From Patrick O'Sullivan

Childrens' Book of the Week in The Guardian, on June 15, was Shaun
Traynor's anthology, The Poolbeg Book of Irish Poetry for Children,
Poolbeg, Dublin, 1997, 1998, ISBN 1 85371 726 6

Congratulations to Shaun. It is a lovely little collection, clearly
based on real work with real children. There is a thoughtful little
Introduction by Shaun. The book is divided into 3 sections: From
Ancient Ireland, From the Poets of the Past, From the Poets of Today.

The first section includes a new translation of 'The Scholar and his
Cat', Pangur Ban, by Sean Hutton, who is a poet in the Irish language
(and currently the Chair of the British Association for Irish Studies).

In a Discussion Paper about a possible project on the Irish language
outside Ireland I recently wrote...

'...There is a fragmentary ninth century manuscript belonging to the
monastery of St. Paul, Unterdrauberg (in southern Austria). Preserved
in that manuscript, along with a Virgil commentary and some Greek
paradigms, are Irish language poems - including the little poem about
the scholar and his cat, Pangur Ban - perhaps noted down by a bored
monkish copyist. That poem had no readership, and no influence, for
one thousand years - until it was published by Stokes and Strachan in
1902.

It is now the most famous poem in the Irish language, and one of the
best known and the best loved poems in the world - the various
translations have been much anthologised, and practically every Irish
poet has made her or his version.

I have made my own version, about my cat, Clover. Desmond O'Grady has
his version, about his dog. The Robin Flower translation was chosen by
Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes for their successful children's anthology
The Rattle Bag. A new translation, by Sean Hutton, Chair of the
British Association for Irish Studies, will be found in Shaun Traynor,
The Poolbeg Book of Irish Poetry for Children. In fact, in these days
of the Internet, a simple way of discovering Irish language enthusiasts
throughout the world is to start a Web search for 'Pangur Ban'...'

It is interesting to follow Sean Hutton's version through the familiar
lines - he uses in English half-rhymes and cadences in the Irish manner.

Historians often make much of the differences over time in 'mentality'
or consciousness - 'they' did not think like 'us'. What is
extraordinary about Pangur Ban is the familiarity of the moment -
especially to writers and scholars - over the thousand year gap: being
visited by the cat. This man clearly loved his white cat.

Though nowadays, of course, we are allowed to feel sorry for the
mouse...

Patrick O'Sullivan

- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Personal Fax National 0870 0521605
Fax International +44 870 0521605

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

From: Brian Dooley


Subject: Ir-D The Dark Side...


As a plastic paddy growing up in London in the 60s, 70s and 80s much of what
Ultan Cowley suggests rings true - 80 percent of my schoolmates were of
Irish parents, and we were equally - sometimes violently - divided about
whether one should support England when they were playing Poland at
football. The IRA bombing of London in the 70s, and the 1981 hunger strikes
sparked many identity crises, not least because we had to choose which
passport to get, and so officially choose a nationality, the first time we
went abroad.
I played gaelic football [and cricket] for London, have only ever had an
Irish passport, and speak with a very strong Cockney accent. The only place
people insist on calling me English is Ireland.

Brian Dooley

From: "Brian McGinn"

Subject: The Dark Side


Bringing the discussion back home, how about a few words from an Irish
American expert, Eugene O'Neill? "One thing that explains more than
anything else about me", O'Neill told theater critic Croswell Bowen, "is
the fact that I am Irish. And, strangely enough, it is something that all
the writers who have attempted to explain me and my work have overlooked."

For the same article, originally published to coincide with the Broadway
opening of The Iceman Cometh, Bowen interviewed "Captain" Thomas Francis
Dorsey of New London, Connecticut. Dorsey was a close friend of O'Neill's
father James and had known Eugene well since boyhood. This is Dorsey's
description of the young Eugene:

"Always the gloomy one, always the tragedian, always thinkin'. My God, when
he looked at you he seemed to be lookin' right through you, right into your
soul. He never said much and then spoke softly when he did speak. Brilliant
he was, too, always readin' books. We're all Irish around here and knew the
type. He was a Black Irishman."

"A Black Irishman", the Captain went on to explain, "is an Irishman who has
lost his Faith and who spends his life searching for the meaning of life,
for a philosophy in which he can believe again as fervently as he once
believed in the simple answers of the Catholic catechism. A Black Irishman
is a brooding, solitary man--and often a drinking man too--with wilds words
on the tip of his tongue. American letters are the richer for Black
Irishmen. And of the lot of them, and the list includes F. Scott
Fitzgerald, James T. Farrell, and John O'Hara, among others, O'Neill is the
blackest one of all."

