From:
Subject: county loyalties


I think Paddy Wall's observations on Donegal men's choice of work
colleagues in Scotland touches on the root of this whole issue.

Until relatively recent times Ireland's population was predominantly
rural, as we all know, and survival in the country depends even now ( as
I know personally, being a Dublin 'blow in' amongst the 'Old English' of
the South Wexford coast)) on a delicate balance of independence and
community support.

The former calls for qualities such as self-reliance (both physical and
emotional),stamina, and resourcefulness. The latter hinges on trust and
dependability. It follows, then, that for any collective effort -
whether for the purposes of work, sport, politics, or community
enhancement, people need to know who they are dealing with.

The rundale system of land distribution, whereby the fields of the
townland were sub-divided to allow everyone access to both good and poor
land in equal measure,fostered an intimate knowledge of others in the
community not only in name but also in nature.

Thus a good husbandman or a good worker was as noted for his qualities
as might be his opposite for laziness, slovenliness, or unreliability.
Human nature being what it is families inevitably became associated with
the good or bad traits of individuals and often through succesive
generations.

Its easy then, given the close-knit nature of small rural communities,
where inter-marriage is the norm to an extent little understood outside
their confines, to see how this translates into preferment for those one
knows, over strangers, when undertaking any collective endeavour. This
was especially true during our colonial past as 'a nation of informers'.

Add to these distinctions those of accent or dialect, which often made
it difficult for individuals to be understood outside their own county,
to say nothing of their own country, and its easy to understand the
inclination to associate exclusively with ones own when living
elsewhere.

In the construction industry in Britain (traditionally the single
largest employer of Irish male emigrants) team work, for those not
entrepreneurially inclined, always paid better than individual
endeavour. Thus the 'butty gangs' of the Railway Age (notably the
'bankers' of Lincolnshire) gave way to the 'tunnel tigers' of the 20th
century as the elite of ground works operatives in civil engineering.
Team work was all-important in meeting targets and winning bonuses and
therefore men naturally chose as team-mates those they could depend on
to deliver.

Amongst tunnellers, particularly in hard rock workings, Donegal men have
always been pre-eminent. For example Aranmore Island, off the north-west
coast, could boast many families with several generations of tunnellers
amongst them and this is still the case today. The fruits of their
labours are all around them in the well-built homes of Donegal whereas
in other counties with a reputation in construction it is only
individuals, usually contractors, whose success is so conspicuous.

County associations, like Irish clubs and centres,have declined in
importance in Britain in the last ten years or more because of greater
cultural homogeniety both in Britain and in Ireland. Young Irish people
are better dressed, better educated, more confident, and they differ
much less in dress or appearance or even accent from their British
counterparts with whom they share many cultural influences. Neither do
they carry the burden of history which so oppressed their predecessors
('They taught us to hate England, then they sent us over here').

Or so it seems to me...Sorry to go on at such length about it all.

Ultan

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded on behalf of
Carmen M. Mangion
carmenmangion[at]freeuk.com
Subject: CFP: CONSECRATED WOMEN

Please circulate...

P.O'S.


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

We would be grateful if you could notify any scholars you think would be
interested in this conference 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 conference organisers.

Best,

Dr. Caroline Bowden
Carmen Mangion


CALL FOR PAPERS
SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON WOMEN RELIGIOUS

CONSECRATED WOMEN . . . TOWARDS THE HISTORY OF WOMEN RELIGIOUS
OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND
11 October 2003
London, England
Contributions are invited for this interdisciplinary conference on women
religious of Britain and Ireland. Academics, postgraduate students,
teachers, archivists, and others are invited to offer short papers,
group sessions with chair, or contributions to workshops on any aspect
of the history of women religious of Britain and Ireland. This
programme provides a stimulating and congenial forum for the discussion
of the history of women religious and seeks to reflect the diversity of
the experience of women religious throughout time.

