From Patrick O'Sullivan

A date for your diary...

On Wednesday 23 October the University of Bradford is celebrating the
creation of the Universe - the aim is 'an evening to celebrate the richness
of 21st Century Science that underpins our understanding of the age of the
Universe and
would be appreciated by Archbishop Ussher...'

Archbishop James Ussher famously calculated that the first day if creation
was 23rd October 4004 BC - for more on this, see...

http://www.arm.ac.uk/home.html

http://www.arm.ac.uk/history/ussher.html

Apparently it was Sir John Lightfoot who tried to be even more precise, and
placed the time of creation on that day at nine o'clock in the morning.

However, regular readers of the Irish-Diaspora list will know that we
regularly have a discussion about the correct date of the Battle of the
Boyne... And Ussher, too, like a good protestant, used the Julian calendar,
and not the popish Gregorian - which we now use. So the universe was
created - I am working this out in my head - on November 5th.

Which, happily, is still marked in Britain, with bonfires to celebrate the
life of a brave Yorkshireman...

So, that's another date for your diary...

P.O'S.


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

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
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Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/
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Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Social Sciences and Humanities
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

From Patrick O'Sullivan

Christie Davies' latest study of humour is announced...

Forwarded on behalf of Transaction Publishers...

P.O'S.


The Mirth of Nations
Christie Davies

The Mirth of Nations is a social and historical study of jokes told in the
principal English-speaking countries. It is based on extensive use of
archives and other primary sources, including old and rare joke books.
Davies makes detailed comparisons between the humor of specific pairs of
nations and ethnic and regional groups. In this way, he achieves an
appreciation of the unique characteristics of the humor of each nation or
group.

A tightly argued book, The Mirth of Nations uses the comparative method to
undermine existing theories of humor, which are rooted in notions of
hostility, conflict, and superiority, and derive ultimately from Hobbes and
Freud. Instead Davies argues that humor merely plays with aggression and
with rule-breaking, and that the form this play takes is determined by
social structures and intellectual traditions. It is not related to actual
conflicts between groups. In particular Davies convincingly argues that
Jewish humor and jokes are neither uniquely nor overwhelmingly self-mocking
as many writers since Freud have suggested. Rather Jewish jokes, like
Scottish humor and jokes, are the product of a strong cultural tradition of
analytical thinking and intelligent self-awareness.

The volume shows that the forty-year popularity of the Polish joke cycle in
America was not a product of any special negative feeling towards Poles.
Jokes are not serious and are not a form of determined aggression against
others or against one?s own group. The Mirth of Nations is distinguished by
its breadth and range, and its wealth of information. In each case Davies
seeks explanations for jokes in terms of the relative social locations of
joke-tellers and the targets of their jokes, or in terms of the cultural
traditions of those groups that tell jokes about themselves. He discredits
past explanations of these sets of jokes based on the supposed needs,
drives, and anxieties of individuals.

The Mirth of Nations is readable , written with great clarity and puts
forward difficult and complex arguments without jargon in an accessible
manner. Its rich use of examples of all kinds of humor entertains the
reader, who will enjoy a great variety of jokes while being enlightened by
the author?s careful explanations of why particular sets of jokes exist and
are immensely popular. The book will appeal to general readers as well as
those in cultural studies.

Christie Davies is professor of sociology at the University of Reading,
England, where he teaches the sociology of morality and the sociology of
humor. He has been a visiting lecturer in India and the United States, and
has taught in Australia. He is the author of books on criminology, morality
and social change, risk and regulation and humor, and his work has been
published in journals and as book chapters worldwide .

Transaction Publishers New Brunswick New Jersey USA
ISBN 0-7658-0096-0 Cloth 360 pp $39.95/£33.50 July 2002
The Mirth of Nations
Christie Davies

Transaction ISBN 0-7658-0096-0
Cloth 360 pp; $39.95/£33.50; July 2002

Online Orders Receive a 20% Discount at www.transaction.com

ORDER Worldwide (except as indicated):
Transaction Publishers
390 Campus Drive
Somerset, NJ 08873
USA
Tel: (Toll free-US only) 888-999-6778
or 732-445-1245
Fax: 732-748-9801
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In UK and Europe:
Transaction Publishers (UK)
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London WC2E 8LU
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7 240 0856
Fax: +44 (0)20 7 379 0609
E-mail: orders[at]eurospan.co.uk

In Australia:
Footprint Books Pty Ltd.
Unit 4/92A Mona Vale Road
Mona Vale, NSW 2103
Tel: 61 02 9997 3973
Fax: 61 02 9997 3185
E-mail: info[at]footprint.com.au

From Patrick O'Sullivan

For information...

P.O'S.


-----------------------------------------------------------
His Brother's Keeper:
Peter Kavanagh a staunch guardian of poet's legacy
By Stephen McKinley

Patrick Kavanagh was a poet. His younger brother Peter is something else --
a fighter. He has one cause: his poet brother's legacy.....

See full text at:
http://www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=11652

He has one cause: his poet brother's legacy. And he justifies this role with
one very simple, unassailable statement: "Nobody knew him except me."
Kavanagh the younger, who has lived in the U.S. since the 1950s, is his
brother's greatest champion, guardian and protector. A professor of modern
poetry in the U.S. for many years, he now lives in New York City, a place
that, he says, is the "only civilized city I have ever found."

Reply-To: "Brian McGinn"
To: "Irish Diaspora Studies"
Subject: Francis Burdett O'Connor - an Australian connection

Following up on earlier Ir-D posts on Francis Burdett O'Connor--son of
Roger, nephew of Arthur, brother of Feargus--who is well-remembered in his
adoptive Bolivia as an Irish (and sometimes British--see first link, below)
hero under Bolivar and founder of the distinguished Bolivian family of
O'Connor D'Arlach:

General O'Connor:
http://www.hammond.swayne.com/independ.htm#General%20O'Connor


There is also James Dunkerley's previously-mentioned essay:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Occasional papers from The Institute of Latin American Studies, London
http://www.sas.ac.uk/ilas/pub_occasional.htm

The Third Man: Francisco Burdett O'Connor and the Emancipation of the
Americas
James Dunkerley (1999) No. 20

