Life History And The Irish Migrant Experience In Post War England

This book makes innovative use of migrant life histories to further understanding the role of memory in the production of migrant identities. Offering a fresh perspective on the post-war Irish experience in England, it develops Popular Memory Theory to illuminate how migrants' 'recompose' the self in response to the emotional challenges migration

This book makes innovative use of migrant life histories to further understanding the role of memory in the production of migrant identities. Offering a fresh perspective on the post-war Irish experience in England, it develops Popular Memory Theory to illuminate how migrants' 'recompose' the self in response to the emotional challenges migration

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2018 TLS BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2017 'Generous and empathetic ... opens up postwar migration in all its richness' Sukhdev Sandhu, Guardian 'Groundbreaking, sophisticated, original, open-minded ... essential reading for anyone who wants to understand not only the transformation of British society after the war but also its character today' Piers Brendon, Literary Review 'Lyrical, full of wise and original observations' David Goodhart, The Times The battered and exhausted Britain of 1945 was desperate for workers - to rebuild, to fill the factories, to make the new NHS work. From all over the world and with many motives, thousands of individuals took the plunge. Most assumed they would spend just three or four years here, sending most of their pay back home, but instead large numbers stayed - and transformed the country. Drawing on an amazing array of unusual and surprising sources, Clair Wills' wonderful new book brings to life the incredible diversity and strangeness of the migrant experience. She introduces us to lovers, scroungers, dancers, homeowners, teachers, drinkers, carers and many more to show the opportunities and excitement as much as the humiliation and poverty that could be part of the new arrivals' experience. Irish, Bengalis, West Indians, Poles, Maltese, Punjabis and Cypriots battled to fit into an often shocked Britain and, to their own surprise, found themselves making permanent homes. As Britain picked itself up again in the 1950s migrants set about changing life in their own image, through music, clothing, food, religion, but also fighting racism and casual and not so casual violence. Lovers and Strangers is an extremely important book, one that is full of enjoyable surprises, giving a voice to a generation who had to deal with the reality of life surrounded by 'white strangers' in their new country.

This fascinating portrait of Britain's oldest migrant group combines rich historical detail with penetrating insights into the everyday experiences of the Irish who made Britain their home after 1945. The Irish in Post-war Britain reconstructs, with both empathy and imagination, the lives of the generation who left Ireland in huge numbers to work in Britain during the 1940s and 1950s. Its original approach demonstrates that any understanding of a migrant group must take account of both elements of the society that they had left as well as the social landscape of their new country, and explores the ethnic diversity of post-war Britain.

Examines the specific role that the metropolis plays in literary portrayals of Irish migrant experience as an arena for the performance of Irishness, as a catalyst in the transformations of Irishness and as an intrinsic component of second generation Irish identities.

This book illustrates the diversity of the Irish experience by reference to studies of specific towns and regions which have hitherto received little attention from historians of the Irish in Britain during the Victorian period.

Clair Wills's The Best Are Leaving is a study of representations of Irish emigrant culture and of Irish immigrants in Britain.

A collection of essays, the contributors to this volume describe the experiences of Irish migrants who moved to Wales. The essays also examine in depth the social and cultural impact the Irish immigrants made on the country.