From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Greetings from flu-wracked Bradford, Yorkshire...

You know my standard line? I go to work by climbing the stairs to my attic.

Well... I have been too weak to climb the stairs.

This particular flu seems to be the one that has outfoxed the World Health
Organization, so that last autumn's flu jab seems not to have helped much.
Though the feeling is that it might have helped a bit. This flu virus
affects different people in different ways - but clearly it is potentially
very dangerous for vulnerable people. I am a healthy person, but it knocked
me off my feet.

This is the first day for a while that I have been able to get to up my desk
and my computer, with a working brain. I thought people deserved an
explanation.

Paddy


- --
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 Email Patrick O'Sullivan

This Press Release from UCG might be of interest...

P.O'S.

Title: Irish Cultural Centre in Paris commemorates the 100th anniversary of
the birth of Sean MacBride
Date: 20 Jan 2004

Human Rights expert, Professor William Schabas, NUI Galway, debates the
universal abolition of the death penalty

The Irish Cultural Centre in Paris will host a series of debates and events
from Thursday 22 to Saturday 24 January 2004, to commemorate the 100th
anniversary of the birth in Paris of Sean MacBride, human rights activist,
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and one of the earliest Presidents of Amnesty
International.

A two-day conference on the abolition of capital punishment (MacBride s own
father was executed for his participation in the Easter Rebellion), will
take place on Thursday 22 January and Friday 23 January. The conference,
entitled ?Towards the Abolition of the Death Penalty,? will be addressed by
Professor William Schabas, Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights,
NUI Galway and author of The Abolition of the Death Penalty in International
Law.

"It is appalling that the United States and China continue to practice
capital punishment, without even respecting recognised international norms",
said Professor William Schabas. ?In the United States, for example,
juveniles continue to be executed and threatened with capital punishment. In
both countries, trials do not respect the high standards that must be
honoured when human life is at stake.?

A substantial majority of the world's countries have now abolished the death
penalty. According to the latest UN figures, approximately 123 countries
have abolished capital punishment, while about 70 still retain it (although
most of these use it only very occasionally). The statistics indicate a
dramatic shift in recent decades, and the trend to abolition appears likely
to continue. The death penalty has been ruled out for prosecution by the
International Criminal Court, for example. Even Iraq has suspended use of
the death penalty, the result of pressure from the United Kingdom, which
could be held responsible for human rights violations in that country before
the European Court of Human Rights.

Dr Iognáid G. O Muircheartaigh, President of NUI Galway will launch the
three-day conference. Other speakers include Tom O?Malley, Dean of NUI
Galway?s Law Faculty and Dr. Maurice Manning, President of the Irish Human
Rights Commission. The conference is co-organised by The Irish Centre for
Human Rights, the Irish Cultural Centre and the Human Rights Centre of the
Université de Paris II.

The conference will conclude with a morning session on Saturday on
MacBride?s legacy and his contribution to human rights.

From: "MacEinri, Piaras"
To: "'irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk'"
Subject: RE: Ir-D Neglect of Irish Emigrants 2

Tom Archdeacon raises a number of very legitimate points. I am by no means
an expert on the Irish in Britain but would like to offer a few comments.

The programme undoubtedly dwelt on the situation of a particular sub-group
of the Irish in Britain, not on the Irish community in that country as a
whole. As I understand it, Tom's main point concerns the issue of whether
the situation of this group of marginalised and impoverished elderly Irish
men (and it is a gendered issue in large part) is linked primarily to the
fact of their emigration or whether they might have ended up in similar
straits even if they had not left Ireland. I do not know if their situaiton
can be attributed _solely_ to their emigration but I think it played a very
large part in it.

Those Irish who left Ireland in such large numbers in the 1950s brought
little enough social capital with them. In particular, they were the victims
of a deplorable (by European standards of the time) and class-biassed
educational system which meant that the vast majority had not completed
second-level education and in very many cases had left formal schooling with
only a primary (elementary) school certificate, if even that. They came
disproportionately from rural Ireland and Ireland itself was a country which
had been relatively unaffected by the winds of modernisation and change
which had swept through Europe. When they did arrive in Britain they found
themselves in a society where their role was largely pre-defined for them
and where anti-Irish racist stereotyping was common - the Irish experience
of racism in Britain really only really began to be recognised in the 1990s
with work by people like Mary Hickman and Bronwen Walter, notably the CRE
report. Moreover, many of those working on the roads and other projects of
industrial Britain moved from place to place, cut off from regular society
with little opportunity for socialisation with the local population. Their
situation was frequently made worse by the pernicious 'lump' system, whereby
many such men were paid on a piece-rate basis in cash instead of being
regular waged and taxed workers. As a result, when the lump system was
finally phased out in the 1970s, many found themselves without the welfare
and other entitlements which they would otherwise have received. All too
often transactions such as hiring and payment took place in the pub. Ultan
Cowley had documented all of this superbly in his work.

