fact that there is an unacceptable level of
> alcohol abuse among Irish emigrants but they are not unique in this regard
> and I was just concerned with the stereotypical nature of the association.
> This does not mean, of course, that the situation should not be taken
> seriously and addressed in any way which may be appropriate and effective.
> Talking about stereotypes and the way they may be dealt with, our
friends
> and colleagues may be interested in something which appeared in the
Chicago
> Tribune a couple of weeks ago. The author was commenting on the arrival of
a
> new television sitcom called The Fighting Fitzgeralds - nothing
> stereotypical
> about that title, of course. His comment was, in summary, that no tv
channel
> would dare to put on such a parody featuring another ethnic group and
> complimented the Irish on their maturity in not taking to the streets to
> protest or even writing letters to the editor. The implication was that
the
> 'Irish' here are so mature and self confident that they can treat these
> parodies with disdain. They may even enjoy watching them. Unfortunately,
> they
> didn't have much of a chance to do the latter. The programme did not make
it
> through the May 'sweeps' - the major indicator of the numbers of viewing
> audiences for individual programmes - and so was dropped from the
schedules.
> It seems that a majority of viewers are no longer interested in watching
> plastic paddys.
> Best,
> John

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

The following announcement and web site will be of interest to Ir-D
members - if only as a quick outline of current issues within Europe, and
the ways in which these are analysed: 'Pillarisation', or 'the lesser-used
languages', for example...

P.O'S.

From: rohliger
Subject: conference: Comparative Perspectives on Ethnic Minorities

Announcing the conference "Voice or Exit: Comparative Perspectives on
Ethnic Minorities in 20th Century Europe" (Humboldt-Universitaet Berlin,
June 14 to 16, 2001). The program can be accessed on the web via:

The conference papers are available online. However, they are password
protected. Please contact authors individually to get the papers. Email
addresses of paper givers are available freely at the conference website.
http://www.demographie.de/minorities

The conference is supported by the German Marshall Fund, Office Berlin

Contact: ethnic[at]rz.hu-berlin.de
T. 030/2093-1937, -1918
Fax : 030/2093-1432
http://www.demographie.de/minorities

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Our attention has been drawn to the following item...

Forwarded on behalf of
St. Martin's Press

Contact: Carlos Antonio Brown
212/674-5151, ext. 540
carlos.brown[at]stmartins.com


The Definitive Portrait of an American Genius

SEARCHING FOR JOHN FORD

BY JOSEPH McBRIDE

"It's become cliché to say that a biography reflects the spirit of its
subject. But in this case it appears to be true. Joseph McBride's book
has the sweep, passion, complexity, and tragic grandeur of a great John
Ford film. Thoroughly detailed and researched, McBride's book fills in
the gaps and gives us the man in full: sentimental yet cruel, brilliant
yet forever feigning illiteracy, politically liberal at one moment and
conservative the next. Ultimately, McBride shows us that this artist who
balked at the very mention of the word 'art' could speak fully and
honestly only through his films. For those of us who grew up on those
films, the book is a treasure, and an eye-opener. For younger people who
don't know his work, who have yet to appreciate the timeless beauty of
his greatest pictures, SEARCHING FOR JOHN FORD should be compulsory
reading."
- --Martin Scorsese, filmmaker

"This first full-length critical biography presents a complex,
fascinating portrait of a troubled and conflicted artist and man. . . .
McBride elegantly and cogently weaves Ford's personal life into the
fabric of his career. . . . McBride has produced a fine, long-needed
biography of a pivotal American artist."
- --Publishers Weekly (starred review)


After being called "the greatest poet of the Western saga," filmmaker
John Ford responded: "I am not a poet, and I don't know what a Western
saga is. I would say that is horseshit." Yet Ford etched images deep
into the memories of moviegoers throughout the world: James Stewart and
Lee Marvin as archetypal frontier antagonists, John Wayne in his
defining roles as cowboy hero and antihero, Henry Fonda as young Mr.
Lincoln. His classic films, such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The
Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, helped define the notion of the Western as
a quintessentially American story. And Ford -- iconic and iconoclastic --
was
as complex as any of his films. SEARCHING FOR JOHN FORD (St. Martin's
Press, June 20, 2001; $40.00) by Joseph McBride, acclaimed biographer of
Frank Capra and Steven Spielberg, solves what film critic Andrew Sarris
called "the John Ford movie mystery," the riddle of the director's
enigmatic personality.

SEARCHING FOR JOHN FORD has been thirty years in the making. McBride had
a rambunctious interview with Ford in 1970, and began researching this
biography in 1971 while completing his seminal critical study, John Ford
(with Michael Wilmington, published in 1974). SEARCHING FOR JOHN FORD
draws from wide-ranging interviews with more than 120 of the filmmaker's
friends, relatives, collaborators, and colleagues.

McBride reveals Ford as a deeply paradoxical man who went to great
lengths to obfuscate his inner emotions in interviews but presented them
with passion and clarity on the screen. Ford fought for creative control
of his films during the studio era, but dismissed claims that his art
was anything more than work for hire. He often presented himself as an
illiterate hack, and cultivated a gruff façade that concealed his
sensitive personality. While shrewdly guiding the careers of some of
Hollywood's greatest stars -- John Wayne, Henry Fonda, James Stewart,
Maureen O'Hara, and Katharine Hepburn -- Ford was often abusive, even
sadistic, in his treatment of actors.

