From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Our remarks here on the Irish-Diaspora list about the weird 'Irish' elements
that have appeared in the Harry Potter movie are being circulated further.

This comment has been sent to us by a non-member...

P.O'S.

- -----Original Message-----
From: MaireGaffney[at]aol.com
Subject: Re: Ir-D Harry Potter and the Irish


Dear Paddy

I didn't think the prejudice was in the original, but the changes are enough
to be at least suspicious. I can't think of another reason to deliberately
make these changes except to invoke a damaging stereotype. Bearing in mind
there are more of these movies in the pipeline a word in the ear of some
Hollywood
type would be a good idea. They may well not listen, but are they aware of
the size of the audience that they are alienating?

Maire

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

This review article appeared in
The Irish Post, Thursday, November 1, 2001

It appears here on the Irish-Diaspora list with the permission of the Editor
of The Irish Post, Frank Murphy.

It can be distributed further on condition that due acknowledgement is given
to the author, Martin Byrne, The Irish Post and to the Irish-Diaspora list.

Book and Publisher contact information...
http://www.wolfhound.ie/homepg.htm
The Men Who built Britain, A History of the Irish Navvy - by Ultan Cowley
HB £19.70 250 x 210mm, 200pp ISBN 0 86327 829 9 illustrated throughout b/w

P.O'S.