Bowen's article, The Black Irishman, is reprinted in full in Bob
Callaghan's marvellous Big Book of Irish American Culture (New York: Penguin
Books, 1987).


Brian McGinn
Alexandria, Virginia
bmcginn[at]clark.net

Subject: Ir-D The Dark Side...

From: Eileen A Sullivan

To Brian McGinn...


Hi Brian,

Your data on the dark side is the most meaningful of all the comments I
have read on the subject, for you moved the responses away from the
drunkards to the depressed who may become drunkards. Do I make any
sense?

Carleton's black prophet in the novel of the same name is a great example
of the black Irishman, even has the appropriate descriptive color.

Just finished the lecture for IASIL. Learned quite a bit about Alexander
O'Reilly and Hugo O'Conor. With White, Kindelan, and Coppinger, the five
brigadier generals in the Hibernian regiment , make quite a story.

Back to Carleton now. Had finished the section on the Lough Derg
Pilgrimage; Part One is completed. On to Two, Three, Four, and Five!

Eileen A. Sullivan Tel # (352) 332 3690
6412 NW 128th Street E-Mail : eolas1[at]juno.com
Gainesville, FL 32653

From: ultan cowley
Subject: Ir-D The Dark Side...



Carmel,

When I was an undergraduate, at Essex from '72 to '75, I was the only Irish
student on campus for most of that time. By then I was twenty-six and had
been in the RAF and worked at a variety of jobs, with no Irish colleagues
at all, except when in the Service. There, although my billet of twenty
souls contained no less than twelve Irishmen, all were Dubliners.

To reiterate my point about distinctions of regional origin, no Dubliners I
knew then would go within a mile of the Irish concentrations in Camden
Town, Cricklewood, or Kilburn for fear of the `wild culchie navvies'! And
I'm quite sure had they done so and fallen foul of any such, carrying a
skinful, they would soon have regretted it. But that just reflects imported
rivalries and prejudices and the natural aggression of youth...

As for nurturers of the seminal Irish musicians of the trad. renaissance, I
go back to a time in Dublin ('59-'60) when even the vaunted O'Donoghue's of
Merrion Row wouldn't allow singing, and the original `Dubliners' had to
play in a mews stable off Baggot Street (`The Pike', where Behan's play
Casadh An tSugan was first performed)...

The Clancy's started in The States but Johnny Moynihan, Andy Irvine,
Christy Moore, Mick Moloney and many more whom I knew personally depended
on the English folk scene for their livelihoods until the late 'seventies.
I ran the Essex University Folk Club while I was there and we always
finished the season with The Fureys whom we could book for only 30 pounds (old
man Fury included!).

I only got under the skin of the `Westie' Irish in the last few years while
researching the history of the navvies and living and performing with the
Irish-descent in Manchester. Does this qualify as a `Primary Source'?

Ultan

From: "Ide O'Carroll"


Paddy

Delighted to see that in an Irishwoman's Diary in today's Irish Times,
Anthea McTiernan discusses the lesbian billboard campaign in very positive
terms.

Given the rise of what a buddy of mine calls the 'Rosary Right' (evidenced
most recently in the election of Dana as an MEP and discussed in Fintan
O'Toole's article today), it is heartening to read Anthea's piece.

Beir bua

Ide O'Carroll
An Tigh Gorm
Lismore
County Waterford
IRELAND

Research Associate, Centre for Women's Studies, Trinity College, Dublin,
IRELAND.

Tel/Fax: +353-58-53276

The poet Mary Oliver asks: "What will you do with your one wild and precious
life?"

From: Hilary Robinson
Subject: Ir-D The Dark Side...

Last Belfast Festival, the Wooster Group presented the O'Neill play
_Emperor Jones_. One of the most powerful theatre performances I've seen,
it was also extremely challenging, both in the way it was interpreted and
in the writing, about the issue of 'blackness' and 'race' - and about
imperialism. The word 'nigger' was used almost as a punctuation mark; the
'emperor' character was played by a white woman in black-face - with her
speech as stylized, over the top, stereotyped to the nth degree in its
delivery as O'Neills scripting. The audience, the night I went, was all
(visibly) white; none of the reviews locally which I read concentrated upon
blackness or race or concepts of difference - or O'Neills Irishness - but
rather explored the stylizing of the bare-set performance, the avant-garde
history of the Wooster Group, and of course the presence of a famous film
actor on stage. It would be interesting to know the Wooster Groups decision
to play that here - a change from their advertised program. It would also
be interesting to know how the term 'black Irish' enters into discussions
of race and difference, both here in Ireland and in the diaspora.