McBride also explores the complex contradictions of Ford's personal
life. Ford's films celebrate the family, yet he himself was not a good
family man; he had a troubled marriage and almost decided to leave his
wife for Katharine Hepburn. Ford veered from liberalism to conservatism
in his public political stands. The son of Irish immigrants, he was
steeped in the lore of Irish independence and progressive politics, and
vigorously protested America's injustices. Yet by the end of his life,
Ford was a hawkish Republican and rear admiral in the U.S. Navy,
lionized by Richard Nixon for creating films that extol the "old
virtues" of heroism, duty, and patriotism.

SEARCHING FOR JOHN FORD blends penetrating analyses of Ford's films with
an exhaustively documented narrative of the historical and psychological
contexts in which those films were made. McBride connects the intricate
threads of Ford's profound artistry, his combative Hollywood and
military careers, his tormented personal life, his pervasive
Irish-American background, and his epic view of American history. As
Walt Whitman might have put it, John Ford was large, he contained
multitudes. Joseph McBride has given him the biography his stature
demands.

From: Elizabeth Malcolm
Subject: Temperance not Alcohol

Dear Paddy,

Thank you for your mention of 'Ireland Sober, Ireland Free'. Yes, it
is a sober work, as theses turned into books tend to be, but I hope
not too sobering! Actually, it started off in Australia as a study of
temperance, but the more time I spent in Ireland - and in certain
Irish establishments - the more it got to be about drink.

Since that was published 2 other significant works on Irish
temperance have appeared: one on Fr Mathew and one on the Pioneers.

Colm Kerrigan, 'Father Mathew and the Irish Temperance Movement',
Cork: Cork UP, 1992

Diarmaid Ferriter, 'A Nation of Extremes: the Pioneers in
20th-Century Ireland', Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1999

I've reviewed both and thought them very useful studies. They have a
lot more to say about areas that I just dealt with in chapters. From
a diaspora point of view, both also touch upon the international
dimension of the Irish temperance movement. Mathew campaigned
extensively among the Irish in Britain and the US, while the Pioneers
established branches around the world and at their height had a very
large overseas membership. The role of temperance in the diaspora
seems to me a topic that could do with more attention.

Best wishes,

Elizabeth

Professor Elizabeth Malcolm Tel: +61-3-8344 3924
Chair of Irish Studies FAX: +61-3-8344 7894
Department of History Email: e.malcolm[at]unimelb.edu.au
University of Melbourne
Parkville, Victoria, 3010
AUSTRALIA

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

The first issue of the Canadian Journal of Irish Studies published by the
Centre for Canadian Irish Studies at Concordia University in Montreal has
now appeared.

With the move to Montreal, the journal has widened its editorial focus to
cover all disciplines within Irish Studies and has a special interest in
aspects of Irish immigration and settlement in Canada. The newly-designed
journal also introduces several new features including an interview, a
photographic essay, a selection of poetry and Profiles of Irish Canadians.
There are more than thirty book reviews.

Table of Contents:

Editorial: Michael Kenneally

Development of the Exile Motif in Songs of Emigration and Nationalism?
Mary Helen Thuente

Photo Essay: Montreal: Re-imagining the Traces
Kathleen O?Brien and Sylvie Gauthier

Jonathan Swift and Colonialism
Wolfgang Zach

Dynamics of Ethnic Associational Culture in a Nineteenth-Century City: St.
Patrick?s Society of Montreal, 1834-56
Kevin James

Poems
Bernard O?Donoghue

The Belfast Agreement: Peace Process, Europeanization and Identity?
Michael Dartnell

An Interview with Stephen Rea
Carole Zucker

The Language of Exile: Heaney and Dante
Dominic Manganiello

Profiles of Irish Canadians: Timothy Eaton of Canada and County Antrim

Books Reviews

Information on editorial matters related to the journal should be addressed
to its editor,
Michael Kenneally
Centre for Canadian Irish Studies
Concordia University
1590 Doctor Penfield Avenue
Montreal, QC Canada H3G 1C5
Kenneal[at]vax2.concordia.ca

Subscriptions for this handsomely produced, 174-page journal will remain at
the old rate until Dec.2001.
Two issues: Cdn. $25 (Canadian subscribers); US$. 20 (all others)
For subscription information, contact Donna Whittaker, Business Manager
Cdnirish[at]alcor.concordia.ca

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

The following note has been sent to us by a person who was born and raised
in West
Belfast; lived many years in London and Dublin; and is now an executive in
the USA.

It is shared with the Irish-Diaspora list - as an example of something that
will make sense in the light of earlier Ir-D discussion. I would ask that
this item be not distributed further...

P.O'S.

EXTRACT BEGINS>>>
I'll just put a couple of cents worth into the arena. Drinking in pubs is
part of our
talking culture, we go into the pubs and we all stand around laughing and
talking and drinking. We do not have loud juke boxes or pin ball games
etc.,
in most of the bars - we are there for the craic. We talk politics and
religion
and a few times we die for Ireland once again.

I also noticed when I went to England how many lonely young Irishmen went
into the pubs immediately after work. The alternative being a dank room in
some
dismal part of London miles away from hearth and home. Usuallly these guys
were on the building trade as we would say at home, they would club together
all
males in bars and drink there until it was time to go back to their rooms
and
sleep and start the whole process over again the next night after work.
These guys were mostly single, away from home and lonely. I used to see
them in
the Holloway Road in London, country lads coming out of bars, mostly singing
and
happy and less lonely after meeting and talking with their pals. The lads
would still be in their working clothes, the grime and dirt still clinging
to their
boots. They used to say, the work was dirty but the money was clean. A
lot
of building went on in London in the 60's and 70's, and this was the image
of
the Irish that the English lived with. Some of the lads I am sure got
hooked on
the alcohol and continued on a downward slope and this is how many a young
Irish
lad started on the drink and is an old man in London today...