In addition to this there was, it seems to me, a further problem. Many Irish
in Britain found themselves in a double bind: rejected by the host society
but unrecognised by official Ireland as well. Little or nothing was done for
decades by the Irish Government to address or even admit the reality of
emigration; only the Catholic Church did anything about it in the 1950s. Add
to this the emotional pressure to send back remittances and the lack of
glamour associated with the choice to take the boat to England instead of
the more romantic option of the US, and one can understand the experiences
of marginalisation and downward social mobility which many suffered. Nor has
return been an option for many of those who might have wished - Ireland is
now prohibitively expensive for any but the fairly well-off returnee and no
official housing support has been made available to would-be elderly return
migrants (there are a small number of voluntary schemes).

The Irish support system for the less well-off was paltry compared to what
was available in Britain, which was at least a modern developed welfare
state, whereas Ireland was an impoverished class-ridden society. However,
this did not mean that the specificity of the needs of disadvantaged Irish
migrants was always adequately recognised or met within the British system.
Moreover, until the very recent past the Irish were not recognised in the UK
as a separate ethnic group and there has been a difficulty in gathering
statistics which might have enabled their specific needs to be identified
and addressed. Again the silence from Ireland has for the most part been
deafening, although the establishment of the Dion committee to funnel
(small) amounts of financial support was a step forward. The major step
forward was the Task Force on Emigration in 2002 but its proposals have not
been implemented. An EU ministerial conference in April of this year will
examine the needs of marginalised migrants within the context of internal EU
mobility - some initiatives may emerge.

Finally, I am not sufficiently well up on the literature of migration and
the Irish family (how extensive is it?) but it is striking that in many
cases, when the migrant experience was one of downward rather than upward
social mobility, the result was often shame, a fear of going home and
frequently a complete rupture with the family, who might in better
circumstances have been a source of support. A culture of silence, shame,
lies and denial seems to have been a central part of this legacy.

Piaras

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Our attention has been drawn to an article in the latest issue of Prospect
magazine, February 2004.

Irish history books are pants

By Carlo Gébler

'I write anything for anybody. There's no end to my versatility. I need the
money of course. But I also believe that all these writing activities demand
the same thing. In one way or another they all demand storytelling, and that
is what I am: a teller of tales.

So when my publisher invited me to write a popular narrative history of the
siege of Derry, I was interested. For those who don't remember, it happened
in 1689. William of Orange had seized England, and James II was in
Ireland...'

And for the rest you have to be a subscriber.

http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/contents.asp?P_Issue=current

But the key section is this one...

'Most Irish history books are absolute pants. I don't mean that they're
partial and that they lie - I knew that anyway. I mean they're crud. Most
are just reconfigurations of earlier texts that, are in turn,
reconfigurations of still earlier texts. The plagiarism is bad but worse is
the general authorial allergy to specificity. Most Irish history books not
only don't tell you what happened, they don't tell you _anything_ that
happened. They're mostly full of hot air and complaint.'

I don't thing have to explain the current, popular English expression
'absolute pants...' Yes, thought not...

Carlo Gébler's conclusion is that his opening paragraph displays 'facile
sophistry...' Writing narrative history demands a 'phenomenally deep grasp
of complex materials that is not demanded by other types of storytelling...'

Prospect magazine is often a good read, and parts of it are freely available
on the Web site - like this issue's cover story, which explains the British
Navy's infatuation with ships that are not really much good for anything.

P.O'S.

From: "Maureen Mulvihill"
To:
Cc:
Subject: "Madam, might these be your smalls?"


Further to British usage of "pants":

Is the rather antiquated term for women's undergarments, namely, "smalls",
ever used now & again in the UK or beyond?

My maternal grandmother, Esther Martin Gaule, a jolly & robust Englishwoman,
born & raised in Liverpool, sometimes used the term to good (and amusing)
effect.

Good wishes to all,

Maureen E. Mulvihill
mulvihill[at]nyc.rr.com

(Moderator's Note: I think we might be wandering too far away from Irish
Diaspora Studies... P.O'S.)

Subject: The same old (research) story? -"Irish migration unique but not
exceptional"?
From: "michael j. curran"
To:
CC:

Dear Tom

greetings from Belfast. I was pleased to read your email re the RTE TV
programme broadcast on Dec. 22nd. (Patrick does his best to keep us all
informed here!) Most of your observations are pertinent to the debate, and
there is certainly no need to be apologetic or coy about the questions. I
have always felt both as an outreach worker working with/for the Irish in
Britain for over 10 years and latterly as a researcher in this area at
Trinity College Dublin (Psychology), that there was a need for:

1. quantitative empirical research into the Irish in Britain, because there
has been a lot of denial and avoidance especially around mental and physical
health anomalies, and 2. objectivity in this whole area, especially when
quantifying the "problems". The impetus for addressing the issues of a small
minority of marginalised Irish tends to come from agencies who are often
chasing funding, from a few academics and from pressure groups including
some disciples of the Labour Party. One expert in the field described this
phenomenon as leading to a possible "pathologisation of Irishness"

A question you asked was if these elderly/homeless people were a product of
emigration? Professor John Berry from Canada who has studied migration
trends world-wide for over 30 years, told me that he feels that "Irish
migration is unique but is not exceptional" In other words mental and
physical health problems, sometimes linked with homelessness, are
occupational hazards for migrants everywhere. Unfortunately those Irish who
have taken the short escape route 'across the water' are no exception to the
global pattern. Those who left voluntarily, to seek opportunities have had
few problems, while there is an indication that the opposite is true for
some of those who were forced to leave home for one reason or another. In
Britain we are over-represented in many areas, - even among those who are
highly successful. That is not to say that we can 'air-brush' the more
marginalised and vulnerable elderly Irish. They appear voiceless at times
and obviously some do need support.

