Reading the three volumes that make up the encyclopedia
Ireland and the Americas: Culture, Politics and History
is both motivating and stimulating because of its
interesting and comprehensive treatment of the
relationship between Ireland and the Americas. The work is
edited by James P. Byrne, Philip Coleman & Jason King, and
forms part of the Transatlantic Relations series
edited by Will Kaufman. As the title promises, the book’s
innovative approach considers Ireland’s relationship with
the entire continent of America and not just with the
United States of America.
Thus on the one hand the work creates a greater
understanding of the connections between the Americas and a
number of European countries. On the other hand, and this is
what concerns us here, this new encyclopedia draws a
distinction between Anglo-American relations and those
between Ireland and America. Since these relations have for
a long time been analysed from a perspective that tended to
globalise and see them as homogenous, the differentiation
made here represents a great contribution to
socio-historical, political and cultural studies. The book
begins with a retrospective review which sets out from the
voyage of St. Brendan the Navigator, on his mythological
passage to the American continent in 550 AD, and goes right
through to today.
Among the earlier material that can be linked to this work
is The Encyclopedia of Ireland, published by Yale
University Press in 2003 and edited by Brian Lalor (see
review by Maureen E. Mulvihill in The Irish Literary
Supplement for autumn 2004). Unlike Ireland and the
Americas, Lalor’s encyclopedia has few entries on the
Irish in Latin America, if we base our calculation on the
total number of pages (1218). Another notable difference
between the two is that in Lalor’s work an important element
is the variety of colour pictures that accompany the text and
provide an important visual appeal. By contrast, the
ABC-CLIO work is mostly focused on the development of
content and equal treatment of each of its subjects.
Another significant previous work is The Encyclopedia of
the Irish in America, published by the University of
Notre Dame (1999) and edited by Michael Glazier. But except
for the relations between USA and Ireland there are no
entries associated with other American countries. It even
ignores the business expansion that came about as a result
of the efforts of William Russell Grace (1832-1904) in both
Peru in 1850 and throughout the rest of South America.
The organising principle of the Transatlantic Relations
series revolves around the construction of an approach that
examines the state of affairs on both sides of the Atlantic.
As the editor points out in his preface, the goal goes
beyond a historical analysis over time and pushes boundaries
to areas not previously considered, such as gender, race,
migration/immigration, and the field of culture in general.
The open nature of the work allows the possibility that
other experts may undertake further research, provide fresh
contributions, or initiate dialogue that may arrive at new
conclusions and identify new avenues of exploration.
As previously stated,
Ireland and the Americas
is divided into three volumes, each with approximately the
same number of pages. The layout of the cover and body is
noteworthy in terms of the quality of paper and design. The
choice of font is appropriate and can be read with ease. The
cover format is relevant in terms of presenting the contrast
between the old; in the photograph of a boat that could
represent the arrival of the first Irish immigrants to North
America, and the modern, the image of John F. Kennedy and
the port of Chicago, its water dyed green to celebrate St.
Patrick's Day. As a caveat, one might regret the total
absence of any other visual reference to the rest of the
Americas.
One of the strengths of this encyclopedia is the fact that
it is divided into three volumes of medium size and weight,
allowing them to be handled with ease. Similarly, one should
highlight the publication of the encyclopedia in electronic
form (see website of the publisher: http://www.abc-clio.com/products/overview.aspx?productid=109783)
which has the advantage of faster searches because it is a
format which permits immediate access. In turn, each volume
is intertwined with the others through cross-linking of
information, which both speeds up searching as well as
subsequent readings. As to its internal layout, this work
has a table of contents that
is repeated in the three volumes, thus facilitating access
to the various entries. Likewise, the first volume includes
a thematic index divided into central themes and ideas
that allows for rapid location of information. The table of
chronologies between
Ireland and the Americas is both practical and
user-friendly, bringing the reader quickly to the time
period where the most significant developments in all fields
of culture in the Irish-American relationship are presented,
be they in art, history, socially, politically or
geographically. It would have been desirable to include an
index of authors, since the contributors comprise a large
number of experts and scholars. Having such a list would
give greater visibility to their names and doubtless attach
more prestige to the work itself, encouraging the kind of
dialogue, as one of the prefaces puts it, which should exist
between the actors and creators of culture. At the end of
the third volume a general index is added that includes the
main entries and the list of illustrations.
