Product Description

Until the advent of "New Commonwealth" migration in the 1950s, the Irish were by far the largest ethnic minority in Britain. This study focuses on the most important phase of Irish migration, providing an analytical discussion of why and how the Irish settled in such numbers. It examines key aspects of the social, religious and political worlds of these migrants and explains why they were so often the victims of native hostility. The book avoids the "famine centred" and "big city" focus of many studies and demonstrates the long run chronology and wide ranging geography of this important migration.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #520763 in Books
• Published on: 1999-02-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

The best introduction there is to the Irish in Britain
This is a work of rare quality. Combining obvious erudition with a lively writing style Dr MacRaild has produced the definitive work on the subject. As his bibliographical essay demonstrates this is a work of impressive historical synthesis: distilling just about all there is to know about Irish migration to Britain into one accessible volume. Although he sympathetically chronicles the great human tragedy of Celtic displacement his work does not descend into sentimentalism, far from it, 'Irish migrants in Modern Britain' remains scrupulously even handed throughout. The often over-looked Irish Protestant migrants are not forgotten and Dr MacRaild stresses their importance, not least in galvanising indigenous resentment to their Catholic countrymen. He also includes fantastically enlightening chapters on the Irish migrants relationship with, among others, Labour, Politics, Religion and their experience of Anti-Irishness/Anti Catholicism in Britain as a whole (and not just the obvious urban areas of England). To conclude this paean, the good Doctor has created a compendious work of historical scholarship, an essential read for all those interested in such a fascinating, but oft-neglected subject.