Francisco Burdett O'Connor came from a Cork family prominent in the radical
politics of the British Isles during the 'era of revolutions' from 1780 to
1850. His uncle, Arthur, was a leader of the United Irishmen and his brother
Feargus was the most famous of the Chartists. Francisco himself left Dublin
for Venezuela in 1819 and never returned to Europe. He served as a cavalry
commander for Bolivar and Sucre and then as chief of staff of the united
patriot army in Peru for the last phase of the War of Independence. Settling
in 1827 in Tarija, Bolivia, O'Connor spent the rest of his long life
farming, with occasional periods of military service. This brief biography,
delivered as an inaugural lecture in June 1999, reviews a singular life in
terms of its family context and the modern debates on globalisation and
political change. O'Connor left a rich set of diaries, selections of which
the Institute plans to publish in the future.
-------------------------------------------------------------

which is also accessible in Dr. Dunkerley's book, Warriors and Scribes
(Verso, 2000)

see review by Antoni Kapcia, including comments on the O'Connor essay, at
http://www.ihrinfo.ac.uk/reviews/paper/kapcia.html


Dr. Larry Geary (History, UCC) has also written extensively on this
fascinating family:

See esp. items 5 and 6 in his bibliography:
http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/depts/history/faculty/geary_details.html

and presented a paper at a recent NUI-Galway conference:

From Connerville. County Cork to Connorville, Van Diemen's Land:
http://www.irishstudies.ie/Australia.html

Dr. Geary's 1990 article in the Journal of the Cork Historical and
Archaeological Society (thanks to Larry Geary and Paddy O'Sullivan for
providing a hard copy) traces the O'Connor family diaspora to Australia via
an 1836 letter from Francis Burdett, in Tarija, Bolivia, to his half-brother
Roderic O'Connor who had settled and prospered in Van Diemen's Land. It
seems that Roderic was a poor correspondent; there is no evidence that
Francis Burdett ever received a reply from Australia.

A number of unflattering references to Roderic's activities in Tasmania can
be found in Robert Hughes, The Fatal Shore (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1987).


FYI, I copy below an undated O'Connor query from a Rattigan family history
site in Australia:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~lumac/researchers.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Ginni Woof School of History and Classics University of Tasmania at
Launceston Ginni Woof
I am researching a family who came to Tasmania in 1824, direct from Ireland.
There was the father, Roderic O'Conor, of Dangan, Co. Meath, but originally
from nr. Bandon, Co.Cork, and his two sons, Arthur (b.c. 1810) and William
(b.c. 1812), but no mother. According to Roderic O'Connor's
will, the boys were also known by the surname Rattigan, although they never
used this in Tasmania, and were always known as O'Connor. It has always
been assumed that Rattigan was their mother's name
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Published works cited have been added to the updated and corrected version
of my 'Irish in South America' bibliography as found on the supplementary
IrishDiasporaNet site at http://www.irishdiaspora.net/

(At Paddy O'Sullivan's request, the original version posted on the main
Irish Diaspora Studies site at http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/ has been
left--warts and all--as it first appeared in 1999).


Brian McGinn
Alexandria, Virginia
bmcginn2[at]earthlink.net

From Patrick O'Sullivan

Tis item seems worth bringing to the attention of our North American
colleagues - in case they know anyone who wants to do some research in
Britain...

For information...

P.O'S.


Subject: IHR Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation Research in the Humanities,
2003-2004
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 10:07:48 +0100
Humanities, 2003-2004
From:


**Apologises for Cross-Posting**

The IHR Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation Research in the Humanities,
2003-2004.

PhD Candidates registered at North American universities are invited to
apply for the IHR Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation Research in the
Humanities. These Fellowships are administered by the Institute of
Historical Research in London and are funded by the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation. The Fellowships are intended to help students registered as
doctoral candidates at a North American university to work in original
source materials in the humanities in the United Kingdom and to help
doctoral candidates in the humanities to deepen their ability to develop
knowledge from original sources.

There are two types of Fellowships, the Pre-Dissertation Fellowship
Programme and the Dissertation fellowship Programme. The Pre-Dissertation
Fellowships are offered for a maximum of 2 months (from June to September
2003) and are intended to help candidates to draw up a dissertation
proposal, candidates must have completed their coursework and examinations
prior to the start of the Fellowship. The total value of these fellowships
will be $3,000 each.

The Dissertation Fellowships are offered to candidates who are working on a
dissertation, which has already been formally approved. These fellowships
will last for one year and will run concurrently with the academic year,
i.e. from 1 October 2003 to 30th September 2004. The total value of these
fellowships will be $20,000 each.

The deadline for applications is 13th January, 2003.

For further assistance, information and application forms please do not
hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Nicola Cowee
Fellowship Assistant

Fellowships Office,
Institute of Historical Research,
Senate House,
Malet St, London, WC1E 7HU

Direct Line: 020 7862 8747
Fax: 020 7862 8745

From Patrick O'Sullivan

This item might interest Northern Ireland specialists... The view of
Northen Ireland from London - the theme perhaps given away too abruptly by
the series title, Siberia, UK.

People with access to the web will be able to listen to and record the
programmes at...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/

P.O'S.

The radio
Siberia, UK
Sundays 22 September - 13 October, 10.45pm (Repeated Tuesdays 8.45pm)
Thirty years ago, after fifty years of devolved administration, the Stormont
parliament was prorogued, and a new cabinet post, Secretary of State for
Northern Ireland, established.

This was to be regarded as the worst job in British politics, and in this
series four former incumbents - Merlyn Rees, James Prior, Peter Brooke and
Mo Mowlam - relate their experiences of life in 'Siberia, UK.'

From Patrick O'Sullivan

Subject: Irish settlement patterns in Massachusetts

This Boston Globe piece may be worth sharing while it can still be accessed
for free...

BOSTON GLOBE
Census: Region tops in Irish roots

By Kimberly Atkins, Globe Staff Correspondent, 9/19/2002

A newcomer to Milton would not be bowled over by the town's sense of Celtic
pride. Unlike many Boston streets, Adams Street is not dotted with Irish
restaurants and pubs. On St. Patrick's Day, locals don't dye the Neponset
River green like Illinoisans do to the Chicago River. Nor is there a large
parade like the one in New York.


'On St. Patrick's Day, I usually head to Quincy' for its festivities, said
James Mullin, a Milton selectman and town clerk.

Yet Milton is as Irish as it gets in Massachusetts. More than 38 percent of
the residents are of Irish descent, according to US Census data. That is the
highest percentage of any community in the state.

In fact, the top 21 Irish communities in Massachusetts are all south of
Boston. More than 27 percent of Norfolk County residents and 26 percent of
Plymouth County residents are of Irish descent, compared to a state average
of about 20 percent. And in many south of Boston towns, including Braintree,
Marshfield, Scituate, Pembroke, Weymouth, and Abington, more than a third of
the residents have Celtic roots.

Although Boston is traditionally thought of as one of the most Irish places
in the country, only 16 percent of its residents claim Irish ancestry,
according to census data.

The large numbers in the suburbs are a result of natural migration patterns
out of Boston, said Thomas H. O'Connor, the university historian at Boston
College, and a resident of Braintree (which is the second most Irish town in
the state)....

