Recent studies of the experiences of Irish migrants in Victorian Britain have emphasized the significance of the themes of change, continuity, resistance and accommodation in the creation of a rich and diverse migrant culture within which a variety of Irish identities co-existed and sometimes competed. In contributing to this burgeoning historiography, this book explores and analyses the complexities surrounding the self-identity of the Irish in Victorian Britain, which differed not only from place to place and from one generation to another but which were also variously shaped by issues of class and gender, and politics and religion. Moreover, and given the tendency for Irish ethnicity to mutate, through a comparative study of the Irish in Britain and the United States, the book suggests that in order to preserve their Irishness, the Irish often had to change it. Written by some of the foremost scholars in the field, these original essays not only shed new light on the history of the Irish in Britain but are also integral to the broader study of the Irish Diaspora and of immigrants and minorities in multicultural societies. This book was previously published as a special issue of Immigrants and Minorities.

This book illustrates the diversity of the Irish experience by reference to studies of specific towns and regions which have hitherto received little attention from historians of the Irish in Britain during the Victorian period.

Recent studies of the experiences of Irish migrants in Victorian Britain have emphasized the significance of the themes of change, continuity, resistance and accommodation in the creation of a rich and diverse migrant culture within which a variety of Irish identities co-existed and sometimes competed. In contributing to this burgeoning historiography, this book explores and analyses the complexities surrounding the self-identity of the Irish in Victorian Britain, which differed not only from place to place and from one generation to another but which were also variously shaped by issues of class and gender, and politics and religion. Moreover, and given the tendency for Irish ethnicity to mutate, through a comparative study of the Irish in Britain and the United States, the book suggests that in order to preserve their Irishness, the Irish often had to change it. Written by some of the foremost scholars in the field, these original essays not only shed new light on the history of the Irish in Britain but are also integral to the broader study of the Irish Diaspora and of immigrants and minorities in multicultural societies. This book was previously published as a special issue of Immigrants and Minorities.

This work is a sequel to The Irish Victorian City. As a collection of national and regional studies, it reflected the consensus view of the subject by describing both the degree of the demoralization of the Irish immigrants into Britain for the early and mid-Victorian period, when they figured so largely in the official parliamentary and social reportage of the day; and then, in spite of every obvious difficulty posed by poverty, crime, disease, and prejudice, the positive aspect of the Irish Catholic achievement in the creation of enduring religious and political communities towards the end of the nineteenth century.

The largest concentration of Irish immigrants in Victorian England was found in Liverpool, Manchester and neighboring towns of industrial Lancashire. This book uses local sources, from census book data to police reports, to reconstruct a comprehensive social history of this important working-class community. The Irish became prominent in Lancashire town life when thousands arrived as fugitives from the great famine of the 1840s. Over a quarter-century they used their Irish cultural heritage and experience to form themselves into a distinctive and mature community. Detailed analyses of how they lived and worked and their relationships with their English neighbors create the social context for the development of a sophisticated co mmunity life and identity that produced a uniquely Lancashire brand of Irish nationalism.

This collection of interdisciplinary essays focuses on the articulation and interplay of 'Irish' and 'British' identities during the Victorian period in Ireland, Great Britain and beyond. To some commentators inherently antagonistic, to others potentially complementary, 'Irishness' and 'Britishness' were described and contested with increasing intensity throughout the long period of Victoria's reign. These essays utilize a range of themes to throw light on the complexities of that relationship, including the Victorian monarchy's attitude towards Ireland and Irish reactions to it, debates about Irish difference and integration, and varied constructions of Ireland's place in the imperial world order. It gives particular attention to the Famine as a rupturing force in Victorian Irish-British relations and to attempts made to contain this cleavage in literature, economic theory and policy.

Fielding (politics and history, U. of Salford) challenges the assumption that the growing class consciousness of British workers in the late 19th and early 20th century subsumed the ethnic identity of Irish Catholics living and working in England. He focuses on Manchester's large Irish Catholic population to show how that persevering identity caused conflicts within the labor movement. Distributed in the US by Taylor and Francis. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR