Global Irish Communities: London SYLLABUS
Description:
This course examines the history of the Irish in Britain from earliest times to the present day, with a particular focus on the last two centuries and a component which introduces students to the role of archives in historical research. The course takes a broadly thematic approach to the subject of the Irish in Britain looking at set topics each week across the chronological range. By doing so, it provides students with a wide-ranging and comparative historical perspective on issues such as: changing motivations for migration; evolving patterns of transport and settlement; shifting social and political influences; the development of differing cultural identities and expression. In addition to looking at relations between migrant and host communities, the course also explores interactions between the Irish in Britain and the Irish in Ireland and investigates how the relationship between those who leave and those who stay is reflected in the social, political and cultural domains. A strong emphasis of the course will be access to archival records and collections in order to provide students with the opportunity to directly consult contemporaneous documentation and other audio-visual materials. The course will conclude with a review of the key themes and an assessment of the current position of the Irish in Britain in relation to the wider Irish diaspora.
Course Goals:
detailed introduction and insight into the main causes and consequences of Irish migration to Britain.
historical understanding of the changing features and contexts of life for the Irish in Britain
analysis of primary source and archival information on the Irish in Britain and its evaluation in a broad comparative context.
Assessment Components:
1. Research Presentation (10 minutes) evaluating a primary source about the Irish in Britain of the student’s choice. The presentation must be carefully prepared and include Powerpoint and/or hand-outs and aim to encourage questions and discussion with the rest of the group about the topic. (10%) Due week 2-15
2. Paper (4 pages/1000 words) discussing the use of archives for the study of Irish migration history based on the student’s study of articles on the topic and first- hand experience of visits to archives. The paper can address how certain scholarly articles make use of archives or it can focus on the student's own experience with archival sources. (25%) Due week 10
3. Proposal (3 pages/750 words) outlining the main ideas, arguments and methodology to be used in the final paper. The proposal should be clear, concise and well-structured with sufficient detail to demonstrate a valid and convincing approach. (15%) Due week 12
4. Annotated bibliography (2 pages/500 words) outlining and critiquing a minimum of 10 primary and secondary sources to be consulted for the completion of the final paper (10%) Due week 12
5. Final Paper (12 pages/3000 words) on the history of the Irish in Britain with questions based on the topics covered by the syllabus. This paper will demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of a chosen topic from the syllabus but will contextualize that knowledge in a historical understanding of the changing circumstances of the Irish in Britain acquired week-to-week on the course. The paper will integrate but not duplicate work from previous assignments. (40%) Due week 15
Key Texts:
Brundage, Anthony Going to the Sources: A Guide to Historical Research and Writing (Chichester: John Wiley, 2013)
Delaney, Enda. Demography, State and Society: Irish Migration to Britain, 1921-1971 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000)
The Irish in Post-War Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007)
Davis, Graham. The Irish in Britain 1815-1914 (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1991)
Hickman, Mary J. Race, Class and Identity (Aldershot: Avebury, 1995)
Jackson, John Archer The Irish in Britain (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963)
Swift, Roger & Gilley, Sheridan (eds.) The Irish in Britain 1815-1939 (London: Pinter Publishers, 1989)
MacRaild, Donald. The Irish Diaspora in Britain, 1750-1939 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)
Week 1: Introduction: The Global Context of Irish Migration
Screening: The Irish Empire: The Scattering (RTE/BBC, 2000)
Set Reading:
Akenson, Donald Harman. ‘Introduction: the Fabergé Egg’ in The Irish Diaspora: A Primer (Belfast: Queen’s University Belfast, 1993) 3-15
Coogan, Tim Pat. ‘Introduction’ in Wherever Green is Worn: The Story of the Irish Diaspora (London: Hutchinson, 2000) ix-xviii