See full text at
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/262/south/Census_Region_tops_in_Irish_root
s+.shtml

[Note that your own line breaks might fracture this long web address...]

From: "Brian Dooley"
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: 2nd generation Irish in Britain

Brian Dooley [brianjdooley[at]hotmail.com]

Dublin

Dear All,

I'm currently writing a book about second generation Irish people in Britain
and their involvement in The Troubles. Can anyone put me in touch with any
second [or third] generation Irish people in Britain who were arrested under
the PTA? [I'm specifically interested in whether police officers referred to
suspects' accent/place of birth during questioning.]

I'm also interested in talking to second generation Irish people in Britain
who joined the British Army and were sent to Northern Ireland.

If you know of anyone from either group who might be prepared to talk to me
I'd very much appreciate it if you could have them contact me.

Thanks
Brian Dooley [author of 'Black and Green: The Fight for Civil Rights in
Northern Ireland and Black Ameerica' Pluto, 199

From: "Sarah Morgan"
To:
Subject: Fw: Three Messages

These three notices were posted on the ethnopolitics list and may be of
interest for some list members.

Sarah Morgan.

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Stefan Wolff"
To:
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 12:41 PM
Subject: Three Messages


(1) Conference on Powersharing and Democracy
(2) Peace Prize for Research on Diasporas as Transnational
Peace-builders
(3) UNHCR Study on the Implications of the Presence of Refugees for
Host-countries and Communities

================================

Conference on Powersharing and Democracy
November 8-10, 2002
Windermere Manor Conference Centre
The University of Western Ontario

Details, including paper abstracts and registration guidelines at
http://www.ssc.uwo.ca/polysci/necrg/powersharingdemocracy/)

Programme
Friday, November 8

8:30 - 9:00
Registration

9:00 - 9:15
Welcome and Opening

9:15 - 10:15
Keynote Address
Brendan O'Leary
Director, Solomon Asch Center for the Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict
University of Pennsylvania

What we know and don't know about the democratic sharing of power in
ethnically divided societies

Introduction: Ronald Wintrobe, Department of Economics, UWO

10:15 - 10:45
Coffee

10:45 - 12:15
Session 1
Implementation and Institutions (I)
Florian Bieber
European Centre for Minority Issues, Belgrade
Power-sharing after Yugoslavia: Functionality and Dysfunctionality of
Power-sharing Institutions in Post-war Bosnia, Macedonia and Kosovo

Patrick J. O'Halloran
Canadian Armed Forces, Ottawa
Ethnonationalism and Post-conflict State-building: a comparison of the
peace processes in Bosnia and Kosovo

Chair: Maya Shatzmiller, Department of History, UWO

12:15 - 1:30
Lunch

1:30 - 3:30
Session 2
Implementation and Institutions (II)
Elizabeth Dauphinée
Department of Political Science and Centre for International and
Security
Studies, York University
Imagining Intervention: assessing the impact of peace operations in
Bosnia

Gordon Peake
Oxford University and INCORE, University of Ulster
Different Peace, Different Police: political context and the
implementation of police reforms

Ian S. Spears
Department of Political Science,University of Windsor Power-Sharing As a
Conflict Avoidance Strategy: cases from the African experience

Chair: David de Guistino, Griffiths University, Brisbane

3:30 - 4:00
Coffee

4:00 - 5:30
Session 3
Minority Rights

Kristin Henrard
Department of International and Constitutional Law, University of
Groningen
Power-sharing and rights protection as supplementary avenues to prevent
and manage ethnic conflict in ethnically divided states: a case study of
post-apartheid South Africa

Steven I. Wilkinson
Department of Political Science, Duke University
Conditionality and ethnic conflict moderation

Chair: Joanna Harrington, Faculty of Law, UWO

6:00 - 7:00
Bar (Room B)

7:00
Conference Dinner (Room A)

Saturday, November 9

9:00 - 10:30
Session 4
Northern Ireland

Landon E. Hancock
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University
Peace From the People: identity salience in Northern Ireland's peace
process

Stefan Wolff
Department of European Studies, University of Bath
Between Stability and Collapse: internal and external dynamics of
post-agreement institution-building in Northern Ireland

Chair: TBA

10:30 - 11:00
Coffee

11:00 - 12:30
Session 5
Political Parties

Matthijs Bogaards
Department of Politics, University of Southampton
Power-Sharing in South Africa: the ANC as a consociational party?

Farid El Khazen
Department of Political Science, American University of Beirut Political
Parties in Post-war Lebanon

Chair: Bruce Morrison, Department of Political Science, UWO

12:30 - 2:00
Lunch

2:00 - 3:30
Room A
Session 7
Federations

John McGarry
Department of Political Studies, Queen's University Multi-national
Federations

Reeta Chowdhari Tremblay
Department of Political Science, Concordia University
Afghanistan: multicultural federalism as a means to achieve democracy,
representation and stability

Chair: Robert Young, Department of Political Science, UWO

3:30 - 4:00
Coffee

4:00 - 5:30
Room A
Session 8
Limits of Power-sharing

Tozun Bahcheli and Sid Noel
Department of Political Science, King's College and UWO Power-sharing
for Cyprus (again)? EU accession and the prospects for re-unification
under a Belgian model of multi-level governance

Marie-Joëlle Zahar
Departément de Science politique, Université de Montréal Power-sharing
and Civil Conflict Resolution: a critical review

Chair: TBA

7:00
Dinner (TBA)

Sunday, November 10

10:00 - 12:00
Room A
Roundtable Discussion
Power-sharing in Theory and Practice

Panel:
Florian Bieber
John McGarry
Brendan O'Leary
Marie-Joëlle Zahar

Chair: TBA

12:00
Lunch and conclusion of conference

================================

The Cambridge Foundation for Peace (CFP) announces a call for papers
that explore the role of diasporas as transnational actors in preventing
violence, crisis response, or post-conflict peacebuilding. The
competition is open to public policy professionals and academics
(including graduate students). A $3000 prize will be awarded for the
winning proposal, which will be evaluated by CFP's Officers and Program
Staff. The CFP peace prize will recognize papers that contribute to
systematic research on diasporas. In particular, the paper should
concentrate on identifying and specifying the mechanisms by which
diasporas can be engaged in policy planning and implementation. The
regional and/or country focus is open, but preference will be give to
Southeastern Europe and/or the Eastern Mediterranean.


The CFP, whose Advisory Board members include the economists Amartya Sen
and John Kenneth Galbraith, Queen Noor of Jordan, and Greek Foreign
Minister George Papandreou, will distribute the winning paper to its
worldwide audience of policymakers, political leaders, academics, and
journalists.

