Irish London - by Richard Kirkland (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Winner of the 2022 British Association of Irish Studies (BAIS) Book Prize

In the years following the Irish Famine (1845-52), London became one of the cities of Ireland. The number of Irish in London swelled to over 100,000 and from this mass migration emerged a distinctive and vibrant culture based on a shared sense of history, identity and experience. In this book, Richard Kirkland brings together elements in Irish London's culture and history that had previously only been understood separately or indeed largely overlooked (as in the case of women's' contributions to London Irish politics and culture). In particular, Kirkland makes resonant cultural connections between Irish and cockney performers in the music halls, Irish trade fairs, temperance marches, the Fenian dynamite war of the 1880s, St Patrick's Day events, and the later cultural agitation of revivalists such as W.B. Yeats and Katharine Tynan.

Irish London: A Cultural History 1850-1916 is both a significant contribution to our understanding of Irish emigrant communities in London at this time and an insightful case study for the comparative fields of cultural history and urban migration studies.

Review Quotes

"[A] wonderful new book... a very relevant and also timely reminder of Irish London's heritage... An important book reminding of us of our deep connections with London well before the great exodus of Irish to the city in the 1940s and 1950s." --The Irish Times

"Irish London introduces us to the costermongers, flower sellers, beggars, artists, criminals, Fenians, poets, lawyers, journalists and civil servants whose lives were woven into the texture of a world city in the making. The complex cultural identities of this compelling, divided and uncertain grouping are brought to life by Richard Kirkland's careful research and his fine, thoughtful writing." --Claire Connolly, Professor of Modern English, University College Cork, Ireland

"For too long the historical role of the Irish in London has remained frustratingly elusive and under-appreciated. Through exhaustive and astutely targeted research, Kirkland has raised the veil on this hidden community and achieved profound insights into their cultural and political significance at a crucial period in Anglo-Irish relations." --Tony Murray, Director of the Irish Writers in London Summer School, London Metropolitan University, UK

"Richard Kirkland's Irish London is a brilliant, nuanced and deeply-informed cultural history of the Irish in London and of London's role in the cultural imaginary of Ireland. Attentive to the complexities of emigration, exile, language, class, and attachment, it will profoundly alter our understanding of the Irish in London." --Colin Graham, Dean of Faculty of Arts, Maynooth University, Ireland

"This is an excellent work. Kirkland has clearly done deep research and presented it in a very accessible book that will appeal to scholars as well as those with a more general curiosity about the histories of both Ireland and Britain." --H-Net Reviews

"Richard Kirkland's brilliant new study, Irish London: A Cultural History 1850-1916, joins a rich and growing literature on the Irish in London, a topic that has been the focus of sustained cultural criticism during the last decade." --Victorian Studies

"Kirkland does a masterful job here of bringing some kind of cohesion to the sense of Irish culture in this period ... I recommend highly this book for anyone interested in the history of Irish Britain but also in the culture of diasporas." --Estudios Irlandeses

About the Author