UCD John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies 
UCD John Hume Institute for Global Irish StudiesUCD Crest

CONFERENCES

Irish women and the diaspora: a symposium organized by the John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies, UCD

10th June 2010, 9.30am-6.00pm
Venue: NovaUCD [map]

While women may no longer be one of Donald Akenson’s ‘great unknowns’ of Irish migration and despite increasing scholarly attention in recent years, women remain marginal in many accounts of the Irish diaspora. This interdisciplinary symposium brings together leading scholars of diaspora in geography, history and sociology from across Britain and Ireland and aims to take stock of current work in the field. A number of speakers will reflect on recent theoretical perspectives, indicating how concepts such as transnationalism and diaspora might shape the study of Irish women abroad and suggesting avenues for future research. Featuring papers on Irish women’s engagement with the British empire, the Catholic church, concepts of modernity, and economic development, the symposium will address the experience of Irish women in the diaspora from the nineteenth century through to the present day. The symposium will conclude with a plenary discussion reflecting on women’s position within the diaspora.

Children of Mary, Catholic Whit Procession 1927, Manchester
Children of Mary, Catholic Whit Procession 1927, Manchester
Source: GMCRO Image Collection Ref 905/39

Programme

  • Bronwen Walter (Anglia Ruskin University), ‘Placing Irish women within and beyond the British empire: contexts and comparisons’.

  • Louise Ryan (Middlesex University), 'Building Walls or Bridges: the role of ethnic chaplaincies and Irish migrant women in Britain'.

  • Charlotte Wildman (University of Nottingham), ‘Irish-Catholic women and modernity in 1930s Liverpool’.

  • Breda Gray (University of Limerick), ‘The gendered contradictions of economic development and diaspora membership'.

  • Karly Kehoe (UHI Millennium Institute’s Centre for History), Border crossings: being Irish in nineteenth-century Scotland and Canada’.

  • Jennifer Redmond (NUI Maynooth), ‘Discovering diversity in the Irish Women's diaspora: analysing data from Irish travel permits during World War II’.

  • Plenary discussion on Irish women and the diaspora:
    Mary J. Hickman (London Metropolitan University and John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies, UCD) and Mary E. Daly (UCD).

To register for this free event, please contact Jim MacPherson (jim.macpherson@ucd.ie)