I feel there is a dire need for research into the acculturation strategies
of the Irish and especially work on how the adaptation process influences
their well-being and morale. The data we collected from samples of the
Irish in the south-east of England, indicates that the vast majority are
well integrated, have a strong sense of identity, and do not suffer from low
self-esteem. We would like to do more comparative or longitudinal
psychosocial research in the UK, and then compare these cohorts with similar
samples in the USA/Canada/ Australia - if funding and... and... permits!
(This is where Foreign Affairs, Social and Family affairs and the Embassy
distributed grants can be really relevant)

You also asked if the support for these, outside of family, would be any
better in Ireland. That is difficult to answer. All I can say that the NHS
with all its weaknesses, has been a blessing to Irish people over the years
and I have heard many acknowledging that fact. Maybe some of the problems of
these people just mirror what are facts of life in parts of Ireland. Recent
reports suggest that elevated rates of schizophrenia, suicide among young
males, depression, cancer and cardiovascular disease among the Irish in
Britain are similar to the high rates 'at home'

Finally I am not so sure if this type of sensational reporting does help
address the issue in the long term. I do not think that the other ethnic
groups in Britain seek similar financial support from their homeland rather
than sourcing the benefits to which they are entitled from their adopted
state. More quality objective longitudinal research similar to that
undertaken by liam Greenslade, Seeromanie Harding, David Kelleher and Rory
Williams in the 1990s is needed and supplemented with the analysis of more
representative raw data. Incidentally Liam , who is now in TCD, and a few
others of us interested in this area of health and well-being of the Irish
abroad, met last week in our 'local' to discuss this 'depressing'
production. There was disappointment expressed that empirical research had
not moved on since the mid nineties. The consensus was that a lot of what we
were presented with in the programme could be aptly described as: "more of
the same old story"

Finally I think we should give some bit of credit to RTE and to the Irish
Times who carried an editorial on our research into this topic. Until
recently it was not 'sexy' to talk about emigration to our neighbouring
island where there are more 'Irish' than on the island of Ireland itself.
That at least is now changing for the better.

Are you interested in this neglected area of research Tom? Maybe some
corroboration would be a possibility? Would welcome feedback and/or
discussion from any interested source.

Slan agus beannacht

Michael J. Curran PhD

michaeljcurran[at]btinternet.com
02890 627403

From: Kerby Miller
Subject: Re: Ir-D Irish history books are pants

OK--so is Gebler critiquing nationalist history, revisionist history,
post-revisionist history, or...?

And, what DOES "absolute pants" mean?

KM

From: patrick maume
Sender: P.Maume[at]Queens-Belfast.AC.UK
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Ir-D TOC Irish Studies Review, 11, 3/December 2003

From: Patrick Maume

> >From Email Patrick O'Sullivan
>

> A quibble... Liam repeats, without qualification, the factoid that 'the
> Aran islanders' blood group pattern comprises Gaelic and Saxon
> elements...' This odd little acorn of 'knowledge', based on 1930s
> research, has curiously survived in discussion of the Aran Islands,
> when the entire logic tree that supported it has simply withered away
elsewhere.

I think the research was actually pre-WWI. Greta Jones's research on
eugenics in Ireland mentions blood-type surveys being tested thre in the
first decade of the C20 in the expectation that this was the home of the
aboriginal Celtic race
- - presumably this is the survey which revealed that a disproportionate
number of the islanders had a blood-group which was rare on the mainland but
fairly widespread in East Anglia (courtesy of the Cromwelliam garrison).
When there was
a public debate about Synge's PLAYBOY in Cork in 1910 one of the audience
said you could expect no better from the Aran Islanders since they were only
a bunch of mongrel Cromwellians!
Best wishes,
Patrick

----------------------
patrick maume

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

CONSECRATED WOMEN: TOWARDS A HISTORY OF WOMEN RELIGIOUS OF BRITAIN AND
IRELAND
CONFERENCE DATE: SEPTEMBER 16-17, 2004

TO BE HELD IN CAMBRIDGE in conjunction with
The Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology

The WRBI invites both individual and panel proposals from across the history
of women religious of Britain and Ireland. Proposals on the below themes are
particularly encouraged:

Women religious in the Community: assessing social and pastoral activities
Authority and Governance
Writing Biography: challenges, issues and approaches

Other proposals are also welcome.

Ruth Manning
University College
Oxford OX1 4BH

or

Dr. Susan O'Brien
26 Emery Street
Cambridge CB1 2AX

Email: ruth.manning[at]univ.ox.ac.uk, susan.obrien4[at]btopenworld.com

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Below, at last, the Table of Contents for the latest issue of Irish Studies
Review, 11, 3/December 2003, which was distributed before Christmas. I have
not been able to get hold of Abstracts of the articles.

For our purposes the key article here is Liam Harte's on second generation
Irish autobiography - a sensitive reading of the texts, which links that
reading to the literature on the Irish in Britain, Mary Hickman, Bronwen
Walter, and diaspora and cultural theory generally. Very nice. A
quibble... Liam repeats, without qualification, the factoid that 'the Aran
islanders' blood group pattern comprises Gaelic and Saxon elements...' This
odd little acorn of 'knowledge', based on 1930s research, has curiously
survived in discussion of the Aran Islands, when the entire logic tree that
supported it has simply withered away elsewhere.

