From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Below is the schedule of the Irish American Festival, March 6-13, 2004, San
Francisco - forwarded to us by Hillary Flynn.

Our thanks to Hillary...

P.O'S.


The Irish Studies Program of New College of California and
The Irish Arts Foundation, in cooperation with
The San Francisco Public Library

Present

CROSSROADS
Irish American Festival, 2004

March 6-13, 2004
San Francisco, California

Schedule of Events

All Events are Free and Open to the Public
Unless Otherwise Indicated

Saturday, March 6th
San Francisco Public Library, Koret Auditorium
100 Larkin Street, San Francisco

Supported by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library


2:00-3:30 pm

The Gasmen, a Traditional Irish Musical Ensemble

Moderator: Sue-Jean Halvorsen


3:30-5:00 pm

Hybrid Irish Histories

Peter Linebaugh, Professor of History, University of Toledo
The Many-Headed Hydra: The Hidden History of the Revolutionary
Atlantic

Kerby Miller, Professor of History, University of Missouri at Columbia
Irish Emigrants in the land of Canaan: Letters and Memoirs
from Colonial and Revolutionary America, 1675-1815

Patrick O'Sullivan, Director, Irish Diaspora Research Unit,
University of Bradford, England
The Irish World Wide: History, Heritage and Identity

Janet Nolan, Professor of History, Loyola University, Chicago
Servants of the Poor: Education and Mobility in Ireland and Irish America,
1880-1920

Moderator: Margaret Mc Peake, Co-Director, Irish Studies Program, New
College of California


Sunday, March 7th
Delancey Street Theater
600 The Embarcadero
San Francisco

7:00-9:00 pm

A Reading

James Liddy, I Only Know that I Love Strength in My Friends
and Greatness, Gold Set Dancing, Epithaphery

Mary O?Donoghue, Author of Tulle

Eddie Stack, Author of Out of the Blue, The West

Moderator: Conor Howard, Co-Director,
Irish Arts Foundation

Monday, March 8th
New College of California
Cultural Center
777 Valencia Street [at] 18th Street

7:30-9:30pm

The Irish Langauge in America / An Gaeilge sa Mheiricea

Daniel Cassidy, Co-Director of the Irish Studies Program, New College of
California

Micheal Ó hAodha, Ph.D Candidate, University of Limerick

Esther O?Hara, Professor of Irish, New College of California/U.C. Berkeley

**Co-Sponsored by Seachtain na Gaeilge


Wednesday & Thursday,
March 10 & 11

Delancey Street Theater
600 The Embarcadero
San Francisco


Evening Showing

An Irish Film Festival - Films to be Announced - Admission Required -


Friday, March 12th
New College of California
Cultural Center
777 Valencia Street [at] 18th Street
San Francisco

7:30-9:30pm

Irish America & Union Labor Movements

Mary Foley, Past-President of the American Nurses Association

Mike Casey, President, Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union, Local
#2

Patrick Mulligan, Financial Secretary, Carpenters Union, Local #22


Moderator: Daniel Cassidy, Co-Director,
Irish Studies Program, New College of California


Saturday, March 13th
San Francisco Public Library, Koret Auditorium
100 Larkin Street, San Francisco

Supported by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library


1:00-3:00 pm

Irish California

Michael Corrigan, grew up "Irish" in San Francisco and recently published a
memoir, Confessions of a Shanty Irishman

Matthew Jockers, Consulting Assistant Professor of English, Stanford
University Director, Irish-American West Project

Dr. Kevin Starr, PhD ?State Librarian of California, author of nine books,
six of which are the Americans and the California Dream series

James P. Walsh, Emeritus Professor of History, San José State University
Author of San Francisco's Hallinan, The Toughest Lawyer in Town and
The San Francisco Irish


3:00 - 3:30 pm

Kieran Marsden and Friends,
A Traditional Irish Musical Ensemble


4:00-6:00 pm

San Francisco Public Library, Koret Auditorium
100 Larkin Street, San Francisco

Memory, Imagination and Identity

Catherine Brady, Assistant Professor of Writing, University of San Francisco
Author of The End of the Class War, Curled in the Bed of Love

Bob Callahan, Professor, New College of California
Author of The Big Book of American Irish Culture

Charles Fanning, Director of Irish and Irish Immigration Studies, Southern
Illinois University and author of The Irish Voice in America: 250
Years of Irish-American Fiction

Patricia Monaghan author of The Red-Headed Girl from the Bog: The Landscape
of Celtic Myth and Spirit

Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin, Jefferson Smurfit Professor of Irish Studies,
University of Missouri - A Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music


Moderator: Hillary Flynn

**This project is supported in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and
Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology
Act (LSTA), administered in California by the State Librarian.

**This project is also supported in part by the Irish Government Cultural
Relations Committee

From:
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Ir-D Emigrant welfare debated in Dail


Apropos of this feeble Dail debate, its shameful outcome, and the poor
response to the issue I would like to put the List on notice that I want to
comment at length on the subject next week.

