"In presenting this literature, Murray demonstrates both its specificity as Irish-Argentine, and its character as representative of immigrant literatures in general. In doing so, he reminds us of the crucial issues at stake both in the phenomenon of migration and in the cultural constructs to which migration gives rise. These include the reality and idea of "diaspora," the experience of exile, the shifting notion of "home," the ambivalences of nostalgia, and the ambiguities of "cultural identity." With respect to the latter, there is irony in the fact that in Argentina the Irish were called Ingleses, when one considers the extent to which British policies formulated in England contributed to the conditions that forced so many Irish into emigration. But as Murray shows, Irish-Argentine literature does not register the same sense of oppression that we find in Irish literature of the same period--it is moved by different sentiments, and reflects a rather more complex set of myths and loyalties. If on one hand, the Irish "home" is the object of a nostalgic idealisation, on the other hand, Argentine-Irish writers are forward-looking, and embrace their new land with the frank and open-hearted spirit of Joyce's fictional emigrant. If some Irish-Argentines hold nationalist Irish sympathies, others express the desire to participate in a more generally Anglophone culture in Argentina, so that "English" comes to mean, even for the Irish in Argentina, English-speaking rather than "of England." In tracing the shifting meanings of words, the changing senses of identity, and the relocations of literary form, Murray's work is written under the sign of migration. As an interrogation of writing as migratory in several senses, this book has relevance for a good deal more than the particular historical phenomenon and the works of literature which are its primary concern." -From the foreword by Dr.David Spurr. This monograph fills a large gap in the literary and cultural history of the Irish diaspora--The Argentine Republic in the 19th and 20th centuries. Since 2000 there has been a growing research interest in the Irish in Latin America and the Caribbean . This work is the only modern research by a skilled scholar on the topic of the literature of the Irish Argentine. The work has ground breaking material on specific authors, their economic and their demographic milieu as well as assessments on Irish allied cultural activities (journalism, politics and music).

This volume brings together current research by international scholars on the varieties of English spoken in Ireland. The papers apply contemporary theoretical and methodological approaches and frameworks to a range of topics. A number of papers explore the distribution of linguistic features in Irish English, including the evolution of linguistic structures in Irish English and linguistic change in progress, employing broadly quantitative sociolinguistic approaches. Pragmatic features of Irish English are explored through corpus linguistics-based analysis. The construction of linguistic corpora using written and recorded material form the focus of other papers, extending and analyzing the growing range of corpus material available to researchers of varieties of English, including diaspora varieties. Issues of language and identity in contemporary Ireland are explored in several contributions using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The volume will be of interest to linguists generally, and to scholars with an interest in varieties of English.

This collective volume provides the reader with an exploration of Latin America from an Irish perspective. The contributors have explored the multiple, and sometimes surprising, links that exist between Ireland and Latin America, touching on specific features of these links such as the political and cultural influence of the Irish diaspora and their political relations. These topics are examined through different media, including literature, films, history, poetry and sociology, and offer an opportunity to discover an aspect of Irish culture and history that has not been widely studied. The authors deal with these questions from different cultural perspectives within past and present contexts, exploring two cultures and histories which, at times, are linked through their shared destinies. They also provide the reader with different national perspectives. In presenting the long-lasting and multifaceted relationships between Ireland and Latin America, the contributors have helped to deepen our understanding of a part of Ireland’s historical heritage that deserves more focus.

This book explores the present-day Irish Diaspora in Argentina, using oral narrative and a sociolinguistic theoretical framework to draw out the features that define contemporary Hiberno-Argentine identity. The author analyzes the spoken memories and discourses of Irish-Argentine descendants to trace the socio-political evolution of a bilingual, bicultural community from World War II to the present day. In so doing, O’Brien reveals a legacy of emigration that is without precedent in the global Irish Diaspora, and which is deeply relevant to today’s global Irish citizenry in its challenging of preconceived notions of what it is to be Irish in the New World. As well as contributing to understandings of an immigrant linguistic journey over three generations, the book also provides a vital ethnographic portrait of an Irish descendant community that is acutely aware of its vulnerability and invisibility in an increasingly pluralistic South American society. This book will appeal to an interdisciplinary audience including scholars of migration, oral history, folklore, bilingualism, memory, sociolinguistics, narrative performance and Irish Diaspora studies.

The relationship between Ireland and the diversity of its diasporas has always been complex and multi-layered, but it is not until recently that this reality has really been acknowledged in the public sphere and indeed, amongst the scholarly community generally. This reality is partly a consequence of both “push-and-pull” factors and the relatively late arrival of globalization trends to the island of Ireland itself, situated as it is on the Atlantic seaboard between Europe and the US. Ireland is changing however, some would say at an unprecedented speed as compared with many of its neighbours, and the sense of Irish identity and connection to the home country is changing too. What is the relationship of Ireland and the Irish with its diaspora communities and how is this articulated? The voices who speak in New Perspectives on the Irish Abroad: The Silent People?, edited by Mícheál Ó hAodha and Máirtín Ó Catháin,“talk back” to Ireland and Ireland talks to them, and it is in telling that we see a new story, an emerging discourse—the narratives of the “hidden” Irish, the migrant Irish, the diaspora whose voices and refrains were hitherto neglected or subject to silence.

Paul Gilroy is a major intellectual figure whose writings have led contemporary debates around race and the 'Black Atlantic'. Gilroy argues that our ideas about race are socially constructed by colonisation, philosophy, science and consumer capitalism but that the survival tools generated by those vulnerable to racism offer the key to challenging these racist constructions. This volume: Introduces and contextualises Gilroy's writing and key ideas Explains and elaborates on many of the cultural references from Punk music to Hegelian thought Emphasises the international relevance of Gilroy's thought - expanding the examples to a variety of cities and countries Emphasising the timelessness and global relevance of Gilroy's work, this useful book will appeal to anyone approaching Gilroy for the first time or seeking to further their understanding of race relations and the Black Atlantic.