We welcome submissions from all disciplines with an interest in the
topic. Please send abstracts of 250 words by Friday, 28 February 2003
to Dr. Caroline Bowden at bowdenc[at]smuc.ac.uk or Carmen Mangion at
carmenmangion[at]freeuk.com.

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

From: Brian Lambkin
To: "'irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk'"
Subject: RE: Ir-D Loyalty to Irish counties 5

There is also the question of townland loyalty.
In Celebrating Ulster's Townlands by Kay Muhr (Queen's University
Belfast, 1999, 4) there is a photograph of a gravestone in Arrowtown,
South Island, New Zealand commemorating the McKibbins of Marshallstown,
Downpatrick.

Brian Lambkin

Centre for Migration Studies
Ulster-American Folk Park
Castletown, Omagh, Co Tyrone, N. Ireland
BT 78 5QY
Tel: 028 82 256315 Fax: 028 82 242241
www.qub.ac.uk/cms www.folkpark.com


- -----Original Message-----
From: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
[mailto:irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk]
Sent: 09 January 2003 05:59
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Ir-D Loyalty to Irish counties 5




From: "WILLIAM MULLIGAN"
Subject: RE: Ir-D Loyalty to Irish counties 2

In my research on Irish immigrants in Michigan's Copper Country
(c.
1845-1920) I've not yet found any county organizations and little
evidence of county loyalty. In fact there are very few, if any,
references to Irish counties in newspapers or other sources I've found.
Birthplace, including county, does show up on some tombstones, although
Ireland is probably as common. Unfortunately, not very many have
survived and may not represent county loyalty, but simply be customary
- -- tombstones for native-born Americans and other immigrants are as
likely to list such information.
In a few cases business partners were from the same county, but
since their families were intermarried it may have been family rather
than county loyalty. An interesting thing to look at in the future.
This is an interesting question and it makes me curious if
residence may be related to county origin. Years ago a fellow grad
student found a similar pattern among Italians in Providence, RI --
whole blocks from the same area in Italy with little "mixing." Irish
residential areas often have a county designation, "Corktown" for
example. Could this be related to county of origin? The Copper County
had a "Corktown" and many of the residents there had County Cork names.
But it also had a "Limerick Location" and Cork names were pretty common
there. too. Not surprising since many of the Irish in the Copper
Country were from the Beara Peninsula mining district in County Cork. In
any event, something to investigate.


Bill Mulligan

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded on behalf of...
Connor Carville
carvillc[at]smuc.ac.uk]

Subject: Visiting Lecturer post

Dear Patrick O'Sullivan,

Conor Carville here, program director of the Irish Studies B. A. at St.
Mary's
Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. We are looking for someone at short notice
to take
one of our second year options here, but I wasn't sure if the diaspora
mailing list
accepted such postings. If you do, I'd be most grateful if you could
post the
following.

The Centre of Irish Studies at St. Mary's University College, Twickenham
invites
applicants for the post of Visiting Lecturer responsible for our second
year course
Irish Women: Image and Experience, begininning in mid February 2003 for
12
weeks. Further details available from conor carville at
carvillc[at]smuc.ac.uk

thanks a lot and all the best

Conor

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

The following item has appeared on the Four Courts Press web site...

Our thanks to those who brought this to our attention. I had no idea
that Úna Ní Bhroiméil's work had progressed so far, and I really look
forward to seeing this book.

P.O'S.

http://www.four-courts-press.ie/cgi/bookshow.cgi?file=gaarevival.xml

The Gaelic revival and America, 1870-1915

ÚNA NÍ BHROIMÉIL

The Irish language was the hook on which Irish cultural nationalism was
hung in Ireland at the end of the 19th century. The foundation of the
Gaelic League in 1893 focused on the revival of Irish as a spoken
language. By 1916, the Irish language was at the core of Irish
nationalism. There was also a flowering of Irish cultural nationalism in
the United States at the time. The first Irish language class was
founded in Brooklyn in 1872 and the first Gaelic society in Boston in
1873. The first popular bilingual newspaper, An Gaodhal, was published
in New York from 1881 to 1898. There was a substantial body of Irish
speakers in the United States but language maintenance was not a
priority for them. Rather, the formation of Gaelic societies and the
cultivation of the Irish language societies in the United States became
a building block of ethnic pride.

