The prevailing historical view of the Catholic Irish in the first half of nineteenth-century Scotland is that they were despised by native workers because of their religion and because most were employed as strike-breakers or low-wage labour. As a result of this hostility, the Catholic immigrants were viewed as a separate isolated community, concerned mainly with Irish and Catholic issues and unable or unwilling to participate in trade unions, strikes and radical reform movements. The Protestant Irish immigrants, on the other hand, were believed to have integrated with little difficulty, mainly because of religious, families and cultural ties with the Scots. This study presents a radically different view. It demonstrates that, whereas some Irish workers were used as a blackleg or cheap labour, others participated in trade unions and strikes alongside native workers, most notably in spinning, weaving and mining industries. The various agitations for political change in the region are analysed, revealing that the Irish – Catholic and Protestant – were significantly involved in all of them. It is also shown that Scottish reformers welcomed, and indeed actively sought, Catholic Irish participation. The campaigns for Catholic emancipation and the repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 are reviewed, as are the attitudes of the Scottish Catholic clergy to the political activities of their overwhelmingly Irish congregations.

Vaughan renews perspectives on the changes brought about by Irish migrant communities in terms of identity, politics and religion. The book examines on the experience of generations of Irish migrants in the West of Scotland from the aftermath of the Great Famine until the creation of the Republic of Ireland.

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.

Irish immigrants and their descendants have made a vital contribution to the creation of modern Scotland. This book is the first collection of essays on the Irish in Scotland for almost twenty years, and brings together for the first time all the leading authorities on the subject. It provides a major reassessment of the Irish immigrant experience and offers social, cultural and religious development of Scotland over the past 200 years.

The long nineteenth century, arguably the most significant period in Irish history, is marked by a series of events that changed the political landscape of the nation forever and gave rise to art and ideas of international importance. At one end of this tumultuous period, we have Grattan’s Parliament, the United Irishmen, the Rebellion of 1798 led by Wolfe Tone, and the Union of 1801, and at the other, the fall of Parnell, the Easter Rising, Civil War and partition. Between times there are the great hinge events of Catholic Emancipation, the Famine, and the Land War. From Wolfe Tone to Maud Gonne, Ireland went through a period of enormous upheaval that carved out the culture and politics of the modern nation. Irish Studies has not yet fully engaged with the range and richness of this material, nor have critics in the various Anglophone literary fields grasped the extent to which Irish and Scottish events and authors contributed decisively to the development of their own areas. Bringing together an international line-up of established and emerging scholars, Romantic Ireland: From Tone to Gonne takes Irish Studies in new directions, in particular in terms of a cross-cultural comparison with Scotland and the distinct phenomenon of Unionism, thus breaking out of the double binds of Anglo-Irish approaches. The Irish-Scottish interface throws up fascinating insights that enhance our awareness of the interaction between colonialism, nationalism and culture. All of the major figures of the period are represented here, from Edgeworth and Moore to Yeats and Synge, but there are other, often less noticed but hugely significant writers, such as Charles Robert Maturin, Dion Boucicault and May Laffan. There are non-Irish commentators on Ireland like Cobbett and Engels, as well as a series of key Scottish figures – including Burns and Scott – in addition to lesser-known or lesser-noticed Scottish writers with strong Irish interests such as R. M. Ballantyne and Robert Tannahill – whose work opens up new and promising avenues into Irish writing.

This new and extensively illustrated history explores the reality behind stereotypical views of Glasgow.

Liverpool in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was the mirror of Ellis Island: it acted as the great cultural melting pot and processing point of migration from Europe to the United States. Here, for the first time, acclaimed historian John Belchem offers an extensive and groundbreaking social history of the elements of the Irish diaspora that stayed in Liverpool—enriching the city’s cultural mix rather than continuing on their journey. Covering the tumultuous period from the Act of Union to the supposed “final settlement” between Britain and Ireland, this richly illustrated volume will be required reading for anyone interested in the Irish diaspora.