Untold riches unearthed in a labour of love
by Martin Byrne

A few years ago The Irish Post published a letter from a reader who objected
to a phrase in an article celebrating the enormous and diverse contribution
of the Irish in Britain. The controversial sentence in question welcomed the
fact that "the Irish could no longer be classified as navvies but today were
as likely to be navigating the Internet".
The reader's objection was double-edged. She found the use of the word
"navvies" insulting but also she was proud of her husband's life-long work
as a labourer and questioned whether working on a computer was a superior
occupation.
This complex reaction, expressing pride and seeing shame, is indicative, I
think, of how many Irish here respond to a job of work and a way of life
that more than any other laid the foundations for our community. We respond
to the nobility of hard, honest toil but recoil from the negative imagery of
fighting, swearing, hard-drinking navvies that have shored up anti-Irish
stereotypes for centuries.
At long last, someone has tackled the fascinating but neglected history of
the Irish navvy in Britain and produced a book that digs away decades of
ignorance and constructs a fitting memorial to a race of men whose
contribution to society has long been undervalued.
Ultan Cowley has unearthed untold riches amid the muck in this labour of
love. The tragedies of Irish emigration and the triumphs of British civil
engineering are both well documented but until now the navvy has been but a
footnote of both. Here, he becomes the cornerstone. He quotes from Paul
Ricour: "To be forgotten, and written out of history, is to die again". ;
Cowley's honourable intention, and his proud achievement, is to ensure the
immortality of the Irish navvy
The author's method is to go back to the original sources, limited though
they are, and to supplement this with interviews with labourers,
subcontractors, and senior executives of British construction companies. He
also draws extensively on newspapers such as The Irish Post and The Irish
Democrat and the writings of literary figures such as Patrick MacGill and
Donall MacAmhlaigh, who unlike Seamus Heaney were as comfortable with a
shovel as a nib in their hands.
His book takes its title from the headline of an Irish Post article on his
1995 revue, 'A Tribute to the Navvies', which drew on the literary and
song-writing traditions, which celebrated the navvy in song and story while
the social historians fell silent.
The book too is peppered with extracts of ballads such as McAlpine's
Fusiliers and anecdotes such as the catechist in the west of Ireland who
asked a child: "Who made the world?" The child's reply, of course, was:
"McAlpine, sir. And my daddy laid the bricks!" Or the chestnut that Wimpey
stood for We Import More Paddys Every Year. This is not, then, a dry,
humourless exposition of an academic theory but a living, breathing,
passionate account of a way of life that had room for romance and mischief
as well as blood, sweat and tears.
He quotes Sir Robert McAlpine's reputed deathbed wish: "If the men wish to
honour my death, allow them two minutes' silence; but keep the big mixer
going, and keep Paddy behind it"
The author explains how the term 'navvy' originated with the building of the
eighteenth-century canals, the 'inland navigation system' in Britain. The
diggers, many of them Irish, became known as 'navigators' or 'navvies'. The
canal-builders' pioneering construction methods were then adapted by the
railway engineers and the elite excavators who worked on this new transport
system kept the name 'navvies'. A century later, so did the new wave of
Irish immigrants who worked on the construction of the motorways,
hydro-electric schemes and other massive civil engineering works.
In this way, the word navvy became synonymous with Irish migrant labourers,
the 'heavy diggers' who came to dominate the ground works aspect of
construction in Britain.
This book examines how the Irish attained that dominance and the price they
paid for it. High wages were often the reward not just for hard work but
also for rough conditions, social ostracising and ill health. Potential
savings often went towards maintaining generations of dependents back home
in Ireland.
The first canal on these islands was the Newry Canal (1731-1742) in Co.
Down. However, while the same engineer was responsible for the first canal
in England, there is no record of whether the unique and invaluable
experience of the labourers who built the Newry Canal was also used. What is
clear is that the tens of thousands of Irish agricultural labourers who came
to Britain every harvest provided a significant proportion of the manpower
to fuel Britain's industrial revolution, and also helped employers undercut
labour costs. Having already cut ties with home, the Irish were also
resigned to the navvy's nomadic lifestyle, long-distance kiddies who tramped
the roads from job to job. They also quickly learned there were more riches
to be gained from excavating England than from the stony soil of Connacht.
Cowley details the methods used in the construction of railways and
reservoirs and leaves you in no doubt of the danger the men faced. It was
statistically more dangerous to be a navvy than a soldier until the outbreak
of World War I. One or two deaths per mile of railway built were considered
acceptable.
The work was also tough. "Each man has to lift nearly 20 tons of earth on a
shovel over his head into a wagon" reported a railway agent. This was not
done on a diet of bread and buttermilk. "The navvy consumed on average two
pounds of beef, two loaves of bread and five quarts of ale per day,"
reports Cowley.
The book is full of fascinating anecdote and detail. Labourer John O'Hara
recalls impressing many a butcher with wads of notes in the days of
rationing, save for one grocer from Grantham, the father of Margaret
Thatcher.
Cowley's work is richly illustrated with photographs, many of them
previously unpublished, a few familiar from the pages of The Irish Post,
including several by Paddy Fahey and one by Brendan Farrell of a chaplain
and labourers working on Spaghetti Junction in Birmingham. Nothing could be
more poignant than the one of the navvies' cemetery in Kinlochleven,
Scotland, a bleak and lonely final resting place for men who knew little
rest and few home comforts in their lives.
'The Men Who Built Britain' brings us from the building of the canals and
railways up to the present day. It is particularly good on the conditions at
home in Ireland that drove people away and the conditions they endured when
they got to Britain.
We learn how easy it would have been to live from hand to mouth, the weekly
advance on your wages turning your employer into a sort of pawnbroker. But
we also see how those who "weighed up the situation" exploited the
opportunities presented by the post-1945 shake-up in Britain to start a
business, build an empire and make a fortune.
Cowley lists nine Irish companies with an annual turnover of over £75m -
Durkan Group, Clancy Group, McNicholas plc, Kennedy Construction,
Fitzpatrick plc, J. Murphy & Sons, McNicholas Construction, O'Rourke Group
and MJ Gleeson.
The author does not blindly celebrate wealth. He acknowledges that the
peculiarities of the building industry facilitated tax evasion on a massive
scale but his book's purpose, he says, "is to show what was built with the
stones, rather than what is to be found underneath them." He is very much
concerned, however, with the price paid by the workers themselves. He quotes
extensively from labourers about the sharp practice and exploitation they
suffered at the hands of ruthless sub-contractors.
The author is interested in the all-round human experience of his subjects,
the role of religion in their lives, their social pastimes. There is much
amusement in his account of Irish dance halls. "It was said that if a man
couldn't get a woman in the Buffalo [ballroom in Camden Town] the best he
could do was lie down and die."
The squalor of many digs, the destructiveness of dependency on drink, the
macho culture in which brawn looked down on brain, the exploitation - all of
this is recounted, but put into context, treated sympathetically but not
sentimentally.
The downside is too well known, though. Let the positive voices have the
final say.
"I came to appreciate the inestimable value of their contribution to human
well-being. I came to regard them as the true nobility of society, humble,
hard-working men who rarely complained about their lot." Fr Owen Sweeney,
Chaplain, Llanwern Steelworks, South Wales 1959-1962.
"I have worked all my life with Irishmen several of whom, had they completed
their education, could have been behind the Chairman's desk instead of me. "
John Cox, former chairman, Tarmac Construction.
"Since the late 18th Century the Irish have played a major role in the
expansion of British industry and of the country's canal, road and rail
network. The success of the British construction industry owes a great deal
to the Irish skills in excavation and construction, and their contribution
to the development of the industry has been immeasurable. " Sir William
McAlpine.
The author's distinction is to have sought these voices out and placed them
on record. This is an important and impressive book, which does the Irish in
Britain a great service.
"The Men Who Built Britain: A History of the Irish Navvy" by Ultan Cowley
(Wolfhound Press, IR£19.70)

Martin Byrne
The Irish Post, Thursday, November 1, 2001

- --
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 0709 236 9050
Fax International +44 709 236 9050

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

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

First of all, my apologies to Ultan Cowley for adding to his distress by
distributing further his publisher's press release...

We do like to give contact details when we distribute book information - and
this piece of text got picked up in the process...

I guess I see so much of this back-of-an-envelope Irish publicist guff that
my brain automatically filters it out. Ultan and I have shared a groan
about a similar piece of nonsense - a proposal for a television film about
navvies - that is floating around Dublin at the moment. And everyone who
was associated with The Irish Empire television series will recall, with
horror and bafflement, the first bits of 'research' that we were shown...

Ultan's cautionary tale is a familiar one - as the casualisation of work in
publishing houses (and universities) continues.

In other ways Ultan's publisher have done him proud - it is a handsome
volume, very beautifully produced. On the level of gossip, at the book
launch the Irish World Heritage Centre was selling it at 20 pounds a copy.
150 people at the book launch - 150 copies sold? No, more - each person was
buying 5 copies, and more, at a time. One person spoke to us who was able
to identify one of the navvies in the cover photograph.

