Cian T. McMahon
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469620107
- eISBN:
- 9781469620121
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469620107.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
This introductory chapter argues that mid-nineteenth-century Irish migrants mainly felt threatened by the notion that New World countries such as the United States and Australia were Anglo-Saxon ...
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This introductory chapter argues that mid-nineteenth-century Irish migrants mainly felt threatened by the notion that New World countries such as the United States and Australia were Anglo-Saxon nations with no room for Catholic Celts. Unwilling to renounce their Celtic self-image and “become Saxon,” however, the Irish developed a diasporic identity that the author calls “global nationalism.” Constantly adapting to the practical exigencies of given times and places—by vacillating between ethnic solidarity and civic pluralism—global nationalism portrayed the Irish as an international community capable of simultaneous loyalty to their old and new worlds. This was a complicated discourse often marked by paradox and contradiction, yet by laying claim to this multivalent identity, the Irish joined other migrant groups in expanding the modern parameters of citizenship and mobility.Less
This introductory chapter argues that mid-nineteenth-century Irish migrants mainly felt threatened by the notion that New World countries such as the United States and Australia were Anglo-Saxon nations with no room for Catholic Celts. Unwilling to renounce their Celtic self-image and “become Saxon,” however, the Irish developed a diasporic identity that the author calls “global nationalism.” Constantly adapting to the practical exigencies of given times and places—by vacillating between ethnic solidarity and civic pluralism—global nationalism portrayed the Irish as an international community capable of simultaneous loyalty to their old and new worlds. This was a complicated discourse often marked by paradox and contradiction, yet by laying claim to this multivalent identity, the Irish joined other migrant groups in expanding the modern parameters of citizenship and mobility.
Gilbert Márkus
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748678983
- eISBN:
- 9781474435208
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748678983.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This book offers a history of ‘Scotland’ before Scotland existed, and before people even thought of this area as a single ‘country’. It traces the emergence and disappearance of various ethnic and ...
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This book offers a history of ‘Scotland’ before Scotland existed, and before people even thought of this area as a single ‘country’. It traces the emergence and disappearance of various ethnic and political groups from Roman times till circa AD 900, and their shifting relationships. But it also calls into question what are often seen as straightforward and obvious concepts such as ‘ethnicity’, ‘Christian conversion’, ‘law’. While following a broad chronological narrative over nine centuries, and dealing with political and large-scale developments, it also explores in some depth the culture of the societies (and there were several) of the time. In addition to the more narrowly political dimension, it explores the texture of experience in people’s lives: how they imagined themselves and their own identities; how they saw their place in the world; how communities managed their own internal affairs such as marriage, childhood and social conflict; how people understood gender, wealth, political power and religious belief. Important texts which have sometimes been read rather naively are here read in new ways, identifying the commitments of their authors, and seeking the literary influences which shaped them (which means we must read and understand not only what early medieval writers wrote, but also what they were reading).Less
This book offers a history of ‘Scotland’ before Scotland existed, and before people even thought of this area as a single ‘country’. It traces the emergence and disappearance of various ethnic and political groups from Roman times till circa AD 900, and their shifting relationships. But it also calls into question what are often seen as straightforward and obvious concepts such as ‘ethnicity’, ‘Christian conversion’, ‘law’. While following a broad chronological narrative over nine centuries, and dealing with political and large-scale developments, it also explores in some depth the culture of the societies (and there were several) of the time. In addition to the more narrowly political dimension, it explores the texture of experience in people’s lives: how they imagined themselves and their own identities; how they saw their place in the world; how communities managed their own internal affairs such as marriage, childhood and social conflict; how people understood gender, wealth, political power and religious belief. Important texts which have sometimes been read rather naively are here read in new ways, identifying the commitments of their authors, and seeking the literary influences which shaped them (which means we must read and understand not only what early medieval writers wrote, but also what they were reading).