For information on submission format and deadline, please visit the CFP
website at www.cfp-web.org. All materials submitted will become the
property of the CFP and the winning paper will be posted as a working
paper on our website.

================================

UNHCR's Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit (EPAU) is undertaking a
study on the implications of the presence of refugees for host countries
and communities. EPAU is particularly keen to review the contribution
that refugee-related programmes and assets make to local development in
countries of asylum, especially in situations where refugees have
repatriated and vacated their camps and settlement areas. How, for
example, are the facilities constructed for refugees (camp sites,
schools, health centres, water supply systems, etc.) used once the
refugees concerned have returned to their country of origin?

EPAU would be very intersted to hear from anyone who might have
undertaken similar research or who has relevant comments to make on this
issue. Please contact Melissa Phillips at .

PLEASE NOTE: THE ABOVE MESSAGE WAS RECEIVED FROM THE INTERNET.

On entering the GSI, this email was scanned for viruses by the Government
Secure Intranet (GSI) virus scanning service supplied exclusively by Cable &
Wireless in partnership with MessageLabs.

GSI users see http://www.gsi.gov.uk/main/new2002notices.htm for further
details. In case of problems, please call your organisational IT helpdesk.

From Patrick O'Sullivan

Just to acknowledge Brian Dooley's query - below.

I know that a number of Ir-D members are looking at these themes - but maybe
research is at that delicate stage when it cannot easily be shared.

Generally I think the study of the Irish in Britain is grotesquely
underdeveloped.

On the PTA best is still most probably Paddy Hillyard, Suspect Community,
Pluto, 1993.

On other issues there is Enda Delaney, Demography State and Society,
Liverpool U.P. 2000 - though that covers only 1921-1971. This is a very
impressive book, which I would like to discuss at length at a later date.
Has anyone seen any reviews?

P.O'S.


- -----Original Message-----

To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Ir-D 2nd generation Irish in Britain



From: "Brian Dooley"
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: 2nd generation Irish in Britain

Brian Dooley [brianjdooley[at]hotmail.com]

Dublin

Dear All,

I'm currently writing a book about second generation Irish people in Britain
and their involvement in The Troubles. Can anyone put me in touch with any
second [or third] generation Irish people in Britain who were arrested under
the PTA? [I'm specifically interested in whether police officers referred to
suspects' accent/place of birth during questioning.]

I'm also interested in talking to second generation Irish people in Britain
who joined the British Army and were sent to Northern Ireland.

If you know of anyone from either group who might be prepared to talk to me
I'd very much appreciate it if you could have them contact me.

Thanks
Brian Dooley [author of 'Black and Green: The Fight for Civil Rights in
Northern Ireland and Black Ameerica' Pluto, 199

From Patrick O'Sullivan

I think that it is possible to detect, in Irish government negotiations and
communications with the British government over the past decades, a certain
bafflement that European treaties and Council of Europe policies seem to be
ignored in discussion of the needs of Irish people in Britain...

In that context, this Council of Europe publication looks interesting...

P.O'S.


Subject: Communique - Council of Europe Publishing


NEW TITLE !
-----------------------------------
Collection of Treaties - Migration ; Summaries and texts of treaties (2002)

-----------------------------------
The presence of migrants in the member States of the Council of Europe is an
important social and economic phenomenon. Migrants are an integral part of
modern European society; their legal situation, however, may vary from one
member State to another.

The fact that migrants cross frontiers and that their place of work and
residence changes should not have a negative impact on their rights and
should not lead to social or economic marginalisation. This is why equal
treatment between migrant workers and nationals is the principle which the
Council of Europe supports both for migration purposes and for social
protection. Access to social rights for all is in fact one of the pillars
of the social cohesion strategy which the Council of Europe is committed to
promoting.

According to statistics, 80% of foreigners living in Europe are originally
from another member state, and it is in the interest of Council of Europe
member states to ratify and sign the conventions set out hereafter which are
intended to protect migrant workers and, in general, people who move around
in Europe for a variety of reasons.

The objective of this publication is to reply to the growing interest of the
specialists and the general public in questions concerning the rights of
migrants by making available the main texts published by the Council of
Europe in this field.

This compilation does not pretend to be exhaustive, but contains the
essential texts which the Council of Europe has produced on rights for
migrants.


ISBN : 92-871-4939-9
Format : 16x24 cm, 150 pages
Price : 23 E / 35 US$

Available from Council of Europe Publishing - 67075 Strasbourg Cedex
E-mail : publishing[at]coe.int
Visit our site : http://book.coe.int
Fax : +33 (0)3 88 41 27 80

To place an order directly : http://book.coe.int/GB/CAT/LIV/HTM/l1893.htm

From Patrick O'Sullivan

I guess this is a recent reading item...

I spent the last few days slumped on the couch, in a flu-ish, listless
state - first of the winter viruses...

And was struck by the number of Irish Diaspora Studies items in the
weekend's Guardian. I guess that ordinarily I would not have read it so
carefully...

So, first... There were extracts from a new book by Blake Morrison, Things
My Mother Never Told Me, published by Chatto & Windus...

The extracts are now on the Guardian web site...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,794855,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,797000,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,797637,00.html

'After his mother died, Blake Morrison gradually discovered the woman he'd
never known - the family history in Ireland that she'd always kept hidden
and her seemingly doomed love affair with his father, which was revealed in
a wartime correspondence...'

So, immediately we can put Morrison's book alongside Richard White,
Remembering Ahanagran - my curmudgeonly review of White appeared on the
Irish-Diaspora list and in Irish Studies Review, 10, 2, 2002.

There is the same search for the Irish mother's lost Irish history. The
Irish heritage is hidden by the father's surname. I have never heard Blake
Morrison described as anything other than 'celebrated Yorkshire poet' - he
is a very able poet who has drifted into a sort of meditative commentary
journalism. There is maybe an Irish in Britain/Irish in USA. Morrison/White
contrast. Morrison's mother abandons religion, career, family - for love...
Her Irishness is not part of the Morrison family history - until the poet
re-discovers it...

The two mothers are nearly neighbours in Kerry. One goes west, the other
goes east. The two writers are the products of improbable war-time love
affairs...

P.O'S.


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

Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
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Department of Social Sciences and Humanities
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

From: Maureen E Mulvihill
mulvihill[at]nyc.rr.com
Subject: "Dublin's Inky Brotherhood" - a posting

Apologies for cross-posting.