The English on the other hand, would sit over a half of bitter all night,
too
mean to spend Christmas, they don't have that kind of spirit that wants to
laugh and talk just for the sake of talking. So its hard for people on the
outside
to see us Irish on the inside. I am not saying people in Ireland don't
drink
heavily, some do, some don't. Its the same in any country.

My father was a pioneer [member of temperance movement (P.O'S.)]
and there is this Catholic self sacrificing thing of
all or nothing and offering it up for some unspecified religious cause. We
often prayed he would take up the drink and give us all a break, sainthood
is
hard to follow.

...this may be nothing at all to do with the alcohol thing but sometimes I
am still haunted by the loneliness of those Irish navvies coming out of the
Kings Head on the Holloway Road and weaving up a English street to a bedsit
in
Camden Town.
EXTRACE ENDS>>>


- --
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/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

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 Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Two examples, both from yesterday evening's email... Honest...

1.
EMAIL BEGINS>>>
I'm a student of Modern History at [a University in Germany].
Right now I'm working on my Master (Magister) Thesis "Irish Identity? The
Irish American in the 19th cent. in the Historiography between 1980-2000".

My idea is not only to give an overview on the historiography, its
controversies and deficincies, but also to discuss the concept of "identity"
and "ethnicity" behind these texts.

Though I've worked my way through a lot of essays and comments on this
subject, I'd like to ask you some questions - and I hope you are able and
interested in giving me a couple of minutes:
- - Are there (still) any major controversies and opposing views on the
history of the Irish American (critizising Miller's thesis, Akenson's
critique and work, Doyle's response and defence of "an Irish comunity" and
"Irish consiousness" etc.) - are there any opposing "blocs" of historians?;
- - What is your personal view on this subject (what is "good" and "bad" about
these history texts);
- - can you give me advice for further readings (like Doyle's "Coehesion and
Diversity"; O'Day's "Revising the Diaspora" and the introductions in your
volumes, Fanning's, Bielenberg's, Miller in Yans-MacLoughlin)?

Let me thank you very much in advance,
EMAIL ENDS>>>

2.
EMAIL BEGINS>>>
I am sitting my finals exam [in a University in the UK] on Irish Diaspora
and need some information
on the concepts of diaspora and that of Irish diaspora. I would be very
grateful if you could send me some information or points
EMAIL ENDS>>>

People who run email lists and Web pages will be familiar with this sort of
thing. As you look round the Web you will see signs saying: No, I will not
write your essay for you: No, I will not do your research for you. We are
in touch with a number of email groups, and generally we know when a person
has fired off a request for information to a number of us, as a substitute
for actually doing research.

About Email 2 above... It is a bit late, poor love. Clearly this person
already has people who are paid to help him - and we are not paid to help
him. (I would guess that this person is male.) Also, what does he already
know? - has he already done the obvious work? Really he is asking us to
make guesses about the extent of his ignorance.

Email 1 is much more likely to get a helpful response. This person has
clearly done some work, and outlines the work already done. We are not
asked to make guesses. This person might be seen as an example of 'the more
isolated Irish Diaspora scholar', whom, I think, we have a duty to help.
Certainly it seems a good thing to help promote interest in Irish Diaspora
Studies in countries where interest is not strong.

Yet, it is difficult to know what advice to give this person - anyone?

I might be inclined to pass this message on to the Irish-Diaspora list -
depending how busy we are. We cannot pass all such questions on to the
Irish-Diaspora list - we would be swamped.

I might suggest looking at Bronwen Walter, Outsiders Inside, whiteness,
place and Irish women, Routledge, London and New York 2001, ISBN paperback
0 415 12398 4, hardback 0 415 12397 6. Which is up to date and analyses
the gendered nature of some of the concepts outlined.

So, in the light of experience, I have drafted this FAQ Research
Questions... We would welcome comment...

FAQ Research Questions

From time to time people ask me how we respond to Research Questions and how
we decide whether or not a specific Research Question will be shared with
the Irish-Diaspora list.

Much depends on mood, how busy we are, and how busy the Irish-Diaspora list
is.

The Research Question has to be one that can actually be answered - a
precise Research Question is likely to be more sympathetically treated than
a vague request for information.

The Research Question has to be one that will be of interest to the
membership of the Irish-Diaspora list, and which does not misuse the good
will of the membership.

The Research Question must Play Fair - it must demonstrate evidence of work
already done, and thought already thought. It must not demand that we make
guesses about the extent of the questioner's ignorance.

Generally, we think it inappropriate that we get involved in research advice
to people at first degree level - such people will have advisors in place,
and specific course and examination schedules to follow. The fine detail of
these will not be available to us.

P.O'S.


- --
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/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

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 Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded for information...

Subject: CFP: The Making of the Atlantic Working Classes

XIITH BI-ANNUAL SOUTHERN LABOR STUDIES CONFERENCE

THE MAKING OF THE ATLANTIC WORKING CLASSES

MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA
APRIL 26-28, 2002


In conjunction with the programs in Atlantic Civilization, African-New World
Studies, and the Center for Labor Research and Studies at Florida
International
University, the Southern Labor Studies Conference invites paper submissions
for
its bi-annual conference. As in the past, we welcome submissions on
southern
labor history, politics, and contemporary affairs, but the program committee
is especially interested in papers and panels that speak to the theme of
international working-class history in the Atlantic world, broadly defined.
Drawing on US, European, Caribbean, Latin American, or African history this
might include work on labor migration, transnational labor movements, and/or
international solidarity, labor and international trade and commerce, or
labor
and foreign policy in the Americas. The keynote address will be given by
Marcus Rediker, co-author of The Many Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves,
Commoners,
and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic, and pioneer in the
field
of Atlantic working-class studies.

