From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded on behalf of

Megan Smith
e-mail: msmith[at]grolierclub.org


?To Set the Darkness Echoing?
An Exhibition of Irish Literature, 1950-2000

AT THE GROLIER CLUB
15 May ? 27 July 2002


?To Set the Darkness Echoing,? on view at the Grolier Club 15 May-27 July
2002, illustrates, through poetry, drama and the novel, the extraordinary
creativity of Irish writers in the second half of the twentieth century.

Organized decade by decade, the exhibition will document the careers of
outstanding Irish poets, playwrights and novelists through their
manuscripts, letters, photographs, broadsides, books and art. The exhibition
opens with Samuel Beckett?s manuscript notebook for Waiting for Godot and
proceeds up to the present with manuscript drafts of poet Michael Longley?s
The Weather in Japan (winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry in 2000).

Other items on exhibit show the development of Seamus Heaney?s career,
including manuscript drafts of "Digging," "Personal Helicon," "Death of a
Naturalist," and "North" (on loan from the poet), and one of only fifteen
copies of the rare artist's edition of Toome. The poet's Nobel Prize medal
will also be on view. Also on exhibit will be Brian Moore's early
"character notes" for Judith Hearne; one of twenty-five copies of Thomas
Kinsella's rare early chapbook The Starlit Eye; original work-sheets of the
Belfast Group poets; a collection of poet Medbh McGuckian's manuscript
notebooks, as well as works by poets Paul Muldoon and Derek Mahon; novelists
Edna O?Brien, William Trevor and John Banville; and the playwrights, Brian
Friel and Sebastian Barry.

??To Set the Darkness Echoing:? An Exhibition of Irish Literature,
1950-2000? has been conceived as a sequel to the Grolier Club's 1962
exhibition "The Indomitable Irishry," which focused on Irish literature from
Yeats' Mosada (1886) through Patrick Kavanagh's The Great Hunger (1942).
The current exhibition draws on the extensive Irish literary collections of
the Robert W. Woodruff Library of Emory University, as well as on other
institutional and private collections. It has been curated by Grolier
members James O'Halloran, Ronald Schuchard and Stephen Enniss.

A catalogue to accompany the exhibition is in preparation.

LOCATION AND TIMES: ?To Set the Darkness Echoing? will be on view at the
Grolier Club 15 May through 27 July (with the exception of Memorial Day May
27, and July 4 and 5, when the club is closed). Hours: Monday-Saturday 10
AM ? 5 PM. Open to the public free of charge.

FORTHCOMING EXHIBITIONS AT THE GROLIER CLUB

September 18 - November 23, 2002. Quack! Quack! Quack! Sellers of Nostrums
in Prints, Posters, Ephemera and Books. Curated by William Helfand.
December 11, 2002 - February 1, 2003. The Grolier Club Collects: Books,
Manuscripts, and Works on Paper From the Collections of Grolier Club
Members. Curated by Eric Holzenberg & T. Peter Kraus.


The Grolier Club of New York is America's oldest and most distinguished
society for book lovers. Founded in 1884 by nine of the city's business and
cultural leaders ? all collectors of books and prints ? the Club is
dedicated to promoting enthusiasm for books and the book arts. Four
exhibitions are offered to the public each year, free of charge.

VISIT OUR WEBSITE: http://www.grolierclub.org.

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded On Behalf Of Dr. L.B. Litvack

(Note: I have pated in the full conferen e schedule - since there is much
here of interest to Irish Diaspora Studies...

P.O'S.)


Subject: SSNCI Dublin conference timetable available

Dear friends,

The 2002 conference timetable is now available at

http://www.qub.ac.uk/en/socs/Conf2002-timetable.doc

All good wishes,

Leon

The Irish Revival Reappraised
Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland
All Hallows College Dublin, 28-30 June 2002
Provisional Programme

Friday, 28 June

2 - 3.15 pm Registration and Coffee

The Gaelic Revival

Speakers & Topics:
?American influence on the Gaelic League: inspiration or control?
Úna Ní Bhroiméil, Mary Immaculate College

?From Manuscripts to Street Signs via Séadna: The Changing Role of Literacy
in Irish, 1875-1915
Liam Mac Mathuna, St Patrick?s College Dublin

?The Irish ?Body? revival precedes that of the ?Mind??
Tom Hayes, Limerick

?From Alienation to Allegiance: A Perspective on the Relationship between
Music and Teacher in 19th Century Ireland.?
Mary Stakelum, Mary Immaculate College

4.50 - 6 pm
Surveying the Revivals

Speakers & Topics:
? ?All changed, changed utterly?? Epistemological transformations of Irish
Identity in the Writings of Yeats and Joyce?
Eugene O?Brien, Mary Immaculate College

?Mythmaking and the Origins of Irish Nationalism
Timothy White, Xavier University

Organisations of the Irish Revival
Anthony Jordan


6-7 pm Supper

7-8 pm Plenary Address
Title: W.B. Yeats
Prof. R.F. Foster (Hertford College, Oxford)
Chair: Prof. Robert Mahony (CUA)

Saturday, 29 June

8-9 am Breakfast (for residents only)

8.40-10.30 am
REPRESENTATIONS
Speakers & Topics:
Marketing national sentiment: the visual representation of evictions
Fintan Cullen, University of Nottingham

Politics and the Museum Stage during the Irish Revival
Elizabeth Crooke, University of Ulster

Crafting a National Identity: The Dun Emer Guild, 1902-1908.
Elaine Cheasley Paterson, Queen?s University, Kingston, Canada.

?The Irish Revival and Katherine Frances Purdon?s Portrayal of Rural Ireland
?
Brian Giffin, Bath Spa University College

'Embroidered Spectacle: Celtic Revival as Aristocratic Display'
Janice Helland, Queen?s University, Kingston.

10.30-11 am AGM of SSNCI
11-11.30 am Coffee

11.30 am-1 pm Panel IV
CULTURAL CONTEXTS
:
Speakers & Topics:
?Explaining Uladh: The Promotion of Nationalism and Regionalism in Ulster.?
Marnie Hay, University College Dublin

?Joseph Campbell and the English Avant-Garde?
Alex Davis, University College Cork

A fanatically pro-English Irishman and the Irish revival: Robert Wilson Lynd
and other paradoxes
G. K. Peatling

?Thomas William Rolleston ? The Forgotten Man of the Irish Revival.?
Maria O?Brien



1-2pm Lunch

2.30-3.30pm Abbey Theatre Archival Presentation
Mairead Delaney, Archivist, The Abbey Theatre, Dublin.