The black and white photographs (96 in total) of people,
places, pictures or other images, are relevant because they
enlighten the reader without diverting attention from the
main focus. Notwithstanding this, it could be said that
searching in the general index is not particularly fast. On
the other hand, the distribution of information in three
columns alphabetically is a success. Similarly, the
provision of bibliographic references in columns immediately
below the text entries, facilitates the reading of the data,
as well as the immediate location of related references in
other sections of the encyclopedia.
The encyclopedia opens with two prefaces. One is by the
editor of the series, in which the dynamic nature of the
transatlantic relationship is emphasised, and which sets as
one of the motivating principles that it 'transcend or at
least challenge the boundaries of nation-region as well as
those of discipline '(xiii). The other preface, by the
editors of this encyclopedia, illustrates how the process of
defining the Irish-American experience invokes an intense
theoretical debate.
The introduction and the three subsequent essays in the
first volume explain the scope of the encyclopedia. The
first refers to the importance of the centuries-old
relationship between Ireland and the United States of
America. But it also mentions the fact that, while Ireland
held longstanding connections with other nations in the
Americas, they were not sufficiently documented and
recognised as part of that link. Hence the significance of
this encyclopedia in highlighting the many and varied
contacts between Ireland and Canada or Latin American
countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and
Paraguay. The idea that this book is trying to identify is
clear in that it endeavours to discover the narrative thread
by recognising notable personalities and relevant historical
and social situations, as well as by collecting the memory
of the common people, often forgotten or marginalised in the
development of a nation, but who nonetheless help shape it
anonymously.
In the essay devoted to relations between Ireland and
Canada, Jason King begins by highlighting the
characteristics of migration of the Irish to North America.
Due to migrants’ extreme poverty, an unfavourable political
situation and antagonism exacerbated by religion, King
argues that this movement of people has features of exile
rather than of 'opportunity to improve one’s social
situation or material prosperity' (5). In short, this
emigration was strictly a matter of necessity, its main
objective being to preserve a set of religious and cultural
values, then under serious threat. The famine that ravaged
Ireland in 1847-1848 became an iconographic symbol present
in the popular memory as well as in the literary
imagination. Nevertheless, this issue has been subject to
different interpretations over the years. There has been
controversy about the real reason for the exodus to Canada,
and the matter remains the subject of historiographic
analysis. Significantly, the author points to the fact that
recently many writers try to minimise the famine experienced
in Ireland as being at the heart of the migration process
and turn to other factors, as well as pointing to the
pre–1847 period which also saw the movement of people to
Canada. All the above contributed to the problems and
contention associated with many of the stereotypes of
long-entrenched collective imagination.
In another sense, King refers to political behaviour of the
Irish in Canada and the different settlement patterns
related to their religious affiliation, giving clear
explanations why the Irish Catholics chose to reside in
urban areas, while Protestants are associated with the
expansion of agriculture and rural ways of life. Regarding
the cultural aspect, the author rightly stresses that while
the information available is scarce, it may however allow a
Canadian-Irish collective perspective to be reconstituted.
Another noteworthy contribution is the distinction that King
makes between the literary production of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. This is particularly valuable because
it establishes the importance of the relationship between
literature and the life of the people of a country, as well
as how the former documents and accompanies various social
processes. In the same vein, the author highlights the
various literary genres in both centuries; since literature
is closely linked to changes in society, the preference for
epic poetry, biographical prose or historical fiction, might
thus adequately explain the relationship that he sees.