This embracing of ethnicity in its most advantageous form became a tool
of assimilation for the American Irish. To the Gaelic League in Ireland,
the language movement in the United States was an inspiration and a
valuable financial source. The missions of Douglas Hyde and others to
America were primarily fund-raising tours. They nonetheless ensured a
role for the Irish language and Gaelic societies in the United States as
legitimate components of the Irish nationalist movement there.

Úna Ní Bhroiméil lectures in History at Mary Immaculate College,
University of Limerick.

240pp May 2003

Published:
May 2003
ISBN:
1-85182-705-6
Price:
?65/£55/$65 hbk

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

For information...

P.O'S.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,873662,00.html

Ancient Irish farm unearthed

Rosie Cowan, Ireland correspondent
Monday January 13, 2003
The Guardian

Road excavations in Northern Ireland have unearthed what appears to be
evidence of the island's earliest settlers and first farmers.
As the diggers moved in to work on the Toome bypass, outside Toomebridge
in Co Antrim, archaeologists found more than 10,000 artefacts, including
stone age axe heads and flints from 9,400 years ago, through to bronze
age times about 4,500 years ago.

Paul McCooey, of Northern Archaeological Consultancy, said the area was
particularly significant because it was a rare transitional site,
charting the change from the hunter gatherer life to farming, and
providing a fascinating insight into how our ancestors lived.

"From the material we've uncovered so far, it seems farming in Ireland
started about 200 years earlier than had previously been supposed," said
Mr McCooey, who heads a team of 17 archaeologists working on the site.

"These people came to Ireland several thousand years after the last ice
age, paddling across the Irish sea from Scotland in dugout canoes
covered in skins.

"They were hunter gatherers at first. Then they appear to have settled
on a drumlin [a hill formed by glacial activity] surrounded by fields
which would have flooded when it rained."

The size of the houses - one was 12 metres in diameter - suggested that
the settlement became permanent, rather than being a nomadic hunting
camp. The inhabitants are thought to have fished and grown cereal crops.


Mr McCooey's team also found the remains of bronze age cooking pits,
also used for bathing and religious rituals. They were lined with clay
or wood to make them waterproof.

"One of the most thrilling finds has been a two-bladed bronze age knife,
the size of a man's hand, carved from flint," he said. "It's extremely
rare and beautiful. I've never seen one outside a textbook before."

Archaeologists are flocking to the site. The Ulster Museum in Belfast is
keen to give the artefacts a home when excavation have finished next
month.

Mr McCooey wants to stage an exhibition in Toome first. He would like
some pieces to remain permanently on display locally.

He insisted that his dig was not holding up progress on the bypass.

"Cooperation with the construction workers has been excellent," he said.
"We simply work on different parts of the site, but they are very
interested in what we are doing and when there is a big find, everyone
cranes round for a look."

From: "Maria McGarrity"
To:
Subject: Ir-D: Bildungsromans/Memoirs

Ir-D members,

Can anyone recommend primary and/or good secondary sources for
autobiographical bildungsromans and/or more (relatively) contemporary
memoirs that deal with a dead or dying mother figure, say between
Joyce's
*Portrait* and McCourt's *Angela's Ashes*, wretched though the latter
may be, and that result in flight or exile from Ireland?

Many thanks.

Maria McGarrity
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Long Island University
Brooklyn, NY 11201


[Moderator's Note:
To forestall tedious queries about the meaning of technical terms see
http://newark.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Terms/bildungsroman.html
http://65.107.211.206/genre/hader1.html
http://www.webdesk.com/quotations/bildungsroman.html
Etc.
P.O'S.]