I am still reading the book - but it seems to me that Ultan Cowley's
high-risk strategy has paid off. The work is anchored at both ends - the
scholarly background is there, this is a work of labour history. But also
he gives us the interviews with that dieing generation. And they, in turn,
want to give us all the navvy anecdotes, the standard stories that are part
of their oral history, their oral culture. But they want to give more, and
Ultan helps them to give more.

Ok, contact information...
http://www.wolfhound.ie/homepg.htm
The Men Who built britain, A History of the Irish Navvy - by Ultan Cowley
HB £19.70 250 x 210mm, 200pp ISBN 0 86327 829 9 illustrated throughout b/w
http://www.wolfhound.ie/books/menwho.htm
(Avert your eyes if the misbegotten press release is still there...)

There follows - as a separate email - the text of the review that appeared
in The Irish Post, London...

P.O'S.


- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Sent: 15 November 2001 14:00
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Ir-D Book launch, Manchester




From: Ultan Cowley
Subject: Book launch, Manchester

Dear members

My thanks to Paddy for announcing this event and agreeing to attend.

Unfortunately his announcement to the Irish-Diaspora list was accompanied by
an extract from the
publisher's press release. This press release is a disaster!

I don't know what the experience of other published Ir-D. members may have
been, but this press release has been the bane of my existence for a number
of months now. Despite several attempts to have it expunged, and
publisher's agreements to do so,it continues to surface to my intense
irritation and shame.

This one originated with a Wolfhound PR person who has since left the
company, which itself has just been acquired by another publishing house.

For a start, my book is sub-titled,'A History (not a Celebration) of the
Irish Navvy'; I see little to celebrate in the largely traumatic experience
of Irish migrant labourers.

The use of terms such as 'ragged', 'footsoldier', 'useless', 'drunken',
'underclass', and 'colonial riches' tells us a great deal about their
author but they neither accurately describe the Irish navvy nor reflect my
writings on the subject.

I apologise for any hurt which this travesty may have caused and appeal to
members not to be influenced by it.

Sincerely


Ultan Cowley

From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Dymphna=20Lonergan?=
Subject: Re: Cross dressing

I have just finished reading Peter Carey's 'The True
History of Ned Kelly' in which references are made to
men dressing up as women. This is being spoken here
in the Australian Press in terms of 'cross dressing'.
I suspect it is not, more an old Irish custom. I have
a childhood recollection of the song Éamon an Chnoic
'Ned of the Hills', in which a man on the run is
dressed in women's clothes to help him escape. Then,
of course, there is the famous story of De Valera
escaping from prison in England dressed as a woman
(delightfully played by Alan Rickman in the movie
'Michael Collins').Christy Mahon in John Millington
Synge's 'The Playboy of the Western World' is also
dressed as a woman near the end.

Carey's book talks about groups of men in Ireland
dressed as women. Does anyone know if dressing in
women's clothes was part of the disguise tactics of
groups such as the Whiteboys and Terry Alts (or the
Molly Maguires)?

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

From: maria.power[at]btinternet.com
Subject: Re: Ir-D Harry Potter and the Irish 2

I thought I was just being over sensitive when I watched Harry Potter and
saw the anti-Irish bias - do they think that all we are good for is blowing
things up! the person I was with noticed it as well and was very angry. I
cannot remember anything like that in the book.
Is there anything that we can do about this?

Maria Power
>
> From: Sarah Morgan
> Subject: Re: Ir-D Harry Potter and the Irish
>
> Paddy,
>
> yep, I noticed this too; it made my partner, who has not read any of the
> books
> really angry. I had to reassure him that this was not done in the books.
> What
> you don't draw out is the specific nature of the disasterous spells;
> everything
> explodes, including the attempt to turn water into rum (rum?! Why not
> whiskey?). Certainly from a British context this has connotations of two
> staples, Irish=IRA and the Irish as drunks.
>
> Sarah Morgan.
>
> On Tue 20 Nov 2001 17:00:00 0000 irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk wrote:
>
> >
> > From Email Patrick O'Sullivan
> >
> > I took my children to see the Harry Potter movie at the weekend...
> >
> > Whatever you may think about J. K. Rowling's books (and, o lord, does
she
> > not need a good editor) we cannot knock books that children enjoy and
> which
> > turn them into readers. My smaller boy adores the books, and loved the
> > movie.
> >
> > I don't often bother to remark or complain about these things, but you
> > cannot help noticing that the movie has acquired a curious 'Irish'
> subtext,
> > a subtext that is not in the original books...
> >
> > For example, Harry Potter readers will know that J. K. Rowling has
> hi-jacked
> > the English boarding school ('public school') story and given it a
magical
> > twist. But her magic is an equal opportunities employer, and there are
> > representatives of all England's ethnic groups in her school - Chinese,
> > Indian and an Irish boy called Seamus Finnigan. Who is a decent sort.
> >
> > There is also a clumsy boy, called Neville Longbottom (a Northern
> > England/Yorkshire name) - whose magical experiments, in a running gag,
go
> > disasterously wrong.
> >
> > In the MOVIE, same running gag - but the the disasterously explosive
> magical
> > experiments have been given to the IRISH boy.
> >
> > In the book, Hagrid (the school's gamekeeper person) buys Fluffy, the
> giant
> > three-headed dog, from 'a Greek chappie I met in the pub...' In the
MOVIE
> > it becomes an Irishman he met in the pub...
> >
> > The scriptwriter of the Harry Potter movie is Steve Kloves - who is an
> > American, with a good track record (Fabulous Baker Boys, etc.)
> >
> > What does it all mean? I don't know. J. K. Rowling herself has clearly
> > worked hard to avoid this kind of sterotyping. These changes have come
> into
> > the story at the script development stage. Maybe these are simply
further
> > examples of the curious shorthand uses which the word 'Irish' has
acquired
> > in English-speaking cultures...
> >
> > P.O'S.
> >
>