Finally, the contribution of Irish writers to the canon of
Canadian literature is historically significant, in that
they helped define broader concepts of cultural and national
identity in Canada.
In the introductory essay that follows, by Edmundo Murray,
an interesting reflection on how historians recognise
migration processes is made. The author refers to the
processes of colonisation and post-colonisation that took
place between the European and American continents, defining
the links between Ireland and Latin America as
"heterogeneous, fragmented and erratic '(15). Within Latin
America, he highlights the fact that Argentina, together
with a few Caribbean countries, is one of the states that
received a major wave of immigration and largely succeeded
in retaining its immigrants. This pattern was not repeated
in other countries where re-emigration occurred, a
phenomenon which clearly shows the high mobility of the
Irish population. The author is acute in his analysis of the
immigration process to Latin America, as reflected in the
historical accounts. He makes the distinction between epic
narrative - which is presented from the perspective of the
victim-immigrant, and the opposing view, which demonstrates
the superior position of the Irish immigrant with respect to
the native community.
The essay also objectively highlights the very different
reasons which led the Irish to settle in Latin American
countries. It mentions economic factors – flight from the
Great Famine or the search for larger tracts of land than
were available in Ireland, land which permitted some Irish
to become 'ranchers' and large-scale livestock farmers.
There were other no less important reasons of a religious or
military nature.
The ability of Irish immigrants to adapt to all sorts of
situations and environments is shown. Thus the author notes
that in the last decades of the nineteenth century those
immigrants who became landowners began to see themselves as
part of the British community in Argentina, while those who
were part of the middle and lower classes of rural workers
remained loyal to their ideas of Irish Nationalism, nurtured
in the religious and journalistic discourse of the period.
Further, Murray describes how after a process that
culminated around 1982 with the Malvinas/Falklands War, those of Irish
ancestry in Latin American countries begin to see themselves
as Argentines, Uruguayans, Brazilians or Mexicans of Irish
extraction. At that point in time, most Irish descendants
had lost the use of English as a first language and no
longer perpetuated the traditions that their ancestors
brought to the new continent. This situation took on new
features in Argentina after the economic crisis of 2002,
when a number of Irish-Argentines began to seek permanent
residence and employment in Ireland, once again
demonstrating the group's ability to adapt to the
vicissitudes and needs of the moment.
The last of the introductory essays, by James P. Byrne,
refers to the links established between Ireland and the
United States and expresses the importance migration
processes have had in the relationship between these two
countries in all its manifestations: emigration, immigration
and re-emigration.
Byrne argues that while the unofficial history of the
arrival of Irish to the United States may have started a
thousand years before the discovery of America, the first
record is dated 1492. The political, economic and religious
motives that animated this diaspora are similar to those
found in other countries (i.e. religious tolerance and land
to settle and work). A very interesting fact is that at the
beginning of the twentieth century there were more Irish in
the United States than in Ireland itself.
Contrary to the views expressed by those authors who refer
only to the Great Famine as an almost exclusive cause of the
Irish diaspora, Byrne cites causes covering the periods
before and after the famine. The first is characterised as
an era of distancing and differentiation between Protestant
and Catholic immigrants. The essay highlights the fact that
even when Catholics belonged to a group who were slightly
more successful than those who arrived after The Great
Famine, they were nonetheless subjected to discrimination by
the native inhabitants and as a consequence considered as
'others'. The author clearly shows how the post-famine
immigrants who arrived in the United States gradually gained
privileges within the host community, arising out of their
involvement in demonstrations against waves of Chinese
immigrants and their entry into the political arena. He also
points to the processes of assimilation occurring at the
turn of the twentieth century which would continue until
after the Second World War.
The last decade of the twentieth century and the first of
the twenty-first witnessed new changes in relations between
the two countries. The author offers a clear evaluation of
the inversion of the traditional pattern of emigration, as
Ireland became a land of immigrants rather than emigrants,
and redefined its relationship with the United States, one
now based on strong social, political and economic links.
