Voices in other ears: "accents" and identities of the first- and second-generation Irish in England

Irish people in England are identified by the English largely through the way they speak. This is homogenised by English hearers into the simplified description of an “Irish accent”, prioritising differences in pronunciation, although in reality the Irish use a variety of regionally-varied English dialects.3 Collapsing Irish dialects into a monolithic category is paralleled by stereotyping the speakers in long-established, negative ways. In fact these stereotypes rely heavily on language, including grammar and vocabulary, presenting “substandard English” as evidence of “stupidity”.4 In contrast to the role of “visibility” in signalling the difference of non-white groups, which has no relationship to cultural content and can clearly be discredited as a signifier of inferiority on rational grounds, the “audibility” of the Irish appears to reinforce legitimate grounds for racialisation. Constructed markers of difference are never fixed, of course, and at present sharply changing economic and political circumstances are altering ways in which younger and more prosperous Irish-accented populations in England are perceived. However they remain deeply embedded in English culture, available to be drawn on in specific contexts

The second-generation Irish: a hidden population in multi-ethnic Britain

This research investigates the assumption that the second-generation Irish population in Britain, that is those born in Britain to one or two Irish-born parents, has assimilated into the ‘white’ majority. The assumption has had important implications both for the Irish community and for wider popular and theoretical understandings about ‘race’ / ethnicity / national identity in Britain. In particular it has contributed to the ‘myth of homogeneity’ of white British society. The study explores the complex texture of second-generation Irish experiences through an examination of the range of identities claimed and social positioning of the second generation relative to the migrant generation. It employs qualitative methods, including focus groups, semi-structured interviews and also timelines, whereby each interviewee provides a record of demographic, socio-economic and health indices over three generations of the family. Regional and national variations are explored through fieldwork in five English and Scottish locations (London, Glasgow, Manchester, Coventry and Banbury). The research aims to provide a detailed picture of the ‘hidden’ population of the second-generation Irish, to develop a framework to explain hybridities of identity amongst this population, to make a substantial contribution to understanding multi-ethnic Britain by challenging the singular focus on black / white difference and to make policy recommendations relating to the Irish community

Irish/Jewish diasporic intersections in the East End of London: paradoxes and shared locations

Surprisingly little attention has been paid to parallels and intersections between the Irish and Jewish populations in Britain despite similarities in their historical periods of settlement, geographical locations and social positionings. Most of what is known is buried in a variety of printed contemporary observations and scattered comments in secondary historical narratives. This paper explores some of these sources and raises questions about what shape a linked and comparative analysis might take

A study of the existing sources of information and analysis about Irish emigrants and Irish communities abroad

This study provides background data and analysis for the Task Force report on Policy concerning Emigrants. It brings together different sources of information and analysis in order to provide a statistical and analytical portrait of the three constituent populations that form the concern of the Task Force: Irish emigrants, returnees and Irish communities abroad. It analyses a wide range of sources of information in Ireland and each country of destination in order to provide as full a range as possible of interpretations of the causes and circumstances of contemporary Irish emigration, return migration and the needs and condition of Irish communities abroad

Irish women in the diaspora: exclusions and inclusions

Irish women have a long history of emigration which provides parallels with the experiences of women now moving to settle in Ireland. In both cases, women migrants have been needed to fill the massive deficit of paid domestic labor in rapidly industrialising economies. Over the last two centuries, these destinations for Irish women have included the USA, Britain and Australia, as well as Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina. Some of the complexities in the positioning of migrant Irish women within the “diaspora spaces” they occupy are explored in this article. I identify ongoing disadvantage for certain groups of Irish-born women, drawing on evidence primarily from Britain, which has the largest contemporary diasporic Irish population. Comparisons are made with Irish women's experiences in the USA and Australia, using Census and survey data generated by and for the 2002 Task Force on Policy regarding Emigrants. The concept of diaspora explicitly includes those identifying themselves as Irish over several generations. I use qualitative findings from the Irish 2 Project, a recent study of the large second-generation Irish population in Britain, to examine narratives of women living in Manchester who grew up in “Irish” households and are subsequently negotiating hybrid identities in adulthood. These offer insights into longitudinal dimensions of migrant experience and the continuing significance of ethnic difference

The limitations of whiteness and the boundaries of Englishness: second-generation Irish identifications and positionings in multiethnic Britain

The focus of this article is the second-generation Irish in England. It is based on data collected as part of the Irish 2 project, which examined processes of identity formation amongst the second-generation Irish population in England and Scotland. The article examines and maps identifications and positionings of second-generation Irish people and discusses how two hegemonic domains - Ireland and England - intersect in the lives of the children of Irish-born parents, with material and psychological consequences. Their positionings in multiethnic Britain are compared with those of ‘visible’ minority ethnic groups, and their narratives of belonging and non-belonging are analysed in terms of the limitations of whiteness and the boundaries of Englishness

Family stories, public silence: Irish identity construction amongst the second-generation Irish in England

Formal narratives of history, especially that of colonial oppression, have been central to the construction of national identities in Ireland. But the Irish diasporic community in Britain has been cut off from the reproduction of these narratives, most notably by their absence from the curriculum of Catholic schools, as result of the unofficial 'denationalisation' pact agreed by the Church in the 19th century (Hickman, 1995). The reproduction of Irish identities is largely a private matter, carried out within the home through family accounts of local connections, often reinforced by extended visits to parent/s 'home' areas. Recapturing a public dimension has often become a personal quest in adulthood, 'filling in the gaps'. This paper explores constructions of narratives of nation by a key diasporic population, those with one or two Irish-born parents. It places particular emphasis on varying regional/national contexts within which such constructions take place, drawing on focus group discussions and interviews for the ESRC-funded Irish 2 Project in five locations — London, Glasgow, Manchester, Coventry and Banbury

Whiteness and diasporic Irishness: nation, gender and class

Whiteness is often detached from the notion of diaspora in the recent flurry of interest in the phenomenon, yet it is a key feature of some of the largest and oldest displacements. This paper explores the specific contexts of white racial belonging and status over two centuries in two main destinations of the Irish diaspora, the USA and Britain. Its major contribution is a tracing of the untold story of ‘How the Irish became white in Britain’ to parallel and contrast with the much more fully developed narrative in the USA. It argues that, contrary to popular belief, the racialisation of the Irish in England did not fade away at the end of the nineteenth century but became transmuted in new forms which have continued to place the ‘white’ Irish outside the boundaries of the English nation. These have been strangely ignored by social scientists, who conflate Irishness and working-class identities in England without acknowledging the distinctive contribution of Irish backgrounds to constructions of class difference. Gender locates Irish women and men differently in relation to these class positions, for example allowing mothers to be blamed for the perpetuation of the underclass. Class and gender are also largely unrecognised dimensions of Irish ethnicity in the USA, where the presence of ‘poor white’ neighbourhoods continues to challenge the iconic story of Irish upward mobility. Irishness thus remains central to the construction of mainstream ‘white’ identities in both the USA and Britain into the twenty-first century