3.45-4.15 pm Coffee

4.15-5.30 pm Panel V
NEW TEXTS
Speakers & Topics:
?Anger, Apologies, Statues: the Form of Cultural Controversy?
Lucy McDiarmid

The Child as Rebel in Children?s Literature 1880-1914
Siobhán Kilfeather, University of Sussex

?An Other Irish Renaissance: the Maunsel Poets.?
David Gardiner, Creighton University

5.30-6 pm Address: ?Ten Years of SSNCI?
Speaker: Dr Larry Geary, University College Cork

7-8.30 pm Conference Dinner

Sunday, 30 June
8-9 am Breakfast (for residents only)

9 -10.15 am Panel VI
Speakers & Topics:
?Reappraising the Fall of Wilde and Its Effect on a Literary Renaissance
Playwright: John Todhunter?s Truncated Career in the Theatre?
Christina Hunt Mahony

??The Sneering, Lofty Conception of What They Call Culture:? O?Casey
Re-Appraising the Revival.?
Patrick Lonergan, NUI Galway

?There are compensations in the congested districts for their poverty?: Æ
and the idealized peasant of the agricultural co-operative movement.?
Leeann Lane, Mater Dei Institute Dublin

From Pathology to Social Radicalism: ?Protestant Magic? Reappraised.
Selina Guiness, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology.

10.30 - 10.45 am Coffee

10.45 -11.55 am Panel VII
Yeats, Gregory and Synge

Speakers & Topics:
?A Currency Crisis: Modernist Dialectics in The Countess Cathleen?
Michael McAteer, Carlow College

?Lady Gregory and the Absurd?
Eglantina (Tina) Remport, Budapest

?Synge?s ?Tinker?s Wedding? and the discourse of ?the Irish gypsey.??
Mary Burke, Queen?s University, Belfast

12 - 1 pm Plenary Address
Title: 'Yeats's Fairies and Plunkett's Dairies: The Co-operative Movement
and the Literary Revival'.
Dr P.J. Mathews (St Patrick?s College, Drumcondra)
Chair:

1-2 pm Lunch and departure.


-------------------------------
Leon Litvack
Senior Lecturer
School of English
Queen's University of Belfast
Belfast BT7 1NN
Northern Ireland, UK

L.Litvack[at]qub.ac.uk
http://www.qub.ac.uk/en/
Tel. +44-2890-273266
Fax +44-2890-314615

From: "Bruce Stewart"
Subject: Re: Ir-D Query, Conference Eastern USA?

On conferences

I try to keep a listing of conferences in each annual session on the
Conference Table of the PGIL EIRData site. Go to
www.pgil-eirdata.org

and click

PGIL Bulletin

Then click

Conference Table.

I'd be glad for any news of any international or regional irish studies
conferences not listed there.

Best wishes, Bruce.


Subject: Ir-D Query, Conference Eastern USA?
Date sent: 17 April 2002 06:00
From: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Send reply to: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk



From: "jamesam"
Subject: Conferences request

I've been searching the net for either an Irish Literature, Diaspora, or
Studies conference to attend on the Eastern Seaboard of the US this summer.
Other than ACIS, which takes place during the school year, all I can find is
IASIL, which is in Sao Paulo this year.

I live in New York City and am looking for something closer to home. I'd
appreciate it if anyone could point me to either a clearinghouse on summer
2002 Irish conferences, or is aware of any and could share information.
Thank you in advance.

Slan,

Patricia Jameson-Sammartano

bsg.stewart[at]ulst.ac.uk
Languages & Lit/English
University of Ulster
tel 44 (0)28 703 24355
fax 44 (0)28 703 24963

From: "jamesam"
Subject: Conferences request

I've been searching the net for either an Irish Literature, Diaspora, or
Studies conference to attend on the Eastern Seaboard of the US this summer.
Other than ACIS, which takes place during the school year, all I can find is
IASIL, which is in Sao Paulo this year.

I live in New York City and am looking for something closer to home. I'd
appreciate it if anyone could point me to either a clearinghouse on summer
2002 Irish conferences, or is aware of any and could share information.
Thank you in advance.

Slan,

Patricia Jameson-Sammartano

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded on behalf of

Ailbhe Smyth Director, Women's Education, Research and Resource Centre
University College Dublin Dublin 4, Ireland Tel 00 353 1 716 8571 Fax 00 353
1 716 1195 website www.ucd.ie/~werrc


WERRC [at] UCD

CONFERENCE: BEYOND BOUNDARIES: IRISH WOMEN POETS 2002

FRIDAY 26 April 2002
Newman House, St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2

WERRC has pleasure in inviting you to attend a conference focussing on new
perspectives in Irish women's poetry, bringing together Irish and
international scholars, and Irish women musicians and poets.

The conference, which is co-sponsored by POETRY IRELAND, will take place on
Friday 26 April 2002 in Newman House on St Stephen's Green. Registration
fee: ?17 / ?10 (concessions), including tea, coffee and wine reception. You
can register on the day of the conference, or beforehand by contacting
Jennifer Morawiecki on 01-716 8571 or by e-mail



PROGRAMME

10.30 - 11.45
Breaking Dualist Boundaries in Medbh McGuckian?s Poetry. Auxiliadora Perez,
University Of Huelva, Spain
McGuckian Makes Sense: The Material Aesthetic in Medbh McGuckian?s Work.
Moynagh Sullivan, University College Dublin

11.45 Tea/Coffee

12.00 - 12.45
Not Revolt, but Revolution: Poetry from Northern Ireland. Rebecca Pelan
(UU/WERRC)

12.45 Lunch

2.00 - 2.45
?Wide Open . . . to Mirth and Wonder?: Twentieth-Century Sheela-na- gigs as
Multiple Signifiers of the Female Body. Examples in Poetry and the Visual
Arts. Luz Mar González Arias, University of Oviedo, Spain

2.45 - 4.00
?The Interval of Desire?: Concert/Poetry devised and performed by Liz O?
Riordan (keyboard), Pat Connery playing (whistles, accordian), and with a
reading by Moya Cannon.

4.00 Tea/Coffee

4.15 New Voices for a New Century: Some Recent Poetry
Patricia Boyle Haberstroh, University College Dublin / La Salle University,
Philadelphia

5. 00 Wine Reception

5.30
READINGS by:
Catherine Phil MacCarthy
Paula Meehan
Kate Newmann
Mary O'Malley

7 pm Conference Close

Ailbhe Smyth Director, Women's Education, Research and Resource Centre
University College Dublin Dublin 4, Ireland Tel 00 353 1 716 8571 Fax 00 353
1 716 1195 e-mail website www.ucd.ie/~werrc

From: "Anne-Maree Whitaker"
Subject: Re: Conferences

And then of course there's the 12th Irish-Australian conference in Galway in
June... see

http://www.irishstudies.ie/Australia.html

Dr Anne-Maree Whitaker FRHistS
P O Box 63
Edgecliff NSW 2027
Australia
ph (+61-2) 9356 4929 fax (+61-2) 9356 2065
mobile 0408 405 025
email ahcwhitaker[at]hotmail.com
website http://www.geocities.com/joseph_foveaux

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

I came across this article, which provides an interesting footnote to the
(declining) Bronte industry...