Please submit proposals for panels (2-3 papers and a commentator)
or individual papers by December 15, 2001 to:

Program Committee--SLSC
c/o Alex Lichtenstein
Department of History
Florida International University
Miami, FL 33199
Fax: 305/348-3561

e-mail inquiries to: lichtens[at]fiu.edu

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Three items, forwarded with permission, from

BOOKVIEW IRELAND
Editor: Pauline Ferrie May, 2001 Issue No.70

This monthly supplement to the Irish Emigrant reviews books recently
published in Ireland, and those published overseas which have an Irish
theme. A searchable database of all books reviewed over the last
six years is now available at http://www.bookviewireland.ie>


SELECTED SHORT STORIES by DONALL MACAMHLAIGH
- - This collection of the writings of Donall MacAmhlaigh originally
appeared in the Irish Democrat newspaper during the 1980s and is a
combination of short story and reflection on the Irish experience in
Britain. MacAmhlaigh was born in Galway, and indeed a commemorative
plaque was recently erected at the school he attended in the city.
He secured his first job in Kilkenny, where his father had been
posted as a member of the armed forces, and himself served for a time
in the Irish Army, but most of his working life was spent in Britain.
After a spell as a hospital orderly, he joined the army of labourers
in post-war Britain and many of the pieces gathered together here
reflect on the conditions under which men were willing to work for
the sake of a secure job. MacAmhlaigh introduces us to
quintessentially English characters such as Tom Gooding who
exemplified for him the working man whose pleasure comes from the
simple things of life, for whom "daily familiar things never grew
stale". He was a man "completely at one with his life and
surroundings" and the author acknowledges that he and the likes of
Tom Gooding had much more in common than he did with fellow-Irishmen
such as Tony O'Reilly. We also hear something of MacAmhlaigh's early
life in Kilkenny, of his first job in a mill and his first attempt at
writing a novel. But the main emphasis is nevertheless on his years
in Britain, on the Englishman's view of the Irish worker and the
collective xenophobia of the English which is in such stark contrast
to the individual tolerance shown to the outsider in the 1950s. His
visits home thirty years later reveal that times are hard once again,
the dole queues are lengthening and the emigration levels of the
1950s are being matched if not passed. There are only three chapters
which can legitimately be designated short stories, "The Crack",
"Kit's Story" and "Sweeney", with the latter two dealing with
commonplaces of the Irish in Britain, the young unmarried girl who
comes over to have her baby, and the alcoholic dreaming of returning
to his home town. "The Crack" is the most interesting of the three,
dealing as it does with the sense of betrayal felt by a group of
Irishmen when one of their number abandons the jigs and reels in the
public bar for the more romantic strains of the lounge piano.

The final chapter, entitled Donall Peadar MacAmlhlaigh, is written in
Irish, the language in which the author wrote many of his books, and
is a short biography. But each chapter of this intriguing look at
the place of the Irish labourer in Britain contains information about
the author's life, so that an inability to read Irish is not as much
of a drawback as it might seem.
(Northampton Connolly Assoc., ISBN 0-9510671-1-7, pp94, IR7.00)

NEW HIBERNIA REVIEW ed. THOMAS DILLON RENSHAW
- - This fifth edition of the quarterly review, which comes from the
Center for Irish Studies at University of St Thomas in Minnesota,
comprises a number of essays, each of which deals with an aspect of
Ireland. "Filiocht Nua: New Poetry" features the work of John
Montague while Professor Michael Molino examines the role of the
industrial school system in Irish literature. In line with its
policy of promoting an interest in the Irish language, this issue
includes an examination of the place of Irish over the last two
hundred years and its chances of survival, in which Professor A.J.
Hughes calls for the establishment of a "Gaelic Academy" in Ireland.
With topics ranging from the symbolic importance of coarse
earthenware, to the visit of abolitionist Frederick Douglass to
Ireland in the 1845, the New Hibernia Review is required reading for
those with an interest in Irish Studies.
(Center for Irish Studies, ISSN 1092-3977, pp160, $35.00 per annum
)

WORLD OF HIBERNIA - SUMMER 2001
- - The cover of this issue of World of Hibernia shows Sir Sidney Nolan's
painting of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly and the magazine includes an
article by Eileen Battersby on Peter Carey's book, "The True History
of the Kelly Gang". A wealth of colour is provided by Jane Power's
feature on notable Irish gardens, and by the winning entries from the
ESB Photography Awards, while a historical slant is provided by the
Weber/Cronin collection of photographs, taken seventy years ago on an
extended trip to Europe from the US. Lough Derg and the GAA,
traditional music and the Chernobyl Children's Project all contribute
to the variety of articles in this 25th issue of the magazine.
(spbhibernia[at]eircom.net, ISSN 1085-9616, pp178, IR4.95)




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

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan

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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 Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Another journal that is 'catching up with itself' under its energetic new
editor, Kenneth Ferguson, is THE IRISH SWORD
THE JOURNAL OF THE MILITARY HISTORY SOCIETY OF IRELAND - a journal which I
have always described as 'Irish Diaspora Studies avant la lettre...' (I'm
afraid I don't know any English expression that means 'avant la lettre...)

Contents of two recent volumes, dated 1999, below...

Some journals and documents defy our attempts to get text off paper into our
emails - the nicely designed Irish Sword is a particular nightmare. How
much effort we can put into these things really depends on our own
workloads - apologies for any errors...

Of course much to interest Irish Diaspora Studies in these volumes, asnd
perhaps I can leave it to other MHSI members to comment.

But note, for example, Canice O'Mahony on the Irish Papal Troops -
historians wishing to trace Myles O'Reilly's papal medal through the Battle
of the Little Big Horn and eventually on to Sitting Bull's murdered body now
have a starting point. Note Eileen Sullivan on Irish military men in
Spanish North America - for example, defending Florida from the invading
USA. And - a footnote to a recent Ir-D discussion on French perceptions of
Irish 'disloyalty' during World War 1 - Jerome aan de Wiel on the Hay
Plan...

P.O'S.


THE IRISH SWORD
THE JOURNAL OF THE MILITARY HISTORY SOCIETY OF IRELAND
Vol. XX1, Summer 1999, No. 85

CONTENTS

Uniforms of the Fifth Royal Irish Dragoons (Illustrated) W. Y. Carman 241
A gap in the Army List, 1799-1858: The missing Fifth Dragoons [Note] .......
244
'History of His Majesty's late Fifth, or Royal Irish Regiment of Dragoons'
(as published in the British Military Library for Apri1 1800) (Illustrated)
245
Weapons and tactics of 1798 (Illustrated) Paul M Kerrigan
A 1798 pike and notes on the battle of Tara Hill (Illustrated) Paul M
Kerrigan 273
Spanish naval officers of Irish birth or origin at Ceuta and Melilla John de
Courcy Ireland
Dr. Morgan David O'Connell - an Irish officer in the first Carlist war,
1836-1838 E.M Brett
Irish Papal troops, 1860 to 1870, with particular reference to the
contribution from county Louth Canice O'Mahony
The Louth Rifles: Group of officer's silver shoulder belt mountings
(Illustrated) F. Glenn Thompson
A family of Ulster in the Great War. Niall R. Brannigan
The twilight years: the Irish regiments, 1919-1922 (Illustrated) Patrick
McCarthy
Werner Unland: the Abwehr's man in Dublin (Illustrated) Mark M Hull

Notes: Military casualties in 1798; Rebel casualties in 1798: an unresolved
question; Military prisoners' diet, 1862; The guns at Grey Point Fort
(Illustrated)

Book reviews

THE IRISH SWORD
THE JOURNAL OF THE MILITARY HISTORY SOCIETY OF IRELAND
Vol. XX1, Winter 1999, No. 86

CONTENTS

The standard of the Muskerry Cavalry (Illustrated) E. J. Tonson Rye
Contemporary accounts of the battle of Rathmines, 1649 (Illustrated) Kenneth
Ferguson
Irish military men serving Spain in North America in the 18th and 19th
centuries Eileen A. Sullivan
The Irish Sea-Officers of the Royal Navy, 1793-1815 Anthony Gary Brown
A Tour in Ireland, 1880-3. The Second Battalion, The Worcestershire Regiment
John Johnston
The 'Hay Plan': an account of Anglo-French recruitment efforts in Ireland,
August 1918 Jerome aan de Wiel
'No blast or shock': the test of the 'Bee Hive' shelter ' James Scannell 446

Notes: The Lowtherstown Masonick Volunteers (Illustrated); Dress Regulations
1912; A Christmas card from 'Q' Company, Auxiliary Division, Royal Irish
Constabulary (Illustrated); 'Pleasures normally reserved to the Irish
Republican Army': an anecdote of Churchill, 1940

Book Reviews

CONTACT POINT
Honorary Editor. KENNETH FERGUSON, LL.B., PRO.
Address: MILITARY HISTORY SOCIETY OF IRELAND Newman House, University
College, 86, St Stephen's Green, Dublin, 2.

- --
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/
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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

[Through the courtesy of Peter Gray we are able to display below the Table
of Contents of the latest issue of History Ireland.

Items of interest to Irish-Diaspora Studies would include...
O'Flaherty on two RTE documentaries, one about London-born Irish Communist
Pat Breslin - who was to die in the Gulag in Soviet Central Asia in 1942,
the other about Patrick Pearse...
Boyd on Jim Connell, the writer of 'The Red Flag' - apparently the writing
started on the train between Charing Cross and New Cross, in South London.
How many years have I spent on that line - and, yes, the journey did have
effects on my own writing...
the Interview with historian John A. Murphy - a feature of attendance at
Irish History Conferences used to be the statutory coaxing of a song from
John Murphy. His high Irish tenor has aged - but I would listen and forgive
everything...
Orshel on Anglo-Saxon monastic contacts with Ireland...
J. L. McCracken on the murder of informer James Carey, aboard the coastal
steamer Melrose, Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, 1883 - this article seems
mostly to repeat the same author's chapter in Donal P. McCracken, Ireland
and South Africa in Modern Times, 1996 (and it is to that chapter you must
look if you want notes, references and sources)...
Mitchell on the Casement Diaries Debate - he identifies two sides in
academic circles (we know what he means...): 1. historians interested in
the authenticity of documentation, regardless of Casement's sexuality, 2.
academics interested in the dynamics of the debate, for whom Casement is a
'sexual icon'.

Note that there is now a History Ireland contact point at
http://www.historyireland.com

P.O'S.]