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

On 'cross-dressing' and disguise...

I am reminded of the Wren Boys, from the Irish part of my childhood.

Much stuff on the web - see for example...

http://www.noblenet.org/year/tty12sts.htm

http://www.pcug.org.au/~pdownes/dps/downes.htm

http://www.angelfire.com/wi/shamrockclubwisc/page101.html#king

http://members.fortunecity.com/kitsimpson/NewMummers.html

The Wren Boys are often described as if this was a specifically Irish custom
or practice - but it is certainly found on the Isle of Man, in Cornwall and
other parts of England, and in western Europe.

In present day Ireland the Wren Boys often collect for charity and - I am
happy to say - do not use a real-live dead wren...

See also...
Elizabeth Atwood Lawrence, Hunting the Wren: Transformation of Bird to
Symbol, University of Tennessee Press, 1998, 256pp. $30.00 (cloth)

[from the publisher's flyer] A unique interdisciplinary study, this book
examines the British and European tradition of the wren hunt, in which a
bird ordinarily revered and protected for most of the year was killed around
the time of the annual solstice. In focusing on this ancient ritual,
Elizabeth Atwood Lawrence draws on her training in cultural anthropology and
biology to cast a fresh light on the complexities of human-animal
relationships.

Following an introductory chapter on animal symbolism, Lawrence proceeds in
subsequent chapters to describe the wren both as a biological entity and as
the subject of numerous tales and legends, to delineate the details of the
wren hunt ceremony and the various meanings ascribed to it, and, finally, to
relate the ceremony to important contemporary issues in human-animal
interactions and current attitudes toward the living environment. Whereas
most other studies tend to concentrate solely on human perceptions of
animals and fail to include the animal's role in the relationship.
Lawrence's approach shows how the participation of both animal and human
determines the symbolic status of the animal-which in turn influences the
treatment of that animal within a particular society.

At a time when human destructiveness toward nature has reached tragic
proportions, Lawrence contends, it is critical that we understand the
processes by which certain cultural beliefs, in combination with
observations about the natural history of a particular animal, result in
emotional and mental responses that may ultimately determine the fate of
that species. The author argues persuasively that the wren hunt-with its
ancient roots, associated beliefs, and complex meanings in the
preindustrialized world-still has much to teach us.

- --
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 0709 236 9050
Fax International +44 709 236 9050

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

From: Don MacRaild
Subject: RE: Ir-D 'Cross Dressing'


And, of course, the Luddites, machine-wreckers in the Midlands and north
ofEngland in the early nineteenth-century were sometimes seen to be dressed
as
women. Seeing as how some at least of these workers were Irish, and given
that contemporary social reportage has the textile unions' ringleaders
('talkers and doers') down as Irish, might this be yet another imported
custom. But here I remember from my 'O' level classes as much as anything.
That said, I doubt we can say the same of the French Revolution's 'March of
the Women'.

Cheers,

Don MacRaild
Northumbria

From: Kevin Kenny
Subject: Re: Ir-D 'Cross Dressing'

Disguise in 'women's clothing' appears to have been a
pervasive, even ubiquitous, characteristic of rural Irish
secret societies and agitators from the Whiteboys of the
1760s through the Molly Maguires of the 1850s (though there
is no such evidence pertaining to the latter in
Pennsylvania in the 1860s and 1870s).

As well as serving purposes of disguise and anonymity, this
pattern of dressing may have had festive and ritual
elements derived from non-violent forms of cultural play;
and it may have signified allegiance to a mythical
woman--Sieve Oultagh, Ghostly Sally, Lady Clare, Mistress
Molly Maguire--who symbolized the struggle of the agitators
in the way that a female figure often has in Irish history.

More broadly, and perhaps most interestingly, none of this
was confined to Ireland, even if it lasted longer there
than elsewhere. What I have described was widespread in
popular movements throughout Europe, including England and
Scotland, in the early modern era. Other relatively late
examples include les demoiselles d'Ariege in the Pyrenees
and the Rebeccas in Wales, both in the 1830s.

For a discussion of these issues, and some sources, see the
opening chapter of my book on the Molly Maguires.

KK
----------------------
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: conor carville
Subject: Re: Ir-D 'Cross Dressing'


To the best of my recall David Lloyd in _Anomalous States_ and Luke Gibbons
in his essay _Identity Without a Centre_ make passing reference to
cross-dressing amongst 19th c. underground agrarian groups.

