John McGahern : Writer, Stylist, Seeker of a Lost World

Material reproduced by kind permission of Doctrine and Life

Invisible Diaspora?:English Ethnicity in the United States before 1920

The article presents an examination into the English population of the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries, examining their ethnic identity as a diaspora community. Introductory details are given noting the relative lack of attention given to English Americans as an ethnic group. Topics addressed include reasons behind the invisibility of the English immigrant identity in the U.S., the existence of English ethnic organizations, and an overview of their activities

The Irish Rover: Phil Lynott and the Search for Identity

Phil Lynott, the lead singer of the rock band Thin Lizzy, was a complex character. An illegitimate black child who grew up in a working-class, Catholic district of Dublin, Ireland in the 1950s, Lynott spent his life searching for a sense of belonging, something which he explored through rock and roll. This study uses Lynott’s song lyrics to investigate his quest for identity. In particular, it identifies the many recurring themes and archetypes in his music that offered multifaceted self-portraits of his internal conflict between being black, Irish, illegitimate, a rockstar, a Lothario, a son, a father, and a husband, all at the same time

The poetry of Celtic places

This paper examines the radical shift in the place of Celts in the French imagination during the course of the nineteenth century, by focusing on two versions of a passage describing Wales by Michelet: the first written in his travel journal (1834), the second published by his widow (1893). Wales, by virtue of being a Celtic place, allows Michelet to deepen his understanding of France. Whereas juxtaposition of the two versions of his text reveals something of the French state’s attitude toward the ambiguously domestic and exotic Celtic “other.