Title: In Patrick Brontë's good books
Author(s): Eric Glasgow
Journal: Library Review
Year: 1999 Volume: 48 Number: 7 Page: 350 -- 353
DOI: 10.1108/00242539910281310
Publisher: Emerald
Abstract: A brief study of the formative influences of the Brontës of
Haworth, Yorkshire, indicates the perhaps somewhat neglected background of
his youthful education, at St John's College, Cambridge, of their famous
father, Patrick Brontë. He was very fortunate, as an impoverished Irish
Protestant, to gain admission to that illustrious Cambridge college, and so
into the Anglican establishment: culturally as well as theologically. The
religious aspects apart, we can observe here the classical books that formed
Patrick Brontë's mind and heart, perhaps in the end rather lost to sight
amidst the bleak Yorkshire moorlands that provided his three gifted
daughters with the inspiration for their famous novels.
Keywords: Biography; History; Private Libraries

EXTRACT...

'Copies of two of his college prizes, from 1802-1806, have survived. They
are Richard Bentley's 1728 edition of the works of Horace, and Samuel
Clarke's 1729 edition of Homer's The Iliad, in a dual Greek and Latin text.
Each of these volumes is embossed with the college coat of arms, and on the
title page of The Iliad, Patrick Brontë added: "My prize book - to be
retained semper [always]". '

P.O'S.


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

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Personal Fax 0044 (0) 709 236 9050

Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

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

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded on behalf of

Jennifer Way


Call for Papers

Multiculturalism and Art in the Colonial/Post-Colonial Age. This session
is being organized under the auspices of the Historians of British Art
for the College Art Association's annual conference scheduled for
February 2003 in New York City. It proposes to explore intersections of
identity construction and colonialism/post-colonialism by examining
links between government funding, nationhood, and hybridity in British
art. The complexity and fluidity of ethnic and racial identities, and
intricate ways they are mapped in relation to concepts and realities of
citizenship characterize the post-colonial age. How do works of art and
artistic activities problematize "quintessentially British" as a
representation issuing from or in relation to projects the British
government fosters to define and unify the cultural status of its
citizens? Can government-sponsored art articulate issues of identity and
nationalism critically? Is there something about an aesthetic of
hybridity that enables artists to both realize and resist
government-based art initiatives and planning? Proposals dealing with
Great Britain or comparing British with other cultural examples are
welcomed, as are papers informed by Ethnic Studies, Post-Colonial and
Post-National Studies, Cultural Geography, or Cultural Studies. Graduate
students are encouraged to submit. Please send a one page abstract with
a cv to Jway[at]unt.edu, Jennifer Way, School of Visual Arts, University of
North Texas, P.O. Box 305100, Denton, TX, 76203. Deadline is May 10.

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

The latest issue of the journal Oral History will be of interest - it is
focussed around 'Women's Narratives Of Resistance' and includes a new
article by Louise Ryan...

P.O'S.

http://www.oralhistory.org.uk/journal/30/1.html#

Volume 30, No 1 (2002)

Abstract

'I'M GOING TO ENGLAND': WOMEN'S NARRATIVES OF LEAVING IRELAND IN THE 1930S
by Louise Ryan
Keywords: 1930s, Irish women, emigration, clothes as metaphors

Abstract: This paper is based on interviews with ten women who emigrated
from southern Ireland to Britain in the 1930s. I discuss some of the issues
involved in interviewing very elderly women about events that happened
almost seventy years ago. The interviews were framed by the interpersonal
dynamics between me - a woman in her thirties who left Ireland in the
1990s - and these women - approaching ninety who left Ireland in the 1930s.
These ten women told me very personal stories of emigration but there are,
nonetheless, common themes that point to some of the wider social and
economic contexts of Irish emigration. Clothes were used as a metaphor for
movement, transition and autonomy but also poverty, dependency and location.


Full Table of Contents
No. 1 Women's Narratives Of Resistance
'A Man's Job'?: Gender Issues And The Role Of Mental Health Welfare
Officers, 1948-1970, SHEENA ROLPH, JAN WALMSLEY and DOROTHY ATKINSON
(abstract)

'I'm Going To England': Women's Narratives Of Leaving Ireland In The 1930s,
LOUISE RYAN (abstract)

Australian Women's Stories Of Work And Play, JANICE NEWTON (abstract)

'Until Death Do Us Part'?: Marriage, Divorce And The Indian Woman In
Trinidad, SHAHEEDA HOSEIN (abstract)

More Than Earnest Diligence: The Academic Performance Of Female
Undergraduates At An Elite British University, JOANNA NORLAND (abstract)

PUBLIC HISTORY:
What Is Public History? Publics And Their Pasts, Meanings And Practices,
JILL LIDDINGTON (abstract)

BOOK REVIEWS:
British Capital, Antipodean Labour: Working the New Zealand Waterfront,
1915-1951, Anna Green
Uomini Di Ferriera: Men of the Iron Mills, Filippo Colombara
Bedlam on the Streets, Caroline Knowles
The Death of Christian Britain: Understanding Secularisation 1800-2000,
Callum Brown
The Scattered Scruffs, Hazel Jacques
Making History: Your Story, Your Life, Tyne and Wear Museums
Ocean Views, Ragged School Museum Trust
The Samuel Lewis Housing Trust Remembered, Southern Housing Group


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

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Personal Fax 0044 (0) 709 236 9050

Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

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

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

The latest issue of Irish Studies Review is now being distributed...

Contact points...

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/09670882.html

http://www.bathspa.ac.uk/school-of-historical-and-cultural-studies/irish-stu
dies-review/


Full Table of contents pasted in below...

Plus many book reviews of interest, including Charles Orser on Freeman,
Ireland and Classical World (looks like a must read...), Andrew Hadfield on
Cunningham, Geoffrey Keating (ditto...), Shaun Richards on 2 theatre books,
Lance Pettitt on 2 film books, Jayne Steel on Sullivan, ed. Women in N.
Ireland, and myself on Irish in Britain (a review previously seen in draft
on the Irish-Diaspora list...)

P.O'S.


Irish Studies Review 1 to 8 of 8
Publisher: Carfax Publishing Company, part of the Taylor & Francis Group
Issue: Volume 10, Number 1/April 01, 2002

Bram Stoker's Lecture on Abraham Lincoln pp. 5 - 27
Robert J. Havlik

Irish Eagleton: of Ontological Imperialism and Colonial Mimicry pp. 29 - 38
Martin McQuillan

The Double Design of Michael Longley's Recent Elegies 'The Ghost Orchid' and
'Broken Dishes' pp. 39 - 50
Ruth Ling

'An emperor or something': Brian Friel's Columba, Migrancy and Postcolonial
Theory pp. 51 - 61
Scott Boltwood

Apocalypse Now: Joyce's 'Cyclops' and Marquez's 'Big Mamma' pp. 63 - 73
Diana Perez Garcia

The Northern Whig pp. 75 - 78

Tom Murphy at the Dublin Theatre Festival pp. 79 - 81

REVIEWS pp. 83 - 118


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

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Personal Fax 0044 (0) 709 236 9050

Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

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

From: Sarah Morgan
Subject: Irish people in USA/Taskforce on Emigration

Dear all,

Bronwen Walter, Breda Gray and I are compiling a report on the Irish
diaspora
for the Irish government's Taskforce on Emigration. Some of you have already
been very generous with advice and information on different aspects of the
Irish abroad. This has been very welcome. But we need some more help and
advice
on matters concerning the Irish communities in the USA.