Best

Conor

> Carey's book talks about groups of men in Ireland
> dressed as women. Does anyone know if dressing in
> women's clothes was part of the disguise tactics of
> groups such as the Whiteboys and Terry Alts (or the
> Molly Maguires)?
>
> Dymphna Lonergan
> Flinders University of South Australia
> Dymphna_1[at]Yahoo.com

From: Peter David Hart
Subject: Re: Ir-D 'Cross Dressing'

Much could be said on this aspect of folk custom - typically occurring in
festival periods when role-reversal and carnival-like rules could apply:
st stephen's day, wedding days etc.. Women's dress symbolised license and
acted as a disguise for the mummers or whatever.

Politically, the same custom could be used by agrarian gangs, secret
societies etc. on up to the IRA in the 1920s, who sometimes used the
same occassions and clothes to raid homes and such (although rarely).

Peter Hart



On Wed, 21 Nov -1 irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk wrote:

>
> From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Dymphna=20Lonergan?=
> Subject: Re: Cross dressing
>
> I have just finished reading Peter Carey's 'The True
> History of Ned Kelly' in which references are made to
> men dressing up as women. This is being spoken here
> in the Australian Press in terms of 'cross dressing'.
> I suspect it is not, more an old Irish custom. I have
> a childhood recollection of the song Éamon an Chnoic
> 'Ned of the Hills', in which a man on the run is
> dressed in women's clothes to help him escape. Then,
> of course, there is the famous story of De Valera
> escaping from prison in England dressed as a woman
> (delightfully played by Alan Rickman in the movie
> 'Michael Collins').Christy Mahon in John Millington
> Synge's 'The Playboy of the Western World' is also
> dressed as a woman near the end.
>
> Carey's book talks about groups of men in Ireland
> dressed as women. Does anyone know if dressing in
> women's clothes was part of the disguise tactics of
> groups such as the Whiteboys and Terry Alts (or the
> Molly Maguires)?
>
> Dymphna Lonergan
> Flinders University of South Australia
> Dymphna_1[at]Yahoo.com
>
>

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded on behalf of

Christian A. DesRoches
History in the Making Conference
Concordia University
Montreal, Quebec CANADA
ca_desro[at]alcor.concordia.ca


****

CALL FOR PAPERS

IRISH STUDIES IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

History in the Making VIII
Organized by the Graduate Students of History at Concordia
in association with
The Centre for Canadian Irish Studies

FEATURED GUEST SPEAKERS:
Nancy J. Curtin Department of History, Fordham University
Gary L. Owens Department of History, Huron College, University of Western
Ontario

Saturday, March 2, 2002
CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY
Montréal, Québec

On the occasion of its eighth annual conference, History in the Making
wishes
to highlight the recent establishment of the Canadian Centre for Irish
Studies
at Concordia University. Graduate students from throughout North America are
invited to discuss new directions in the field of Irish historical studies.

Applicants should submit proposals of 250 words for individual papers or
panels
of 2-3 papers. Proposals dealing with historical dimensions of Ireland and
the
Irish diaspora are welcome, as well as papers exploring interdisciplinary
perspectives on Irish Studies. Submissions related to other topics will also
be
considered. A selection of the best papers will be published.

A limited number of travel and accommodation reimbursements will be
available
to graduate student participants from outside the greater Montreal area.

Deadline for Submissions: January 14, 2002

Please send proposals, as well as a short biographical statement, to:
History in the Making Committee
Department of History, McConnell Library Building, LB-601
CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY
1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Montréal, Québec
H3G 1M8 CANADA
Or email submissions to himviii[at]yahoo.ca

Visit our website: http://artsandscience.concordia.ca/history/him.html

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded on behalf of...

Marie Boran
Special Collections Librarian
James Hardiman Library
NUI, Galway, Ireland
00 353 91 524411 x 2543
e-mail: marie.boran[at]nuigalway.ie

RARE BOOKS GROUP

Library Association of Ireland

The progamme follows. Details and booking form also on our website at
www.iolfree.ie/~rarebooksgroup.

Annual Seminar

"The art of instruction: textbooks in 18th and 19th century Ireland"


National University of Ireland, Maynooth
Crolly Room


Friday 30th November 2001

10.00am ? 4.30pm

SEMINAR PROGRAMME

10.00 am: Registration

10.25am Welcome from Agnes Neligan, Librarian, NUI, Maynooth

10.30 am Prof. John Coolahan (NUI Maynooth))
Key emphases in national school text books in 19th century Ireland

11.15 am Coffee

11.30am Dr Susan Parkes (Trinity College Dublin)
The girls? reading book of the Commissioners of National Education

12.15pm Dr Antonia McManus
The Irish hedge school and its books, 1695-1830

1.00 ?2.15 pm Lunch

2.15 pm Dr. C.A. Stray (University of Wales, Swansea)
The lithographed voice: John Hawksworth?s Lucian
and the Feinaiglian Institution


3.00pm Dr. Máire Kennedy (Gilbert Library, Dublin Public Libraries)
Upon the best grammatical principles: French books
printed in Ireland in the 18th century

3.45 pm Coffee & Close of Seminar

Getting to Maynooth

Maynooth is 15 miles west of Dublin on the N4. Centre city trains leave from
Westland Row and Connolly Station. Buses, 66 and 67a, leave from Wellington
Quay on the south bank of the Liffey, and pass Heuston Station en route. In
Maynooth, the bus stop and train station are a 15 minute walk from the
seminar venue. Enter the campus at the gate by the castle, at the west end
of the Main Street. The seminar will take place in the Crolly Room, in St
Mary?s. Follow the signs. Details together with bus and train timetables and
a map of the south campus are available on the Maynooth University website
at www.may.ie/travel/.