To date pressure of work involving a great deal of travel has prevented me
from marshalling my thoughts sufficiently to respond in a rational and
objective way to the debate.

Needless to say I care passionately about the issue and I hope to deal at
length with some of the points raised to date. I also hope to cast some
light on these by reference to first-hand accounts of their experiences
which I collected from various interviewees in the course of my work.

For now I must content myself with the observation that those Irish in
Britain who emigrated prior to the nineteen seventies differ in many
critical respects from those who emigrated in the nineteen eighties, from
those who emigrated to other destinations (particularly the United States),
and from their contemporaries 'at home'.

The material presented in the Prime Time programme (with the making of which
I was associated) may well have been 'more of the same old story', but it is
the very persistence of this shameful story which keeps the Irish CARING
agencies 'chasing' funds (as though academics never stoop to such a thing!)
and it is, above all else, a story of HUMAN BEINGS IN IMMEDIATE NEED -what
Patrick MacGill referred to a century ago as, 'Our Serfs - AND our
Brothers!'.

I think it is important to emphasise the word 'caring'; I do not think Irish
academics can or should be excused by their duty of professional detachment
for coldly substituting (intellectual) curiosity for humane concern in this
area.

Ultan Cowley


irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk wrote:

< < The
following item appeared in The Irish Emigrant email newsletter <
yesterday... Redistributed here with permission...
<
< I also have the transcripts of this Dáil Eireann debate (such as it was)
on the Labour Party motion. I assume that the transcripts will become more
widely available in due course. Note that Ultan Cowley's book, The Men Who
Built Britain : A History of the Irish Navvy, was specifically mentioned
during the debate.
<
< P.O'S.
<
<
< THE IRISH EMIGRANT
< Editor: Liam Ferrie - February 2, 2004 - Issue No.887 < < Emigrant
welfare debated in Dáil < < Emigrants were the focus of a Dáil debate
during week, as TDs discussed a < Labour Party motion condemning the
Government's treatment of Irish citizens < living abroad, particularly
those in Britain. The motion, which is available < on our website, was
inspired by an RTÉ programme that showed the plight of < some elderly
emigrants living in Britain. It notes that the Irish abroad < were
"believed to have remitted up to £3.5bn" to Ireland during the 1950s < and
1960, and calls for the implementation of recommendations from the Task <
Force on Policy Regarding Emigrants; these measures include the <
establishment of the Agency for the Irish Abroad to coordinate the provision
< of services for emigrants, and the establishment of a funding scheme that
< would allow elderly emigrants to return to supported housing in Ireland.
The < motion was defeated after Government speakers spoke of the money
already < being spent on emigrants, while agreeing that more had to be
done.
< http://www.emigrant.ie/article.asp?iCategoryID=333&iArticleID=26149
<
<
<

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded on behalf of
Brian Hanley
Brian.Hanley[at]May.ie

Conference

Twentieth Century
Ireland and Irish America
NUI Maynooth 28-29 May 2004

Keynote speaker: Professor Kevin Kenny (Boston College)

Details from Dr. Brian Hanley,
Dept of History, NUI Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland
Brian.Hanley[at]May.ie

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

The by-ways of web and email discussion led me to this site, which might be
of interest...

Canadian War Poster Collection
Rare Books and Special Collections Division
McGill University Libraries

http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/warposters/intro.htm

Displayed there are a number of recruiting posters for the Irish Canadian
Rangers
Click on MENU, then World War I RECRUITING...

And see Pages 2, 3, 5.

The map of Ireland poster on Page 5 is especially poignant.

There is a very odd one on Page 3, the 'Fight for Her' poster, which simply
purloins James Abbot McNeill Whistler 'Arrangement in Grey and Black' - yes,
Whistler's Mother...

P.O'S.


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

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

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

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

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan


The following Call for Papers has been come to our attention. The journal,
Migration Letters, is hosted by Atilim University, Ankara, Turkey. The
Managing Editor is Ibrahim Sirkeci, Atilim University. Broadly - but I
might be wrong - this looks like a network of scholars mostly interested in
migration in present day Europe. This is going to be a big issue in the
expanded European Union. I do note that one of the advisors is Breda Gray,
University of Limerick, Ireland.

So... To clarify... The journal is CALLED Migration Letters. It is not a
journal about emigrants' letters. Though I suppose a specific item could be
about emigrants' letters.

The web site says... 'Letters should be original unpublished accounts less
than 2,000 words or four printed journal pages in length, including the
text, figures, tables and references.' I like this idea - there really are
not that many outlets for the shorter research note, rather than the topped
and tailed journal article.

P.O'S.


Migration Letters (ML)
CALL FOR PAPERS

ISSN (Print) 1741-8984
ISSN(Online) 1741-8992

Migration Letters (ML) is the only letters type international journal in the
field of migration studies and related areas. ML aims to disseminate
valuable research among academics, policy makers, and practitioners in the
field of migration.

Migration Letters is inviting papers on the following topics: migration and
security, intra-rural migration, conflict and migration, health and
migration, trafficking, asylum migration, development and migration,
immigrant integration, return migration, psychology of migration, migration
and SMEs, gender issues, migration research and scholars.