Hilary.

Hilary Robinson
School of Art and Design
University of Ulster at Belfast
h.robinson[at]ulst.ac.uk

From: "Paddy Walls"
Subject: ethnic variations in health - a plea on behalf of the Irish

Dear All,

In case some of you may not have seen these advertisements already, I
thought I'd send them to the Ir-D list. If you know of any researchers
interested in ethnic variations in health, please do pass this on. As
you all are probably aware, Irish health, both that of Irish-born,
second generation and beyond is relatively extremely poor. It is also
the case that the Irish tend to get neglected within ethnicity
debates in Britain, and within health debates, despite an
ever-increasing volume of work which strongly demands research-based
explanations. So, it would be very useful, it whoever got these
posts, strongly argued a case for the inclusion of the Irish (born
and descended) within this CHD study.

Thanks

Paddy Walls


- ------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
To: paddy[at]msoc.mrc.gla.ac.uk
From: "Seminar News"
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 09:17:50
Subject: JOB & STUDENTSHIP: Public Health Sciences, University of
Edinburgh

[NOTE: Seminar-News is a mechanism for distributing
information about events relating to social aspects of
health and illness]

TO: Paddy Walls
__________________________________________________________

Posted by: Raj Bhopal

Colleagues, I am sending you this for your information and
as a request for help. I would be very grateful indeed if
you would note the two career opportunities I am advertising.
These advertisements appeared in the Guardian newspaper on
Tuesday the 15th of June. Please do make potential
candidates you know aware of the posts. As you can imagine,
finding the ideal candidates for this specialist area of work
will not easy, so your help would be appreciated.

With warm regards, Raj

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY HEALTH SCIENCES
PUBLIC HEALTH SCIENCES

APPLICATIONS ARE INVITED FOR POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH
ASSOCIATE FOR A NEW PROGRAMME ON RESEARCH ON ETHNIC
VARIATIONS IN CHD


The Department is initiating an exciting new programme
of research on ethnicity as an epidemiological variable
in the context of cardiovascular health, and the study
of inequalities in health. The successful applicants
will work with Professor Raj Bhopal and a postgraduate
student to spur the development of the programme.

This opportunity will suit a quantitative researcher with
qualifications in either medicine, life sciences,
statistics or similar disciplines.

The salary will be at an appropriate point on the
scale UKP15,169 - UKP23,651. The post is available
for three years

Please quote ref: 776438

Further particulars including details of the application
procedure should be obtained from the Personnel
Department, 1 Roxburgh Street, Edinburgh EH8 9TB
or Tel: 0131-650-2511 (24 hour answering service).


http://www.personnel.ed.ac.uk/recruit.htm

Closing date: [3 weeks after advert]

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY HEALTH SCIENCES
PUBLIC HEALTH SCIENCES

Applications are invited for a Post-graduate PhD research
studentship(up to 3-years): for a new programme in
research on ethnic variations in CHD

The Department is initiating an exciting new programme
of research on ethnicity as an epidemiological
variable in the context of cardiovascular health,
and the study of inequalities in health. You will
work under the supervision of Professor Raj Bhopal and a
post-doctoral research associate to initiate the
development of the programme. You will be offered
opportunities to learn about epidemiology, medical
statistics, and related social sciences in public health.
Training in data analysis, and how to write a thesis
will be given. Your primary goal will be to obtain a
PhD degree by research.

This opportunity will suit a University honours graduate
with a degree in either medicine, life sciences,
statistics or similar disciplines. The University will
pay the fees (at the home student's rate) and associated
costs of the initial research, and offer a postgraduate
stipend - current rates - UKP7,250 (year 1), rising
to UKP8,110 (year 3).

Further particulars are available from Ingrid Yeats,
Public Health Sciences, The University of Edinburgh,
Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG,
Tel: 0131 650 3237, e-mail: Ingrid.Yeats[at]ed.ac.uk.
To discuss the studentship contact Professor Raj
Bhopal, Tel: 0131 650 3216, e-mail: Raj.Bhopal[at]ed.ac.uk.
Interested applicants should submit a CV, a letter of
application and names of 3 referees.

