From Patrick O'Sullivan

It is with the usual mixture of emotions that the Irish-Diaspora team
here in Bradford says goodbye to Brid Featherstone, who departs from the
University of Bradford to go - as they say - to a better place...

In this case, the better place is the University of Huddersfield, where
Brid takes up a research post, looking at issues around the protection
of children. Huddersfield is not too far away, and still in Yorkshire.

Brid has been an active supporter of the Irish-Diaspora list, and a
stand-by Moderator and advisor from the beginning. Brid assures us that
she will continue to be an active and interested member of the Ir-D
list.

So, thank you, Brid. Good luck with your important work. Your goodbye
present follows shortly, as a separate Ir-D list message.

The present? Well, what does a scholar need as she takes up a new
research post?

Good references...

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


1.
The nature of child protection practices: an Irish case study
Child & Family Social Work, May 1999, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 145-152(8)

Skehill C. [1] *; O?Sullivan E. [2]; Buckley H. [3]

[1] Lecturer and Tutor on BSS Course, Department of Social Studies,
Trinity College, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
[2] Lecturer and Research Fellow, Department of Social Studies, Trinity
College, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
[3] Lecturer and Coordinator of Diploma in Child Protection, Department
of Social Studies, Trinity College, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
[*] Department of Social Work, Queens University, 7 Lennoxvale, Belfast
BT9 5BY, UK.

Abstract:

Child protection social work in Ireland has been expanding at a
significant pace over the past decade, particularly since the
implementation of the 1991 Child Care Act and the emergence of a number
of child abuse ?scandals? since the early 1990s. One health board area
in Ireland, itself subject to one of the most controversial child abuse
inquiries, commissioned a research study into the nature of child
protection practices in the area. The aim of the research was to
evaluate the overall child protection system and to consider what
impact, if any, new practice guidelines and procedures, implemented in
the aftermath of the inquiry, had made on the service. This paper
considers some of the key findings from the research and considers these
in the context of the overall Irish child protection system. Three
particular aspects of the research are focused on: the use of procedures
and guidelines, the nature of interagency cooperation and the position
of social workers within this, and the overall nature and direction of
the child care system.

Keywords: centrality of social workers; child protection; interagency
cooperation; Irish child care system; parental participation

Language: English Document Type: Research article ISSN: 1356-7500

Publisher: Blackwell Science Ltd, Oxford, UK


2.
Deconstructing the role of the public health nurse in child protection
Journal of Advanced Nursing, July 1998, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 178-184(7)

Hanafin S. [1] *

[1] College lecturer, Department of Nursing Studies, University College
Cork, 4 Bloomfield Terrace, Western Road, Cork, Ireland
[*] Department of Nursing, University College Cork, 4 Bloomfield
Terrace, Western Road, Cork, Republic of Ireland

Abstract:

This paper argues that children who have been deemed to be `at-risk'
need specialist intervention and that the Irish public health nurse
(PHN) cannot provide this intervention. It is further argued that a
failure to acknowledge and act on this is placing children at further
risk and it is suggested that the mismatch between actual and perceived
(or expected) roles leads to practices which undermine rather than
support child protection. The PHN's remit in protecting children is
situated within the following contexts: the variety of client groups
with whom the PHN works, overall provision of child health services in
the community, her education and training, and primary, secondary and
tertiary protection of children. Two recent reports on enquiries into
the failure of the services to protect children living with their
families are used to explore the discontinuity. Existing evidence on how
personnel involved (directly and indirectly) in community care services
perceive or understand the PHN's role in child protection is described
in the context of what the PHN's role actually is. The evidence suggests
that the PHN fulfils a range of prescribed roles but that there is a
perception or expectation among other service providers that she is also
fulfilling additional roles. The paper concludes by suggesting some
possible solutions to this discontinuity with a view to improving child
protection services.

Keywords: Irish public health nurse; primary; secondary and tertiary
child protection; role expectations

Language: English Document Type: Research article ISSN: 0309-2402

Publisher: Blackwell Science Ltd, Oxford, UK


- --
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

Health and Mental Health

Here in Bradford Pat Bracken and I have been considering how we might
develop further our interests in health issues and in mental health
issues within the Irish Diaspora - now that we have at least some
seedcorn support for research.

We have written the first of a series of papers, Bracken & O'Sullivan,
'Not be taken at a glance...': the invisibility of Irish migrants in
British health research" - this outlines our understanding of one
background problem. (If you have been given a copy of this paper for
'peer review' kindly avert your eyes at this point.) Other papers are
in the planning stages.

We are in discussion with the Health Service trusts here in Bradford,
and with the new School of Health Studies within the University of
Bradford. Something should develop.

We think that whatever does develop will be all the better for the
interest and participation of Ir-D list colleagues. Ideally what we do
here should support and complement what is being done elsewhere. And
thus the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts.