From: Peter Gray

TOC: HISTORY IRELAND 9/2 (Summer 2001)

Brian Hanley, 'Peter Berry's "Notes" on subversion in the
'30s and '40s', pp. 5-6
Eamon O'Flaherty, 'The two Patricks: RTE's "Lost Among
Wolves" and "Fanatic Heart" [Pat Breslin; Patrick Pearse],
pp. 6-7
Andrew Boyd, 'Jim Connell and "The Red Flag"', pp. 8-9
Interview: John A. Murphy, pp. 12-15
Vera Orschel, 'Maigh Eo na Sacsan: Anglo-Saxons in early
Christian Mayo', pp. 16-21
Liz Curtis, 'Saol & Saothar Charlotte Brooke' [in Irish
with English summary], pp. 21-5
J.L. McCracken, 'The fate of an infamous informer' [James
Carey], pp. 26-30
Padraig Yeates, 'The Dublin 1913 lockout', pp. 31-6
Gilian Smith, '"An eye on the Survey": perceptions of the
Ordnance Survey in Ireland 1824-1842', pp. 37-41
Angus Mitchell, 'The Casement "Black Diaries" debate: the
stiry so far', pp. 42-5

Book Reviews:
L.M. Geary (ed), Rebellion and remembrance in modern
Ireland; J. Smyth (ed.), Revolution, counter-revolution and
Union: Ireland in the 1790s - by S.J. Connolly, pp. 46-8
M. Cronin, A history of Ireland; S. Duffy, The concise
history of Ireland; P.C. Power, The timechart history of
Ireland - by E.M. Collins, pp. 49-51
N. Buttimer et al (eds), The heritage of Ireland - by G.
Stout, pp. 52-3
P. Pearson, The heart of Dublin: resurgence of a historic
city; P. Liddy, Dublin: a celebration from the 1st to the
21st century - by P. Caprani, pp. 53-4

History Ireland website: http://www.historyireland.com

----------------------
Dr Peter Gray
Department of History
University of Southampton
Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK
Email: pg2[at]soton.ac.uk
Homepage: http://www.soton.ac.uk/~pg2/index.html

From: Cymru66[at]aol.com
Subject: Re: Ir-D Alcohol 4

Paddy,
This was an evocative and perceptive piece. It mirrors my experience to
some degree anyway. I've done a fair amount of participant observation
research which has taken me, in pursuit of research objectives of course,
into pubs; now I usually enter them only for relaxation but old habits die
hard.........
One such congenial house is located in a certain neighbourhood in London.
It is patronised by Irish construction workers who come straight off the
site
in their working clothes, cluster together, stay until closing time and
engage only in intermittent conversation. By arrangement with the publican,
also Irish-born, on Thursday nights - the day before payday - they go to the
bar and ask for " a pint and change out of twenty ( pounds)." The publican
keeps a float behind the bar for this purpose. Settling-up time is Friday.
They are a sad and quiet group. Exiled and lonely, no family to go back to
just a bare-bones set of rooms, exhausted by hard labour and suspicious of
company other than their own kind, where else can they find some sort of
congenial company? It seems to come down to an issue of survival rather than
'alcholism.' For what it's worth, I've observed very similar situations here
in Chicago among first generation immigrants from Central Europe who have
the
added disadvantage of not speaking the language.
The only problem I have with the piece is the reference to the 'English'
and their purported behaviour in pubs. This is definitely not my experience
and we don't want to match stereotype with stereotype do we.
I would ask you to repeat your request that this piece also be not
circulated off the list. I can imagine the vivid and imaginative
interpretations which may be put upon it.
Best,
John

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Well, I am now a sadder but wiser person...

It has been quite difficult steering through the Irish-Diaspora list a
discussion about the Irish, the Irish Diaspora, alcohol issues and the
research record. These are sensitive issues. But if WE cannot discuss
these issues then who can?

Apologies to all the people who were slapped down off-list. Quite a few, as
it happens. From now on discussion of this issue must contain at least one
scholarly referencee. Though since the research record is so suspect I am
not sure that that is going to help much.

These debates are common in discussion of 'ethnic' issues - and usually
involve locating some statistical anomaly or difference before moving
smartly on to cultural explanations. (I am a very prosaic person and first
spend much time unmpacking the statistics.) All the folk who like to stress
that 'culture matters' are welcome to comment... Soberly...

My neighbour Waqar Ahmad and his colleagues have commented: ?The tendency
to locate health inequalities between groups in cultural or biological
difference is not new? It is particularly popular in ?explaining? health
problems of minority ethnic populations.? See Waqar I. U. Ahmad, Karl Atkin
and Rampaul Chamba, ??Causing havoc among their children?: parental and
professional perspectives on consanguinity and childhood disability?, in
W.I.U. Ahmad, ed. Ethnicity, Disability and Chronic Illness, Open University
Press, 2000, p. 28. See also Waqar Ahmad, ?Ethnic Statistics: Better than
Nothing or Worse than Nothing?,? in D. Dorling and S. Simpson, eds,
Statistics in Society, Arnold, London, 1999.

The approach of Bracken and O?Sullivan is that ??every immigrant group needs
to know about the health issues it faces, for communities need knowledge
based on sound research and clear thinking.? Patrick J. Bracken and Patrick
O?Sullivan, ?The invisibility of Irish Migrants in British Health Research?,
Irish Studies Review, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2001, p. 42. But maybe that approach
simply demonstrates our naivety...

P.O'S.

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

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan

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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 Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded for information...

Subject: Conf: Race in the Humanities


EXTENDED DEADLINE: JULY 1, 2001
PLEASE CIRCULATE

A selected number of the papers presented at this conference may be
published in book form by a university press. We are
currently working out terms for this contract.

Race in the Humanities

The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse will hold an interdisciplinary
conference on Race in the Humanities from November 15-17, 2001. As the
organizers of the conference, we seek individual paper abstracts and panel
proposals related to the conference theme. We envision the conference as
an interdisciplinary venue that will allow students, staff, and faculty to
discuss the role of race in the humanities--both within individual
disciplines and within the foundations of humanistic
studies in the university. Four keynote speakers will present at the
conference--Molefi Asante (Africana Studies, Temple University); Chester
J. Fontenot, Jr. (English and African American Studies, Mercer
University); Charles W. Mills (Philosophy, University of Illinois at
Chicago); and Ishmael Reed, renowned African American author
and scholar.