Closing date: July 6th 1999.
-----------------------------------------------------------

Glasgow Health Seminar News

[If there is an event or seminar in your department that you
would like to be publicised then please send details to the
email address below]

seminar-news[at]msoc.mrc.gla.ac.uk




Patricia Walls, Research Scientist, MRC Social and Public Health
Sciences Unit, 6 Lilybank Gardens,
Glasgow, Scotland, G12 8RZ (0141-357-3949)

From: Guillermo MacLoughlin
"Instituto De Estudios Economicos"

Subject: Ir-D Bloomsday

THIS WEEK THERE ARE MANY ACTIVITIES REGARDING BLOOMSDAY IN BUENOS AIRES.
THERE HAVE BEEN MANY LECTURES (AMONG THEM ONE GIVEN BY THE IRISH AMBASSADOR
ART AGNEW), PAINTING EXHIBITION OF Br. THOMAS OCONNELL, ETC. MANY STUDENTS
FROM LOCAL SCHOOLS PARTICIPATED OF THESE EVENTS.

GUILLERMO MacLOUGHLIN


- ----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 1999 11:10 AM
Subject: Ir-D Bloomsday
>
>
>
>The usual reports of world-wide celebrations of Bloomsday, yesterday -
>with a big spread in The Guardian about Bloomsday in Buenos Aires...
>

From: "Anthony McNicholas"

Subject: Ir-D The Dark Side...


Dear list,
A fascinating debate. Here is my contribution. I would like to take issue,
in the nicest possible way, with some of Ultan Cowley's remarks about the
'Westie Irish' of thirty or forty years ago and their children, of which I
am one. Very much of what he said rings true, but not all.

I too have come across those second generation immigrants who in their
espousal of their Irishness, reject the place they were born and brought up
in. Acceptance/rejection, definition by association/opposition are
recognised components of identity which is by necessity more complicated in
the case of immigrants, and more especially their children. There is no
doubt the temptation for some people to downplay one or accentuate another
part of their background, in order to make a simplified whole rather than to
try to reconcile disparate and contradictory elements. That a significant
number of people went to the lengths Ultan describes I doubt, though in
connection with musicians and music, it has to be admitted people can be
very particular about it, as anyone who can remember the horror in some
quarters when Bob Dylan first picked up an electric guitar will attest.

I do not know that you could describe the reaction of (admittedly only some)
English people to that generation of Irish people as a generalised,
'xenophobic racism'. It was specific and had a long pedigree, a lexicon of
terms, a body of 'knowledge'. As far as ghettoisation goes, it takes two to
tango, as they say-physical and mental ghettos are made it is true by
outsiders clinging together and perhaps rejecting the host community but a
parallel process operates by which the host community rejects the outsider
and thus reaffirms its own sense of itself. I have been watching the Asian
'ghetto' of Southall growing by these twin processes for the last thirty odd
years from my parents home in Greenford West London.

I have never heard anything of people being told they could not eat fish and
chips. In fact, as good Catholics we were encouraged to eat fish at least
once a week, and the greatest opposition to that kind of food then and now
would have come from health-conscious middle class English parents. Again,
the calling of English people 'Tan Bastards' and the like, is not, I would
contend, a common enough practice for anyone to generalise from. I have
certainly come across Irish parents accusing, if that is the word, their
children of being 'English,' (to which the standard reply is "I didn't ask
to be born here, you bought a ticket"), but again the use of the epithet
'Tan' I do not recognise.

If there is a degree of alienation and pain in the relations between Irish
immigrants to Britain and their British born children, it is in part due to
the nature of the relationship between England and Ireland, which for the
Irish at least contains a great deal of pain. Of seven siblings in my
father's family six came to England, on my mother's side all three-very
typical I imagine, certainly most of the people I went to school with have a
similar tale to tell. I do not see that generation as being as narrow as
Ultan implies, nor do I recognise myself or my peers (apart from isolated
cases) as being 'damaged' or 'stateless'. I, for one, am not 'obsessed' but
interested (I would say that wouldn't I?) with all things Irish, which is
part, I hope, of my interest in all things.

There is, it seems to me a peculiar dynamic in operation in the rejection of
second generation Irish by the native born variety. We, if I can for the
moment appoint myself as advocate, do not claim equal status. With whom
would we claim it? We are not asking to be admitted to a club, membership of
which is decided by the native born, membership is open to all. If someone
asks me where I am from, I say London. If they enquire after my nationality,
I reply Irish. That is a statement, not a question. To be interested in who
you are is not obsession. I think when Ultan says he felt more comfortable
in England than he would have in rural Ireland, he betrays a certain lack of
sympathy with the 'culchies' which underlies his representation of that
generation of Irish people. If everything about them shouted 'Paddy', then
so what? If the judgement is that somehow 'Paddy' doesn't measure up, is
that not in part another aspect of the 'dark side' of Irishness, like other
identities which come out of a colonial past, namely judging ourselves by
other people's standards?