So, we are...

1. interested in hearing more about what has been done and is being
planned in these areas.

2. thinking about the possibility of a Research Seminar, most probably
to be held here in Bradford - given the level of interest here already.
We can most probably find the funds to pay (some) expenses, and one of
our corporate sponsors is offering (some) hospitality.

We would think of inviting people like - ooh, off the top of my head -
Paddy Walls to speak on ethnic identity and health, or Elizabeth Malcolm
on the history of mental health. The idea is that this Research Seminar
would, as it were, collate thinking on debates and issues, and map out
the kind of research programme that would really clarify issues.

Is what is being suggested here an Irish Diaspora Studies and an Ir-D
list matter? Well, I think it is - and I hope sufficient people agree
with me.

In all Diaspora Studies areas theories - of greater or lesser
elaboration - of 'ethnic vulnerability' abound. At one level Kerby
Miller's book, _Emigrants and Exiles_, offers such a theory, arising out
of the pre-occupations of American immigration research. And I have
seen Kerby's book used as a theory of individual psychopatholgy by a New
York based psychoanalyst. The most influential book on thinking about
Irish mental health issues remains Nancy Scheper-Hughes, _Saints,
Scholars and Schizophrenics_. Thus the greatest input so far into these
debates has come from an American historian and an American
anthropologist.

I will post, as separate emails, some recent references, which will give
Ir-D list members some idea of the existing discussion.

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

[I haven't had a chance to see the full text of this first article. So,
I would want to see the logic chain which identified these men of 'Irish
heritage'. The patterns of Irish family names are full of interest -
but have to be used cautiously. For example, in Northern Ireland, we
find good Scottish names like 'Adams' and 'Hume' on an unexpected side
of the sectarian divide. P.O'S.]


1.
Journal of Public Health Medicine, Volume 21, Issue 1, pp. 46-54:
Abstract.

Association of medical, physiological, behavioural and socio-economic
factors with elevated mortality in men of Irish heritage in West
Scotland
J Abbotts1,*, R Williams1 and GD Smith2

1MRC Medical Sociology Unit, 6 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8RZ, UK,
2Department of of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall,
Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2PR, UK, *Corresponding author


Background: Men with patrilineal Irish descent from the immigrations of
the nineteenth centuries have higher death rates from 'all-causes' and,
specifically, cardiovascular disease (CVD) than the general population
of the West of Scotland.

Methods: A total of 5766 male employees from 27 workplace settings were
examined between 1970 and 1973. Surname analysis identified 15 per cent
of these men as of patrilineal Irish heritage. For those who have since
died, the date and cause of death was obtained. Cox's proportional
hazards model was used to compare the mortality risk of those with Irish
and non-Irish surnames, and to investigate established medical
physiological, behavioural and socio-economic risk factors (acting in
early and later life) as possible explanations for this excess
mortality.

Results: The relative risk of death from all causes for the Irish of
1.26 (95 per cent CI (0.99, 1.26)) by including established risk factors
in the model. The relative risk of CVD mortality of 1.51 (95 per cent CI
(1.29, 1.77)) for the Irish was reduced to 1.35 (95 per cent CI (1.14,
1.58)) by the same adjustments. The elevated all-cause mortality of the
Irish was mainly attributable to cardiovascular deaths.

Conclusions: Cigarette smoking was only able to 'explain' a small amount
of the excess all-cause and CVD mortality of men with patrilineal Irish
descent. Relative deprivation during childhood and adulthood contributed
to the high Irish mortality. However, there remains a substantial excess
of premature deaths among Irish men which is unaccounted for by
established risk factors.

Key words: mortality, risk factors, Irish, ethnic minorities


2.
Regional Mortality and the Irish in Britain: Findings from the ONS
Longitudinal Study
Sociology of Health & Illness, May 1999, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 344-367(24)

Williams R. [1]; Ecob R. [1]

[1] MRC Medical Sociology Unit, University of Glasgow

Abstract:

We explore predictions from three sociological models linking excess
Irish mortality in England and Wales with urban and regional patterns of
settlement and mortality.

The analysis is prospective, of urban residents aged 25-74 in a 1 per
cent sample of the 1971 Census of England and Wales, linked with death
certificates from 1971-1985 (the ONS Longitudinal Study). Analysis is by
multilevel modelling of probabilities of death.

The association of past Irish immigration with contemporary regional
mortality is confirmed. However Model 1, suggesting that excess Irish
mortality is solely a regional effect related to the economic history of
the north and west, is rejected. Model 2, suggesting that excess Irish
mortality is due to political and religious differences which have
tended to disadvantage this group similarly across regions of England
and Wales, is supported. Model 3, suggesting that the economic model (1)
and cultural model (2) interact, creating sharper political and
religious divisions and greater excess Irish mortality in the north and
west, is rejected.