CALL FOR PAPERS
http://migration.atilim.edu.tr/call.html

Web site
http://migration.atilim.edu.tr/

From: lryan[at]supanet.com
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Ir-D Neglect of Irish Emigrants


On the recent discussion about Irish emigrants - especially the neglect of
the health needs of Irish migrants - I would like to let you know that the
quantitative study on depression among Irish migrants in London carried by a
team of researchers (including myself) here at the Royal Free Hospital,
London, is now completed and a report to the NHS has just been finalised. A
summary of our findings will be made available shortly.

Best wishes,
Louise Ryan

- --
Dr. Louise Ryan, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London,
NW3 2PF.
lryan[at]supanet.com
l.ryan[at]rfc.ucl.ac.uk

From: "Bruce Stewart"
To:
Subject: Re: Ir-D CFP Celtic Sci-Fi

I wonder do list-members consider Eimar O'Duffy's Cuanduine Trilogy an
example of Celtic Science Fiction? If so the notice at

http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/html/pgil_bulletin/current/book_stack.htm#EODuff
y

may be of interest. The page gives notice of a reprint of Asses in Clover
(1933), a copy of which was sent to us at EIRData. Alternately, anyone
interested in Social Credit or Arundati Ray will find something there also.
A free copy or Asses in Clover is available from EIRData.

Regards, Bruce
http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/

(Moderator's Note: If email line-breaks fracture that long web address you
will have to reconstruct it... P.O's.)


- ----- Original Message -----
>
> From Email Patrick O'Sullivan
>
> Forwarded on behalf of
> Brian Ó Conchubhair, Irish Studies, Boston College
>
> Topic: Celtic Science Fiction
> Panel: Celtic Studies Discussion Group
> Conference: MLA Convention 2004, Philadelphia
> Deadline: 17 March
>
> Proposals sought on the topic of 'Celtic Science Fiction'. This
> session explores re-tellings of Celtic literature, specifically those
> that adopt Celtic literature for Science Fiction/Fantasy. How does
> Celtic Science Fiction/Fantasy corrupt or modify original texts? What
> are the pedagogical implications for Celtic Studies?
> Possible subjects may include the fiction of Morgan Llywellyn, Kenneth C.
> Flint, 'Caiseal Mór', Lynn Flewelling, Rick Sutcliffe, Andrew M.
> Greeley
and
> Patricia Kennealy-Morrison.
>
> Electronic abstracts (300 words) and one page CV to
> brianoconchubhair[at]yahoo.com Contact Information: Dr. Brian Ó
> Conchubhair, Irish Studies, Boston
College,
> Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA
>

From: patrick maume
Sender: P.Maume[at]Queens-Belfast.AC.UK
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Celtic Sci-Fi 2

From: Patrick Maume
I'm not sure whether the Cuanduine trilogy is fantasy (since the space
travel takes place on the "astral plane" rather than by mechanical means) or
science fiction, though I would probably give it the benefit of the doubt
because of the satirical portrait of a future society (especially the second
in the trilogy, THE SPACIOUS ADVENTURES OF THE MAN IN THE STREET).
When discussing the Civil War I am quite fond of quoting O'Duffy's sarcastic
portrait of Seamus Vanderbags (de Valera) in alliance with Countess Przemsyl
(Markievicz) and Miss O'Grady (Mary MacSwiney) forcibly subduing an Irish
majority who refuse to rejoin the British Empire on the grounds that a
majority has no right to do wrong, then declaring war on the Empire when it
turns down their membership application ("They had an inalienable and
indefeasible right to belong to the British Empire, whether they or the
British wanted it or not. Such was their love for the Empire that they would
sooner reduce it to ashes and slaughter every one of its citizens than be
thrust out of their inalienable and indefeasible
heritage.")
I'm surprised they chose ASSES IN CLOVER to reprint, because it's the
weakest of the trilogy and implies some knowledge of the previous books.
Lilliput were supposed to reprint KING GOSHAWK AND THE BIRDS a few years
back but it never came to anything -anyone know why?
Best wishes,
Patrick.
On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 05:00:00 irish-diaspora[at]bradford.ac.uk wrote:

>
> From: "Bruce Stewart"
> To:
> Subject: Re: Ir-D CFP Celtic Sci-Fi
>
> I wonder do list-members consider Eimar O'Duffy's Cuanduine Trilogy an
> example of Celtic Science Fiction? If so the notice at
>
> http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/html/pgil_bulletin/current/book_stack.htm#
> EODuff
> y
>
> may be of interest. The page gives notice of a reprint of Asses in
> Clover (1933), a copy of which was sent to us at EIRData. Alternately,
> anyone interested in Social Credit or Arundati Ray will find something
there also.
> A free copy or Asses in Clover is available from EIRData.
>
> Regards, Bruce
> http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/
>
> (Moderator's Note: If email line-breaks fracture that long web
> address you will have to reconstruct it... P.O's.)
>

From Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded on behalf of
Brian Ó Conchubhair, Irish Studies, Boston College

Topic: Celtic Science Fiction
Panel: Celtic Studies Discussion Group
Conference: MLA Convention 2004, Philadelphia
Deadline: 17 March

Proposals sought on the topic of 'Celtic Science Fiction'. This session
explores re-tellings of Celtic literature, specifically those that adopt
Celtic literature for Science Fiction/Fantasy. How does Celtic Science
Fiction/Fantasy corrupt or modify original texts? What are the pedagogical
implications for Celtic Studies?
Possible subjects may include the fiction of Morgan Llywellyn, Kenneth C.
Flint, 'Caiseal Mór', Lynn Flewelling, Rick Sutcliffe, Andrew M. Greeley and
Patricia Kennealy-Morrison.

Electronic abstracts (300 words) and one page CV to
brianoconchubhair[at]yahoo.com
Contact Information: Dr. Brian Ó Conchubhair, Irish Studies, Boston College,
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

We have received the following email from the Greens Party of New South
Wales, Australia.

The email had a very substantial attachment, which I have quickly displayed,
through Copy & Paste, on

www.irishdiaspora.net

Under NOTICES.

I will look at that again, and perhaps tidy it - the original document had a
complex lay-out. But it seemed best to simply make the document available.

People who want to know more should contact Lee Rhiannon directly.

P.O'S.

________________________________

From: Lee Rhiannon
Lee.Rhiannon[at]parliament.nsw.gov.au

Subject: Vinegar Hill and Castle Hill commemoration - Australia


Dear Patrick,

I am a member of the NSW parliament for the Greens Party. March this year
marks the 200th anniversary of the Vinegar and Castle Hill uprising.

Please find attached a document about this commemoration. The Greens are
recommending that this occasion should be marked by further safeguarding the
land where these historic uprisings took place.

I am emailing to inform you of this work we are involved in and also to ask
for your assistance in disseminating this material. I understand that a
number of overseas visitors, mainly Irish, will be coming to Australia for
this celebration.

We would like to inform these people of our proposal and also to seek their
support for our recommendations (set out in the attached).

If you are able to put our document or part of it on your website or
disseminate it in any way it would be appreciated.

If you are able to help it would be appreciated.

Yours sincerely
Lee Rhiannon

--------------------------------------------------
Lee Rhiannon, MLC
The Greens
Parliament of New South Wales
Macquarie St
Sydney 2000
Tel: +61-2-9230 3551 Fax: +61-2-9230 3550
Email lee.rhiannon[at]parliament.nsw.gov.au
Web www.nsw.greens.org.au/lee

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Those who are interested in the poetry will know of the work of CYPHERS, the
literary magazine which, for nearly 30 years, has conducted a dialogue
between the poetry of Ireland and the poetry of the rest of the world. I
think that this special offer will interest those who are in a position to
develop their Irish Studies and Irish poetry resources - a full set of back
issues for a very reasonable sum.

P.O'S.


FROM
Eilean Nichuilleanain
enchllnn[at]tcd.ie

CYPHERS
A LITERARY MAGAZINE IN IRELAND
since 1975

CYPHERS first appeared in 1975 and has been published two or three times
yearly ever since. Edited from the start by the poets Leland Bardwell,
Pearse Hutchinson, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Macdara Woods, the magazine
has consistently published the best work from Ireland and elsewhere, in both
Irish and English. A strong interest in translation ? from Arabic to
Quechua to Vietnamese ? has been present throughout. While the main
emphasis has been on poetry, fiction and non-fictional prose have also been
part of the magazine?s remit, and there have been occasional clusters of
critical articles.

CYPHERS is a valuable source for students of Irish writing, especially
poetry, over almost thirty years. The current issue is No. 55.

Opportunity for libraries
A limited number of sets of the magazine are available at a special price of
?120.00, or £80.00 sterling or US$150.00, provided a subscription (three
issues at ?12.00 [Continental Europe ?15.00]/£9.00/$30.00, including
postage) is taken out as well before
1 April 2004.

We are making this offer in part to finance an index to the magazine on CD
ROM, and a copy of the index will be forwarded to all subscribers who buy
the set, by the end of 2004.

Order from 3 Selskar Terrace, Ranelagh Dublin 6 or email enchllnn[at]tcd.ie

Sample contents:
No 45 (1998)
Luis Cernuda and Pere Quart translated by Pearse Hutchinson Poetry by
Irish poets: Susan Connolly, Joan McBreen, Macdara Woods, Howard Wright; by
Romanian Carmen Bugan and Syrian-American Mohja Kahf; and many others.
Fiction by Kevin Higgins, Ciarán O?Driscoll, Augustus Young Three Head
Studies by Sinéad Aldridge Review Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin on recent poetry
magazines

No 54 (2003)
Poetry by Leland Bardwell, Martin Bennett, Heather Brett, Mark Lawlor, Ann
Leahy, Pádraig Ó Gormaile, Nell Regan Fiction by Margit Schreiner,
translated by Eoin Bourke;
Adrian Kenny remembering Richard Riordan
Special section on
Vietnamese poetry Kevin Bowen, Reading Vietnamese poetry
Photographs: John Minihan
Special section: Who needs the critics? Laura Bardwell on two American
poets; J. Kates on reviewing anthologies; David McLoghlin on Luis Cernuda;
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin on the community of poets; Gréagóir Ó Dúill on the
critics and writing in Irish; Pádraig Ó Gormaile on Breandán Ó Doibhlin.