"Anthony McNicholas"

From: DanCas1[at]aol.com

Eddie Stack from West Clare lives part of the year in San Francisco, He is a
writer, the founder of the SF Irish Arts Foundation, and producer of the
annual Celtic Musical Festival in San Francisco, the biggest festival of its
kind west of the Rockies.

I forwarded him the post regarding the British folk revival and its
relationship to Irish music. Here are his brief comments, in Eddie's own
distinctive lingo.

Daniel Cassidy


Dan,
as regards the Brit folk music reviv...a lot of performers got impetus (
eg: Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span) from what was happening/alive in
Irl...english folkclubs & festivals gave the paddies a stage, not a
living...a gig here and there...this is a confusing area because of the
amount of musical paddies in England...most didn't make their daily bread
from gigs, but from shoveling shit for Wimpy and McAlpine...they played
music after work, for other paddies & biddies and the Brits who came to
hear real trad in pubs like White Hart, the Favourite, Mother Redcaps,
etc in London...
Eddie

Extract from...

The IE Arts Review
______________________________________________________________________
Editor: Miriam Stewart June, 1999 Issue No.16
======================================================================

The IE Arts Review is a monthly publication from the Irish Emigrant
containing news and reviews of the latest in Irish theatre, cinema,
visual art, performance and much more. Comments and questions are
welcome by email to . It can also be viewed on
web pages at .


THEATRE REVIEW

"THE COUNTRY BOY" by John Murphy
Druid Theatre Company
Dir.: Garry Hynes

"The Country Boy" was a favourite of amateur drama circles for some
years, but recently its performances have been few and far between.
Murphy, born in Charlestown, Co. Mayo, in 1929, reflected his society
in the mirrors of his plays. Beneath the smooth, traditional exterior
of rural Irish society was a damaging haemorrhage, that of emigration.
This society was constantly changing, fluctuating, with sorrowful,
broken families (and communities) depending on the letter or parcel
from America and Britain.

"The Country Boy" seeks to address this problem; the reality of
emigration, for both the emigrant and the family he has left behind.
Tom and Mary Kate Maher (Eamon Morrissey and Stella McCusker) are
anxiously awaiting the return of their emigrant son Eddie, who is
coming back to Mayo after an absence of 15 years. He is also bringing
his American wife Julia (Shelley Williams) to "meet the folks". At the
Mahers however, there is the simmering anger of Curly (Cillian Murphy)
to deal with, who feels his father is stifling him at every turn, from
running the farm to marrying his childhood sweetheart Eileen (Emily
Nagle). He is determined to return to America with Eddie, taking his
chances in the land of opportunities.

Eddie has secrets of his own. All is not well with his marriage to the
brash and loud Julia. This is partly his own fault, as he takes out
his anger and frustration on Julia throughout the play. Eddie left
home due to his relationship with the well-meaning but stony Tom Maher
and is determined to prevent Curly from making the same mistake. His
life in America did not fulfil his expectations (partly again his own
fault) and he is torn between his vanity and his desire to stop Curly
from leaving. Eddie has seen too many "Country Boys" in America;
young Irish men who cannot deal with the city and seek their cure in
the bottle.

I thoroughly enjoyed this production. Hynes has garnered the best from
the script and the actors' performances, and the resulting play is
electrifying. It really is 1950s Mayo, and all the simmering tensions
(Curly, Eddie, Julia) boil to the surface in a masterful climax. The
stage (designed by Francis O'Connor), the interior of Maher's kitchen,
is as authentic as any heritage centre, with its light fixtures,
dressers and chores that are performed. The acting is good throughout,
and I would especially commend Peter Gowan, Cillian Murphy and Shelley
Williams. At times Eamon Morrissey's and Stella McCusker's accents
slipped, and Emily Nagle was a little too effervescent as Eileen. If
you get a chance to see this play, please take it. It is exhilarating.

Miriam Stewart

© Electronic Journal of Australian and New Zealand History

Trevor McLaughlin (ed), Irish Women in Colonial Australia, Sydney,
Allen & Unwin, 1998, pp xvi + 229, illus. $24.95 pb.

Reviewed By Brian Dickey.