Parking

From the Main Street take the entrance beside the castle. This is the south
campus. There is parking to your left inside the gate. There is parking also
on the north campus ? access from the old Galway road.

Lunch

Tables have been reserved in the Pugin Refectory for a light lunch (main
course with a glass of wine, coffee and chocolates) at a cost of £7.25

Please book in advance. For those preferring a snack lunch, there is a
variety of eating places in the Main Street.

Accommodation

For anyone wishing to stay overnight, accommodation is available on campus.
Contact Maynooth Campus Conference Centre and Accommodation at 01-708 6200.
Details on the Conference Centre website at www.maynoothcampus.com

BOOKING FORM
Please contact marie.boran[at]nuigalway.ie to book.

Members IR£20, Non-members IR£25, Concessions IR£15.

Lunch £7.25

From: "Ruth-Ann M. Harris"
Subject: Re: Ir-D 'Cross Dressing'


>I have evidence from estate papers from Carrickmacross of cross-dressers
>calling themselves "The Bundoran Girls." Anyone else heard of that
>group? Ruth-Ann Harris


>From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Dymphna=20Lonergan?=
>Subject: Re: Cross dressing
>
>I have just finished reading Peter Carey's 'The True
>History of Ned Kelly' in which references are made to
>men dressing up as women. This is being spoken here
>in the Australian Press in terms of 'cross dressing'.
>I suspect it is not, more an old Irish custom. I have
>a childhood recollection of the song Éamon an Chnoic
>'Ned of the Hills', in which a man on the run is
>dressed in women's clothes to help him escape. Then,
>of course, there is the famous story of De Valera
>escaping from prison in England dressed as a woman
>(delightfully played by Alan Rickman in the movie
>'Michael Collins').Christy Mahon in John Millington
>Synge's 'The Playboy of the Western World' is also
>dressed as a woman near the end.
>
>Carey's book talks about groups of men in Ireland
>dressed as women. Does anyone know if dressing in
>women's clothes was part of the disguise tactics of
>groups such as the Whiteboys and Terry Alts (or the
>Molly Maguires)?
>
>Dymphna Lonergan
>Flinders University of South Australia
>Dymphna_1[at]Yahoo.com

Ruth-Ann M. Harris, Adjunct Prof of History and Irish Studies, Boston
College
Note new e-mail address: harrisrd[at]bc.edu
Home Phone: (617)522-4361; FAX:(617)983-0328; Office Phone:(617)552-1571
Summer and Weekend Number: (Phone) (603) 938-2660

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded on behalf of
Carmen Mangion
manwag[at]freeuk.com

We would be very grateful if you could notify any scholars you think would
be interested in this day symposium on the history of women religious.

Brides of Christ: Towards a History of Women Religious in Britain.
One-day Symposium to be held at St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill,
Twickenham, London
Saturday 12 October 2002

We welcome submissions from all disciplines with an interest in the
conference topic.

Please send an abstract of 250 words by 14 February 2002
to Dr Caroline Bowden at cbowden[at]sas.ac.uk
or Carmen Mangion at manwag[at]freeuk.com

Contributions are invited for this one-day, interdisciplinary symposium on
the subject of women religious with particular emphasis on Britain and
Ireland. Academics, postgraduate students, teachers, archivists, and others
are invited to offer short papers, group sessions with chair, or
contributions to workshops on any aspect of the history of women religious
in Britain and Ireland.

We welcome submissions from all disciplines with an interest in the topic.
Please send abstracts of 250 words by Thursday, 14 February 2002 to Dr.
Caroline Bowden at cbowden[at]sas.ac.uk or Carmen Mangion at
manwag[at]freeuk.com.

Further details of the symposium and booking forms will be available from
March from either of the organisers above.

If you would like further details please contact either of the organisers
Caroline Bowden, Centre for Religious
History, St Mary's College or Carmen Mangion, Birkbeck College at the email
addresses above.

For more information about the Centre for Religious History, contact Dr
Chris Durston, durstonc[at]smuc.ac.uk

Thank you,

Carmen Mangion

From: "Molloy, Frank"
Subject: RE: Ir-D 'Cross Dressing'

A follow-up:

Like Dympna, I was intrigued by Carey's incorporation of cross dressing into
the narrative of his Ned Kelly novel. I now know more about the Irish
background of such a practice, thanks to recent postings.

I think Carey's point is what while such things may go in Ireland, or be
used by the Irish in Australia (such as Ned's father), it's not something
which Ned himself, and other true-blue Aussies are going to contemplate!!
(Joe Byrne is the exception) Indeed, I saw this as one of the ways that
Carey separated his hero from Irish ways of engaging in disputes with the
"authorities". Ned is an Australian hero, not an Irish one.