26 Sept 2002

Dear colleagues -

Subscribers to Irish Diaspora, Eire-18-L, c18-L, the SHARP list, and EIRData
may be interested in seeing my recent piece in the current (Fall, 2002)
issue of the Irish Literary Supplement, titled, "Dublin's Inky Brotherhood,"
which discusses new work on early-modern Irish print culture, esp Mary
Pollard's magisterial "Dictionary of Members of the Dublin Book Trade,
1550-1800" (London: Bibliographical Society, 2000; 675 pp., with four
contemporary city maps & simple genealogies of prominent family firms).

An extended essay of about 3500 words, the piece received a lovely (if not
forceful) presentation by Irish Literary Supplement publisher, Robert G.
Lowery. I'll be mailing an inscribed offprint to some of you.

In the spirit,

Maureen E. Mulvihill
Fellow, Princeton Research Forum
Princeton, NJ
mulvihill[at]nyc.rr.com

From Patrick O'Sullivan

Other items from the Guardian of September 21...

A very favourable review by Howard Brenton of Terry REagleton, Sweet
Violence: The Idea of Tragedy. 'An extraordinary achievement and, though
at times hell to read, an inspiration...'

Portrait of the Week is Matthew Brady's photograph of General William
Tecumseh Sherman...

A brief note on Thaddaeus Connellan's edition of the Book of Proverbs - here
in the Guardian dated 1815, and the name Thaddaeus mis-spelt. Apparently in
this volume the Irish peters out, and the Hebrew is simply the English
transliterated into Hebrew characters. Which is sort of intriguing...

(Connellan is mentioned by Cornelius Buttimer,
http://www.celt.dias.ie/publications/cat/k/k3/essay7.html - but I know of no
study of his work and his typefaces.)

Neil Bartlett's favourable review of Will Self, Dorian: An imitation.
Self's version of Wilde's Dorian Gray ois very Self-ish, putting in asll the
matter that Wilde only hints at...

Julie Myerson's review of Anne Enright, The Pleasures of Eliza Lynch. Yes,
another novel about Eliza Lynch, 'Regent of Paraguay' - 'recalls Messrs
Aquirree and Fitzcarraldo more than once...'

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 Social Sciences and Humanities
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

From: "Sarah Morgan"
To:
Subject: Blake Morrison

To add to Paddy's recent posting: Radio 4 is serialising Blake Morrisons
book next week, beginning on Monday at 09:45 every week day and then
repeated the following day at 00:30. List members outside the broadcast
reach of radio four should be able to pick it up from the web-site
(www.bbc.co.uk/radio4).

Sarah Morgan.

From: "Edmundo Murray"
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Irish Diaspora Back to Ireland?

In 1919, about a third of the Buenos Aires city residents were born in
Europe and the Middle-East. Nationwide, the immigrants were changing the
cultural landscape of the country and creating a unique ethnicity within
Latin America. Among them, the Irish and their families were already
established in the most productive areas of the pampas, owned a significant
portion of the land, and managed an even higher share of the national
agricultural business.

A century later, hundreds of Irish-Argentines are signing a petition to the
Irish authorities 'to become Irish nationals themselves, or in the
alternative to be able to seek and obtain employment in Ireland as if they
were Irish nationals'. They join the current exodus of Argentineans who try
to run away from the chaotic situation characterised by a severe lack of job
opportunities, social welfare, and physical security. What happened?

The article reproduced below, _Homeward Bound_, written by Mike Geraghty and
published today by The Buenos Aires Herald, does not answer in full that
complex question. However it describes the action of the Irish-Argentines
within the context of our historical lack of commitment as a community to
cope with the political and social life of Argentina. In addition to this,
it arises the sensitive topic for the Irish officers and politicians of
making concessions to the Irish-Argentines, that would 'also have to be made
to all the Irish Diaspora which is so big it could become a very powerful
lobby in Ireland.'

Edmundo Murray
Université de Genève
-----------------------
qq
Homeward Bound

It is easily understandable that Ireland and Argentina have always held each
other in high regard. After all Argentina received a large 19th-century
Irish immigration which made an important contribution to Argentine life.
Argentina was also the first state in the world to receive an Irish
diplomatic representation when in 1921 Lawrence Ginnell traveled to
Argentina, at that time one of the world?s leading nations, to obtain formal
recognition for the new Irish Free State. Argentine Foreign Minister,
Honorio Pueyrredón, officially received Ginnell on different state occasions
and it was the Irish Free State?s first big diplomatic victory.

In recent times Argentine politicians have visited the land of the Celtic
Tiger to investigate how its successful policies could be applied in
Argentina and Ireland?s top representatives have come to Argentina on state
visits. In 1995 Mary Robinson, former Uachtarán or President, became
Ireland?s first head of state to visit Argentina, and in July 2001, Bertie
Ahern, Taoiseach or Prime Minister, became Ireland?s first head of
government to do likewise. Both visits received huge media coverage and
Robinson and Ahern won the hearts of Irish Argentina in their very different
ways. She is charmingly correct but somewhat aloof, while he is an extremely
charismatic politician who has the ability to make people think in two
minutes they have known him for a lifetime. Irish Argentines, who are said
to number between 300 and 500,000, told him they would vote for him if they
ever returned to Ireland. Now they may have the opportunity to do just that
if the following petition, signed by almost 1,500 people, to his government
prospers:

?We, the undersigned, citizens of the Argentine Republic?, draw the
attention of the Government of Ireland to the following?Irish men and women
emigrated to the River Plate?when economic and social conditions in Ireland
encouraged emigration and Argentina offered opportunities for a better
life?now Argentina does not allow the descendents of those emigrants?to
wholly fulfill the dreams of their forefathers?so their great-grand
children?request the Minister of Justice, Equality and Law Reform of Ireland
to allow Argentine-born great-grand children of Irish nationals to become
Irish nationals themselves, or in the alternative to be able to seek and
obtain employment in Ireland as if they were Irish nationals?.

As is to be expected the great majority of the petitioners are Irish
Argentines from the A of Abbott to the Z of Zapata, Zaragoza and Zuccarino
who are all Irish on the distaff side. For a long time Irish passports were
once little more than a type of quaint curiosity to be talked about at
weekends at home, at parties and at clubs. Now however these passports are
a matter of life and death. They are the key to a promising future, whether
real or imagined, in Europe far away from the huge unemployment,
frustration, uncertainty and insecurity in present day Argentina.

The idea of the petition is the brainchild of Patricia ?Patsy? Hynes
O?Connor, a very brave and determined Irish Argentine lady from Mendoza, the
land of sunshine and good wine in western Argentina. She is the
grand-daughter of Irish immigrants who came here in the late 1880s, settled
successfully, raised big families and became as Argentine as any Argentine.
Nevertheless they never forgot the faraway land of the shillelagh and the
shamrock.