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

The following book review has come to our attention...

P.O'S.

Copyright C 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Book review

GENDER, IDENTITY AND THE IRISH PRESS 1922-1937: EMBODYING THE NATION

by Louise Ryan, 305 pages, The Edwin Mellen Press, Lampeter, 2002, US$119,
hard cover

Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

Available online 15 October 2003.


This book is about gender and national identities in the print media in the
southern Irish state between 1922 and 1937. It describes and critically
analyses Irish newspaper representations of women during this period. The
hybrid (Hiberno-flapper) image of Nancy Roch as Queen Tailte, which was used
to publicise the Tailteann games and is reproduced on the cover of this
book, captures the period and content of the book well. The focus on
newspapers is justified due to their significance in nation-building (a
central theme of this book) and the high level of literacy in Ireland in
these decades. Press circulation figures at the time did not reflect a wider
readership as papers were passed from household to household. The attention
to newspapers is nuanced by the focus on both national and local newspapers
and the insights that these differently located and targeted papers bring
with regard to similarities and difference between urban and rural concerns
of the day.

Women were often represented in the press as idealised or demonised and Ryan
offers evidence from a variety of newspapers to demonstrate the repeated
construction of a virtuous Irish masculinity and motherly femininity at the
time. She argues that both the Catholic Church and the new state together
created the circumstances in which women's bodies and practices came to
symbolise positive and negative incarnations of the national. However,
throughout the book, Ryan also draws attention to press representations of
women as complex, ambiguous and multilayered. There are many amusing
instances of where femininity is obsessively debated in the press in
relation to fashion and women's bodies. For example, the author quotes from
an article by Nora Tynan O'Mahony on the short skirts worn by women in the
Irish Independent (2 August 1928) where, following a discussion of women's
knees, Tynan O'Mahony warns women `not to forget that men like reticence,
far more perhaps than they like power and paint--and legs' (p. 56).
Attractiveness to men, rather than Catholic morality, as Ryan argues, was
being appealed to in this journalist's invitation to women to wear longer
dresses. The frequency with which the sermons, Lenten pastorals, letters and
speeches of Catholic priests and bishops are quoted in this book reflects
the extent to which the press was a mouthpiece for the Catholic clergy in
these early decades of the new state. Alongside the discourses of the
Catholic Church and its supporters, the expansion of consumer culture at the
time and its feminised discourses of consumption meant that alternative
discourses of Irish femininity circulated in the press. Further, Irish women
themselves via a few feminist journalists and in letters pages demonstrated
their active engagement with the cultural resources available to them to
forge lives that exceeded dominant representations and discourses.

Women were constructed as consumer subjects by advertisements that targeted
them via notions of feminine desire and pleasure. Ryan discusses the ways in
which advertisements for cars and clothes positioned women as desiring
modern and mobile subjects. The purchasing power of young women in
employment and images of the flapper were variously represented as
liberating and enslaving depending on the angle and the context of the press
coverage. Some women came to embody the promise of modernity and progress at
the time. For example, Ryan identifies press representations of Irish and
non-Irish women pilots as spectacles of modern femininity, and symbols of
innovation and the new state's location at the centre of global aviation. If
flight represented progress and modernity, women pilots added to the
spectacle, novelty and transgression of boundaries heralded by national
modernisation.

Press coverage of emigration to England in the 1930s suggested that England
was not seen as the land of opportunity that the United States was. A series
of articles by Gertrude Gaffney in the Irish Independent in 1936 discussed
the positions of young Irish women servants in the homes of poor Jewish
families in East London--the concern here was that they were not in a
Catholic community and were therefore in danger of losing their faith and
getting `into trouble'. As well as warning of the `dangers' of migration for
women, Gaffney's articles, Ryan argues, offered a sharp critique of gendered
practices in Ireland that denied women's sexual desires and shunned them
when they became pregnant. The availability of work as domestic servants in
Ireland made women's emigration all the harder to accept. Their emigration
was partly accounted for in relation to what was seen as young women's lack
of interest in domesticity. Instead of taking up this work, women were
either emigrating or going into factory work, both of which were identified
as threats to Irish femininity in many press articles. Those who tried to
legitimate factory work for women seemed to be only able to do so on the
basis that it would not threaten men's access to employment.