From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Dymphna=20Lonergan?=
Subject: Re: Ir-D Words 4
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk

I've been on holidays so I've missed the beginning of
this discussion but to add to the information
Professor Diarmaid O Muirithe from Dublin is currently
writing a dictionary of loan words in Irish. When I
spoke to him last (2 years ago) he was up to the
letter 'f'!

slán
Dymphna Lonergan
Flinders University of South Australia

=====
Go raibh tú daibhir i mí-áidh/May you be poor in ill-luck
Agus saibhir i mbeannachtaí/rich in blessings
Go mall ag déanamh namhaid/slow to make enemies
go luath a déanamh carad/quick to make friends

__________________________________________________

From: "Murray, Edmundo"
To:

As far as I know, there are no documented county loyalties among the
Irish in Argentina, except for tombstone inscriptions, family Bibles and
separate mass services during the 1860s in Salto, Buenos Aires, to
Wexford and Longford/Westmeath 'estancieros' and their shepherds (cf.
Patrick McKenna, 1994). However, this had to do more with class than
with county geography.

Edmundo Murray
U. of Geneva

> -----Original Message-----
> From: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
[SMTP:irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk]
> Sent: 13 January 2003 06:59
> To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
> Subject: Ir-D Loyalty to Irish counties 18
>
>
>
>
> From: Brian Lambkin
> To: "'irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk'"
> Subject: RE: Ir-D Loyalty to Irish counties 5
>
> There is also the question of townland loyalty.
> In Celebrating Ulster's Townlands by Kay Muhr (Queen's University
> Belfast, 1999, 4) there is a photograph of a gravestone in Arrowtown,
> South Island, New Zealand commemorating the McKibbins of
> Marshallstown, Downpatrick.
>
> Brian Lambkin
>
> Centre for Migration Studies
> Ulster-American Folk Park
> Castletown, Omagh, Co Tyrone, N. Ireland
> BT 78 5QY
> Tel: 028 82 256315 Fax: 028 82 242241
> www.qub.ac.uk/cms www.folkpark.com
>
>

From: Brenda Murphy
Subject: Re: Ir-D Loyalty to Irish counties 7


Hi Neil

I recently completed my doctoral thesis on 'consumption, and
constructions of national identity' - it's a contemporary, qualitative
study focusing on migrants in London and New York.

I found very strong associations around 'county' and identity especially
in New York. Membership in the GAA reinforces this, and lads from
various counties 'back home' play for that county team in New York. I
also found narratives describing recruitment based on county boundaries
to the extent that Gaeilge was used to interview some lads in a Boston
pub
- - in an effort to exclude them, as the recruitment was limited to a
migrants from a certain county ...

If you would like further info I can send you relevant excerpts

Brenda Murphy



>From: "Collins, Neil"
>
>Can colleagues help...
>
>Has there been a survey examining loyalty to counties in Ireland?
>
>I am aware of the historical evidence, particularly that focussing on
>the role of the GAA. I am looking for some empirical evidence in
>recent years on the importance of the county as a focus for popular
>loyalty.
>
>
>Thank you,
>
>Neil Collins
>

Dr. Brenda Murphy

Dept. of Communication Studies, University of Malta, Tal Qroqq, Msida,
Malta MSD 06
Tel: +(356) 23402420 Fax: +(356) 21345655
web: http://staff.um.edu.mt/bmur1/
email: brenda.murphy[at]um.edu.mt

Research interests - constructions of identity/consumption of
advertising, diaspora, gender and the media

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Note:
Since BAIS does not currently distribute a Newsletter, would
Irish-Diaspora list members please make an effort to distribute this
message as widely as possible, by whatever means possible...

P.O'S.