Patsy Hynes herself has an Irish passport, but her children do not, because
in 1986 the Irish government restricted citizenship to the grandchildren of
immigrants. Great-grandchildren were no longer directly eligible for
citizenship unless their parents had obtained it before 1986. Unfortunately
Patsy had taken out Irish citizenship after 1986 and was now in the
unenviable position of being entitled to something herself while her
children were not. To make matters worse, she has no use for it and her
children have.

Nevertheless where there is a law there is a loophole and the Irish
government?s 1986 legislation left open the option to request exceptions to
the new legislation on the grounds that ?the Minister of Justice, Equality
and Law Reform has power to dispense with the conditions in whole or in
part, in certain circumstances that are defined by law, e.g. if the
applicant is of Irish descent or has Irish association?. So in 1990 Patricia
began writing to the Irish government to request citizenship for her
children who fulfilled the necessary requirements.

The wheels of government grind incessantly but slowly and 12 years and six
Irish Ministers of Justice later the answers from Dublin to Patricia Hynes
in Mendoza were still the same: ?your correspondence has been forwarded to
the Citizenship Division and is receiving attention. A reply will issue to
you in the near future?. In Ireland ?the near future? is a enticing
concept, but it has an entirely different and somewhat kafkian meaning in
Argentina where the situation has worsened beyond all imagination in 12
years and Argentines were besieging foreign embassies to get out of the
country if and while they could.

Some months ago a new website www.irlandeses.com.ar, set up by Jorge Fox, a
well-known Irish Argentine, ran a feature on Patsy and her petition
immediately reached a mass audience. It struck a chord of sympathy among
Irish Argentines who were in the same situation. Support began to pour in
from Argentina and all around the world: Ireland and Europe, USA and Canada,
all over South America and from as far away as Japan. Patsy soon had almost
1,500 signatures to add onto her own!

?We are simply asking Ireland?, she says, ?to show us the same hospitality
today that Argentina showed its 19th-century Irish immigrants?, ?and we need
it now more than they did then?. ?My children are university graduates and
if they go abroad?, she added ?I want them to go legally?. ?The request is
perfectly understandable?, says Alec Quinn, President of the Buenos Aires
Hurling Club, ?given Argentina?s present level of social and labor chaos as
well as its total lack of political and personal perspective?. In Tokyo,
Japanese-Irish Association member, Takeshi Moritaku, whose Canadian
girlfriend is of Irish descent, says he ?supports the idea unconditionally?.
?I think Ireland?s immigration policy is shameful?, said Garrett McGuckian
from Dublin, ?we were once famous for our hospitality which now shines in
its absence. It galls me Ireland no longer has the open arms it is known
for, both for those less fortunate than ourselves, such as the East
Europeans everyone is so scared of in Ireland, and more obviously, for those
descended from other Irish people?.

On 2 September Patsy emailed the complete list of almost 1,500 signatures to
Leinster House, the seat of Irish government in Dublin and, lo and behold,
the response was immediate: ?your recent email concerning the claiming of
Irish Citizenship has been forwarded to Michael McDowell, T.D., Minister for
Justice, Equality and Law Reform, who has responsibility in this matter and
he will respond directly to your enquiry.? Two opposition politicians -
Fine Gael?s Paul McGrath T.D. and Labor?s Seán Ryan T.D. ? have already
asked Bertie Ahern to state his position on the issue. Stephen Rawson,
Press officer of the Irish Green Party, took a different tack. He wished the
petitioners well, told them sending hundreds of emails was not the best
methodology, and asked them to refrain from sending any more to him!

The ball is now well and truly in the Irish government?s possession. It has
no reason to change its immigration policies which are already much more
generous than most modern states. Nevertheless since Ireland is now an
immigrant country, it would be well advised to give the petition extra
special attention. Argentines are first-class immigrants and have done
extremely well in their chosen ways of life wherever they have gone. Irish
Argentines are no exception. They are well educated, young people from good
homes where they learned the value of honesty, hard work, and perseverance,
qualities which Argentines possess in abundance, but regrettably are given
little scope to use. At the same time the issue puts the Irish government
between a rock and a hard place. If concessions are made to Irish Argentina,
they will also have to be made to all the Irish Diaspora which is so big it
could become a very powerful lobby in Ireland.

It is ironic that the descendents of Argentina?s 19th-century Irish
immigrants did not become a strong political lobby here to influence the men
and their policies that perpetrated one of modern history?s great economic
and social tragedies which turned Argentina from one of the 19th-century?s
richest nations into one of the 21st-century?s poorest. It is equally
ironic they do not blitz the government of Argentina with emails to demand
their rights be respected. If the governments of Argentina did what they
are supposed to do, nobody would have to emigrate anywhere.

Michael John Geraghty

I. TEACHTA DÁLA

Teachta Dála or T.D. is an Irish politician?s most prized title. It is
Gaelic and is the equivalent of M.P. or Member of Parliament. Ireland is a
bilingual country. The official languages are Gaelic and English. Although
Gaelic is not commonly used in everyday life, it is used by government. The
Parliament is the Oireachtas and is divided into the House of
Representatives or the Dáil and the Senate or Seanad. The Constitution is
the Bunreacht. The President is the Uachrarán, the Prime Minister is the
Taoiseach, and the vice Prime Minister is the Tánaiste. When the
19th-century Irish immigrants came to Argentina, they brought the Gaelic
language with them. In 1900 it was on the school curriculum of St. Patrick?s
school in Mercedes, the ?capital of the Irish pampa?, and 78-year old Johnny
Rattagan recalls his father?s learning it and teaching it to his children.
Indeed the odd Gaelic word is still found mixed into the English of older
Irish Argentines. MJG

From Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded for information...

P.O'S.

- -----Original Message-----

Invite

You are cordially invited to a special reception for the Friends of the
James Joyce Centre to celebrate the generous gift of an Egoist Press edition
of Ulysses by the family of the late John Boyd and the opening of a new
exhibition Ulysses and Censorship. Please inform any of your readers that
you think might be interested in attending.

Wednesday 2nd October 2002
6.30pm
James Joyce Centre
35 North Great George's Street
Dublin 1

RSVP + 353 1 8788547
email: joycecen[at]iol.ie

The Boyd Gift

Bound at Joyce's specific request in the colours of the Greek flag, the
original 1922 edition of Ulysses has become something of a 20th Century
cultural icon, the literary equivalent of the Coke bottle or Model T Ford.
As is well known, Joyce had enormous difficulty bringing his masterpiece to
print. Sylvia Beach, proprietor of the Paris based Shakespeare & Co., made
it possible for a bound printed edition to be presented to Joyce on his
fortieth birthday, February 2nd, 1922.