R. K. R. Thornton on his unset exam question, 'How far is it from Innisfree
to Byzantium?', is great fun, and is recommended to all those who are bored
with the more sententious kind of Yeats commentary.

A very strong issue of ISR, though the actual essays do seem to be getting
shorter. And excellent book reviews - including Janet Nolan on Graham
Davis, Land! - his book about the Irish in Texas.

P.O'S.


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

Volume 11 Number 3/December 2003 of Irish Studies Review is now available on
the Taylor & Francis web site at http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com.

http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/link.asp?id=0L4R44674H7R

This issue contains:

Ulster unionism and the Irish historiography debate
p. 251
Christopher Farrington

The North American Indians and the Irish
p. 263
Joy Porter

Clothes make the Irish: Irish dressing and the question of identity
p. 273
Christian Huck

How far is it from Innisfree to Byzantium?
p. 285
R. K. R. Thornton

'Somewhere beyond England and Ireland': narratives of 'home' in
second-generation Irish autobiography
p. 293
Liam Harte

Making institutions: the cultural identity of the Lyric Theatre, Belfast

p. 307
Roy Connolly

Looking for Molly Bloom: Frances Hegarty and Andrew Stoners' art work for
Dublin
p. 321
Suzanna Chan

An interview with Roddy Doyle
p. 337
James Drewett

Reviews
p. 351

Correction
p. 383

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Kerby,

I can help with your second question...

See...
http://www.quinion.com/words/topicalwords/tw-pan4.htm

EXTRACT
'Pants in British usage are not trousers, of course, but underpants,
principally male. These intimate nether garments have long been a source of
innocent merriment among pubescent youth, and this was just another example,
in the tradition of the earlier exclamation knickers!, indicating contempt
or exasperation. It appears in phrases like "it's a pile of pants!" (Simon
Mayo's catchphrase) and "it's pants!" or "it's absolute pants", meaning that
it's a total load of rubbish. Later, we began to hear it from older people
as in "My tomato crop was pants last year". In phrases like "say pants to
..." it's an injunction to wave goodbye to something considered outmoded,
unwanted or unnecessary.'


From: Kerby Miller
Subject: Re: Ir-D Irish history books are pants

OK--so is Gebler critiquing nationalist history, revisionist history,
post-revisionist history, or...?

And, what DOES "absolute pants" mean?

KM

From: patrick maume
Sender: P.Maume[at]Queens-Belfast.AC.UK
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Ir-D Irish history books are pants 3

From: Patrick Maume
To get back to the question about Gebler's comments - I wonder what hstory
books he had in mind. (He is talking speciically
about the Siege of Derry.) His remark may apply to popular
history books of the "Deeds of our Forefathers" type, & perhaps to unduly
conciliatory "The Pope supported King
Billy, so it was all a misunderstanding" accounts. Given that
the Siege has attracted interest & that there are a limited number of
participant accounts any narrative is bound to recycle a certain amount of
material, but I would think it is ridiculous to say none of the secondary
accounts are any good at all and that it is necessary to go back to the
primary accounts and begin from scratch without reference to later
publications.
(This is quite insulting to the late J.G. Simms, for example.) At the very
lowest level,the different secondary accounts produced over time give a good
sense of changing and variant
attitudes. (cf. Ian McBride's THE SIEGE OF DERRY IN ULSTER
PROTESTANT MYTHOLOGY.) Methinks Mr. Gebler hopes prepublication hype will
shift a few extra copies.
Sincerely,
Patrick

----------------------
patrick maume

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded on behalf of
Nicholas Grene
School of English
Trinity College
Dublin 2

Irish Theatre on Tour
Royal Irish Academy, Dublin
29-30 April 2004

The Irish Theatrical Diaspora is an international network of theatre
scholars dedicated to promoting research on the production and reception of
Irish theatre inside and outside Ireland.

In 2004, the centenary year of the Abbey Theatre, the ITD will be mounting a
conference in association with the Royal Irish Academy on the subject of
Irish Theatre on Tour. Keynote speakers will include John P. Harrington and
Richard Cave, with panel discussions by invited contributors on 'The Abbey
on Tour', 'Touring in Ireland', 'Touring outside Ireland'.

Other participants are invited to submit 200 word proposals by 15 February
2004 for posters illustrating work in progress on relevant topics to be
displayed during the conference. Papers related to the posters may be
considered for inclusion in the proceedings of the conference, which will be
edited as the first major publication of the Irish Theatrical Diaspora. For
full details of the programme contact Elizabeth Drew at drewe[at]tcd.ie visit
the ITD web site at http://itd.tcd.ie

Nicholas Grene
School of English
Trinity College
Dublin 2

Tel: 00 353 1 608 1179
Fax: 00 353 671 7114

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

As ever, looks a very interesting conference...

Intriguing linkage of Woody Guthrie and Kerby Miller. What's going on
there? I must warn you, you can not get Kerby Miller to sing. I have
tried. The man will not sing.

P.O'S.