Forwarded on behalf of
Eibhlin Evans
EibhlinEvans[at]aol.com

BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR IRISH STUDIES

POSTGRADUATE BURSARIES SCHEME 2003

The British Association for Irish Studies has established a scheme to
support Postgraduate research in Britain on topics of Irish interest.
BAIS will award bursaries of £500 - £1000 each to postgraduate students
registered at universities in Great Britain conducting research on any
aspect of Irish Studies. Students may use the bursary for travel
expenses, payment of fees, subsistence or other expenses related to the
completion of their research projects.

Applicants will be required to submit a completed Application Form
together with completed forms from two referees who will be required to
send these direct to the Chair of the Bursaries Committee.

Deadline for submission of Applications: 1 March 2003

The awards will be announced in May 2003. The decision of the BAIS
Postgraduate Bursaries Committee will be final.

How to Apply:
Send your request for an Application Pack to:

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

For information...

P.O'S.

Irish-language broadcasting: history, ideology and identity

Media, Culture & Society, November 2002, vol. 24, no. 6, pp.
739-757(19)

Watson I.[1]

[1] University College Dublin, Ireland

Abstract:

Irish-language broadcasting is discussed. The history of Irish-language
broadcasting is outlined from the 1920s to the present. Irish-language
broadcasting since the 1960s is placed in the context of two competing
ideologies - a traditional and a modern ideology. These ideologies are
the foundations on which contradictory demands placed on TG4 are built.
The conflict between minority rights and market forces are discussed in
relation to TG4. It is argued that although TG4 might be expected to
offer Irish speakers a public sphere in which they can participate
democratically as citizens, it is more likely that TG4 plays another
important role of offering a mythic domain for the construction of
identity.

Keywords: citizenship; democracy; media; minority; Ireland

Language: English Document Type: Miscellaneous ISSN: 0163-4437

SICI (online): 0163-4437246739757

Publisher: Sage Publications

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded on behalf of...

Jim Rogers
New Hibernia Review
jrogers[at]stthomas.edu

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

The tentative program for the ACIS national meeting at the Uiniversity
of St Thomas, June 4-7, 2003, can now be perused on the ACIS website at
http://www.acisweb.com/acis03tentprog.html

Please contact me for more information

Jim Rogers
New Hibernia Review
jrogers[at]stthomas.edu

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

The July 2002 issue of the journal Textual Practice was an Irish
special...

TOC below. I won't give the full Abstracts of every article - but I
have pasted in a few to give a flavour.

People who are intereted in this sort of fun stuff can chase up the rest
themselves...

Kelleher on Famine Monuments looks relevant to Ir-D.

P.O'S.

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/routledge/0950236X.html
Textual Practice

1 July 2002, volume 16, issue 2
Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group


1. Body of a saint, story of a goddess: origins of the Brigidine
tradition
Bitel L.M.
Textual Practice, 1 July 2002, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 209-228(20)


2. Oliver Plunkett's head
Kilfeather S.
Textual Practice, 1 July 2002, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 229-248(20)

Abstract:
The decapitated head of the seventeenth-century martyred saint, Oliver
Plunkett, is exhibited in a church in Drogheda. This severed head is an
icon both for Irish nationalists and for Roman Catholics. When Elizabeth
Sheldon snatched the severed head from the flames she may have been
thinking most of Charles I, and the iconography that had developed after
his execution in 1649, but when the head was returned to Ireland in 1721
it was capable of being viewed as a memento mori, capable of being
absorbed into folkloric revenge traditions, and into internecine
arguments between different Catholic parochial concerns, and capable of
bearing symbolic significance as an emblem of English atrocity.