Specifically, if anyone is working on post-1950 figures on Irish-born
emigrants
in the USA, could you get in touch with either myself (s.morgan[at]unl.ac.uk)
or
Bronwen (b.walter[at]anglia.ac.uk)? In this regard, we are interested in data
relating to numbers, regional patterns, demographic structure and
socio-economic status. We would also be very intested in similar work on
people
of Irish descent in the USA.

A second request is about Chicago and other centres of Irish settlement
outside
of New York, Boston and San Francisco. What voluntary organisations are
there
dealing with recent Irish migrants and/or Irish-American communities? Again,
if
anyone has information about this, please contact either myself or Bronwen
at
the email addresses above.

This is an important opportunity to flag up issues to the Irish
government and we aim to submit a comprehensive report, time and length
constraints notwithstanding. Any advice you can offer on the two issues
detailed here would be very helpful.

Sarah Morgan.

-----------------------
Dr Sarah Morgan,
Irish Studies Centre,
University of North London.
s.morgan[at]unl.ac.uk

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Irish Arts Review, the lavish, expensive but scholarly publication, now has
a web site...

http://www.irishartsreview.com/

which has all the expected publication details and special offers. But
which is itself a scholarly resource - because there is a cumulative index
of past issues, covering

Author Index

Names of Artists and
Craftsmen Index

Subject Index

Which means that Irish Diaspora scholars looking, for example, to the lives
of artists as archetypal diaspora careerists have now a quick way of
tracking Irish Arts Review coverage of any individual. Here's the Aloysius
O'Kelly section...

Aloysius O'Kelly in Brittany, Campbell, J
Double Identity: Aloysius O'Kelly and Arthur Oakley, Campbell, J
Aloysius O'Kelly and The Illustrated London News, Cappock, M
Aloysius O'Kelly in America, Potterton, H
Painters and Illustrators: Aloysius O' Kelly, and Vincent van Gogh, O'
Sullivan, N

Good stuff.

P.O'S.


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

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Personal Fax 0044 (0) 709 236 9050

Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

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

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan


This review originally appeared in HMS Beagle, the online journal whose life
has come to an end - sadly, or appropriately Darwinian, depending on your
point of view...
http://news.bmn.com/hmsbeagle/current

It was re-published in
Endeavour
Volume 26, Issue 1
1 March 2002
Page 33

Books

Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical
by Anthony Bourdain, Bloomsbury, 2001

Reviewed by Dean A. Haycock

Available online 26 March 2002.

Article Outline
Public health officials disagreed.


Mary Mallon was not the only carrier of typhoid fever in the United States
during the past two centuries ¯ there were hundreds ¯ but for many people
who recognize her nickname, Typhoid Mary, she might as well have been. She
quickly became `the carrier' in the public's mind, a luckless disseminator
of disease who refused to admit to others or to herself that she dished out
Salmonella typhi with the meals she prepared for her wealthy and unfortunate
employers.

There is little chance for anyone today to get to know Mallon because, like
most other poor Irish immigrants who lived a century or more ago, she left
few records or writings historians could use to create a personal portrait
of her. Her status as a public health menace, however, is well documented.
The book Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public's Health, by Judith Walzer
Leavitt, Ruth Bleier Professor of the history of medicine, history of
science, and women's studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison
School of Medicine, is a good example.

How can we know what it was like to be a poor, immigrant, middle-aged,
single woman trying to support herself while keeping one step ahead of
public health officials and the police, taking jobs as a cook in private
homes and always leaving when typhoid fever broke out, as it almost
inevitably did? Anthony Bourdain, author of Typhoid Mary, An Urban
Historical attempts to provide as clear a picture of Mary as the scant
historical record, supplemented by his personal experience, allows. That
experience includes many years as a professional chef, a career he has
recounted in Kitchen Confidential, an entertaining memoir of the grittier
side of restaurant cooking.

Bourdain's picture of Mary, a tall, well-nourished, and fiercely independent
woman who was, perhaps understandably, capable of displays of ferocious
temper, is informed by a perspective he understands well ¯ the stressful and
underappreciated life of the lowly cook. This is not the life of the
four-star, celebrity, gourmet chef surrounded by legions of assistants
working in shiny clean kitchens as royalty and other famous, pleased, and
sated personalities stop in to pay their respects. It is a life of heat,
sweat, long hours, burned hands, and hard work.

`Going in,' Bourdain writes of his subject, `I knew only that she was a cook
with a problem. Few, it seemed, knew her real name. "Typhoid Mary," the
moniker she's come to be remembered by, is now an all-purpose pejorative, an
epithet implying evil intent, willful contagion; shorthand for a woman so
foul, so unpleasant, so infectious as to destroy all she touches.... It
helped that I was writing about a fellow cook.'

And it helps the reader to gain a sense of what life was like for poor Mary
Mallon.

She herself may never have experienced the symptoms of the disease she
spread. Typhoid fever has an insidious onset, beginning with common symptoms
like fever, headache, fatigue, loss of appetite, intestinal disturbances.
But the illness can worsen enough to kill 10% of those it strikes if they
are not treated with antibiotics, which of course did not exist when Mary
was employed as a cook in some of the better homes in New York.

Most chronic typhoid carriers are infected in middle age. They may
experience acute or only mild, barely noticeable illness. Some individuals,
like Mary, carry the bacilli without showing any symptoms at all. Unless
such carriers practice conscientious hygiene, including carefully washing
their hands before leaving the bathroom, they can easily spread this
potentially lethal form of food poisoning. Mary swore she never had typhoid
and so could not be responsible for passing on the disease.

Public health officials disagreed.
In the 19th century, typhoid was not uncommon in cities. By 1906, however,
the year Mary obtained a job as a cook for a wealthy New York banker and his
family in their rented summer home in Oyster Bay on Long Island, public
health officials knew that most typhoid outbreaks could be traced to
contaminated water or food. Consequently, as a result of improved
sanitation, typhoid infections were declining.

Oyster Bay was hardly a place where one would have expected a typhoid
outbreak. Yet of the 11 family members and servants in the home where Mary
worked, six developed typhoid fever.

When authorities could find no contaminated water or food, suspicion fell on
Mary. She had left the house about three weeks after the first case of
typhoid appeared. Tracked down, Mary refused to cooperate. She was insulted
by the suggestion that she was the source of disease. But a reconstruction
of her work history indicated that in the decade preceding the Oyster Bay
typhoid episode, similar outbreaks had occurred among seven of the eight
families she had cooked for. In her culinary wake, the toll was 22 sickened
and one dead. Over her lifetime, she is said to have infected at least 33
people, with three fatalities.

Before her run-in with the law, Mary never wanted for work. Bourdain
concludes that she must have been a pretty good cook. He notes that her ice
cream, particularly her peach ice cream, was a favorite of her clients.
Because heat kills the typhoid bacillus, it's likely that some uncooked
preparation ¯ perhaps her popular summer treat ¯ was the means of
transmission.