Keywords: ethnic groups; Irish in Britain; mortality; regional economic
history; religious and political divisions; ONS Longitudinal Study;
multilevel modelling

Language: English Document Type: Research article ISSN: 0141-9889

Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, Oxford, UK and Boston, USA


3.
Folklore associated with dying in the west of Ireland
Palliative Medicine, 1999, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 57-62(6)

Donnelly S.

West of Scotland Palliative Medicine, Hunters Hill Marie Curie, Belmont
Road, Springburn, Glasgow G21 3AY, United Kingdom

Abstract:

The warm welcome for modern advances in the care of the dying should not
exclude the past in which there is much to be learned from the skills of
our ancestors.

A bilingual two-year qualitative research project into traditions
associated with dying and death was undertaken. Research began in the
archives available in the internationally recognized university folklore
departments of Ireland and Scotland. This was augmented by 40 indepth
personal interviews with Gaelic- and English-speaking residents in rural
communities of both countries, recalling local customs and practices in
the care of the dying. This paper reports the Irish experience; the
collection of data in Scotland continues.

From this study, several main themes emerged. Death was seen and
accepted as a natural continuation of life, simply a step into the
spirit world. In view of people's oneness with nature and the spiritual
world, death was not to be feared. Traditions were unique to each area
even down to the precise number of candles used at the sickbed. People
understood the signs and symptoms of dying and were skilled in
alleviating the distress of both relatives and the dying; and, in this,
language was important in capturing and expressing the philosophy of
these people. The acceptance of death as the one truism of life was
facilitated by the strong faith and prayer of people for whom, in the
celebration of death, humour was never far away. In their grief, the
community was supported by the loose formality of the wake (torramh),
funeral procession, keening (caoineadh) and music. In all these, the men
and women of the community and its leaders had distinct and respected
roles to play.

Language: English Document Type: Original article ISSN: 0267-6591

Publisher: Arnold, Hodder Headline PLC, 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH



- --
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



Constructing Mental Illness in Irish People: Race, Culture and Retreat
European Nurse, April 1998, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 22-32(11)

Clarke L.

Ashdown House, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9RT, UK

Abstract:

Different research paradigms - be they quantitative or qualitative -
produce different versions of the question under study. Drawing from
Irish literature, personal reminiscences and, especially, an
anthropological study by N Scheper-Hughes, it is tentatively concluded
that there persist, in western Ireland, pockets of raised prevalence of
schizophrenia. However, there is a need to evaluate this `schizophrenia'
in terms of the cultural heritage of those affected, as well as a range
of other socio-economic/political factors which affect their lives. Less
tentative is the association between schizophrenia in these regions and
poverty within an overall dimension of social disintegration under
national and international pressure. The recent history of these changes
is summarized and its significance assessed. It is surmised that the
social/economic regeneration of the areas concerned might bring respite
to its inhabitants; the outlook for such change - even its desirability
among some Irish people - remains pessimistic, however.

Language: English Document Type: Original article ISSN: 1358-8621

Publisher: Arnold, Hodder Headline PLC, 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH,
UK

- --
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: Noel Gilzean


Hi Paddy

Tell Brid to come and say hello. Sounds like we are going to be in the same
school.

Jim and I are in the Ramsden building. I am in R2/19 and Jim is in R2/42

Noel

Noel Gilzean
Behavioural Sciences
Queensgate Campus
University of Huddersfield
Huddersfield West Yorkshire
HD1 3JN
U.K.
e-mail: n.a.gilzean[at]hud.ac.uk
tel: 01484 472835
Fax: 01484 472794
http://www.hud.ac.uk/hip/


> ----------
> From: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
> Reply To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
> Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 1999 1:37 pm
> To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
> Subject: Ir-D Farewell to Brid
>
>
> From Patrick O'Sullivan
>
> It is with the usual mixture of emotions that the Irish-Diaspora team
> here in Bradford says goodbye to Brid Featherstone, who departs from the
> University of Bradford to go - as they say - to a better place...
>
> In this case, the better place is the University of Huddersfield, where
> Brid takes up a research post, looking at issues around the protection
> of children. Huddersfield is not too far away, and still in Yorkshire.
>

From: "Rory Williams"
Organization: MRC Medical Sociology Unit

Dear Patrick O'Sullivan, Paddy Walls passed on your comment on our
article in J. Public Health Medicine (she's part of my team which has
been investigating Irish health since 1993). As the possessor of an
apparently non-Irish surname I'm aware of the problem! We give our
latest figures on accuracy of names in the article, but you may like to look
at the foundation method paper which is on both religion and name as
ways of identifying people of Irish descent in Britain:

Williams R (1993) Can data on Scottish Catholics tell us about
descendants of the Irish in Scotland? A research note. New Community
19: 296-310.

