Outsiders Inside: Whiteness, Place and Irish Women

How white are Irish women? Why are Irish women 'visible' in the US and 'invisible' in Britain? Notions of diaspora are central to contemporary debates about 'race', ethnicity, identity and nationalism. Yet the Irish diaspora, one of the oldest and largest, is often excluded on the grounds of 'whiteness'. Irish diasporic women are 'invisible', yet their experiences illustrate the complexities of racial and ethnic entanglements in the histories of both the United States and Britain. Outsiders Inside explores the themes of displacement and the meanings of home for these women and their descendants. This work juxtaposes the visibility of Irish women in the United States with their marginalization in Britain. Bronwen Walter challenges linear notions of migration and assimilation by demonstrating that two forms of identification can be held simultaneously. By exploring the life stories of Irish women living in Britain in the 1990's, she traces the inextricable links between gender, ethnicity and place in these diasporic identities. In an age when the Northern Ireland peace process is rapidly changing global perceptions of Irishness, this book reminds us that gender and race remain powerful subtexts. Outsiders Inside moves the empirical study of the Irish diaspora out of the 'ghetto' of Irish Studies and into the mainstream, challenging theorists and policy-makers to pay attention to the issue of white diversity.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 Diaspora: key concepts and contexts 2 Outside the Pale: Irish women in the United States of America 3 Inside the Pale: constructions of Irish women's place in Britain 4 Material lives in Britain: geographical contexts of settlement and work 5 Everyday encounters: lived realities of racialisation in post-war Britain 6 Meanings of home: identities and belonging 7 Doubled relationships of displacement and placement: Irish women in Bolton, Conclusion

About the Author :
Bronwen Walter is Senior Lecturer in Social Geography at Anglia Polytechnic University, Cambridge. She is a leading researcher of the Irish in Britain.

Review :
"Walter's work is an important and well-written analysis of the Irish in Britain. In addition, her work is a comparative study of the Irish in Britain and in the United States, as well as of the Irish and other immigrant groups to the United Kingdom. Hers is one of the few studies to make comparisons and this fact alone makes her book especially important in immigration and cultural studies.." -International Migration Review, Volume 36, No. 1, 2002