We used to say after a hard day in the bowels of the NSW State
Library's Archives section that we could only stand so many case
records of disaster and defeat. There was also the dirt accumulated
on the files unopened for a hundred years. Now a new generation of
researchers has returned with greater energy and new tools, notably
powerful computers (and sometimes hardworking research assistants).
In this volume they have turned their attention to the Irish women
of Australia's colonial past. By mythic inheritance a powerful and
attractive lot, celebrated in 'Around the Boree Log', the little
mothers of song and tale.
However, the original cohort, mainly convict or pauper migrant
fleeing famine-struck Ireland were depicted in the 1970s as a
hopeless lot of oppressed women, labelled, managed, directed,
voiceless victims. The claims were largely by way of assertion,
based often on some dodgy theoretical claims. It taken far too long
for that dissonance to be re-examined, for the theory to be tested.
This collection undertakes the task with vigour. Overall, the
recreation here of the lives of that first generation has been done
with great imagination and respect. Consonant with so much current
scholarship about Australia's female forbears, these Irish female
migrants emerge as agents much involved in the creation and
management of their colonial destiny.
Few were mere victims. The hypotheses developed by Anne Summers and
Miriam Dixson, in particular, are not standing up to close
investigation. These are positive tales of women who for the most
part moved from disaster to a better life with some degree of
purpose.
Nonetheless, the collection contains some variations. Portia
Robinson and Robin Haines both have an optimistic view of the range
of outcomes they examine. Richard Davis and Trevor McLaughlin are
willing to emphasise the darker side of their experiences and the
negative outcomes.
Robinson and Haines and some of the others are obsessively
empirical. McLaughlin is more respectful of a range of theoretical
propositions, mainly deriving from the corpus of feminist
scholarship. In addition, to some extent the differences between the
optimists and the pessimists in the collection also depends on the
type of systematic record each has interrogated.
Robinson relies on the many petitions submitted by convicts in early
New South Wales to the local authorities. She also maps the crimes
of the Irish women convicts committed in the colony. The petitions
are mainly about the struggle for a better future. The criminal
records suggest few were involved. Haines meanwhile looks at the
immigration records of assisted migrants from Ireland. Like Robinson
she is observing the passage of women from disaster to prosperity,
to settled lives, to civilised experiences, to substantial family
formation. Here are the foundations for the future of the little
Irish mother.
By contrast. Davis and McLaughlin use criminal records to expound
the lives of those particular Irish women. It makes grimmer reading,
as murderers and the like are paraded before us. Even then , my
impression is of women more likely to appear in court for breaching
the peace than putting a knife into somebody. There seem to be a lot
of Irish women having a good time with their friends. These two
authors seem intent on a blacker picture, but perhaps the record
will not sustain it.
The other essays sit between these extremes, exploring similar
themes in the various colonial locations. Richard Reid does for the
NSW assisted women migrants what Haines has done for those to South
Australia. Again it is a picture of a deliberate search for a better
life, mostly successful. The tale is essentially repeated by Libby
Connors and Bernadette Turner for Moreton Bay, and Pauline Rule for
Victoria. There are some dark moments when the records of the insane
asylums are examined. Even then, Haines, in an interesting footnote
reminds us of the importance of cohort disaggregation. She also
wonders about differentials in ages of death between men and women,
between Irish born and English born, that especially left Irish
women out on their own at the end of their lives to end up in one
sort of asylum or another. It is not simple.
Eric Richards and Ann Herraman give us a micro-located study. They
investigate how the mid-1850s surge of Irish girls to South
Australia was managed in one locality, Mount Barker to the east of
Adelaide. They investigate crime records, but better, they use the
baptism, marriage and burial records of the Catholic priest of the
district. The early concerns that these girls were fractious,
incompetent, non-English speaking disasters were soon swamped by
their ready acceptance into the farming community. As Haines shows,
they were beginning their employment careers, eager to learn, eager
to better themselves. Most did, moving fairly promptly from service
to marriage and motherhood, becoming part of the scenery, no longer
special problems for the colonial bureaucrats to manage.
The final offering is an analysis by David Fitzpatrick of some of
the letters he used for his great work, Oceans of Compassion.
Personal Accounts of Irish Migration to Australia (1995). Isabella
Wyly and Biddy Burke are once more given to us, warm, loving people,
dwelling on their Irish past, maintaining their family links. But
importantly, Fitzpatrick proposes that there was nothing especially
female about the letters or the experience. It was the search to
interpret the process of separation, migration, settlement that led
both men and women to exploit emotional language, to draw on family
ties, to grapple with the new public environment, to record
successes and failures. What Fitzpatrick is suggesting is that some
scholarship has for too long been obsessed with gender, mainly
female gender, as the principal variable for research and
interpretation. He is refocussing our attention on the experience of
transition, on the process of making a new and hopeful living. These
were matters that transcended gender.
The next challenge will be to move beyond national identity, or at
least to replicate the questions asked so lovingly about the Irish,
and focus on the English. These are the people least considered,
whether female or male. The labelling we have inherited from the
nineteenth century has limited our vision too much. Can we move on
in our research projects past these Irish women? Of course, the work
is already in hand, as these scholars make plain from the endnotes.
Publishers must cooperate too: is this book just a tad oriented to
the sentimental exploitation of the mythic Irish image? Will a
similar book on English men sell as well?
As the character and history of personal relations are explored
further, scholars will do well to engage, as some of these authors
have done, with the research of family historians. The dockets of
bureaucrats about migrants, criminals or brides only takes us so
far.
The pattern of family lives need even further detailed attention. My
eponymous Belfast forbear from the famine years disappeared into the
colonial community. My Greek forbear likewise was soon embedded
there too. The Welshman who came in the 1850s married a locally born
girl less than half his age. One of their daughters married an
English migrant of the 1870s. These are transitions that need to be
explored alongside this obsessive attention given to a putatively
durable ethnicity. I am convinced that the intermarrying, mobile
population of nineteenth century Australia was creating its own
complex and varied civilisation, drawing no doubt on cultural,
ethnic and religious heritages.
But the interactions were producing new outcomes. Our ethnic,
migration and gender-focussed scholars need to engage with the
larger enterprise of characterising the outcomes in colonial
Australian society. But I do recognise that they can only read so
many hard case files a day if they are to retain their compassion
and humanity and humility.