Keywords: OLIVER PLUNKETT; IRELAND; APHRA BEHN; DECAPITATION; RELIC;
MARTYR


3. Hunger and history: monuments to the Great Irish Famine
Kelleher M.
Textual Practice, 1 July 2002, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 249-276(28)

Abstract:
The prevalence of a therapeutic discourse of trauma and recovery within
the recent sesquicentenary of the Great Irish Famine has been criticized
by a number of commentators, notably historian Roy Foster and
postcolonial theorist David Lloyd, and the significance of the
commemorative period has been sharply questioned. A detailed examination
of one commemorative practice, the construction of monuments to the
Famine, both in Ireland and in North America, suggests that a more
complex evaluation is necessary. Often high-profile and at times
controversial structures, the various famine monuments constructed
during the mid- to late 1990s locate themselves in different ways to the
historical event of the Great Famine. Read as 'sites of memory' and as
the end of a tradition of memory, these monuments also 'make history' in
a manner which has yet to be recognized.

Keywords: FAMINE; IRELAND; IRISH-AMERICA; MEMORY; COMMEMORATION;
HISTORY; MONUMENT


4. Secular relics: Casement's boat, Casement's dish
McDiarmid L.
Textual Practice, 1 July 2002, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 277-302(26)

Abstract:
Igor Kopytoff suggests that a 'culturally informed' biography of an
object would regard it 'as a culturally constructed entity, endowed with
culturally specific meanings and classified and reclassifed into
culturally constituted categories.' Such a methodology sheds light on
the biographies of two non-indigenous objects now in North Kerry: a
German rowboat - the 'Casement boat' - in the North Kerry Museum of the
Rattoo Heritage Centre, and an English meat platter in the staffroom of
Scoil Mhic Easmainn (Casement School) in Tralee. The boat is the one in
which Casement and two others landed at Banna Strand, Kerry on Good
Friday, 1916 in a failed attempt to bring arms for the Easter Rising.
The platter is the one from which Casement is said to have eaten his
meals during the appeal of his death sentence for High Treason in July
1916. Tounderstand the larger system that has endowed these objects with
meaning, the system that has reimagined and redesignated them as relics,
they must be placed in the context of collective memory of Casement in
Kerry. Because of the failure of Kerry people to save Casement from
execution, the local response has been to create Casement sites of
memory that are remedial, compensatory, and ultimately sacralizing. The
two relics, enshrined in North Kerry institutions, receive the reverence
and love that should have been given to the man himself.

Keywords: ROGER CASEMENT LANDING IN KERRY; ROGER CASEMENT RELICS; COUNTY
KERRY IRELAND FEELINGS ABOUT CASEMENT IRELA; IRISH MATERIAL CULTURE


5. Harry Clarke and the material culture of modern Ireland
Frazier A.
Textual Practice, 1 July 2002, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 303-321(19)
Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group



6. 'The bright garbage on the incoming wave': rubbish in the poetry of
Derek Mahon
Haughton H.
Textual Practice, 1 July 2002, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 323-343(21)
Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group



7. All that is airy solidifies: the prolonged agony of Romantic
Ireland1
Witoszek N.
Textual Practice, 1 July 2002, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 345-363(19)
Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group


8. Reviews
Textual Practice, 1 July 2002, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 365-428(64)


9. Abstracts and keywords
Textual Practice, 1 July 2002, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 429-433(5)
Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

For information...

P.O'S.

Article 1

Collective Terminology to Describe the Minority Ethnic Population: The
Persistence of Confusion and Ambiguity in Usage

Sociology, November 2002, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 803-816(14)

Aspinall P.[1]

[1] University of Kent at Canterbury, UK

Abstract:

A wide range of terminology is used, often interchangeably, to describe
the minority ethnic group population as a whole and major segments of
it. While some terms have been extended to give clarity, as in 'Asian,
Black and other minority ethnic', much in this lexicon remains
cumbersome or ambiguous in usage. Further, white minority groups such as
the Irish frequently get omitted in the category shuffle, creating
'injustices of recognition'. Imprecision in terminology can equally
apply to 'pan-ethnic' terms like 'Asian' and 'Black', the specific terms
having the potential to describe quite different populations in the
absence of explanation about the concept being measured and method of
assignment. The use of terminology that is precisely defined and
acceptable to those being described is advocated.