Kevin Kenny. ‘Diaspora and Comparison: The Global Irish as a Case Study’ in The Journal of American History, 90:1 (June 2003) 134-162
Mac Éinrí, Piaras. ‘Introduction’ in Andy Bielenberg (ed.) The Irish Diaspora (Harlow: Longman, 2000) 1-15
Week 2: Why Britain?: Push and Pull Factors
Set Reading:
Glynn, Séan. ‘Irish Immigration to Britain, 1911-1951: Patterns and Policy’ in Irish Economic and Social History 8 (1981) 61-67
Jackson, J.A. ‘The Road to Migration: The Pattern and Background of Ireland and the Causes of Emigration in The Irish in Britain (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963) 24-39
Neal, Frank. ‘Escape’ in Black ’47: Britain and the Famine Irish (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1997) 47-88
Swift, Roger. ‘The Causes of Irish Migration’ in The Irish in Britain 1815-1939 (London: Pinter Publishers, 1989) 5-10
Week 3: Patterns of Settlement
Set Reading:
Davis, Graham. ‘Little Irelands’ in Swift, Roger & Gilley, Sheridan (eds.) The Irish in Britain 1815-1939 (London: Pinter Publishers, 1989) 104-33
Jackson, John Archer. ‘Plague, Pestilence and Poverty: Social Factors of Settlement in Britain’ in The Irish in Britain (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963) 40-71
MacRaild, Donald. ‘Concentration and Dispersal: Irish Labour Migration to Britain’ in The Irish Diaspora in Britain, 1750-1939 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) 33-63
Swift, Roger. ‘Irish Settlement in Britain’ in The Irish in Britain 1815-1914: Perspectives and Sources (London: Historical Association, 1990) 11-14 Swift, Roger & Gilley, Sheridan. ‘Introduction’ in The Irish in Victorian Britain: The Local Dimension (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1999) 7-13
Week 4: Irish Migration and the Uses of Archives
Set Reading:
Blouin, Francis X. and William G. Rosenberg. ‘Introduction: On the Intersections of Archives and History’ in Processing the Past: Contesting Authority in History and the Archives (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) 3-11
Dobson, Miriam and Benjamin Ziemann. ‘Introduction’ in Reading Primary Sources: The Interpretation of Texts from the 19th and 20th Century History (London: Routledge, 2009) 1-18
Miller, Kerby. ‘Bibliography of Manuscript Sources’ in Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985) 649-64.
Week 5: Archive Visit I: London Metropolitan Archives
Set Reading:
London Metropolitan Archives website: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/visiting-the- city/archives-and-city-history/london-metropolitan-archives/Pages/default.aspx
Burton, Antoinette. ‘Introduction: Archive Fever, Archive Stories’ in Burton, A.M. Archive Stories: Facts, Fictions and the Writing of History (London: Duke University Press, 2005) 1-24
Steedman, Carolyn. ‘The Space of Memory: In an Archive’ in Dust (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001) 66-88
Week 6: Race, Nation and Discrimination
Set Reading:
Arnstein, Walter L. ‘The Murphy Riots: A Victorian Dilemma’ in Victorian Studies, 19:1 (1975) 51-71
Set Reading: Hickman, Mary & Bronwen Walter. ‘Survey of individual experience of discrimination’ (Part 3) in Discrimination and the Irish Community in Britain (London: Commission for Racial Equality, 1997) 153-231
Week 7: Differences between Male and Female Experiences
Set Readings:
Popoviciu Livia, Chris Haywood & Máirtín Mac an Ghaill. ‘Migrating Masculinities: The Irish Diaspora in Britain’, Irish Studies Review 14.2 (2006) 169–87
O’Brien, Edna. ‘Shovel Kings’ in Saints and Sinners (London: Faber & Faber, 2011) 1-36
Redmond, Jennifer. ‘”Sinful Singleness? Exploring the Discourses of Irish Single Women’s Emigration to England, 1922-48’ in Women’s History Review 17:3 (July 2008) 455-76
Ryan, Louise. ‘Family matters: (e)migration, familial networks and Irish women in Britain’ in Sociological Review 52:3 (2004) 351-70
Week 8: Migration, Ethnicity and the Community Archive
Set Reading:
Flinn, Andrew. ‘Community Histories, Community Archives: Some Opportunities and Challenges’ in Journal of the Society of Archivists 28:2 (October 2007) 151-76
Hopkins, leuan. ‘Places from which to Speak’ in Journal of the Society of Archivists 29:1 (April 2008) 83-109
Juliani, Richard N. ‘The Uses of Archives in the Study of Immigration and Ethnicity’ in American Archivist 39:4 (October 1976) 469-77
Slater, Gerry. ‘Confessions of an Archivist’ in Journal of the Society of Archivists 29:2 (October 2008) 139-45
Week 9: Archive Visit II: Archive of the Irish in Britain
Set Reading:
Hickman, Mary & Tony Murray. When Did You Come Over?: The Story of the Irish in Britain (2000) (online article) http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/irishstudiescentre/archive-of-the-irish-in-britain/exhibition.cfm