Frank.

- -----Original Message-----
From: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
[mailto:irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, 21 November 2001 17:00
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Ir-D 'Cross Dressing'



From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Dymphna=20Lonergan?=
Subject: Re: Cross dressing

I have just finished reading Peter Carey's 'The True
History of Ned Kelly' in which references are made to
men dressing up as women. This is being spoken here
in the Australian Press in terms of 'cross dressing'.
I suspect it is not, more an old Irish custom. I have
a childhood recollection of the song Éamon an Chnoic
'Ned of the Hills', in which a man on the run is
dressed in women's clothes to help him escape. Then,
of course, there is the famous story of De Valera
escaping from prison in England dressed as a woman
(delightfully played by Alan Rickman in the movie
'Michael Collins').Christy Mahon in John Millington
Synge's 'The Playboy of the Western World' is also
dressed as a woman near the end.

Carey's book talks about groups of men in Ireland
dressed as women. Does anyone know if dressing in
women's clothes was part of the disguise tactics of
groups such as the Whiteboys and Terry Alts (or the
Molly Maguires)?

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

From: Chad Habel
Subject: Re: Ir-D 'Cross Dressing'


>From a lit.crit./post-colonial perspective, it's worth remembering that
Carey is an inveterate liar - even his interviews cannot be trusted. So the
title ("True History") is belied by the Faulkner quote at the beginning:
"The past is not dead. It is not even past."

What I'm suggesting is that (for Carey) the significance of the
"cross-dressing" is not related to the "real", "true", "historical" Ned,
and the Irish or other precedents for such disguise (although they
certainly are there, as respondents have indicated). I think the real
significance of the novel lies in OUR interpretation of the Kelly myth,
what it means for us as individuals and (Irish-)Australians.

So by transgressing gender and other identity boundaries, Carey figures Ned
as a challenge to the (imperialist) masculine nationalist historiography
which sees the story of Australia as the story of only one type of man. (ie
Russell Ward's "The Australian Legend") From this perspective, I'd be
looking for precedents for "cross-dressing" in adventure literature, from
Lawrence of Arabia to Kipling's Kim (who was also Irish), to John Mitchel,
who dressed as a Catholic priest to escape Van Diemens' Land in the 1850s.

I think Carey is re-figuring and re-mapping Australian nationalism and
masculinity from the perspective of the present, rather than making an
objective statement about the past which can be judged by its truth-value.

Chad Habel
Flinders University of South Australia

At , you wrote:
>
>From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Dymphna=20Lonergan?=
>Subject: Re: Cross dressing
>
>I have just finished reading Peter Carey's 'The True
>History of Ned Kelly' in which references are made to
>men dressing up as women. This is being spoken here
>in the Australian Press in terms of 'cross dressing'.
>I suspect it is not, more an old Irish custom. I have
>a childhood recollection of the song Éamon an Chnoic
>'Ned of the Hills', in which a man on the run is
>dressed in women's clothes to help him escape. Then,
>of course, there is the famous story of De Valera
>escaping from prison in England dressed as a woman
>(delightfully played by Alan Rickman in the movie
>'Michael Collins').Christy Mahon in John Millington
>Synge's 'The Playboy of the Western World' is also
>dressed as a woman near the end.
>
>Carey's book talks about groups of men in Ireland
>dressed as women. Does anyone know if dressing in
>women's clothes was part of the disguise tactics of
>groups such as the Whiteboys and Terry Alts (or the
>Molly Maguires)?
>
>Dymphna Lonergan
>Flinders University of South Australia
>Dymphna_1[at]Yahoo.com
>
>

From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Dymphna=20Lonergan?=
Subject: Re: Ir-D 'Cross Dressing' 6

Yes that information on folk custom and ritual rings
true. I went back to a piece I had found on the
derivation of Síle na Gig. A women's fertility cult
was mentioned as a possible origin for the term as
well as mimicry in drama. The Síle na Gig may have
been a man dressed as a woman in folk ritual. The
dressing up may then be associated with power and not
merely as a means of disguise. Certainly Carey hints
at a deeper meaning behind his references to the
dresses.

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

From: D.J.Featherstone[at]open.ac.uk
Subject: Mumming, Luddites and Whiteboys

Hi,

I think Don's remarks are important. EP Thompson discusses the Luddites debt
to Mumming and folk ritual in the Making of the English Working Class, p.
620-1, penguin edition. He also mentions the luddites carrying a 'man of
straw', which suggests possible continuities with rituals such as the straw
boys, which were drawn on by Whiteboys. Though I don't think he makes
anything of these Irish connections, or much of Irish involvement in
Luddism. There is an interesting discussion of the Luddites relation to
mumming, another practice involving cross-dressing/ disguise in:

Simms, N. (1978) 'Ned Ludd's Mummers Play' Folklore Journal lxxxix, no. 2,
166- 178.

