Irish Migrants in New Communities

Seeking the Fair Land?

Contributions by Noémie Beck, Malcolm Campbell, Bridget Connelly, Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin, Tara Manning, Gerard Moran, Kate OMalley, James B. Swan, Patricia B. Swan, Jay Tunney, James Patrick Walsh, Lachlan Whalen Edited by Mícheál Ó hAodha, Máirtín Ó Catháin

Not available to order

Publication date:

16 May 2014

Length of book:

174 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739173831

Irish migrants in new communities: Seeking the Fair Land? comprises the second collection of essays by these editors exploring fresh aspects and perspectives on the subject of the Irish diaspora. This volume, edited by Máirtín Ó Catháin and Mícheál Ó hAodha, develops many of the oral history themes of the first book and concentrates more on issues surrounding the adaptation of migrants to new or host environments and cultures. These new places often have a jarring effect, as well as a welcoming air, and the Irish bring their own interpretations, hostilities, and suspicions, all of which are explored in a fascinating and original number of new perspectives.

Part 1: Fitting in
Chapter 1- Tribal Kings and Tattooed Chiefs: The Hidden Irish of the Pacific World
Malcolm Campbell
Chapter 2- Legends of the Graceville Conamaras
Bridget Connelly
Chapter 3- ‘Je ne suis jamais allé en Irlande’: An Irish Journey to La Beauce, Quebec
Noémie Beck and Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin
Chapter 4- ‘Nobody’s baby’: Forgotten Irish nationals in post-independence India
Kate O’Malley
Chapter 5- Sisters in the field: The courageous journey of the pioneering Loreto sisters to India and Canada
Tara Manning
Chapter 6- Irish Soldiers in the American Civil War
Patricia B. Swan and James B. Swan
Part 2: Shaping up
Chapter 7- The Irish Wellspring
Jay Tunney
Chapter 8- ‘From Poverty to Posterity’: Assisted Emigration from Connemara in the 1880s
Gerard Moran
Chapter 9- Michael Mooney and the Leadville Miners’ Strike of 1880
James Patrick Walsh
Chapter 10- ‘I Wish I Was Back Home in Derry’: Songs Composed in the H Blocks and the Paradox of Exile
Lachlan Whalen

Like the pioneering spirit evinced by its subjects, this collection of essays explores and uncovers striking new evidence about the formidable reach of the Irish diaspora. In doing so, it reaffirms for Irish migration studies the centrality of personal narrative in its many guises, whether it is oral testimony, letters, folklore, ballads, or diaries, as an indispensable source for comprehending and evaluating migrant consciousness.