Keywords: Asian; Black; collective terminology; minority eth

Language: English Document Type: Miscellaneous ISSN: 0038-0385

SICI (online): 0038-0385364803816

Publisher: Sage Publications


SEE ALSO

Article 2

Some Critical Observations on the Use if the Concept of 'Ethnicity in
Modood et al., Ethnic Minorities in Britain

Sociology, May 2002, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 399-417(19)

Smith K.[1]

[1] Bethnal Green, London

Language: English Document Type: Miscellaneous ISSN: 0038-0385

SICI (online): 0038-0385362399417

Publisher: Sage Publications

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

For information...

P.O'S.

Ethnocentrism and History Textbooks: representation of the Irish Famine
1845-49 in history textbooks in English secondary schools

Intercultural Education, 1 September 2002, vol. 13, no. 3, pp.
315-330(16)

Doyle A.

Abstract:
This case study examines how a topic of Irish history, the Irish Famine
1845-49, is represented over time in history textbooks used in English
secondary schools and whether and to what extent ethnocentrism is
inherent in this presentation. The concept of ethnocentrism is used as a
framework for interpreting the presentation of the topic. A strategy of
content analysis of samples of history textbooks from the 1920s, 1970s,
1980s and 1990s to the present is used. The conclusion drawn from the
analysis is that the history of the Irish Famine is marginalised in the
overall sample and that the textbooks contain examples of both direct
and indirect ethnocentrism. The conclusion also highlights the
importance of maintaining an intercultural approach when designing
school curricula and of providing alternative accounts of history to
that of the dominant culture.

Document Type: Regular paper ISSN: 1467-5986

SICI (online): 1467-5986(20020901)13:3L.315;1-

Publisher: Carfax Publishing, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

For information...

P.O'S.

Perceptions of stressful life events in Northern Irish school children:
a longitudinal study

Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, February 2003, vol. 44,
no. 2, pp. 193-201(09)

Muldoon O.T. [1] *

[1] The Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland [*] School of
Psychology, The Queen's University of Belfast, David Keir Building,
18-30 Malone Road, Belfast BT9 5BP, Northern Ireland; Tel: +44 28
90274283; Fax: +44 28 90664144; email: o.muldoon[at]qub.ac.uk

Abstract:

Background: Adults' perceptions of stressful life events have been
acknowledged as important moderators of the stress adjustment
relationship. Until recently, however, there has been a lack of research
on children's perceptions of negative life events. This study assesses
children's own perceptions of the stressfulness of negative familial,
academic and social events as well as events related to the political
conflict in Northern Ireland. Method: Developmental changes in
children's perceptions of events are traced over time. One hundred and
sixty 8-year-old children completed a selfreport measure of the
perceived stressfulness of a range of negative life events. The sample
was drawn from schools in the Greater Belfast area to include children
of both genders, primary religious affiliations in Northern Ireland
(i.e., Protestant and Roman Catholic) and of varying socio-economic
status. Three years later, 113 of these children, then aged 11, were
traced through the school system and completed the same measure.
Results: Children's perceptions of stressful events are related to a
host of social factors. Girls viewed many negative events as more
stressful than their male counterparts. Roman Catholic and Protestant
children differed in their perceptions of conflict-related events.
Perceptions of various types of negative experiences were differentially
related to socio-economic status and age. Conclusion: Personal, social
and situational factors differentially determine children's perceptions
of negative life experiences.

Keywords: Stress; social factors; perception; political conflict;
violence; poverty; ethnicity

Language: English Document Type: Research article ISSN: 0021-9630

SICI (online): 0021-9630442193201


Publisher: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Association for
Child Psychology and Psychiatry

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

For information...

P.O'S.


Writing Ireland's historical geographies

Journal of Historical Geography, October 2002, vol. 28, no. 4, pp.
534-553(20)

McCarthy M.