With the public health finger pointing at her, Mary was tracked down and
incarcerated. She was freed only after she promised not to cook for anyone
again. She tried washing laundry for a while, but soon returned to what she
knew and did best, preparing meals. After infecting more people, this time
personnel in a hospital where she had found employment, she was rearrested.
She was confined for more than a quarter of a century, until her death in
1938, to a small island in New York City's East River.

Mary was the first typhoid carrier to be recognized by public health
officials, but hundreds of others followed. Only Mary attained notoriety,
despite the fact that some other carriers also defied officials by working
in professions in which they threatened the public's health. Some attribute
Mary's misfortune to her status as a single, poor immigrant Irish woman in a
time of considerable prejudice against her kind.

This may not be a book for someone interested primarily in a serious
examination of infectious disease, epidemiology, or public health. Such
readers should turn to Leavitt's Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public's
Health. Bourdain says he himself used that book as a road map to Mary's life
and times. But if you're unfamiliar with Mary's story and are facing a long
line at the airport, Bourdain's brief, highly personal impressions of
Typhoid Mary will fill the time nicely. And whether or not you already know
something about Mary, don't miss the author's first book, Kitchen
Confidential.

This book review was first published in HMS Beagle
(http://news.bmn.com/hmsbeagle) (2002). We thank the authors and HMS Beagle
for allowing us to reproduce it here. If citing the article, please refer to
the original source.

Endeavour
Volume 26, Issue 1
1 March 2002
Page 33

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan


Please circulate widely...

We have been asked to give publicity to
the Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech (SCOTS)
http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/
which aims to build a large electronic collection of both written and spoken
texts for the languages of Scotland.

Further information and posters are available from
Contact
Dr. Fiona Douglas
F.Douglas[at]englang.arts.gla.ac.uk

From the Web site...

EXTRACTS BEGIN>>>
Scotland has a distinctive and colourful language heritage. The present-day
linguistic situation in Scotland is complex, with speakers of Scottish
English, Scots, Gaelic and numerous community languages making up Scottish
society. However, surprisingly little reliable information is available on a
variety of language issues such as the survival of Scots, the distinguishing
characteristics of Scottish English, or the use of non-indigenous languages
such as Chinese and Urdu. This lack of information presents significant
problems for those working in education and elsewhere.

A New Era in Language Studies
Advances in computer technology have now made it possible to store and
analyse very large quantities of information in a way which would have been
unthinkable a few decades ago. As a result, in recent years much research in
the Humanities has focused on the building of large text archives. Such
resources offer exciting opportunities to study language on a broad scale
and with an accuracy which would otherwise be impossible.

A Scottish Perspective
At present there is no electronic archive specifically dedicated to the
languages of Scotland. Such a resource would provide valuable material not
only for language researchers, but also for those working in education,
government, the creative arts, media and tourism, who have a more general
interest in Scottish culture and identity. It would provide important data
about English as used in Scotland, and also Scots, in its many varieties,
Gaelic, and the principal community languages.

It is against this background that plans for the Scottish Corpus of Texts
and Speech (SCOTS) project have been developed, and work is now underway.

How to help
The SCOTS project will create a unique and valuable resource for all who are
interested in the languages of Scotland and in Scottish culture and
identity, but we need your help. The success of the project depends on
obtaining a wide variety of different texts for inclusion in the electronic
SCOTS archive. We are urgently seeking offers of texts, either written or
spoken, for inclusion in the Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech. In the
first instance, we are particularly interested in Scots or Scottish English
texts, but we warmly welcome texts from other language communities. Texts
can be of any type, e.g. short stories, articles, letters, emails, taped
dialogue, poems, in fact any kind of speech or writing. Contributions can be
submitted to the project in any format (electronic, paper copy, audio/video
tapes, etc.).

If you think you can help or if you would like further information about the
SCOTS project, please contact us. Your assistance will enable us to build
this important educational and cultural resource for Scotland.

Contact
Dr. Fiona Douglas
F.Douglas[at]englang.arts.gla.ac.uk
0141 330 3171

EXTRACTS END

P.O'S.


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

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Personal Fax 0044 (0) 709 236 9050

Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/
Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net

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

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan


Garry Cranford, Publisher
Flanker Press
St. John's, Newfoundland

has brought to our attention a new memoir by Theresa Lennon Blunt which
describes Kilkenny of the 1940s.

Published in Canada for the first time, June 2002. There is an excerpt at

www.judasinkilkenny.com

P.O'S.

From the web site...

?Years and years ago when I was still a child in the marble city of my mind,
I sailed the sky in a silver ship with an old man and his goat.?

Myths and legends, ageless rivalries, ghosts from the past and spirits
awakened, these are the playthings of a child?s imagination in the magical
city of Kilkenny, Ireland. In the 1940s, children huddled to glean from
their elders tales of woe and whimsy, and breathless were they who listened,
gleaning what they could and learning what they chose from mistakes made
long ago.

Judas in Kilkenny is the true story of one woman?s coming of age in the
Marble City. A young Theresa Lennon must put aside her childhood dreams in
order to strive for peace in her tumultuous home life, and fight for her own
independence while trying to hide the secrets of a family headed for
destruction. In the midst of chaos came solace, in the form of an old man
who would help her find the truth.

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Please distribute...

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

Subject: ANNOUNCEMENT: BRIDES OF CHRIST

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. A
short version of the notice is given below. If you would like further
details please
contact either of the organisers Caroline Bowden, Centre for Religious
History, St Mary's College at cbowden[at]sas.ac.uk or Carmen Mangion, Birkbeck
College at manwag[at]freeuk.com. Booking forms and programmes can be found at
www.smuc.ac.uk/hscs/rh/brides.html.

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.

Academics, postgraduate students, teachers, archivists, and others are
invited to a one-day, interdisciplinary symposium on the subject of women
religious with particular emphasis on Britain and Ireland. Topics will
range from late medieval to twenty-first century women religious and
encompass a variety of themes including patterns of vocations, the business
of running convents, subjectivities of self, texts, and issues of class.

We will have a work-in-progress session at the end of the symposium. Those
interested in participating in this, please send an abstract of 250 words
by Friday, 31 May 2002 to Dr. Caroline Bowden at cbowden[at]sas.ac.uk or
Carmen Mangion at manwag[at]freeuk.com.