There's no easy answer, but that's too often been used as an excuse
for not tackling these vital questions, and the evidence on Irish ill
health in Britain is now mounting up. We can give you a list of our
publications on the subject if that's of interest.

With best wishes, Rory Williams

From: "Paddy Walls"
Organization: MRC Medical Sociology Unit
To: rory[at]MSOC.MRC.GLA.AC.UK
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999 15:01:15 GMT
Subject: (Fwd) Ir-D Health References
Priority: normal

Perhaps you may wish to reply to this one yourself??


- ------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Subject: Ir-D Health References
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999 13:58:14 +0100
From: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Reply-to: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk


From Patrick O'Sullivan

[I haven't had a chance to see the full text of this first article. So,
I would want to see the logic chain which identified these men of 'Irish
heritage'. The patterns of Irish family names are full of interest -
but have to be used cautiously. For example, in Northern Ireland, we
find good Scottish names like 'Adams' and 'Hume' on an unexpected side
of the sectarian divide. P.O'S.]

1.
Journal of Public Health Medicine, Volume 21, Issue 1, pp. 46-54:
Abstract.

Association of medical, physiological, behavioural and socio-economic
factors with elevated mortality in men of Irish heritage in West
Scotland
J Abbotts1,*, R Williams1 and GD Smith2

1MRC Medical Sociology Unit, 6 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8RZ, UK,
2Department of of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall,
Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2PR, UK, *Corresponding author


Background: Men with patrilineal Irish descent from the immigrations of
the nineteenth centuries have higher death rates from 'all-causes' and,
specifically, cardiovascular disease (CVD) than the general population
of the West of Scotland.

Methods: A total of 5766 male employees from 27 workplace settings were
examined between 1970 and 1973. Surname analysis identified 15 per cent
of these men as of patrilineal Irish heritage. For those who have since
died, the date and cause of death was obtained. Cox's proportional
hazards model was used to compare the mortality risk of those with Irish
and non-Irish surnames, and to investigate established medical
physiological, behavioural and socio-economic risk factors (acting in
early and later life) as possible explanations for this excess
mortality.

Results: The relative risk of death from all causes for the Irish of
1.26 (95 per cent CI (0.99, 1.26)) by including established risk factors
in the model. The relative risk of CVD mortality of 1.51 (95 per cent CI
(1.29, 1.77)) for the Irish was reduced to 1.35 (95 per cent CI (1.14,
1.58)) by the same adjustments. The elevated all-cause mortality of the
Irish was mainly attributable to cardiovascular deaths.

Conclusions: Cigarette smoking was only able to 'explain' a small amount
of the excess all-cause and CVD mortality of men with patrilineal Irish
descent. Relative deprivation during childhood and adulthood contributed
to the high Irish mortality. However, there remains a substantial excess
of premature deaths among Irish men which is unaccounted for by
established risk factors.

Key words: mortality, risk factors, Irish, ethnic minorities


2.
Regional Mortality and the Irish in Britain: Findings from the ONS
Longitudinal Study
Sociology of Health & Illness, May 1999, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 344-367(24)

Williams R. [1]; Ecob R. [1]

[1] MRC Medical Sociology Unit, University of Glasgow

Abstract:

We explore predictions from three sociological models linking excess
Irish mortality in England and Wales with urban and regional patterns of
settlement and mortality.

The analysis is prospective, of urban residents aged 25-74 in a 1 per
cent sample of the 1971 Census of England and Wales, linked with death
certificates from 1971-1985 (the ONS Longitudinal Study). Analysis is by
multilevel modelling of probabilities of death.

The association of past Irish immigration with contemporary regional
mortality is confirmed. However Model 1, suggesting that excess Irish
mortality is solely a regional effect related to the economic history of
the north and west, is rejected. Model 2, suggesting that excess Irish
mortality is due to political and religious differences which have
tended to disadvantage this group similarly across regions of England
and Wales, is supported. Model 3, suggesting that the economic model (1)
and cultural model (2) interact, creating sharper political and
religious divisions and greater excess Irish mortality in the north and
west, is rejected.

Keywords: ethnic groups; Irish in Britain; mortality; regional economic
history; religious and political divisions; ONS Longitudinal Study;
multilevel modelling

Language: English Document Type: Research article ISSN: 0141-9889

Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, Oxford, UK and Boston, USA


Dr Rory Williams
Senior Research Scientist
Ethnicity, Religion and Health Programme

Medical Research Council
Social and Public Health Sciences Unit
6 Lilybank Gardens
Glasgow G12 8RZ

Tel: 0141-357-3949
Fax: 0141-337-2389
email: rory[at]msoc.mrc.gla.ac.uk

From Patrick O'Sullivan

Greetings to the Irish-Diaspora list from Chrystel Hug, the author of
THE POLITICS OF SEXUAL MORALITY IN IRELAND (Macmillan, ISBN
0-333-66217-2, pp284, IR16.99) - previously discussed on the Irish-
Diaspora list.