Department of Heritage Studies, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology,
Co.Mayo, Westport Road, Castlebar, Republic of Ireland

Abstract:

This paper seeks to review the progress that has taken place in Irish
historical geography during the twentieth century, and to assess the way
in which published writings have produced an extraordinarily evocative
and colourful elucidation of Ireland's past histories and geographies.
It is shown how revisionist writings have played a significant role in
the revising of traditional nationalist interpretations of Ireland's
past, and how new interdisciplinary links have been established by Irish
historical geographers with cognate disciplines such as economic and
social history. In terms of methodology, it will also be shown how Irish
geographers have moved away from their former ethnographic concentration
on the morphology of the Irish landscape to a more manuscript-orientated
approach to reconstructing the history of Ireland's past geographies.
Recent work by 'new' cultural geographers on Ireland's 'modern
historical geographies' is also explored. Copyright 2002 Elsevier
Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Language: English Document Type: Research article ISSN: 0305-7488

DOI (article): 10.1006/jhge.2002.0444
SICI (online): 0305-7488284534553

Publisher: Academic Press

Forwarded on behalf of...

Kay Muhr
Director
Northern Ireland Place-Name Project
townlands[at]qub.ac.uk

Dear All

Brian Lambkin told you about a publication of ours, but not that it and
the material on local esp. townland identities in it can be looked at on
our website, www.ulsterplacenames.org

The most enquiries we get from root-seekers in the diaspora are from
people trying to locate an Irish townland. These have often been written
down in non-Ordnance-survey spellings and so cannot be found on
www.seanruad.com
Others are names felt by local people to be townlands (ie as their place
of primary loyalty) but not given townland status by the 19th- century
OS in Ireland.

Kay Muhr

Northern Ireland Place-Name Project
c/o Irish & Celtic Studies, School of Languages, Literatures and Arts,
Queen's University Belfast, BT7 1NN. Tel. 028 9027 3689, fax 028 9033
5298.
www.qub.ac.uk/lla/cel/placenameproject.html (www.ulsterplacenames.org)
Director Dr Nollaig O/ Muraíle; Dr Kay Muhr, Dr Patrick McKay, Research
Fellows.
(Mrs Mary Conway *afternoon-only* clerical/admin. support: tel. 028 9033
5290
m.a.conway[at]qub.ac.uk)

From: Oliver Marshall
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Elisa Lynch of Paraguay

In the last few months two books on Elisa Lynch of Paraguay have
appeared.

There was Anne Enright's _The Pleasure of Elisa Lynch_ (Jonathan Cape,
2002) which must surely have had the punchiest first sentence to appear
in a literary novel of last autumn.

Now there's Siân Rees' _The Shadows of Elisa Lynch_. I've only been
able to skim through the book, but it looks quite fun. I'm pasting below
some information from the publisher's website.

Oliver Marshall

Centre for Brazilian Studies
University of Oxford
oliver.marshall[at]brazil.ox.ac.uk


The Shadows of Elisa Lynch
Sian Rees
ISBN: 0755311140 Publisher: Headline 6/1/2003
£14.99 RRP Hardback
In 1853, a beautiful Irishwoman left her soldier husband in Algeria to
seek adventure in the boulevards of Paris. There she became a courtesan
and met Francisco Solano Lopez, the son of a Paraguayan dictator. He had
Napoleonic ambitions; she had dreams of being his Josephine, the Empress
of South America. They left her Parisian boudoir for poor, landlocked,
war-wrecked Paraguay. Although initially shunned by society, Elisa Lynch
rose resolutely to become the richest and most notorious woman in
Spanish America. She aided her lover in the war which destroyed the
country, looted what she could from the wreckage and fled, eventually
dying alone and impoverished in a Parisian brothel. Two generations of
Paraguayan citizens reviled her but a third would seize upon her as a
patriotic idol and exhume her grave in Paris for reburial with full
military honours in Asuncion, Paraguay. This riveting work of recovered
history tells her remarkable story.