In keeping with Mills' theoretical interrogation of philosophy as a
racialized discipline, this conference will examine the constitutive role
that race has played in the formation of other disciplines in the
humanities, such as literary studies, womens studies, art, art history,
history, and theatre. Critical discussions at the conference will not
merely reflect on the opening of canons--literary, historical, artistic,
philosophical--to minority writers, scholars, and thinkers (although this
shift is certainly a significant one that will inform our discussions of
race in the humanities), but it will also examine the very foundations of
humanistic, disciplinary, and interdisciplinary studies in the humanities.

Conference topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
the metaphysics and poetics of race
race and history; postcolonial critiques of race and history
race as philosophical idea; postcolonial critiques of race and philosophy
race as culturally-constructed metaphor
race as linguistic imperialism and semantic colonization
language as racial/national imperialism (Ngugi's colonization of the mind;
Brathwaites nation-language; and other postcolonial models)

historical genocides in Americas & humanistic renaissances in Europe
rhetorics of subpersonhood;
race as inscriptions of Otherness and alterity property as identity;
identity as property
race, racism, capitalism, global capitalism, and the (uncertain) future of
the humanities
dialogues of monocultural flogging
race and transatlantic passages (the Black Diaspora, the Indo-Caribbean
Diaspora, Jewish Diaspora and other transnational migrations)
literary and historical constructions of Old World/New World
African diasporan religions (Vodou, Obeah, Santera, et cetera) and
political resistance race as ubiquitous trope in American literary,
historical, and social discourse race and theorizations of mtissage,
criollo, crole, crolit, and hybridity
racialization of minorities in the U.S. (African American, Asian
American, Latin/o American, Native American, and other ethnic
minorities) racialization of minorities globally (for example, Maghrebis
in France; Turks in Germany; Pakistanis and others in Britain)

race, ethnic minorities, and citizenship in the U.S.
race, ethnic minorities, and citizenship globally
race and history; racial memory and historical monuments
race, critical race theory, and legal discourse
whiteness as institutionalized in humanistic disciplines
privileges of whiteness; failures of whiteness

We strongly encourage submissions by faculty, graduate, and undergraduate
student researchers on the conference theme.
We also plan to hold a final round table discussion (following the panels)
to allow for critical exchange of ideas generated by conference speakers
and to further encourage dialogue about the formative role of race in the
humanities.

Please submit extended abstracts (2-3 pages) and/or panel proposals with a
brief curriculum vitae by JULY 1, 2001 to the following address: Dr.
Joseph Young or Dr. Jana Evans
Braziel, English Department, University of
Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, WI 54601.

Email inquiries to young.jose[at]uwlax.edu or braziel.jana[at]uwlax.edu. For
more information, please visit the conference
web site at http://www.uwlax.edu/RaceConference

Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin System Office of Multicultural
Affairs, UW-Milwaukee Office of Multicultural Affairs &
Department of Student Academic Development,the UWL Foundation,
the Noel J. Richards Fund, the College of Liberal Studies at UWL, the
Institute for Ethnic and Racial Studies at UWL, the
following UWL Departments: English, Philosophy, Foreign
Languages, Political Science/Public Administration,
Sociology/Archaeology, and Womens Studies.

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan


Our attention has been drawn to the The Social History of Alcohol Review,
the journal of the Alcohol and Temperance History Group.

Contact Points

http://www.history.ohio-state.edu/athgroup/shar.htm

http://www.history.ohio-state.edu/athgroup/whatisATHG.htm

The work of the ATHG, and the links they provide, usefully relativise our
discussion of these issues on the Irish-Diaspora list...

The Table of Contents of the latest issue of The Social History of Alcohol
Review is pasted in below...


P.O'S.


The Social History of Alcohol Review
15:1-2 (Fall/Winter 2000)
Old nos. 40-41

What's New * 5

Reflection Essay
My Way to the Cafe: A Topic for All Seasons W. Scott Haine * 10

Essays
Drink-Related Songs in the British Isles David Ingle * 20
Jessie Forsyth, Good Templar: Family Records from Western Australia David
M. Fahey * 28

Symposium Response
A Reply to the ATHG Symposium on Drink: A Social History / Andrew Barr * 33

Book Reviews
Virginia Berridge, Opium and the People: Opiate Use and Drug Control Policy
in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century England / Padma Manian * 39
Christine Clarke, The British Malting Industry Since 1830 / Raymond G.
Anderson * 44
Jim Blount, Little Chicago: A History of the Prohibition Era in Hamilton and
Butler County, Ohio / David M. Fahey * 51

Bibliography
Current Literature * 53

Jon Miller
Co-editor, The Social History of Alcohol Review
Assistant Professor, Department of English
Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences
The University of Akron
Akron, OH 44325-1906
1-330-972-5717 (office)
1-330-972-8817 (FAX)
mjon[at]uakron.edu


- --
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/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

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 Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Following links from The Social History of Alcohol Review, the journal of
the Alcohol and Temperance History Group...

http://www.history.ohio-state.edu/athgroup/shar.htm

http://www.history.ohio-state.edu/athgroup/whatisATHG.htm

I came across this...

http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/histoire/histsoc/cont54.html


Vol. XXVII (no 54)
Novembre November 1994
Table des matières / Table of Contents
L'histoire sociale d'alcool / Social History of Alcohol
Rédacteurs invités / Guest Editors
Jack S. Blocker Jr.
Cheryl Krasnick Warsh

Which included this article outline...