Information from Brian Lambkin about this year's ULSTER-AMERICAN HERITAGE
SYMPOSIUM.

Contact information
Brian Lambkin [Brian.lambkin[at]uafp.co.uk]

XV ULSTER-AMERICAN HERITAGE SYMPOSIUM
23-26 June, 2004

Keynote speakers will be Steve Ickringill, Kerby Miller, Michael Montgomery
and Kathleen Curtis Wilson

The wide range of topics under consideration can be seen from this
provisional list of speakers:

Joyce Alexander, ?The Scotch-Irish the their Ulster Cousins since 1960:
interactions in the post-industrial age?
Harry Alexander, ?Social Service Dimensions of Scotch-Irish Fraternalism in
Industrial America?
Linda Almeida, ?The Lives and Social/Cultural Identity of Irish Protestant
immigrants: New York City 1920s-early 1960s?
Lorre Blair and Jean-Francois Frappier, ?Visualising Montreal?s Saint
Patrick?s Day Parade?
Katharine Brown, ?Irish Tract, Virginia from the1770s to 1790s?
James Campbell, ?The Family Genealogist as a Computer Virus?
Alan Crozier, ?Language and Identity: continuity and community?
Mary Daughtrey, ?Post-Cold War Trends in Conflict Intervention: how does the
Northern Ireland Peace Process fit in?
Peter Gilmore, ?Two Sons of Oil Reconsidered: Irish Covenanters and the New
World?
Patrick Griffin, ?Kentucky from the 1780s to 1830s?
Harvey, Karen J, ?Contemporary Accounts of the Scotch-Irish in the
Appalachian Backcountry: the cultural and economic frontier
Julie Henigan, ?Bob Holt: a Scotch-Irish square-dance fiddle player from
Ava, Missouri?
Sylvia Hilton, ?Irishmen on the Mississippi in the late eighteenth century:
the negotiation of interest and identity in Spanish Louisiana and West
Florida?
Warren Hofstra, ?Opequon, Virginia from the1730s to 1760s?
Steve Ickringill, ?Reactions in Ulster to the Spanish-American War?
Violet Johnson, ?Parading the Shamrock and the Pan: a historical comparative
analysis of St Patrick?s Day and the Carribean Carnival in the American
South?
Kenneth Keller, ?Medicine among the Scots-Irish in Virginia?
John Lynch, ?Cattle or customers? Changes in the emigration trade and the
design of Belfast-built ships 1870-1914?
Richard McMaster, ?Donegal Springs, Pennsylvania in the 1720s and 1770s?
Kerby Miller, ?Western Pennsylvania in the 1790s?; ?Irish Immigrants in the
Land of Canaan?
Michael Montgomery, ?Carolina Backcountry: the search for independence? from
the 1760s to 1780s?; ?From Ulster to America: the Scotch-Irish Contribution
to American English?
GK Peatling, ?Rethinking interactions between Ulster-Scots and native
Americans?
Anita Puckett, ?Max?s Meadows, McGavocks and Prestons?
Nina Ray and Tim Conway, ?The Hearts of Steel in the Eighteenth Century:
implications for the American immigration experience
Mícheál Roe, ?Characteristics and attitudes of 21st Century Scotch-Irish:
findings from the General Social Survey?
Rick Ruggle, ?The demographics of faith ? the Irish roots of religious
affiliation in an Ontario township?
Ron Wells, ?Woody Guthrie, Kerby Miller and the Nameless, Lost Immigrants:
thoughts on the historian?s task?
John Maas, ?Ulster Scots and Disaffection in the Revolutionary War, 1780-81:
response to conflict?
Monica Spiese, ?An Ulsterman in Pennsylvania: James Logan (1674-1751)?
Nathan Kozuskanich, ?The Paxton Riots, 1764?
Kathleen Curtis Wilson, ?Ulster Linen Worldwide: towards an exhibition?
Marianne Wokeck, ?The Role of the Port of Debarkation in the Scotch-Irish
Immigrants: New Castle, Delaware, 1710s-1770s?


ULSTER-AMERICAN FOLK PARK, OMAGH

OUTLINE PROGRAMME

Theme: ?Changing Ways of Thinking About Emigration from Ulster?

Wednesday 23 June

12:00-8:00 Registration: Silver Birch Hotel, Omagh

6:00-8:00 Buffet Reception: [Omagh District Council]

Thursday 24 June

8.45 Bus departs from Silver Birch Hotel
9.15 Welcome: Introduction to XV Symposium

9.30 Keynote Lecture
10.30 Tea / Coffee
10.45 ? 12.45 Parallel Papers (25 mins)
12.45 Lunch
2.00 Plenary Lecture
2.45 ? 3.30 Parallel Papers (25 mins)
4.00 Tea/Coffee
4.15 Plenary Lecture

5.00 Plenary Session: ?MAGNI and the Way Ahead: from
Ulster-American Folk Park to Museum of Emigration?

5.30 Tour of Outdoor Museum
(Drinks Reception; Symposium Photograph)

6.30 pm Evening Barbeque and musical entertainment

9.00 Bus departs for Silver Birch Hotel


Friday 25 June

9.00 Bus departs Silver Birch Hotel

10.00 Welcome: Guildhall (or Tower Museum tbc), Derry

10.30 Exploring Derry (optional guided tour: Harbour Museum, Walls,
Cathedral, Verbal Arts Centre etc)

1.30 Meet Tower Museum
1.45 Arrive Magee College, Institute of Ulster-Scots Studies

2.00 Welcome: Institute of Ulster Scots Studies and Academy of Irish
Heritages

Plenary Lecture

3.00 Tea / Coffee

3.30 ? 4.30 Short Papers (25 mins)