I think these practices relate to the way that a lot of eighteenth century
subaltern activity and politics mobilised customary practices such as rough
music/ charivari. These practices might emerge at the intersection of
different subaltern groups, and be used to negotiate solidarities and
antagonisms between them. Thus in the London Port strikes of 1768 there was
much use of rituals like the 'wooden horse', to intimidate scabs or to
prevent cargoes being unloaded/ transported. These practices were used by
many of the different groups which co-operated in these strikes. Thus they
were used by the Newcastle sailors and keelmen, by weavers combinations in
Dublin and Carrick - on- Suir and had similarities with the styles of
actions of the Whiteboys, who have been repeatedly linked to these strikes.
I have discussed and attempted to document these links in my PhD. Again
Thompson doesn't make much of the way that these practices negotiated
relations between diverse groups, in his classic essay on Rough Music in
Customs in Common. There is a fascinating discussion of the use of Rough
Music by a Captain Rock in Montreal in the early nineteenth century in:

Palmer, B. (1978) 'Discordant Music: charivari and white capping in North
America' Labor/ Le Traveilleur, 1, 5- 62.
p. 28.

Dave Featherstone.

From: Elizabeth Malcolm
Subject: The True History of Ned Kelly

A footnote to the true history of Ned Kelly.

On 26 October 2001 a memorial was unveiled at Stringybark Creek in
the Wombat Ranges, north-west Victoria. It carries the names of three
Irish-born policemen, Sergeant Michael Kennedy, Constable Thomas
Lonigan and Constable Michael Scanlan, who were shot dead by Ned
Kelly and his gang on 25 October 1878. Kelly was executed in 1880 for
Lonigan's murder. The plaque was unveiled by Senior Constable Michael
Kennedy of the Victorian Police, the great-grandson of Sergeant
Kelly. Also present was Ned Kelly's great-grand nephew, Lee Olver, an
art teacher at a Victorian high school.

Elizabeth Malcolm


PS.

For those interested, Ned Kelly's own account of himself 'The
Jerilderie Letter' has recently been republished here, edited by Alex
McDermott, Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2001, 84pp.
(www.textpublishing.com.au). This is the document that Carey's book
is based on.

The last piece of Kelly's armour in private hands was acquired this
year by the State Library of Victoria, so now, probably for the first
time since 1880, the armour is complete. This year also the gallows
on which Kelly was hanged in Old Melbourne Gaol was restored and is
open for viewing by the public in the gaol which is now a museum!





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


Cronin & Adair, The Wearing of the Green, A History of St Patrick's Day - we
have been asked for information about this forthcoming book... I know very
little about it - but below is the material from the publisher's web site.

P.O'S.

http://www.routledge.com/

The Wearing of the Green
A History of St Patrick's Day
Mike Cronin, Daryl Adair

ISBN:
041518004X

Pub Date:
28 FEB 2002

Type:
Hardback Book

Price:
£25.00

Extent:
376 pages
(Dimensions 234x156 mm)

Illustrations:
14 b+w photos

'An inventive, delightful, and percipient book which uses the national feast
day as a means to examine the texture and drama of the history of the Irish
wherever they might find themselves.' Thomas Keneally

'The most complete history we are ever likely to have of [St Patrick's Day]
... a work of popular history that is readable, entertaining, challenging,
provocative, well-written and thoroughly researched.' Joseph O'Connor

Every year, all over the world, millions of Irish people, both native and by
descent, together with their non-Irish friends, celebrate the life of a man
who died over 1500 years ago. St Patrick's Day is a boisterous festival of
parading and revelry, dancing and drinking, emblazoned with shamrocks and
harps, and all in emerald green.
The fascinating story of how the celebration of 17 March was transformed
from a stuffy dinner for Ireland's elite to one of the world's most public
festivals is captured for the first time in The Wearing of the Green: A
History of St Patrick's Day.
Long celebrated with more fanfare in New York than in Dublin, the holiday
has been criticized for its loss of religious meaning, ever-increasing
commercialism and embarrassing displays of drunkenness. More recently, it
has become a flashpoint between political divides within the Irish
community. At the same time, however, it has served to unite Irish emigrants
worldwide, whether they be in America, Australia or Canada.


Contents:
1. Introduction 2. Evolution of St Patrick's Day 3. Famine and Exodus 4.
Visualising Ireland: Nationalism and Diaspora 5. Contesting Ireland:
Republicanism and Militarism 6. Proclaiming Ireland: Independence and Empire
7. Modern Times, Troubled Times 8. Reinventing St Patrick's Day 9.
Conclusion


Author Biography:
Mike Cronin graduated with a Ph.D. in history from Oxford University in
1994. He is currently Senior Research Fellow in the History Department at De
Montfort University, Leicester, England. Cronin has a particular interest in
the study of twentieth-century Irish history, as well as the politics of
sport in Irish history. He is author of The Blueshirts and Irish Politics
(1997), Sport and Nationalism in Ireland (1999) and A History of Ireland
(2001).
Daryl Adair graduated with a Ph.D. in history from the Flinders University
of South Australia in 1995. He is currently Lecturer in Sports Humanities in
the Centre for Sports Studies, University of Canberra, Australia. Adair has
a background in Australian history, with a keen interest in public
spectacles. He is author of Sport in Australian History (1997, with Wray
Vamplew), and editor of Sport Tourism (2002, with Brent Ritchie).

Routledge
London ? New York
UK Head Office: 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Email: info[at]routledge.co.uk