Finally, Byrne explains how, due to interaction in the
fields of technological, chemical and telecommunications
knowledge, the concepts of being Irish, being American and
being Irish-American are reversed and redefined.
The explanations and ideas outlined in the introductory
essays relating to the connection between Ireland and the
Americas are expanded on in the various footnotes. This
encyclopedia allows the reader a more in-depth treatment of
topics than does a dictionary, and these can be supplemented
by readings of articles, essays, etc., cited in the
references that accompany each entry.
In his Introduction the series editor outlines the
constraints of encyclopedias and of this one in particular,
for relations between Ireland and America are constantly
being redefined. We believe that rather than as a limitation
this should be taken as an interesting motivation to
continue the task that has been commenced. Indeed, far from
it being merely a small 'step forward' to include relations
with countries like Canada, Brazil and Argentina, and to a
lesser extent with countries such as El Salvador and
Colombia, the work offers an important contribution to the
study of the Irish influence in other parts of the world and
vice versa. We agree, however, that the entries for some
other countries in the Caribbean and South America are
scarce and sometimes non-existent; this is one of the
possible areas of future development. This should not be
taken as a negative criticism of the work but as a challenge
and an invitation for researchers who may be conducting
further studies in this field. Another issue that could be
considered in the future would be that of gender, inasmuch
as the work reviewed shows a certain imbalance between the
relative contributions of women as a main theme in Latin
America and indeed generally the approach to gender is
limited.
Noteworthy successful features include the entries relating
to the relationship between Ireland and Argentina over the
past three centuries, mostly written by Edmundo Murray, who
effectively outlines the cultural scene, literature and
Irish Argentina. There is mention of well known
personalities in the field of literature in Argentina, from
the nineteenth century writer William Bulfin, to
Benito Lynch, Kathleen Nevin, Rodolfo Walsh and Maria Elena
Walsh, just to mention perhaps the most well known. These
authors are studied today in public schools throughout the
country, and to these may be added other contemporaries such
as John Joseph Delaney, whose latest publication dates from
1999. Murray’s outline of the literary situation in
Argentina is clear and precise and invites the reader to
follow the trail of the authors cited, since they are given
more space and more extensive and detailed information is
provided in individual entries. For example, we note the
article on Maria Elena Walsh, which we found very
enlightening, comprehensive, and truthful. It highlights the
free, rebellious and subtly confrontational spirit of the
writer towards the powerful totalitarian regimes in
Argentina of the sixties and seventies.
It also cites situations involving people in the political
arena such as the reference to Ernesto "Che" Guevara, José
Luis Baxter, and the armed conflict over the Falkland / Malvinas Islands. And other relevant entries are dedicated
to the actions of Thomas Armstrong, a businessman and active
economic advisor of the nineteenth century in Argentina,
Kathleen Boyle, founder of St. Patrick's College in Buenos
Aires, an educator who was famed for her innovative ideas in
the field of foreign language education, and Father Anthony
Dominic Fahy, whose mission was to create an
English-speaking Catholic community in Argentina in the
nineteenth century. All these references constitute only a
sample of the information in this comprehensive work.
Finally, by calling seriously into question the rigid
concepts of nation and region, and the strict division
between the disciplines, this encyclopedia, in our view,
becomes a significant contribution to the field of
interdisciplinary studies. This makes it all the more
enriching and required reading for students, teachers and
researchers alike in different fields of knowledge within
the area of Irish studies.
Maria Graciela Adamoli and Maria Graciela Eliggi
Notes
1
Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of
Human Sciences, National University of La Pampa, Argentina.
This review is dedicated to Doctor Laura Izarra of
University of São Paulo, who introduced us to the study of
Irish emigration to Argentina.
2
National University of Ireland, Maynooth
Author's Reply
The editors
accept this review and do not wish to comment further.
Jason King |