Chrystel's assignment as Education Attache for Scotland and Northern
Ireland at the Institut Francais d'Ecosse, Edinburgh, comes to an end
this summer.

She will soon be moving to a new post at the University of Toulon-Var,
in the south of France. She will be teaching courses on C20th British
politics and society, including devolution, identities and cultures.

She will be designing a new Master's course on contemporary Ireland, and
will be developing the international links of her department. And she
is happy to hear from friends and colleagues who would like to be part
of those international links.

Her address will be

Dr. Chrystel Hug
Departement d'etudes anglophones
Universite de Toulon et du Var
Bat.Y - Avenue de l'Universite - BP 132
82957 La Garde cedex
France

Our good wishes to Chrystel in her new post. And obviously we expect
that these new courses will have some Irish Diaspora Studies content...

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

The following messages has mysteriously appeared...

Forwarded on behalf of
Diane Crowley


------- Forwarded message follows -------

From: Diane Crowley
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Ir-D Archaeology at Ballykilcline -Reply

Tell Elizabeth Creely that Charles Orser is leading tours of his dig and
then giving a an oral presentation along with two historians at the
Reunion of the Evicted Families at Ballykilcline on August 7.

Diane Crowley

- --
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

The following messages has mysteriously appeared...

Forwarded on behalf of
Diane Crowley


------- Forwarded message follows -------

From: Diane Crowley
To: irish-diaspora[at]Bradford.ac.uk
Subject: Ir-D Archaeology at Ballykilcline - Reply

Tell Elizabeth Creely that Charles Orser is leading tours of his dig and
then giving a an oral presentation along with two historians at the
Reunion of the Evicted Families at Ballykilcline on August 7.

Diane Crowley

- --
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 McGinn"

Subject: Ireland & Brazil


The following letter appeared in The Irish Times, Saturday, 10 July 1999:

Sir, - The news that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. David Andrews,
TD, believes that Ireland should have an embassy in Brazil next year, as
reported by Patrick Woodworth, was very well received by all those with an
interest in the developing relations between the two countries. The
statement, which was made earlier this week in Rio during the first ever
summit meeting of heads of government from member-countries of the European
Union, Latin America and the Caribbean, could not have come at a better
time.

There is a trade balance in Ireland's favour and Irish investments in
Brazil are set to rise later this year. Irish whiskey, for example, is
being marketed on a fulltime basis. Ireland is Brazil's third largest
supplier of liqueurs. The Irish Dairy Board has been active in the market
for over 25 years. Irish patent potatoes have been successfully tested
here.

In the tourism field, Bord Failte is now pro-active in relation to Brazil.
The number of Brazilian tourists visiting Ireland has started to increase.
Co-operation between Irish and Brazilian universities in the area of
mathematics has been going on for over 22 years.

In the literary field, a record number of traditional and contemporary
Irish authors have been translated into Brazilian Portuguese - at an
average rate of one a month last year. Irish studies at the University of
Sao Paulo are at an all time high. Enya has sold almost 1.5 million CDs in
Brazil in recent years, and groups such as U2 and the Cranberries are
household names among young people.

These are just some of the findings which the author came across while
researching the links between Brazil and Ireland and which have been
published in a 100-page survey to coincide with the summit meeting. A
second edition of the survey is being researched and any contribution that
your readers may have on relations between the two countries would be
welcome via email - kskt[at]openlink.com.br - Yours, etc.
PETER O'NEILL, Irish Travel Department, KSK Tours, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.


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

From Patrick O'Sullivan

I thought that members of the Irish-Diaspora list might like see a little sample of
the kind of thing that goes on behind the scenes...

1. An email from someone who has found our Irish Diaspora Studies web site, which
was passed on to Brian McGinn, the compiler of the Irish in South America study
guide.

2. Brian McGinn's reply.

3. Brian McGinn's explanatory note.

P.O'S.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1.
Hello!
You quoted to my grandfather Rafael Cayol
O'Farrell (Grampapa, my padrino of baptism).
I have his photo at
http://habitantes.elsitio.com/cayol/grampapa.jpg
He was a writer and painter, (he was graduated as
architect) who wrote "El baron de Ballenary" a
free "noveled" biography of the father of the
eminent person.
His wife lives, she is my grandmother Nora Hughes
Casey (Granny).
Do you know the book "Los Irlaneses en
Argentina" (Irishmen in Argentina)?
It is a genealogical catalog with brief
descriptions, with prologue of my uncle
grandfather Félix Martín y Herrera, a recognized
genealogist (according to him invincible in
heraldry).
My personal page is
http://habitantes.elsitio.com/cayol/
Francisco Cayol