4.30 Book Launch: The Irish, The Scottish and The Scotch-Irish:
connections and comparisons, edited by William Kelly and John Young (Four
Courts Press)

5.00 Depart for cruise on the ?Toucan? down Lough Foyle to Moville and
back (evening meal on board with commentary on sites of emigration interest)

9.30 Return Derry
9.35 Bus departs for Silver Birch Hotel
10.30 Arrive Silver Birch Hotel


Saturday 26 June

9.30 Bus departs Silver Birch Hotel

9.45 Plenary Lecture
10.45 Coffee
11.00 ?12.00 Parallel Papers (25 mins)

12.30 Reflections on the XV Ulster-American Heritage Symposium
Prospects for the XVI Ulster-American Heritage Symposium

1.00 Lunch: UAFP Residential Centre (Canada Week Reception)

2.00 Bus departs for Belfast

From: Chad Habel
Subject: Re: Ir-D Captain Moonlight 2

Dear Frank,

You're certainly onto something there; although there is a lack of serious
history about the bushrangers (and especially their connection to Irish
traditions of dissent), there are connections. I'm not sure about Scott
himself, but such names were commone - everyone remembers Captain Starlight
from "Robbery Under Arms", although he represented the displaced
aristocracy.

Robert Hughes notes that Jack Donohoe (1806-1830) first "went out" with two
Irish confederates (The Fatal Shore p. 238) He even quotes a folk ballad:
'"It never shall be said of me that Donohoe the brave / Could surrender to a
policeman or become an Englishman's slave.'" This is an inherent part of
folklore, it seems.

The connections between rural "outrages" in Ireland and Australian
bushranger activities is taken much more seriously by Keneally, in The Great
Shame. Speaking of his wife's ancestor Hugh Larkin, he writes, "Yet as he
tramped over Towrong Hill down to the inland town of Goulburn, like other
Irish convicts he secretly though futilely retained his Ribbon attitudes,
his willingness, like the absconding Irish bushranger Jack Donahue, to see
any act of rebellion he was driven to as part of an ancient resistance, that
of 'the Emmets, the Tones and the Moores', as Bold Jack Donahue put it." For
Keneally the connections are clear.

And Kerby - you're certainly right: Ned Kelly fits in here too. Many
bushrangers were Irish through birth or descent, and to my knowledge there
is not anything specifically published on that. Not sure of any more
details.

However, it must be said that there is a revisionist trend which tends to
see the connections between Irish dissent and Australian bushrangers in a
different light. Koch portrayal of Daniel O'Donnell in "Out Of Ireland" (a
work of fiction, admittedly) portrays him as a psychotically violent man who
appropriates the terminology of Irish dissent to justify his activities. So
there's a different way of looking at it too.

All good stuff.

Cheers,
Chad Habel
Flinders University of South Australia


>From: Kerby Miller
>Subject: Re: Ir-D Captain Moonlight
>
>Fascinating! I knew (a little) about Ned Kelly, but.... Were the
>Irish unusually prominent as "bushrangers" (and does the term connote
>outlawry, per se?)? If so, were they usually immigrants or Australian-born
Irish?
>Was Scott an Ulster Protestant, as his name and Co. Down origin would
>suggest?-if so, did that make him unusual among "Irish bushrangers"?
>Is there any comprehensive work published on this aspect of
>Irish-Australian history? Was there a comparable phenomenon in New
Zealand?
>Thanks,
>Kerby Miller.
>
>

Subject: "Captain Moonlight"
From: "Molloy, Frank"

From Frank Molloy fmolloy[at]csu.edu.au

Colleagues,

The name "Captain Moonlight" was adopted by a nineteenth-century Australian
bushranger, Andrew George Scott. Scott was born in Co Down in 1842 and
migrated to Australia in the 1860s. After various exploits, he was
eventually captured near Wagga Wagga in 1879 and executed.

I'm curious if there is a specific Irish origin for "Captain Moonlight".
Was the term used by secret societies, or their leaders, operating in rural
districts earlier in the century?

Regards,

Frank.



Dr Frank Molloy,
Senior Lecturer in English,
School of Humanities,
Charles Sturt University,
PO Box 588,
Wagga Wagga NSW 2678.
Phone: (02) 6933 2398

From: Kerby Miller
Subject: Re: Ir-D Captain Moonlight

Fascinating! I knew (a little) about Ned Kelly, but.... Were the Irish
unusually prominent as "bushrangers" (and does the term connote outlawry,
per se?)? If so, were they usually immigrants or Australian-born Irish?
Was Scott an Ulster Protestant, as his name and Co. Down origin would
suggest?-if so, did that make him unusual among "Irish bushrangers"? Is
there any comprehensive work published on this aspect of Irish-Australian
history? Was there a comparable phenomenon in New Zealand?
Thanks,
Kerby Miller.