Brian Dickey, Flinders University, Adelaide




First published on line 19 December 1998.
- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Personal Fax National 0870 0521605
Fax International +44 870 0521605

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

From Patrick O'Sullivan

Some housekeeping items...

The Irish-Diaspora lists, like many scholarly lists, tends to go quiet
during the (northern hemisphere's) summer, as people are away from their
computers, on holiday. Or vacation.

There are two kinds of people in the world... There are those who
divide people into two kinds of people. And there are those who do not.
I am one of the second kind.

But there ARE two kinds of Ir-D list members. There are those who
positively LIKE Ir-D list messages to pile up in their email inboxes
whilst they are away. And there are those who do not.

So - if you do not like your email inbox to fill up in your absence -
remember that you can 'unsubscribe' from the Irish-Diaspora list at any
time, by sending an email message to

majordomo[at]bradford.ac.uk

The text of your email should read

unsubscribe irish-diaspora
end

For those who use multiple email addresses... Note that this email must
be FROM the email address through which you are known to the Irish-
Diaspora list's software.

As ever, if all this is beyond you, or if there are any problems, feel
free to contact me directly at

Patrick O'Sullivan

Paddy O'Sullivan

- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Personal Fax National 0870 0521605
Fax International +44 870 0521605

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

From Patrick O'Sullivan

Thinking of 'Advice to Travellers'...

I know that many Irish-Diaspora list members are about to set off on
their travels. Some are going to Ireland. And some are going to
Ireland for the first time.

I wonder if we have any advice for such travellers? I am aware that
Ireland is becoming - as it were - a more ordinary, everyday sort of
place. One friend here has just returned from a disasterous week in
Dublin - disasterous because she had her wallet and all her credit cards
stolen...

But - outside evil Dublin - I think I have two pieces of advice,
specifically for Irish-Diaspora list members...

1. Be prepared to give a paper. I am not saying that the occasion will
certainly arise - but, if the occasion does arise, it would be silly to
be not prepared. You may be called on to fill a gap. People will
certainly be interested in the fact that you are interested in the Irish
Diaspora.

It does not have to be a new paper. In fact, something that you have
published and could speak to or amplify, would go down very well.

2. Be prepared to sing a song. (This is advice for everyone except
Kerby Miller.)

It does not have to be an Irish song. In fact, I have almost given up
singing Irish songs - I spend too much time analysing the words, and
quarrelling with them. I tend to sing my own songs - when I can
remember the words. So, sing a song you are happy with.

Any further advice?

Paddy O'Sullivan


- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Personal Fax National 0870 0521605
Fax International +44 870 0521605

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

From Patrick O'Sullivan

More advice to travellers...

We are going to be in the house in Castletownroche from Sunday July 25
to Sunday July 15.