Murray, Tony. Holding up a Mirror to the Irish in Britain (2003) (online article) http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/irishstudiescentre/archive-of-the-irish-in-britain/mirror.cfm
Stevens, Mary, Andrew Flinn, & Elizabeth Shepherd. ‘New frameworks for community engagement in the archive sector: from handing over to handing on’ in International Journal of Heritage Studies 16:1-2 (January-March 2010) 59-76
Week 10: Migration, Culture and Irish Identity
Set Reading:
Hall, Stuart. ‘Cultural Identity and Diaspora’ in Jonathan Rutherford (ed.). Identity: Community, Culture, Difference (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1990) 222-37
Hughes, Eamonn. ‘“Lancelot’s Position”: The Fiction of Irish-Britain’ in Lee, A. Robert (ed.), Other Britain, Other British: Contemporary Multicultural Fiction (London: Pluto Press, 1995) 142-160
McNicholas, Anthony. ‘Rebels at Heart: The National Brotherhood of St. Patrick and the Irish Liberator’ in media History 13:1 (2007) 25-41
Nagle, John. ‘“Everybody is Irish on St. Paddy’s”: Ambivalence and Alterity at London’s St. Patrick’s Day 2002’ in Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 12.4 (October–December 2005) 563-83
Week 11: Regional Variations I: Scotland
Set Reading:
Aspinwall, Bernard. ‘A Long Journey: the Irish in Scotland’ in O’Sullivan, Patrick (ed.) The irish World Wide, Volume 5: Religion and Identity (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1996) 146-82
Bradley, Joseph M. ‘Sport and the Contestation of Ethnic Identity: Football and Irishness in Scotland’ in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 32:7 (September 2006) 1189-1208
McBride, Terence. ‘Irishness in Glasgow, 1863-70’ in Immigrants and Minorities 24:1 (2006) 1-21
Week 12: Regional Variations II: London
Set Reading:
Dunne, Catherine. ‘Introduction’ in An Unconsidered People: the Irish in London (Dublin: New island, 2003) 1-21
Fahy, Paddy. The Irish in London (London: Centerprise, 1991) 1-44
Lees, Lynn ‘Mid-Victorian Migration and the Irish Family Economy’ in Victorian Studies, 20 (1976) 25-43
Murray, Tony ‘The Irish in London’ in London Irish Fictions: Narrative, Diaspora and Identity (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012) 21-41
Week 13: Life Narratives and Personal Perspectives
Screening: I Only Came Over for a Couple of Years…: Interviews with London Irish Elders (London: David Kelly Films, 2005)
Set Reading:
Gray, Breda. ‘Migration, Life Narratives, Memory and Subjectivity: Reflections on an Archival Project on Irish Migration’ in Migration Letters 6:2 (October 2009) 109-17
Leavey, Gerard, Semi Sembhi and Gill Livingston. ‘Older Irish Migrants Living in London: Identity, Loss and Return’ in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30:4 (July 2004) 763-779
Thompson, Paul. ‘Historians and Oral History’ in The Voice of the Past: Oral History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988) 25-81
Week 14: Of Irish Descent: Second Generation Experiences
Set Reading:
Campbell, Sean. ‘“What’s the Story?”: Rock Biography, Musical “Routes” and the Second-generation Irish in England’ in Irish Studies Review 12:1 (2004) 63-75
Harte, Liam. ‘“Somewhere beyond England and Ireland”: Narratives of “Home” in Second-generation Irish Autobiography’ in Irish Studies Review 11:3 (2003) 293-305
Hickman, Mary J. ‘Census Ethnic Categories and Second-generation Identities: A Study of the Irish in England and Wales’ in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 37:1 (January 2011) 79-97
Scully, Marc. ‘”Plastic and Proud”?: Discourses of Authenticity among the Second-Generation Irish in England’ in Psychology and Society 2:2 (2009) 124-35
Ullah, Philip. ‘Second-generation Irish Youth: Identity and Ethnicity’ in New Community 12 (Summer 1985) 310-20
Walter, Bronwen. ‘English/Irish Hybridity: Second-generation Diasporic Identities’ in International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations 5 (2005/06) 1-7
Week 15: The Irish in Britain Today
Set Reading: http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/generationemigration/
Geoghegan, Peter. ‘The Great Migration’ in Irish Business Post (16 January 2011) http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/wholestory.aspx-qqqt=INSIDE-STORY-qqqs=agenda-qqqsectionid=3- qqqc=10.1.0.0-qqqn=1-qqqx=1.asp
Gilmartin, Mary. ‘The Changing Landscape of Irish Migration, 2000-2012’, NIRSA Working Paper Series 69 (October 2012) 1-19.
Hennessey, Mark. ‘Generation LDN’ in Irish Times – Weekend Review (9 July 2011) 1-2
Walls, Patricia. Still Leaving: Recent, vulnerable Irish emigrants to the UK: profile, experiences and pre- departure solutions (Dublin: Emigrant Advice, 2005) 2-33