Thank you,

Dr. Caroline Bowden
Carmen Mangion


BRIDES OF CHRIST:
TOWARDS A HISTORY OF WOMEN RELIGIOUS IN ENGLAND AND WALES
12 OCTOBER, 2002
SYMPOSIUM
DRAFT PROGRAMME
9.00 Registration and Coffee
9.30 Introduction and Plenary Speaker
10.30
Session 1 Jill Stevenson (City University of New York)The Barking Abbey
Easter Drama: Alternative Forms of Preaching by Late Medieval English
Religious WomenMiranda Hodgson (Linacre College, Oxford)Aelfric's 'brief
style' and his virgin martyrs: Agnes and AgathaJuliana Dresvina (Moscow
State University)Julian of Norwich and Marjerie Kemp
12.00 Coffee Break
12.15
Session 2 Dr. Virginia R. BainbridgeThe English Bridgettines: Patterns of
Vocation c. 1415-1600Ruth Manning (University College, Oxford)Mary Ward's
Galloping Girls: The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in England,
1611-1749
1.15 Lunch
1.45
Session 3 Grace E. Donovan, L.S.U.La Sainte Union in the Isles 1859-1889: A
Time of Risk, A Chance of SecurityDr. Barbara WalshThe business of running
convents. The influence of women religious within the social fabric of
England and Wales, 1850-1930Carmen M. Mangion (Birkbeck College)Issues of
class: Women's Religious congregations in nineteenth-century England
3.15 Tea Break
3.30
Session 4 Henrietta Blackmore (Regent's Park College, University of
Oxford)The North London Deaconess Institution: The Foundations of the female
diaconate in the Church of England, 1860-1900Yvonne McKenna (University of
Warwick)Irish Women Religious and Subjectivities of the Self
4.30 A Comparative Dimension including Johanna Hughes video on Buddhist
Women Speak on Ordination
5.00 Work-in-Progress session
5.30 Conclusion

From: Brian Lambkin
Brian.lambkin[at]uafp.co.uk

For information...
Subject: FW: Ulster American Heritage Symposium


XIV Ulster-American
Heritage Symposium

A Revolutionary People:
17th, 18th, 19th Century Emigration
Immigration and Migration

June 19 -22, 2002
Rock Hill, SC


Hosted by:
York County Culture and Heritage Commission
York Technical College


Since 1976, the Ulster-American Heritage Symposium has met every two years,
alternating between co-sponsoring universities and museums in Ulster and
America. Its purpose is to encourage scholarly study and public awareness
of the historical connection between Ulster and North America, including
what is commonly called the Scotch-Irish or Ulster-Scots heritage. The
Symposium¹s general theme is the process of transatlantic emigration and
settlement and links between England, Scotland, Ireland and North America.
Its approach is interdisciplinary including history, language and
literature, archaeology, folk life, religion and music.

The main theme for the 2002 meeting at the Baxter M. Hood Continuing
Education Center is the revolutionary ideas of liberty and uncompromising
individual freedom as they continue to determine attitudes in both countries
to this day.

THURSDAY, JUNE 20

Dr. Thomas Blumer,
Edinburg, VA.
?Some Notes on Catawba/Scots-Irish Relations?

Mr. Robert Brockington,
Aiken High School, SC and
Dr. William S. Brockington,
University of South Carolina at Aiken. ?Whose Land Is It Anyway??

Dr. Michael Morris,
University of South Carolina at Aiken.
?Profits and Philanthropy: George Galphin?s Irish Resettlement Ventures?

Dr. David Wilson,
University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
?The Ulster-Scots and Irish-American Nationalism?

Mr. Peter Gilmore,
Carnegie Mellon University, PA.
?Seemingly Revolutionary Physician: Thomas Ledlie Birch and Cultural
Conflict in the Pennsylvania Backcountry?

Dr. Robert M. Calhoon,
University of North Carolina at Greensboro. ?David Caldwell Reconsidered?

Dr. John Young,
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland.
?The Political Context of Covenanting Persecution in Restoration Scotland?

Dr. Kevin James,
University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
?Conflict and Adaptation: Ulster Remonstrant Presbyterianism in British
North America, 1842-1900?

Dr. William Kelly,
Institute of Ulster Scots Studies, University of Ulster at Magee, Northern
Ireland.
?Social and Political Undesirables? Emigration from Ulster to the New World,
1680-1730²

Dr. Robert Heslip,
Ulster Museum, Northern Ireland.
?From Gold to Paper: Regionalisation and Cultural Assumptions?

Dr. Vivienne Pollock,
Ulster Museum, Northern Ireland.
?Strategies for Survival: Patterns of consumption and financial obligation
in Eighteenth-century Ulster?

Dr. Audrey Horning,
Queen?s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.
?Bridging the gap between America?s Scotch-Irish and Ireland?s Ulster Scots
(an archaeological attempt)?

FRIDAY, JUNE 21

Dr. Patrick Fitzgerald,
Centre for Migration Studies at the Ulster-American Folk Park, Northern
Ireland.
??Bringing it all back home?: aspects of return migration to Ireland and the
transmission of ideas 1700-1900?

Dr. Nini Rodgers,
Queen?s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.
?Thomas Greg, the Hearts of Steel and the Atlantic Migration Cycle?

Dr. Brian Lambkin,
Centre for Migration Studies at the Ulster-American Folk Park, Northern
Ireland.
?Thomas Mellon (1813-1908): Archetypal ?Returned Yank???

Dr. Michael Montgomery,
University of South Carolina.
?Nomenclature for Ulster Emigrants and Their Descendants?

Dr. Ted Olson,
East Tennessee State University.
?Robinson Jeffers in Northern Ireland: An American Poet?s Return to the
Roots of His Freedoms?

Dr. Anita Puckett,
Virginia Tech, VA.
?Individual Freedom as Constructed through Variation in (Non) Requests among
Scots Irish Descendants in Appalachia?

Ms. Nancy Sorrells,
Greenville, VA.
?John Glendy: Fanning the Flames of Revolution from the Presbyterian Pulpit?

Mr. Michael Scoggins,
York County Culture and Heritage Commission, SC.
?A Revolutionary Minister: The Life of Rev. Alexander Craighead?

Dr. Katherine L. Brown,
Staunton, VA.
?United Irishmen and 1798 Rebellion Émigrés in Virginia: A Consideration of
the Ulster Participation?

Dr. Mary Mattox Daughtrey,
Marymount University, MD.
?Strategies for US Engagement in Foreign Conflicts: The Case of Northern
Ireland?

Dr. Mícheál Roe and Ms. Sybil Dunlap,
Seattle Pacific University, WA.
?Contemporary Scotch-Irish Social Identities and Attitudes toward the
Troubles in Northern Ireland?

Mr. Stephen Hammack,
Macon, GA.
?Be They Anglo-Saxons or Be They Celts: a Look at Recent Interpretations in
Scots-Irish Historiography?

Mr. Scott Withrow,
Landrum, SC.
?Fractured Families: The Ulster-American as Patriot and Loyalist in the
Carolina Backcountry?

Dr. Carole Watterson Troxler,
Elon University, NC.
?Scotch-Irish among the Loyalists of the Southern Backcountry? What was
that about??

Mr. James E. Hamff,
University of Exeter, England.
?Scots-Irish Immigrant Contributions to Charleston, South Carolina and the
Cause of Independence, 1670-1760?

Dr. Trevor Parkhill,
Ulster Museum, Northern Ireland.
?With A Little Help from Their Friends: Assisted Emigration Schemes
1680-1845?

Ms. Heather South,
York County Culture and Heritage Commission, SC.
?Migration to South Carolina: Rev. William Martin and his Ships of Settlers,
1772?

Ms. Cherel Henderson,
East Tennessee Historical Society, TN.
?A Study of 18th Century Ulster Emigrants?

Ms. Jane Bolen,
Greenwood, SC.
?Effects of Psalmody-Hymnody Controversy in Presbyterian meetings Houses in
18th Century Virginia?