The initial print run of 1,000 numbered copies was followed later in the
same year by a second run commissioned by the London based Egoist Press,
this time consisting of a run of 2,000 numbered copies. These so called
'second editions' are highly prized, particularly when it is taken into
acount that some 500 were subsequently seized and destroyed by U.S. customs.
A signed copy, in good condition, can attract prices in the region of
?50,000.

All this helps put into perspective the remarkable generosity of the Boyd
family, who have placed on permanent loan at the James Joyce Centre the copy
of Ulysses that was owned by Belfast playwright John Boyd, who sadly died
earlier earlier this year. The book was purchased at Shakespeare & Co. in
1935 by a then twenty three year old Boyd. The book is numbered 748, and
belongs to the October edition, published by John Rodker, Paris for the
Egoist Press in London.

James Joyce Centre

From Patrick O'Sullivan

A recent reading item...

I have much enjoyed Thomas Duddy, A History of Irish Thought - and do
recommend it...

Duddy does very well something that is extraordinarily difficult - he
presents other people's ideas concisely, clearly and sympathetically...

The chronological range is impressive - the book begins with 'the Irish
Augustine', and his rationalist approach to miracles, and ends with Philip
Pettit, and his defence of the possibility of freedom (the res publica as
opposed to the Republic...) Philip was formerly my neighbour here in
Heaton, Bradford - and last heard of at Princeton, USA, after a stint at the
ANU, Canberra, Australia. (It is worth doing a web search for Philip
Pettit, for there are are many essays and comments on his work out there in
the philosophy networks.)

Most useful to the historian, I think, will be chapters 6, 7 and 8 - on
Irish thought in the late C18th and throughout the C19th, especially the
Irish engagement with utilitarianism and political economy. I did not
find - and did not expect to find - much notion of a continuity within Irish
thought. More an Irish engagement - as individual thinkers arose or
circumstances allowed. An Irish engagement with wider currents. So perhaps
I read the book as a corrective to attempts to present one style of thought
as more distinctivly 'Irish' than another.

In that context, for me, perhaps the most interesting part of the book is
Duddy's Preface - his account of the objections he has met to his project
(...'surely there isn't such a thing as Irish thought...'), and his reply to
those objections. The book is, of course, itself an Irish Diaspora Study -
as the career of Philop Pettit, for one, demonstrates. As Duddy says: 'In
a country with a history of settlement, displacement and emigration, it is
to some degree a matter of accident whether even those with the longest
Irish roots are born in Ireland or elsewhere...'

Further information and contact points, below...

P.O'S.


Publisher contact points
www.routledge.com
http://www.routledge-ny.com/


From Read Ireland...

http://www.readireland.ie/booknews/issue204.html

A History of Irish Thought by Thomas Duddy

Paperback; 23.40 Euro / 20.50 USD / 18.50 UK; Routledge, 362 pages

This book is the first complete introduction to Irish thought. It presents a
wide-ranging and inclusive survey of the varieties of Irish thought and the
history of Irish ideas against the backdrop of political and social change.
The author offers a clearly written, engaging and stimulating exploration of
the philosophers, polemicists, ideologists, satirists, scientists, poets and
political and social reformers who have come out of Ireland. Beginning with
the thought of an anonymous seventh-century monk, the Irish Augustine, the
reader encounters among others John Scottus Eriugena, Robert Boyle, George
Berkeley, Jonathan Swift, Francis Hutcheson and Edmund Burke on the way
through to the twentieth century that includes W.B. Yeats and Iris Murdoch.
This book rediscovers the liveliest and most contested issues in the Irish
past, and brings the history of Irish thought up to date. It will be of
great value to anyone interested in the Irish culture and its intellectual
history.

Also of interest...

http://www.thoemmes.com/irish/epist.htm

Irish Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century: Epistemology and Metaphysics
Selected and Introduced by Thomas Duddy, National University of Ireland,
Galway
6 Volumes



- --
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 Social Sciences and Humanities
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

From Patrick O'Sullivan

Another recent reading item...

Nessa Winston
The Return of Older Irish Migrants
an assessment of neds and issues

Irish Episcopal Commission for Emigrants &
The Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs

No ISBN is given, the publication is dated 2002, and the publisher is Irish
Episcopal Commission for Emigrants, Dublin. This is an A4 (European paper
size) booklet of some 50 pages.

The starting point for this work is most probably some meetings between the
Episcopal Commission, Irish local authorities and the Republic of Ireland's
Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs. (Enda Delaney has
shown, in the period that he studied, that the possible return of the
radical young was a recurring nightmare of the Irish Government - we can
hazard that this has been replaced by a new fear, the possible return of the
needy old...)

From those meetings it was decided to use the visit, in September 2001, of
some 100 elderly Irish from Britain to a seminar/holiday at Ballinrobe, Co.
Mayo. 49 of these Irish elders were interviewed, to get some measure of
their views about the possibility of return, and their needs should they
return.

This work thus falls into 2 interwoven parts - 1. a very able summary of
what is known from existing research on the needs of the elderly Irish in
Britain, 2. comment on that summary based on the interviews with the 49.
Incautious use of the words 'survey' and 'sample' should not mislead us -
this is a non-representative, self-selected group, already in contact with
Irish organisations, and with males over-represented. I am not convinced
that estimates and extrapolations thereafter can be strongly defended - but
there is certainly a flavour here of discussions, and wonderings, that are
taking place within Irish families and within groups of Irish elders.

The accompanying press release, which has also been sent to me, ends with
the suggestion that there is 'a strong social justice case for supporting
the relocation of those migrants who wish to return...', calling in aid an
estimate of the remittannces, the financial support sent back to their
families by the migrants. The figures here are taken from The Men Who built
Britain, A History of the Irish Navvy - by Ultan Cowley. (Cowley is not a
source in the main text - which I guess was complerted before his book
appeared...)

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 Social Sciences and Humanities
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

From: "Richard Jensen"
To:
Subject: the diaspora strikes back

This story ran on page C1 of the Boston Globe on 9/30/2002.

Irish invasion
Boston area proves solid ground for incubating Emerald Isle companies

By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff, 9/30/2002

Adrian Moore's office on Boylston Street isn't much to look at. It's
clean and comfortable enough, but features little more than a desk, a
chair, and a phone.

But what really matters to Moore is location - no surprise considering
that his company, Causeway Data Communications, makes geographic
software for use in property tax assessments. On Boylston Street,
Moore is exactly where he wants to be: in the heart of New England and
3,000 miles from his native land of Northern Ireland.

'For us, the natural market is North America,' Moore said. And, sure
enough, Moore's already doing a joint venture with Patriot Properties
Inc., a property assessment company in Lynn. With a foothold in the
United States, Moore thinks he can sell his software to hundreds of
local governments throughout the nation.