2.
Dear Francisco,

Patrick O'Sullivan forwarded your message regarding your late grandfather
Rafael Cayol. As the author of the bibliography, The Irish in South
America, I am delighted to learn of your O'Farrell and Hughes-Casey
connections. The bibliography in which you found your grandfather's book
listed was a work of collaboration with many colleagues. In fact, the Cayol
listing was suggested by my good friend, Guillermo MacLoughlin of Buenos
Aires, who was also a close associate of the late Eduardo Coghlan. You can
find Coghlan's books, including Los Irlandeses en la Argentina, on the
bibliography shortly after your grandfather's work. If you have any other
suggestions for books or articles about the Irish in Argentina or
elsewhere in South America, we would be happy to receive them.

Best wishes,

Brian McGinn


3.
A little explanatory note regarding the title of Rafael Cayol O'Farrell's book...

The father of the eminent person, in Francisco Cayol's charming phrase, is
of course Ambrose or Ambrosio O'Higgins, the Irish-born father of Chile's
liberator Bernardo O'Higgins. Ambrose's birthplace has been the subject of
much controversy and inconclusive research, with some claiming Ballinary,
Co. Sligo (a townland in the parish of Kilmactranny, near the Roscommon
border) and others Summerhill, Co. Meath (where the young Ambrose is
alleged to have worked as an errand boy in nearby Dangan Castle). Patrick
McKenna, the Summerhill-based historian of Irish-Argentina, reports that
Chilean students still regularly visit Summerhill searching for O'Higgins
birthplace. Brian de Breffny, writing in The Irish Ancestor (see
Bibliography), found that the evidence pointed strongly to Co. Sligo, with
Ballinary or Ballenary mentioned in Ambrose's 1761 certificate of
naturalization as a Spanish citizen and his 1788 petition for admission to
the Order of Santiago. O'Higgins founded and named the town of San Ambrosio
de Ballenar in Chile. In 1795, the year the Irishman was promoted to
Viceroy of Peru, the highest position in colonial Spanish America, King
Carlos III of Spain formally bestowed the title "Baron de Ballenary" on
Ambrose O'Higgins.

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

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From Patrick O'Sullivan


I have had a very interesting - but maybe sad - phone conversation with
Anthony Breen, of the University of East Anglia.

It will be recalled that Anthony was planning a day school on material
of Irish interest to be found in the archives of East Anglia. (East
Anglia is the sticky-out bit of England, on the east coast, between the
Wash and the Thames estuary.)

Sadly that day school will not proceed - not enough interest. But - and
we all already knew this - there is in fact much to interest the
historian of Ireland in these English archives. Some examples, which
arose during that phone conversation with Anthony Breen...

1.
1641 - evidence of Protestant refugees from Ireland being received into
English communities. Studies of these refugees have tended to focus on
the propaganda war, the media representations.

2.
Police forces - Irish men in the English police forces, especially in
the higher ranks. The suggestion is that the local forces in England
had difficulty finding men of the right calibre (so to speak) and looked
for experienced men in Ireland.

[I remember talking to Virginia Crossman about the British Empire and
its police forces. Generally, throughout the Empire, the British went
for a centralised armed gendarmerie - it is tempting to see this as the
Royal Irish Constabulary model. But the lines of thinking and influence
are by no means obvious. Certainly the Empire's police forces recruited
Irish men - more 'Wild Geese' or 'ethnic soldiers'. The names of
Lonigan, Kennedy and Scanlon spring (Stringybark) to mind...

Someone was following that line of thought with a study of the police
forces in Canada. Does anyone have up to date information?

And I remember that when young Jim Young of the Hull WEA tentatively
presented his paper on the Irish in Hull, both Graham Davis and I zoomed
in on the same point. Not much happened to the Irish in Hull. It seems
that at key times key members of the elite were Irish, like the Chief
Constable, Andrew McManners. (The references are in Davis, The Irish in
Britain.)]

3.
Estate papers of English landowners with considerable holdings in
Ireland. Irish historians now make much of the study of the Irish
estate papers - but those papers usually form only half of the picture.
If that. It is in the English estates papers that the full accounts are
kept. Admittedly, the only person I know who has studied both sets of
papers for one landowner - Alan Heesom (University of Durham) on the
Londonderry estates - has found the accounts in a complete mess...

I see that there is an article by Anthony Breen, on the 1849 movement,
in the latest History Ireland, Vol. 7, No. 2, Summer 1999.

P.O'S.
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Please circulate this message widely...

Forwarded on behalf of Catherine Maignant, President of EFACIS...