Ryan's survey of the press ends in 1937, the year in which the new
Constitution was introduced. This Constitution was described by Gaffney as
the `death knell of the working woman' (p. 131). Ryan notes that prominent
academics, Professors Mary Macken and Mary Hayden, in their critical
responses to the Constitution, felt it necessary to justify their demands
for equality not only in terms of feminism but in terms of Catholicism as
well (p. 140). The campaign for amendments to the constitution led to a
split amongst feminist campaigners. Another division between women
constituted in the pages of the national press in particular was between the
urban and rural woman. Ryan argues that mothers of rural big families were
praised and exoticised in the press via the gaze of the urban sophisticate.
These were not the `average reader' imagined by Dublin-based national press
journalists, but were `the other' by which the `average reader' could
recognise herself as more sophisticated.

The gendered iconography of the nation is also discussed in relation to
press coverage of the deaths of three notable Irish women in 1932: Mrs.
Margaret Pearse (mother of Padraig and William), whose life and death is
made to embody the nation itself, Lady Augusta Gregory (aristocratic
Protestant dramatist and writer), and Mrs. Wheelwright (Eamonn de Valera's
mother) both of whose backgrounds and lives challenged the iconography of
the nation and therefore received less press attention. Another chapter is
devoted to the shift in representations of Republican women activists in the
press from the period of the War of Independence (1991-21) to the Civil War
(1921-1922).

The penultimate chapter addresses infanticide and notes that the
intervention of the state pushed such matters into the public domain.
Although press reports were brief and low key, they reveal that all was not
well with the Irish family. Ryan suggests that infanticide (those instances
that received press coverage) was a monthly if not a weekly occurrence in
these decades (p. 262). Infanticide occurred after both concealed and
unconcealed pregnancies and most of those convicted were young, unmarried,
and in the lowest socioeconomic group--almost half being domestic servants.
Press coverage, Ryan notes, emphasised the single young woman in the dock;
discussion of men's involvement was largely absent from reporting of
infanticide cases. Overall, however, infanticide is described by Ryan as
receiving marginal attention when compared with the other themes surrounding
women.

This is a most readable book. Each chapter is a self-contained thematic
essay, but also resonates and develops arguments in other chapters giving
the reader a strong flavour of the gendered nature of press coverage in
these crucial years of state formation. Although urban/rural and class to a
lesser extent emerge as the primary axes of difference in the press
coverage, other differences may have been obscured by the centrality of the
national in press representations of women. Ryan identifies `moments' in
which press representations of Irish women are subordinating, quotidian,
extraordinary, modern or feminist, thereby complicating simple narratives of
subordination. This book does more than review press coverage; particular
women, events and politics of the time are discussed making this a most
useful book for those working in the disciplines of history, sociology,
women's studies, Irish studies and media studies.


Women's Studies International Forum
Volume 26, Issue 5 , September-October 2003, Pages 500-501

From: "MacEinri, Piaras"
To: "'irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk'"
Subject: migrant votes in Ireland

Readers of the list may be interested in the sign of the changing times
reported in today's Examinar, concerning the large number of migrants
expected to vote in the local elections later this year. I understand that a
number of immigrants will also be standing for seats. Given the strong
spatial concentration of migrants (north inner city Dublin, Clare, Cork
city, Ennis, Roscommon...) there is a good chance that some of these
candidates will be elected.

Anyone resident in Ireland for more than six months, irrespective of their
status, can vote in local elections. All EU citizens can vote in European
elections, while Irish and British citizens resident in Ireland can vote in
national elections (presidential elections and referenda are confined to
Irish citizens). Unfortunately, as always, there is no intention of giving
Irish migrants living abroad any kind of vote.

Piaras


10/02/04

Thousands of immigrants set to vote
By Mícheál Lehane

THOUSANDS of immigrants will vote in June's local elections, the Irish
Refugee Council (IRC) predicted yesterday.

More than 40,000 immigrants have sought asylum here and many can vote in the
elections which will be held in June.

These include people who have been granted citizenship, families with
children born here and immigrants housed in accommodation centres.

Thousands have already registered to vote after finalising their details on
the voting register at garda stations across the country.

Any immigrants, who have lived here prior to September 1 last year can vote
in the local but not the European elections.

"We had heard there were difficulties at some garda stations about getting
on the register, but that has been sorted now," IRC chief executive Peter
O'Mahony said.

The IRC believes the biggest election issue for asylum seekers will be the
right to work while their application for refugee status is being processed.

"People in Mosney went on hunger strike about this, so it's obviously going
to be a major issue in the election," Mr O'Mahony said.

There are 700 asylum seekers housed at the Mosney accommodation centre,
which is in a largely rural constituency in Co Meath.

"This number of votes could have a major impact in a constituency like that.
And we're encouraging people to get involved," Mr O'Mahony said.

Other areas where asylum seekers' votes could affect the election outcome
include Athlone and Limerick, the IRC believes.

Immigrants can join all political parties here except the Progressive
Democrats who don't allow non-EU citizens to become members. This is despite
the fact that PD Justice Minister Michael McDowell and party leader,
Tánaiste Mary Harney, between them oversee the Government's immigration
policies.

The party has since promised to change this rule but it may not happen
before the upcoming elections.

A recent report called Positive Politics found that none of the political
parties has implemented any measures to entice non-nationals into politics.