Mr. James Tunney,
University of Abertay, Dundee, Scotland.
?Moonshine Across the Sea: A Comparison of the Legal and Illegal
Distillation of Alcohol in the Americas and Ulster?

Dr. John Buchanan,
New York, NY.
?Andrew Jackson, the Scotch Irish, and the Conquest of the Old Southwest?

Ms. Susanne J. Simmons,
Churchville, VA.
?Samuel Carson?

Dr. H. Tyler Blethen,
Mountain Heritage Center Museum,
Western Carolina University, NC.
?The Scotch-Irish and Appalachia: Images and Realities?

Dr. Warren R. Hofstra,
Shenandoah University, VA.
?A Spurious Race of Mortals: Ethnicity and Scots-Irish Identity in the Civic
Community of Early American Towns?

Dr. Kathleen Curtis Wilson,
University of Ulster, Northern Ireland.
?Blending Immigrant Cultures Revolutionizes Gender Roles and Traditional
Handwork?

SATURDAY, JUNE 22

Ms. Joanne McKay,
University of Ulster, Northern Ireland.
?Arthur Dobbs, Henry McCulloh and the Development of the Colonies,
1725-1765: Theory and Practice?

Dr. R. K. MacMaster,
Center for Scotch-Irish Studies, PA.
?Charleston Merchants and Emigration from Ulster to South Carolina?

Dr. Nina Ray,
Boise State University, ID.
?The Search for Personal Meaning in Legacy Travel to Ulster?

Dr. Jack Weaver,
Winthrop University, SC.
?Whitesides/Crawford Families: Connections with Covenanter families and the
Scotch-Irish?

Ms. Susan King,
Charleston County, SC.
??The Deadly Season? and Its Effects on the Irish Population of Charleston?

Ms. Christine McIvor,
Centre for Migration Studies at the Ulster American Folk Park, Northern
Ireland.
?The Atlantic Voyage in the 19th Century: a Social History of Irish
Emigration before, during, & after the Famine?



Wednesday, June 19
Opening Reception, Museum of York County

Friday, June 21
Conference Dinner, Historic Brattonsville

Author Sessions Thursday
Geneology Sessions Friday & Saturday


GENERAL INFORMATION

REGISTRATION Participation in the symposium is by pre-registration only.
Register by mail with Visa, Discover and Mastercard or FAX (803) 329-5249.
Early bird registration is $145 before June 1, 2002. Late registration is
$185 after June 1, 2002.

Ulster-American Heritage Symposium
York County Culture and Heritage Commission
4621 Mt. Gallant Road
Rock Hill, S.C. 29732

Or Fax to: 803.329.5249

For more information, contact Sam Thomas at 803-684-1189 or
sathomas[at]comporium.net

This project is assisted by the City of Rock Hill Accommodations Tax Program
and The Institute of Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina.

From: "Richard Jensen"
Subject: Fw: Warwick-Haller on Hayes & Urquhart,
_The Irish Women's History Reader_


Alan Hayes and Diane Urquhart, eds. _The Irish Women's History
Reader_. London and New York: Routledge, 2001. ix + 233 pp. Index.
$80.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-415-19913-1; $24.95 (paper), ISBN
0-415-19914-X.

Reviewed for H-Albion April 2002 by Sally Warwick-Haller
, School of Social Science,
Kingston University, England

This is a very worthwhile and much-needed collection of thirty-one
articles on women in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ireland
reproduced from chapters and articles already published. Some of
these have appeared in obscure journals and books with small
print-runs. Thus a major strength of this book is that it brings
together some important research and makes this easily available to
students of women's history. Chapters by some of the leading
academics in Irish women's history are included in this work, which
also offers clear evidence of the flourishing extent of research in
recent decades on Irish women.

It provides a particularly useful research aid for undergraduates,
and suggests topics, ideas and reading for research essays/projects,
as well as offers a general introduction to Irish women's history.
It highlights problems women in Western society faced, while also
emphasizing some of the more unique circumstances in Ireland which
impinged on the position of women. The articles are written in a
form that makes them very accessible to students unfamiliar with
women's history and/or Irish history. The conciseness of each
article (on average five to six pages) means that the book can cover
a wide range of aspects, and by confining the content to the two
last centuries, the reader is offered a coherent work. There are
good introductory statements to each section, with useful
suggestions for further reading. Given the limitations of space for
each article, most represent a clear and cogently argued
contribution. The book is organized into six well-defined areas,
and it is also pleasing to note that a few of the contributors
(including one of the editors) are male.

The opening section on Historiography contains a useful discussion
of women's contributions as historians, the role of feminism, the
usefulness of gender as a defining concept, and the development of
women's history in Ireland. The second section on Politics contains
more articles than the other sections, and leans towards the
twentieth century. It is a pity that room could not have been made
for two potential nineteenth-century inclusions: Brigitte Anton's
article on women in the Young Ireland movement ('Women of The
Nation', _History Ireland_, Autumn 1993) and Janet Te Brake's on
peasant women in the Land League ('Irish peasant women in revolt:
The Land League years', _Irish Historical Studies_, May 1992).

Particularly clear and interesting is the survey of the diversity
and importance of women's contributions to political life and the
strains imposed by the nationalist/unionist question; this opens up
a lot of avenues for research. Also useful is the inclusion of
women in Ulster Unionism, the analysis of Cumann na mBan and the
discussion of the position of women under the 1937 Constitution. The
third section on Health and Sexuality covers a range of topics. They
all complement one another well. The myths about nineteenth-century
Ireland as some idealised sexual age with no sexual relations
outside marriage are attacked in a well-focused analysis; there is a
good introduction to prostitution in Ireland and the work of the
Magdalen asylums; the chapter on the way madness was perceived
raises some important questions. The article on the role of a birth
control clinic in Northern Ireland in the 1930s and the 40s is
interesting, and might have been usefully broadened to include a
comparison with the attempts to introduce birth control into
Southern Ireland (e.g. in the 1960s and 70s). Particularly
well-written and persuasively argued is the chapter which aims to
prove that women were not discriminated against in the Famine years;
some useful illustrative tables are included and are also clearly
analysed.

For a reader on Irish women's history a section devoted to Religion
is essential, and it is gratifying to see this included as the
fourth section, with some useful articles stressing the influence of
and the role of religion as a means of enlarging women's sphere of
influence in Ireland. The contribution on nuns and class divisions
is excellent, coherent and well-researched, with a good balance
between argument and detailed evidence. The inclusion of an
analysis of women and evangelical religion is also a successful
attempt to counter the emphasis on the political aspects of Ulster's
religious history. However, the importance of the Catholic church
in defining the ideal of womanhood must be acknowledged, and this is
explored in the last chapter of this section to highlight the
restrictions women faced in post-1922 Ireland. The fifth section
stresses another essential aspect of Irish women's history:
emigration. It is useful to think about different categories and
time-periods, one of the central themes of the opening article. Here
the problems for researchers are clearly articulated, and also the
need for more research is signalled, while the author acknowledges
that a key question remains unanswered: was emigration a step
towards emancipation? As one might expect, there are chapters on
emigration to Australia, to the United States and to Britain. The
first of these reports on schemes to help orphan girls escape the
Famine, and the discussion raises some useful questions, but does
need more evidence on what the girls did once they arrived. The
chapter on emigration to Britain is focused on the post-1922 period,
and places some emphasis on Ireland's cultural developments in these
years, exploring how the concept of Irishness was bound up with a
woman's ties with her family and her role in the home. It might be
appropriate to mention at this point that had space allowed, it
would have been interesting to have had a separate section in the
book (in addition to the six categories) devoted to the subject of
women and cultural nationalism.