>
>
>Subject: "Captain Moonlight"
>From: "Molloy, Frank"
>
>From Frank Molloy fmolloy[at]csu.edu.au
>
>Colleagues,
>
>The name "Captain Moonlight" was adopted by a nineteenth-century
>Australian bushranger, Andrew George Scott. Scott was born in Co Down
>in 1842 and migrated to Australia in the 1860s. After various
>exploits, he was eventually captured near Wagga Wagga in 1879 and executed.
>
>I'm curious if there is a specific Irish origin for "Captain Moonlight".
>Was the term used by secret societies, or their leaders, operating in
>rural districts earlier in the century?
>
>Regards,
>
>Frank.
>
>
>
>Dr Frank Molloy,
>Senior Lecturer in English,
>School of Humanities,
>Charles Sturt University,
>PO Box 588,
>Wagga Wagga NSW 2678.
>Phone: (02) 6933 2398

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

I am a bit reluctant to share this - it is very much a work in progress, and
the thinking and the research are by no means complete.

I have sent to Ir-D a separate email a sequence of quotes and references
which give some idea of the territory.

Quotations 1 to 4 show how difficult it is to get back to real research, and
away from 'received wisdom' or 'common knowledge'.

A book by a very eminent scholar, published in the 1990s, takes us -
indirectly, deviously, through the work of a series of other eminent
scholars - to bio-medical research published in the 1950s. We can safely
say we know at least one thing about bio-medical research - in the last 50
years it has changed somewhat.

And that 1950s research does not actually say what that that 1990s book says
it says. Quotation 1 speaks of 'the population of the Aran Islands. whom
blood tests suggest to be in fact of English descent.' In fact Quotation 4
suggests 3 other interpretations (chance, remnants of prehistoric
population, natural selection.) before concluding. 'these blood group
findings add biological support to the theory that the Aran islanders are of
Irish and English stock which steadily mixed in the 17th century.'

For one thing, there is a difference between 'blood tests' and 'blood group
findings'. These 1930s and 1950s 'blood group findings' do not identify
'Gaelic' or 'English' blood - they identify the simple ABO blood groups.

For this readership I do not think I need to unpack the discourses of the
Aran Islands, Cromwell and so on. Suffice it to say that clearly the
suggestion, tradition or canard that the inhabitants of Aran had cohabited
with members of the garrison had a long history before the discovery of
blood groups. Nineteenth century delicacy skirts round this, but of course
it is the women who are so accused.

In all this writing there is a confusion of two of the possible meanings of
the word 'blood' - 'blood' meaning heritage or lineage, and blood meaning
that wet stuff that leaks out when you cut yourself. If Cromwell's soldiers
brought anything to the this, it was not their blood - it was their semen.

The 1900-02 research of Karl Landsteiner (1864-1943) discovered ABO blood
groups. He later discovered the AB group, and later got his Nobel prize.
Note - people with all 3 blood groups, A B and O, were present in
Landsteiner's lab. That's how he was able to identify the 3 groups. Only
with Spanish Civil War, and above all World War 2, that practices of blood
transfusion developed.

Blood groups are hereditary - and could be used (sometimes) to establish
parentage. The population theorists became interested in ABO blood groups -
in the 1930s big effort to collect samples.

The logic chain.

Population theorists got interested in these ABO patterns - the assumption
was that specific PATTERNS of ABO would move with a population, so that you
would be able to map historical population movements, even map
pre-historical population movements, and map 'races'. The suggestion was
that a greater proportion of blood group A indicates 'Englishness'. Note -
this based on historical knowledge, historical thinking of the time. Races.
'Celts' pushed to western margins, etc.

My formal presentation of this material includes analysis of maps presented
as part of this research, X /Y diagrams, and so on. A lot of the material
is very weak. Other blood tests, on the whole, do not firm up the lines on
the map - often quite the contrary. For example, there were attempts to
plot the percentage of Blood Group A in Ireland against something associated
with English settlement. Jones Hughes, 1970, suggested a relationship
between Blood Group A and place names in Ireland containing the word 'town'.
This very example was used, rather cruelly, by Upton and Fingleton in 1985,
Spatial Data Analysis by Example, 2 vols, to demonstrate the Gauss-Markov
theorem, the famous 'Bell curve'. Their analysis of Jones Hughes figures
suggest that his correlations are no better than random.

Every step of the logic chain has been questioned, and in some cases
demolished since the 1930s and 1950s. Mostly the logic chain has withered
away. When you try and discuss all this with the blood group scientists
today (we have many such here in Bradford) they look at you as if you are
quite mad. How could Blood Group A be associated with Englishness?

Blood groups - what are they for? There is some evidence that protection
from specific diseases is linked with specific blood groups. And there is
some evidence that more Blood Group A infants abort spontaneously, and are
more prone to neonatal death. The research record is uncertain, but let me
leave it at that for the moment - that the absence of Blood Group A may be
an indication of the difficulties in keeping children alive.

So, let us launch another explanation of the increased presence of Blood
group A amongst the people of the Aran Islands. Just 50 years before
Landsteiner's discoveries the island of Ireland endured an extraordinary
demographic crisis, the Great Famine. Cormac O Grada has pointed out,
Ireland Before and After the Famine, 1988, that the Aran Islands got off
'relatively lightly' during the Famine years - the potato blight was not so
bad there and there were other food resources. 'The history of traditional,
poverty-stricken Aran provides a clue to that counter-factual
will-o'-the-wisp, an Ireland spared the potato blight in the 1840s.' (p.
122) Maybe the Aran Islanders were better able to look after sickly
children?