However, it emerged last week that a Fianna Fáil councillor in Co Meath is
helping 60 immigrants in Mosney establish a party cumann. Cllr Hugh Gough
hopes to bring the matter before the Fianna Fáil national executive in the
coming weeks.

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Avid readers of Conference schedules and Tables of Contents - and who on the
Irish-Diaspora list is not? - will have noticed that I am scheduled to speak
at the Irish American Festival, 2004, San Francisco, hosted by the Irish
Studies Program of New College of California and The Irish Arts Foundation,
in cooperation with The San Francisco Public Library.

Information is beginning to appear at the web site...

http://www.iaf.org/splash.html

They have asked me to speak about Hybridity.

I am working on a song...

'Hybridity
A redactor's life for me.'

I face this journey with my usual mix of panic and bad faith. But the
arrangements are not in my hands... All I have to do is turn up at the
airport with an adequate amount of reading material.

And how wonderful to find that I will be sharing a platform with Peter
Linebaugh, Kerby Miller, Janet Nolan and Margaret McPeake.

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

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forwarded on behalf of
Patricia Trainor de la Cruz
pmcruz[at]uma.es

CALL FOR PAPERS
HUMOUR AND TRAGEDY IN IRELAND

IV International Conference of the Spanish Association for Irish Studies
Universidad de Málaga
27th-29th May 2004

Tragedy is all too present in the history of Ireland. A country which has
suffered invasions, famine, political struggles, civil war, persecution and
deprivations of all kinds could not have survived had it not been for that
endearing Irish quality - humour. A sense of humour allows us to get things
into perspective and acts as an escape valve which permits us to come to
terms with the ups and downs of life and releases tensions and stress. The
theme of this conference is 'Humour and Tragedy in Ireland' as represented
in literature, the media, cinema and the visual arts.

Papers are welcome from a broad range of disciplines including:

* Literary Studies
* Media and Film Studies
* Cultural Studies and Popular Culture
* Postcolonial Studies
* Gender Studies
* Critical Theory

Proposals for papers,(either in English or in Spanish) with a 150-word
abstract should be sent as e-mail attachment to the conference coordinator
before February 15th 2004. Final papers, which should not exceed 10 pages
(20 minutes delivery) are due by May 1st 2004. Please include a copy on
diskette (Word for Windows 95/98). A selection of papers will be published
according to their thematic relevance to the publication.

Conference coordinator:
Dña. Patricia Trainor de la Cruz
Departament de Filología Inglesa, Francesa y Alemana
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras
Universidad de Málaga
Campus de Teatinos,
29071 Málaga
SPAIN
Tel. + 34 952 131792 Fax. + 34 952 131843
e-mail: pmcruz[at]uma.es

Website : www.aedei.com

From: patrick maume
Sender: P.Maume[at]Queens-Belfast.AC.UK
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Ir-D Bridget Connelly, Forgetting Ireland


From: Patrick MAume
I've seen copies of this book on sale in Hodges Figgis in Dublin, if anyone
from the Dublin area is interested in it.
Best wishes,
Patrick
>
> Email Patrick O'Sullivan
>
> Forgetting Ireland
> Bridget Connelly
>
> $22.95, cloth, ISBN 0-87351-449-1
> 271 pp., 13 b&w illus.
> SUBJECT: Memoir/Irish American History
>
> I have not myself seen the book, and have not seen it reviewed.
>
> The publisher's web site quotes Kerby Miller, and gives the full text
> of the book's Prologue.
>
> http://www.borealisbooks.org/books/0873514491.htm
>

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

Forgetting Ireland
Bridget Connelly

$22.95, cloth, ISBN 0-87351-449-1
271 pp., 13 b&w illus.
SUBJECT: Memoir/Irish American History

I have not myself seen the book, and have not seen it reviewed.

The publisher's web site quotes Kerby Miller, and gives the full text of the
book's Prologue.

http://www.borealisbooks.org/books/0873514491.htm

One of my contacts has sent me the following note about this book.

P.O'S.

________________________________

I don't know if you heard of a book published by Minnesota History Society,
Borealis Books, 2003, entitled Forgetting Ireland by Bridget Connelly...

There was a threatened famine in 1880, relief funds set up etc. and an
Archbishop Ireland in St Paul thought it would be a good idea to transplant
some poor people from West of Ireland out to his area on lands that the
railway companies were selling at cheap rates. He became an agent for
railway co. and the Church sponsored transfer of about 300 people from West
of Ireland out to Minnesota...ship from Galway and train journey. They
arrived in June and were given 150 acres, farm implements, cow, basic house
etc. By September some were already clearing off and went to St Paul where
they worked in railways. In October blizzards started and one of the worst
winters ever recorded set in. There was friction between the new settlers
(native speakers of irish) and priest in Graceville (Irish born but from
Tipp and Limerick) and the new arrivals weren't above accepting charity from
Masonic sources and criticizing their Church sponsors. Bad impression left
all round and Archbishop Ireland and Church committees much chagrined. The
group became known as the Connemaras.