This year's conference of the European Federation of Associations and
Centres of Irish Studies (EFACIS) will be held at the University of
Paris III-Sorbonne in Paris, France, on 17 and 18 December 1999. The
conference title is
'Ireland and Europe: Interchanges'
This conference will be a multidisciplinary event and proposals which
address this broad topic from various scholarly perspectives
(literature. history, sociology, political science, etc.) will be
welcome.

Prospective participants should submit their proposals for papers in
French or English by no later that 30 September to:

Paul Brennan
Universite de Paris III - Sorbonne Nouvelle
5 rue de l'Ecole de Medecine
75006 Paris
France
Fax (33) 1 43 29 06 17
email

Further information about EFACIS and the conference can be found at the
web site
http://www.heanet.ie/EFACIS/


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

If I have got my dates right...

James Christen Steward's art exhibition,

When time began To rant and rage:
Figurative Painting from Twentieth Century Ireland
is now at the Grey Art Gallery, New York University.

As previously discussed on the Irish-Diaspora list - the exhibition
started its journey at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, England. As
well as New York it will visit the Berkeley Art Gallery, California, and
the Barbican Art Gallery, London.

Below I have pasted it a useful reference. Visit the exhibition,
impress your friends with your erudition, report to the Irish-Diaspora
list...

P.O'S.


Migrant Travellers and Tourist Idylls: The Paintings of Jack B. Yeats
and Post-colonial Identities
Art History, June 1998, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 201-218(18)

Cusack T. [1]

[1] University of Wales Institute, Cardiff

Abstract:

Travellers of various kinds have long been a salient feature of Irish
society. Whether tinkers, tramps, seasonal workers or emigrants, they
occupied positions outside an increasingly settled and bourgeois
population. Their histories are contested and inevitably bound up with
colonialism. This article considers how the figures of travellers in
landscape depicted in Jack B. Yeats's paintings of the 1930s-50s might
be related to the constitution of national and cultural identities in
Ireland in the post-colonial period. Particular attention is given to
Yeats's own marginal position as Anglo-Irish.

As the representation of landscape, imagined with its `natural'
inhabitants, contributes to the construction of national and cultural
identities, colonialism produces contesting, and sometimes ambivalent,
representations of the land and its occupants. In a period of social
change and `re-positioning' for both the Irish and Anglo-Irish, Yeats's
travellers are found to be located within the rural idyll of `Gaelic
Ireland ' rather than the rural idyll of anglicized Ireland/England.
However, I propose that they do not quite form part of this idyll.
Furthermore, the depiction of both travellers and landscape is seen to
be ambivalent, questioning the security of Yeats's relation to the
`Irishness ' represented.

I suggest that the figure of the traveller cannot be isolated from anti-
modern discourses of poetic wandering originating outside Ireland.
Yeats's landscape represents a touristic idyll marked as `Irish ' but
also as Utopian and timeless. The viewer's imagined occupancy of the
role of tourist-traveller in this idyll is disturbed however by Yeats's
depiction of the traveller as unromanticized, poor and migrant. In post-
colonial Irish culture, the figure of the traveller accumulated diverse
connotations associated with the needs for identity and identification
generated by cultural shifts towards national definition and exclusions,
as well as by the ongoing changes of modernity.

Language: English Document Type: Research article ISSN: 0141-6790



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From Patrick O'Sullivan

An interesting issue of Ducas, the Newsletter of the Irish-American
Cultural Institute, Spring 1999...

The IACI has a new Executive Director, Deirdre Glenn. (This is not
Deirdre's only claim to fame, but many people in Ireland will know her
as the widow of the archaeologist and historian Liam de Paor.)

[The word on the street is that this appointment will free IACI Chairman
John Walsh to concentrate on a major Irish-American project... Watch
this space.]

News too of the IACI Research Awards. Congratulations to the
recipients. The awards - all of special interest to the Irish-Diaspora
list - are
Lauren Onkey, research on the plays of Ned Harrigan
Janet Nolan, education and women's mobility
Eileen Moore Quinn, Irish-American folklore
Gary Minda, Michael Davitt and Irish-American relations
Douglas Hurt, the Irish in Iowa
Kevin Kenny, a new synthesis of the American Irish
Henry McKieven, the Irish in the southern US port cities
Daniel Tobin, an anthology of English language Irish-American poetry.

Typically these IACI awards tend to be small, $1000 to £5000. But they
have great symbolic value.

[Note that the deadline for applications for awards in the year 2000 is
October 1 1999 -
Email Irishaynj[at]aol.com
http://www.irishaci.org]

In Ireland the IACI is decentralising the O'Malley Art Collection -
about 200 works of art from around the world. Some 38 have been on long
term loan to the Irish Museum of Modern Art - the rest were warehoused
somewhere in Mayo. Negotiations are underway with IMMA, and galleries
in Cork, Limerick, Sligo and Mayo.