It is only a little house, so I can't promise an endlessly open house.
And we won't be there continuously - for example we hope to go north to
Roscommon and link up with Charles Orser's archaeological dig.

Castletownroche is in north Cork, on the N72 between Fermoy and Mallow -
just where the River Awbeg joins the Blackwater.

The address is
The Patterson House
1 Old Doneraile Road
Castletownroche
County Cork

Telephone 22 26047

You will find the house opposite the Battersbury pub.

Paddy O'Sullivan

- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Personal Fax National 0870 0521605
Fax International +44 870 0521605

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

Forwarded on behalf of Ian Chambers

New Irish Studies list, Australia, A

The Centre for Irish Studies at Murdoch University, Australia, have set
up Is-Net, a discussion list for Irish Studies topics.

All details are available on the Centre's web page at:
http://wwwsoc.murdoch.edu.au/cfis/

Ian Chambers
Executive Officer

From Patrick O'Sullivan

Irish-Diaspora list database of members

We have now set up the structures for a database of Irish-Diaspora list
members and their interests.

Ground Rules are...

1. All Irish-Diaspora list members are invited to send in a little
statement about themselves to this special email address


2. The statement should give your name, your achievements, your
research interests, and some contact information: for example, email
address, Web sites. (Note: modesty is NOT an Irish-Diaspora list
virtue... And it is worth saying something about things you would like
to do in the future.)

3. Put into this statement only information that you are happy to make
available to the other Irish-Diaspora list members.

4. In accordance with Data Protection laws the very act of sending in
such a statement to the special email address is deemed to give
permission for that material to be held in a database.

5. There is NO requirement that every Irish-Diaspora list member send
in such a statement. We defend the right to lurk.

6. The database so created is accessible to Irish-Diaspora list
members, and ONLY to Irish-Diaspora list members, through a special
password-controlled page on the Irish Diaspora Studies Web site...
Irish-Diaspora list

7. The password which allows access through the Irish Diaspora Studies
Web site to Irish-Diaspora list members' database will be changed often
and regularly. Changes of password will be announced through messages
distributed through the Irish-Diaspora list.

8. This service is available only to members of the Irish-Diaspora
list, to be used as they will, and if they will. We reserve the right
to delete obviously outdated information from the Irish-Diaspora list
database of members

The background problem, it will be recalled, was that we are relying too
much on my memory of the membership of the Irish-Diaspora list - and my
memory tends to peter out when asked to recall more than 100 items. Or
people.

Also, we are very aware that there are some 'constituencies' or
constellations of interests that are not being served as well as they
might be. And this database might help us to grapple with that.

We have set it up this way, just to give Irish-Diaspora list members a
measure of security. We did not, for example, want to simply hand a
gift to the junk emailers by creating an open access database.


Patrick O'Sullivan
- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Personal Fax National 0870 0521605
Fax International +44 870 0521605

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

From Patrick O'Sullivan

Oh drat!

And double-drat!

Thanks to all those who pointed out my error...

'We are going to be in the house in Castletownroche from Sunday July 25
to Sunday July 15.'

No...

We are going to be in the house in Castletownroche from Sunday July 25
to Sunday AUGUST 15.

But, actually, better make that Monday July 26 to Saturday August 14.
Allows time for travelling, unpacking and packing.

Paddy

- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Personal Fax National 0870 0521605
Fax International +44 870 0521605

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

From: Guillermo MacLoughlin
"Cristina"



Dear Paddy,

I hope you will enjoy your holiday in Ireland. Here, we are beginning
winter.

Best regards,

Guillermo MacLoughlin
Buenos Aires, Argentina

- ----------
> De: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
> A: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
> Asunto: Ir-D Castletownroche
> Fecha: martes, junio 22, 1999 06:22
>
>
> >From Patrick O'Sullivan
>
> More advice to travellers...
>
> We are going to be in the house in Castletownroche from Sunday July 25
> to Sunday August 15.
>
> It is only a little house, so I can't promise an endlessly open house.
> And we won't be there continuously - for example we hope to go north to
> Roscommon and link up with Charles Orser's archaeological dig.
>
> Castletownroche is in north Cork, on the N72 between Fermoy and Mallow -
> just where the River Awbeg joins the Blackwater.
>
> The address is
> The Patterson House
> 1 Old Doneraile Road
> Castletownroche
> County Cork
>
> Telephone 22 26047
>
> You will find the house opposite the Battersbury pub.
>
> Paddy O'Sullivan
>