Author comes from Minnesota farming background and she is surprised to
learn (from visiting TV crew making a documentary about colonization by
Catholics) that she was descended from this group...so she sets out to show
that some of the Connemara people did hold on to land and her great
grandfather had made a good deal of money within 20 years of arrival.
She also visits West of Ireland and makes voyage of cultural
discovery...reflects on oral traditions etc. Gets a bit carried away with
legends of Grace O Malley etc. Book is the first to focus solely on this
corner of history. The title explains how her family managed to suppress
the Connemara element in their background as it had rather bad associations
around St Paul.

That's all...

From: Kerby Miller
Subject: Re: Ir-D A redactor writes...2

Glaring proof, some people might argue, that it's impossible to parody the
LOL . . . ?

>From: patrick maume
>
>Subject: Re: Ir-D A redactor writes...
>
>The irony is that THE OLD ORANGE FLUTE is itself a parody of Orangeism,
>written by Peadar Kearney and originally published in Arthur Griffith's
>paper SINN FEIN. Alas, some people have no sense of when they're being
>parodied; it was rapidly taken up by Orangemen, & within 40 years Denis
>Johnston was singing it in St. Peter's Square to symbolise his freedom
>from papal thraldom (cf his war memoir NINE RIVERS FROM JORDAN, which
>is inter alia an interesting pastiche of ULYSSES.)
> Best wishes,
> Patrick

Email Patrick O'Sullivan

My daily newspaper, The Guardian, has, over the past week, been full of
items about Irish culture, or of Irish interest...

I guess there's very little of interest happening in England...

The Guardian web site is easily searchable, and is thorough. Recent items
there have continued recent Ir-D list discussion - including a ghastly
parody of The Ould Orange Flute (is nothing sacred?) by Paul Foot and
comments on Hutton by Danny Morrison, a former spokesman for Sinn Fein. Our
friends on the Irish Studies list have been discussing Roddy Doyle's
critique of Joyce, Ulysses (yes, nothing is sacred...)

Some links, below - but search for yourselves too...

P.O'S.


A troubled house

When WB Yeats wrote the manifesto for an Irish national theatre in 1904, the
stage was set for confrontation. Roy Foster examines 100 dramatic years of
the Abbey's history

Wednesday February 4, 2004
The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1140288,00.html

'The war, however, nearly put paid to it; it survived in a very rocky state,
after financial and organisational convulsions. And by 1918, Ireland itself
was convulsed with the aftermath of the Easter Rising and the onset of the
guerrilla War of Independence against British government. Several Abbey
actors had been involved in the Rising, and the general tone of the company
was in favour of Sinn Fein. Yeats himself was increasingly sympathetic to
their cause, but implicitly imposed a no politics rule on the Abbey's
productions until 1920, when they produced, to great public effect, a play
by the Republican activist Terence MacSwiney, which came on just as he was
dying on hunger strike in Brixton prison. By the time of the Anglo-Irish
Treaty conferring autonomy on the Irish Free State in 1922, the Abbey - and
Yeats - had proved their nationalist credentials.'


http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1140287,00.html

'The Abbey has lost touch with its people'

Karen Fricker
Wednesday February 4, 2004
The Guardian

'The centenary of the Abbey Theatre is a major occasion - but what exactly
does it signify? Revisionist history no longer allows us to romantically
objectify the theatre's origins as a site of nationalist consolidation, and
instead encourages us to see it as a place where differing definitions of
Ireland and "Irishness" have been rehearsed before the nation.'


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1144561,00.html

Overlong, overrated and unmoving: Roddy Doyle's verdict on James Joyce's
Ulysses

Angelique Chrisafis, Ireland correspondent
Tuesday February 10, 2004
The Guardian


http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1145212,00.html

How to read this book

Roddy Doyle has declared that James Joyce's Ulysses, acclaimed as one of the
greatest novels ever, is overrated and needs 'a good edit'. Yes, it is a
challenge, says John Mullan, but it's worth it

Wednesday February 11, 2004
The Guardian

From: patrick maume
Sender: P.Maume[at]Queens-Belfast.AC.UK
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Ir-D A redactor writes...

The irony is that THE OLD ORANGE FLUTE is itself a parody of Orangeism,
written by Peadar Kearney and originally published in Arthur Griffith's
paper SINN FEIN. Alas, some people have no sense of when they're being
parodied; it was rapidly taken up by Orangemen, & within 40 years Denis
Johnston was singing it in St. Peter's Square to symbolise his freedom from
papal thraldom (cf his war memoir NINE RIVERS FROM JORDAN, which is inter
alia an interesting pastiche of ULYSSES.)
Best wishes,
Patrick

>
> Email Patrick O'Sullivan
>
> My daily newspaper, The Guardian, has, over the past week, been full
> of items about Irish culture, or of Irish interest...
>
> I guess there's very little of interest happening in England...
>
> The Guardian web site is easily searchable, and is thorough. Recent
> items there have continued recent Ir-D list discussion - including a
> ghastly parody of The Ould Orange Flute (is nothing sacred?) by Paul
> Foot...

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