Irish in Manchester C. 1750-1921
Subtitle: Resistance, Adaptation and Identity
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 231
ISBN-13: 9780719087196
Subjects: Irish, foreign countries; Industrial revolution; Great britain, ethnic relations
Description: This book examines the development of the Irish community in Manchester, one of the most dynamic cities of nineteenth-century Britain. Based on research into a wide variety of local sources, it examines the process by which the Irish came to be blamed for all the ills of the Industrial Revolution and the ways in which they attempted to cope with a sometimes actively hostile environment. It discusses the nature and degree of residential segregation in one notable Irish district and the role of the Catholic Church as a source of spiritual comfort and the base for a dense network of mutual aid and social and cultural organisations. It also examines how the Irish community allied itself with local campaign groups and political parties and organised celebrations and processions that simultaneously expressed its evolving sense of Irishness but fitted in with local traditions and customs.--