Articles
GEORGE BRETHERTON
The Battle Between Carnival and Lent: Temperance and Repeal in Ireland,
1829-1845

Over a period of about six years in the late 1830s and early 1840s the Cork
Total Abstinence Society under Father Theobald Mathew enrolled over six
million members, a figure that seems not to have been a gross exaggeration.
Most of the membership came from the poorest classes in Ireland, in
particular migrant agricultural workers or spalpeens, and the society was
viewed with suspicion by the upper classes and the Protestant elite. The
"Carnival" aspects of the old folk religion were sustained within the
temperance movement by itinerant pledge-takers who sought out Father Mathew
in the course of their annual trek in pursuit of work. What began on a note
of fleeting carnivalesque revelry took on a millenarian character, however,
as the agrarian crisis worsened and as temperance societies lost ground to
the Repeal movement. With the defeat of the Repeal cause and the beginning
of the Great Famine, the Irish underclasses were in for a lengthy season of
Lent.


Pendant environ six ans, à la fin des années 1830 et au début des années
1840, la Cork Total Abstinence Society, à la tête de laquelle se trouvait le
père Theobald Mathew, a recruté plus de six millions de membres. Ce chiffre
ne semble pas avoir été une grossière exagération. La plupart des membres de
cette société, qui éveillait les soupçons des classes supérieures et de
l'élite protestante, venaient des classes les plus pauvres d'Irlande, il
s'agissait en particulier de travailleurs agricoles migrants ou de
«spalpeens». Les itinérants, qui avaient fait le voeu de tempérance et qui
cherchaient à rencontrer le père Mathew pendant leur périple annuel à la
recherche de travail, ont contribué à maintenir les aspects carnavalesques
de la religion folklorique au sein du mouvement pour la tempérance. Ce
mouvement dont les débuts avaient été marqués par une ambiance de festivités
carnavalesques passagères a cependant pris un caractère révolutionnaire,
lorsque la crise agraire a empiré et que les sociétés de tempérance ont
perdu du terrain aux mains du mouvement Repeal. La défaite de la cause
Repeal et le début de la grande famine se sont traduites par un long Carême
pour les classes marginales irlandaises.

P.O'S.

- --
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/
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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

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

I am not sure what happened in my recent report on the new issues of The
Irish Sword, 85 and 86. It seems a line got lost between my notes and my
email... Anyway Canice O'Mahony's on Irish papal troops, 1860-1870, is
mostly about Major Myles O'Reilly, who took command in 1860 - but mentions
Myles Keogh, who died at the Little Big Horn.

On a train of thought, mention is also made of Irish involvement in the
Franco-Prussian war, with references to earlier Irish Sword articles - The
Irish Sword is always a good starting point for tracing such details.

P.O'S.



- --
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/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

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: Ultan Cowley


Dear Paddy
Apropos of your US Executive's observations on the above: many of
the interviews with Irish navvies which I conducted in the course of my
researches contain references to this 'pub culture', which traditionally
underpinned life in the construction industry.

I think the following extract from one man's reflections sums up the
rationale behind it and the likely consequences of over-dependence upon it.

It appears in Chapter Ten of my book, 'THE MEN WHO BUILT BRITAIN':A HISTORY
OF THE IRISH NAVVY, which will be published by Wolfhound Press in September
2001.

Yours

Ultan


BOOK EXTRACT RE. NAVVIES & DRINK
QUOTE>>>
'The people who did have a sense of self, who were true individuals, became
the millionaires, while I was standin' down a hole, to get money, to buy
drink, so that I could fit in, belong, be "normal", be "one of us". If you
didn't maintain this "togetherness", you weren't part of "our little
group"; you were one of "them", whoever they were. If you didn't drink your
money at night, you were seen as "mean" - there was somethin' wrong with
you.
And eventually you ended up homeless - sleepin' rough, turnin' up each
mornin' in Camden Town, lookin' for "the start" so's you'd get a pound to
buy a breakfast. But you'd be in the "Offie" as soon as it opened, if you
were anywhere near one that day, and you'd have the liquid lunch. The
Englishman or Scotsman who was skipperin' out would be on the dole, but
that wasn't in our culture; Paddy would work for his drinkin' money, even
when he didn't have a bed?
There is a depth of pain that finds its level, amongst a group of men, in a
pub, in a park, homeless and drunk, who recognise each other's pain? Now I
know I'm an island of self, between two places, and I have to identify my
own self - what I am, what I can do'
ENDQUOTE>>>

English
Date: Sun 3 Jun 2001 06:30:00 +0000
From: irish-diaspora[at]bradford.ac.uk
Reply-To: irish-diaspora[at]bradford.ac.uk
To: irish-diaspora[at]bradford.ac.uk
Sender: owner-irish-diaspora[at]bradford.ac.uk
Precedence: bulk



Email Patrick O'Sullivan

We have received the following message, below, from Werner Sollors, our
contact at the Longfellow Institute, Harvard.

I think congratulations are due to Werner himself - for himself doing so
much to identify and fill this gap in thought and research.

Just to remind people - some first thoughts about the history and literature
of the Irish language outside Ireland are displayed at
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net
in the 'Projects' folder...

P.O'S.



From: Werner Sollors
sollors[at]fas.harvard.edu


Dear friends of the Longfellow Institute and scholars interested in American
multilingualism:

I just heard that the Discussion Group on "Literature of the United States
in Languages Other Than English" has been granted permanent status by the
Modern Language Association Executive Council. This is a big step toward
legitimation of what was not really considered a field of study only five
years ago.

Best,


Werner Sollors
Department of English and American Literature and Language
Harvard University
12 Quincy Street
Cambridge MA 02138-3879
617 495 4146
fax 617 496 8737
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~lowinus
http://www.nyupress.nyu.edu/authbook.msql?$string&book=0814797539
http://www.nyupress.nyu.edu/authbook.msql?$string&book=081478092X

- --
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/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

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