Back to Hooton and Dupertuis. This is the famous Harvard Irish Study of
1931-36, summarized by Guy Beiner in his review of the reprint of CONRAD M.
ARENSBERG and SOLON T. KIMBALL, Family and Community in Ireland, (review in
Journal of Irish Economic and Social History, 2003)

'Harvard Irish Study (1931-36). The overall project was directed by the
distinguished professor of physical anthropology Earnest Hooton (1887-1954)
and included three disciplinary strands: archaeology, physical anthropology
and social anthropology. The Harvard Archaeological Survey, which was
directed by Hugh O'Neill Hencken (1902-81) and Hallam L. Movius Jnr.
(1907-87), excavated over five years at least seventeen sites and has been
credited with introducing the professionalisation of Irish archaeology. Its
findings have been documented in periodicals, in particular the Proceedings
of the Royal Irish Academy and the Journal of the Royal Society of
Antiquaries of Ireland. Wesley and Helen Dupertuis, aided by Helen Dawson,
conducted the Racial Survey of Ireland and the results were partly published
in Hooten's Physical Anthropology of Ireland (1955). The disturbing image of
a team of scientists travelling around the rural countryside in the 1930s
and measuring craniums (sometimes with the help of the local guards, who
would round up men in the locality by telling them 'The sergeant wants to
see you'; p. xxv) appears unsavoury by today's standards, particularly in
light of the sinister contemporary context of racial studies in Nazi Germany
(though apparently studies of race and breeding were common at the time
throughout the Western world).'

My quotes give two presentations of this 'anthropological' material. I give
one fairly typical use of the material, Coon, 1939. Then comes World War 2.
Relethford, 1980, tried to use data. 'While the amount of data collected
was extensive, the original analyses were limited because of the prevalent
analytic techniques and an emphasis on racial typologies rather than
population variation.'

Follow up the work of Hooton and it takes you to some very strange places
indeed - overtly racist web sites and publications - and in those strange
places you find strange things - including photographs of President George
Bush, senior, naked.
http://www.digitas.harvard.edu/~perspy/old/issues/1995/apr/campaff.html

The garrisons on Aran and Inishbofin were never very large - in the 1660s
one company of 100 men supplied the garrison for both islands. I would not
be surprised if men of the garrison and local women occasionally fell into
one another's arms. But I don't think that 'blood tests' have proved this.

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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Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Social Sciences and Humanities
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England

From: Gary Peatling
Subject: CFP: Irish history and computing

Hi Paddy

Happy new year to you. I attach below a call for papers for an issue of an
online journal which I am to guest edit. Hopefully it is appropriate matter
for the Irish diaspora list, of which I continue of course to be an avid
reader. If you agree that this is appropriate, I would be very much obliged
if you could forward it to the list.

Thank you very much, and keep up your much-appreciated moderating, GkP

_____

CFP: special issue of Journal of the Association for History and Computing:
Irish history and computing

I am to guest edit a special issue of the Journal of the Association for
History and Computing (JAHC) which will be concerned with Irish history.
For this purpose Irish history is defined broadly, including the history of
the Irish people overseas, and Irish cultural, social, economic and/or
political history, not limited by period or specialisation.

The JAHC is an online publication concerned with the use of computing
technology in areas of historical teaching and research.

Back issues of this publication, as well information for potential
contributors, are freely available on the WWW and may be reached at:
http://mcel.pacificu.edu/jahc/JAHCindex.HTM

We are interested in articles dealing with all or any of the following:
- - examples of the use of information technology in research in Irish
history,
- - the provision of IT-based aids for researchers in Irish history, such as
databases (either from an end-user's or a designer's point of view),
- - technical and methodological aspects of the use of IT in Irish historical
research and teaching,
- - reflections on the opportunities/difficulties created by IT for the field
of Irish history
- - We would most particularly be interested in discussions or examples
relating to the use of IT in the teaching of Irish history.

I already have the prospect of two relevant articles, but hope to obtain
sufficient submissions to comprise an entire Irish-themed issue. We would
thus certainly consider other relevant proposed submissions

At this stage I would encourage and invite anyone interested in
contributing, or with any relevant ideas, to contact me via email at
gpeatlin[at]uoguelph.ca

Initially, the deadline for the first draft of submissions of 15 May 2004.

Thank you for your attention

Gary Kenneth Peatling
University of Guelph, Canada

From: "Anne-Maree Whitaker"
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: RE: Ir-D Captain Moonlight

'Captain' as an honorific was prominent among the Whiteboys in the late 18th
/ early 19th century. It is interesting that no-one has commented on its
transferral to Australian bushrangers where it is quite common (eg Captains
Thunderbolt, Starlite, Moonlight etc).

Re Prof Miller's query, yes there is a lot of published material on
Australian bushrangers starting with Ned Kelly. John McQuilton, 'The Kelly
Outbreak: the geographical dimensions of social banditry' and Ian Jones,
'Ned Kelly: a short life' are two of the best.

New Zealanders, of course, were far more law abiding.

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