Moore's not the only ambitious Irish entrepreneur on Boylston Street.
Among his neighbors is a maker of medical equipment, a producer of
educational software, and a software company that makes programming
tools for digital signal processing chips. They're ambitious, they're
aggressive, and thanks to help from the government of Northern
Ireland, they're here.

The Boylston Street office is an incubator, a halfway house for
growing Northern Irish companies run by Invest Northern Ireland, a
program of the Belfast government. Companies spend a few months or a
year here, gain a foothold in the local market, then move into offices
of their own.

There's another incubator like it on Federal Street, established by
the Irish Republic's economic development campaign, Enterprise
Ireland. On Federal Street, you'll find Irish makers of software for
factory automation, financial services, and education, all hoping to
put down roots in America.

With any luck, they'll join the Irish companies that already have
found their fortune here. These include Baltimore Technologies, a
Dublin firm with offices in Needham and a major producer of network
security software, and Iona Technologies, another Dublin firm with a
global leadership position in Web services software and a US
headquarters in Waltham.

The Irish like it here in Greater Boston, and so do their technology
companies. You'll find about 60 of them, large and small, scattered
throughout the region. It's a spillover from the high-tech
transformation of the Emerald Isle, once a region of farming and heavy
manufacturing but today a center of computer software and
biotechnology.

With only about 5.5 million people in the Republic and Northern
Ireland, the market is too small to support world-class tech
companies. 'The markets overseas are massive compared to the markets
in Ireland,' said Leslie Morrison, CEO of Invest Northern Ireland.
And while continental Europe is attractive to Irish firms, 'the US is
the technology market of the world,' said John Maybury, chief
executive of Eurologic Systems, a Dublin maker of data storage
devices.

It's hardly a surprise that Irish companies have gravitated to Greater
Boston. In Boston proper, 16 percent of citizens are of Irish descent,
and some of the city's south suburbs are more than one-third Irish.
Still, some Irish business people say this had little to do with their
decision to settle here.

'It means there's a lot of Irish pubs,' laughs Mark McCusker, chief
executive of TextHELP, whose Northern Irish company makes software for
students suffering from dyslexia. But McCusker adds, 'it was never
discussed as part of the criteria for being here.'

Instead, McCusker and the other firms were mainly attracted by
Boston's strong academic and scientific communities, and the
relatively short distance between here and Ireland. The island's just
3,000 miles and five time zones away, compared to a 5,000-mile commute
to Silicon Valley. A Boston employee can phone the Dublin or Belfast
office in the morning and find his colleagues still at their desks.

The easy commute also appealed to Eurologic's Maybury. Founded in
1988, Eurologic used to focus on the European computer market. But
that began to change in 1996, when the company opened an office in
Acton. Today, Eurologic sells 90 percent of its output to American
companies like Dell Computer and the Tewksbury-based video editing
firm Avid Technology Inc.

Did Boston's Irish charms win him over?

'It's irrelevant, really,' said Maybury.

Still, the Irish-American connection hasn't hurt. It's the reason why
renowned Boston software entrepreneur John Cullinane became interested
in Irish tech companies. Cullinane's parents had emigrated from
Ireland in 1929. But Cullinane had never visited until a decade ago,
after he'd sold the company that had made him wealthy, Cullinet
Software.

'I had been asked to go and speak to 41 software entrepreneurs,'
Cullinane said. 'I wasn't looking forward to it. I thought they
wouldn't be any good. I met with them and I was very impressed.'

He'd discovered something that would soon become known to the rest of
the world: Ireland was becoming one of the best-educated countries on
earth. Thanks to massive investments in university education, both the
Republic and Northern Ireland were cranking out hundreds of scientists
and engineers each year.

American technology companies had already begun to catch on. A major
cut in corporate tax rates in the Republic made the country an
excellent spot for offshore manufacturing. Hundreds of leading
companies, including Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp., and Hopkinton-based
EMC Corp., began setting up shop there. That, in turn, produced
hundreds of Irish engineers with real-world business experience and a
desire to launch businesses of their own.

Troubled by the seemingly endless violence between Catholics and
Protestants in Northern Ireland, Cullinane decided that economic
growth and full employment were the best possible weapons against the
extremist groups.

So he began sharing his knowledge of the US market, hosting a series
of conferences in Boston to encourage venture capitalists to invest in
Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

In addition, Cullinane put some of his own money into promising Irish
firms. One of his early picks was Iona, which makes Web services
software that lets computers interact with each other, without human
intervention.

Founded in 1991 by three faculty members at Dublin's Trinity College,
Iona last year earned revenues of $180.7 million, making it Ireland's
biggest homegrown software company. The company has 900 employees in
40 offices worldwide. But by far the company's biggest international
presence is in America. 'We do 60 percent of our business in the
US,' said chief executive Barry Morris.

The company's first US office opened on the West Coast in 1995; it was
little more than a fax machine. The next year, Iona decided the US
market was too important for such half-measures, and opened a proper
office in Waltham. Indeed, for most practical purposes, Iona's Waltham
office is now the company's global headquarters. Morris and many of
his key people are based here. 'You can think of it as being a
US-based company from an operating point of view,' Morris said.

But with New York so near, why choose Boston? Partly because of the
region's strength in computer technology, but also because, to Morris
and many of his employees, it feels like home. 'A lot of people who
have sort of grown up in Europe find Boston to be a good,
European-resonant kind of place,' he said. 'It feels more like
Europe than other cities in the United States.'

It feels more like Ireland, too. 'The fact that there are a lot of
Irish people in Boston who have an Irish view of the world helps us to
maintain that Irish culture,' said Morris.

For Will McKee, chief executive of Amtec Medical, being Irish in
Boston sometimes acts as a business lubricant. 'I'm not saying it
makes a deal,' he said, 'but it helps the introduction.'

Amtec is a Northern Irish company that makes medical monitoring
equipment. The company also runs an incubator of its own, designed to
help small American makers of medical equipment to sell their products
in Europe. McKee will help them get their products certified and help
them find customers, in exchange for an equity stake in the American
companies. 'Boston and Massachusetts is one of the strongest centers
for small- to medium-sized businesses in the medical field,' said
McKee, who's already lined up a few prospects.

Even the present economic slump isn't having much impact. 'Actually,
we're more busy than we were,' said Renee Finn, regional vice
president for Enterprise Ireland, because so many Irish companies
serve market niches that remain relatively strong.

So when the current batch of incubator companies move into Boston
offices of their own, there will be another batch of Irish
entrepreneurs eager to fill the vacant space.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray[at]globe.com.