And this issue of Ducas includes a helpful and sensible article by Tony
McCarthy (editor of the journal Irish Roots) on 'Three Ways to Trace
Your Irish Ancestors.'

P.O'S.


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From Patrick O'Sullivan

Another example of interest in France in Irish culture is Erick
Falc'her-Poyroux's bibliography of Irish music - though Erick does not
seem to have updated it for some time...

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/efp/biblio.htm

But it's still a fun site to visit...

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/efp/

P.O'S.


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From Patrick O'Sullivan

I have at last got hold of my copy of W.J. McCormack, ed., The Blackwell
Companion to Modern Irish Culture, Blackwell, Oxford, 1999, ISBN 0 631
16525 8.

Other contributors to this volume take note... In the long saga behind
this volume administrative responsibility within Blackwell's has passed
through many hands, and it is by no means an automatic certainty that
you will receive your promised copy. Contact Blackwell Publishers at
Oxford 791100.

Blackwell had had great success with Thomson's Companion to Scotland,
1983, and decided to 'do' the other celticicities. Wales, no problem.
Ireland? The original plan, floated in 1992, was to have a Companion to
Irish Culture, covering mostly English-language matters from 1540
onwards - there was to be a companion companion, The Companion to Gaelic
Ireland.

In the event, The Companion to Gaelic Ireland proved impossible to
commission. Various explanations have been offered - including
personality clashes between the Celticists. And no doubt gossip will
furnish many more explanations.

Meanwhile, McCormack plodded on, and here - in an Introduction that
borders on the indiscreet - he gives his account of that saga. One
pauses at his opening quote - that remark of Samuel Johnson's that the
Irish are a fair-minded people, 'they never speak well of one
another...' Why, in our Companion, are we interested in yet another
negative opinion of the Irish by an Englishman - however eminent? But
McCormack is signalling his own frustration and irritation.

Points must be made 'in plain fashion'. He had to commission bridging
entries, to signal at least some interest in Gaelic Ireland. 'A general
editor cannot compel...' 'The mention of contributors prompts
consideration of non-contributors...' 'One had a sense of testing, even
straining, the available resources of the Irish higher education
system...' But...

'The collection of diligent and authoritative contributors remains a
matter of pride... 'The book IS a companion... I hope it contains a
few laughs...'

I am responsible for two of the laughs. I think McCormack has used half
a dozen of my entries. I limited myself, on purpose, to brief entries
on matters where I had the research material to hand. I was asked to
take on more complex entries, but, as an 'independent scholar', had to
decline. I guiltily note the absence of entries I was asked to do, and
had to refuse - Irish Diaspora matters of course.

We have talked about these issues on the Irish-Diaspora list before -
all these projects depend on good will. What McCormack has discovered,
or is signalling, is the end of ease, the decline of good will.

As to the book itself? I think it is splendid. The policy of going for
longer entries has paid off - O'Doherty on 'Women' being an obvious
example, as is the entry on the Yeats family. The book covers wider
ground than the two Oxford Companions - especially noteworthy is the
coverage of the arts, music and the sciences, and social issues, like
contraception and abortion. Looming issues of interest are at least
flagged - the entry on 'Orientalism' being one example.

The book is, as McCormack hopes, companionable. But, sadly, at a price
of £75, it is not a companion that many people will be able to afford.

...And there are people out there who think that books write
themselves...

P.O'S.
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From Patrick O'Sullivan

Impress your friends even more...

There is material on
James Christen Steward's art exhibition,

When time began To rant and rage:
Figurative Painting from Twentieth Century Ireland

on the Berkeley Art Gallery, California, Web site...
http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibits/irish/introductionbody.html

and on this site is an extract from James' very interesting exhibition
catalogue...
http://www.neh.gov/html/magazine/99-01/irish_painting.html

P.O'S.
- --
Patrick O'Sullivan

From Patrick O'Sullivan

One of our friends, Werner Sollors, of the Longfellow Institute, Harvard
- - with whom and with which we are discussing a possible joint project -
has placed a very illustrated interesting article at
http://www.nyupress.nyu.edu/americansall.html

Americans All: "Of Plymouth Rock and Jamestown and Ellis Island"; or,
Ethnic Literature and Some Redefinitions of "America"
by Werner Sollors

It looks at the changing imagery of these three entry-points to America
over the centuries. There are examples of pro-and anti-immigrant poetry
and rhetoric. For example, Thomas Bailey Aldrich's once famous poem
"Unguarded Gates" (1892) is a sharp contrast to Emma Lazarus's
poem. Bailey condems those passing the Statue of Liberty as "a wild
motley throng... bringing with them unknown gods and rites..,"

Our possible joint project with Werner involves an exploration of the
Irish language literature of America.

P.O'S.
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Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
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