The sixth and final section (perhaps the strongest section in this
book) is on Work and covers a wide range of subjects. The opening
chapter is an overall survey of patterns of female employment from
the eighteenth century onwards, with a clear analysis of the impact
of industrialisation and changes in agricultural employment. This
contribution has managed to incorporate a lot into a few pages
without losing the clarity of the argument. The chapters on women
in rural Ireland (from the small farmer and landless labourer
classes) and in domestic service in Dublin do lean a little towards
description, but, nonetheless, give insight into the grim lives
these women led. A particularly useful article is the one on women
and trade unions, which, though a survey of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, does offer a good, coherent analysis. The
argument moves easily from section to section and is a good example
of effective editing. Also acknowledged as 'work' is involvement in
philanthropic activities (with the emphasis on the impact of the
religious divide) and housework. This latter offering is an amusing,
cogently argued, well-structured article which explores the link
between housework and power. A chapter on women and the professions
could have been a useful addition, but some topics had to be
omitted. Women and education is another area that could have
received more acknowledgement in this book, though a good, concise
discussion of women and higher education was incorporated into the
Politics section.

The overall quality of the offerings in this book is high, and they
reflect good scholarship and reporting of research. There are a
couple of articles, however, where no references/end-notes have been
included: the chapters on Irish suffrage and on the emigration of
Famine orphans. The problems of editing and slimming down from the
orginal texts must be acknowledged, and generally, this has been
very well done. However, there are some instances where the argument
could flow more smoothly. The articles on Catholic sisterhoods in
twentieth-century Ireland and on women's contributions to the
Oireachtas debate in the Irish Free State are two main examples, but
both contain interesting information and ideas. All in all, this
book offers a thought provoking, readable and informative insight
into a wide range of subjects. Questions are raised, issues are
signalled. Above all, this collection plugs a big gap in Irish
women's history and will be an essential text for students of
women's history.

Copyright (c) 2002 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net
permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit,
educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to
the author, web location, date of publication, originating list,
and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For other uses
contact the Reviews editorial staff:
hbooks[at]mail.h-net.msu.edu.

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Longterm members of the Ir-D list will know that we have been trying for
yearsd to get the ball rolling on a cumulative bibliography on Irish Women
and the Irish Diaspora.

Helen Fallon seems to have got the shuttle weaving...

P.O'S.


Forwarded on behalf of
Helen Fallon
Helen.B.Fallon[at]may.ie
Subject: Women - Canada/Ireland connections


Dear Patrick,

I wonder if you could give me any assistance with a query.

I am compiling a bibliography of materials relating to the topic of Irish
Women in Canada and any material that might have an Ireland/Canada link
which specifically relates to women.

I have carried out similar work relating to Irish Women and emigration
after the famine. That bibliography can be accessed from
http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/WomensStudies/Bibliographies/
Click on the link to Emigration of Irish women during the 19th
century.

I plan to also make my current research available via the web.
My initial trawl through the literature has yielded little which is very
specific to Irish women in Canada or Irish/Canadian connections with a
gender slant. There is obviously lots about Irish emigration to Canada but
it doesn't deal with gender aspects.
So far i've come across:

1. Conway, Sheelagh
The Faraway hills are green: voices of Irish women in Canada. Toronto:
Women's Press, 1992.
Houston, Cecil J. & Smyth, William J. (1990)

2. Jane White: Townswoman in Upper Canada. In Cecil. J. Houston & William
J. Smyth
Irish emigration and Canadian settlement: patterns, links and letters.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

3.McLoughlinn, Dympna (1995) Superfluous and unwanted deadweight: the
emigration of Nineteenth century Irish pauper women. In Patrick O'Sullivan
(ed) Irish women and Irish migration (Irish World Wide, V. 4, pp. 66-88)
London, Leicester University Press.
Includes a case study of a scheme whereby 33 women from the South County
Dublin workhouse were sent to Quebec in 1863

4. Shortall, Sally
Canadian and Irish farm women: Some similarities, differences and comments.
Canadian Review of Sociology & Anthropology, May93, Vol. 30 Issue 2, p172,
19p

I wonder if members of the list are aware of any other journal articles,
chapters in book's, books, or any other resources that relate to links
between Ireland and Canada in relation to women.

I'd appreciate any suggestions/details of other publications/contacts you
might be able to suggest.

Many thanks,

Helen Fallon




Helen Fallon,
Deputy Librarian,
N.U.I. Maynooth,
Co. Kildare,
Ireland.

Tel: +353 1 7083880
Fax: +353 1 6286008
http//www.may.ie/library/

Dear Patrick,
Thanks for the email; I'm very interested in your projects. Yes, there is
going to be a connection. To date I haven't pursued the mental illness
connection that far, though I have a strong interest in eugenics,
immigration control, and basically all forms of population control
(miscegenation laws, for example). I'd love to discuss further any
potential connections.

By the way, ironically enough I went to school for a year in Bradford
(1987-1988) as part of my university's International Program. I took
classes in the environmental sciences/geography dept. Your email has
brought back many happy memories (Revis Barber Hall, the pub across the
street from Barber Hall, etc.).

Please keep in touch,
Jim


At 02:43 PM 04/29/2002 +0100, you wrote:
>Dear James,
>
>We have a number of projects here looking at issues around the Irish and
>mental health, this presumed connection between being Irish and being
>mentally ill. If you need detail and reports, you can have them...
>
>But... To cut a long story short... Much of the existing literature would
>suggest that the Irish are a group who are peculiarly susceptible to
>psychiatric illness. My own suggestion is that the Irish are a group who
>are peculiarly vulnerable to psychiatric intervention...
>
>In this discussion I have long thought that there were background issues
>that we were not getting our heads round - that much of what we are looking
>at involves intellectual or philosophical fossils, or reesearch fossils,
>left over from earlier centuries. Specifically, eugenics and immigration
>control.
>
>It looks to me as if you are ahead of us on this. Your article in
>Geographical Review - mention of which I came across entirely by accident -
>certainly looks worth chasing down.
>
>But perhaps you could reassure me... Is there a mental health/psychiatric
>dimension to you work? And does what I have said so far make any sense to
>you?
>
>Patrick O'Sullivan
>
>
>--
>Patrick O'Sullivan
>Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
>
>Email Patrick O'Sullivan
>Email Patrick O'Sullivan
>Personal Fax 0044 (0) 709 236 9050
>
>Irish-Diaspora list
>Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/
>Irish Diaspora Net Archive http://www.irishdiaspora.net
>
>Irish Diaspora Research Unit
>Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
>University of Bradford
>Bradford BD7 1DP
>Yorkshire
>England