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Irish Diaspora Studies (1)
by Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish Diaspora Studies is the name I have given to the world-wide, scholarly, inter-disciplinary study of the Irish Diaspora, and its social, linguistic, economic, cultural and political causes and consequences.
Irish Diaspora Studies is world-wide...
Irish Diaspora Studies always involves the study of at least two countries, Ireland and the 'host country'. But this should not make us lose sight of the world-wide-ness, the inter-connected-ness of the Irish Diaspora. Irish Diaspora Studies involves the study of the Irish in much more than two countries. We should be aware of world-wide networks, particularly in economic and cultural areas. We should be cautious about declarations on the nature of 'Irishness' based on the study of the Irish in only one country. We are as interested in 'failure' - however defined - as 'success'.
Irish Diaspora Studies is scholarly...
If Irish Diaspora Studies - and, indeed, Irish Studies - is to be anything more than a ragbag of predilections then we must make good scholarship our first aim. We look at what we want to study, and we look at how what we want to study can be studied. Our methodologies, and their underlying assumptions, must be made crystal clear. We must look critically at the 'framework discipline' - the academic discipline within which our research operates.
Irish Diaspora Studies is inter-disciplinary...
No one academic discipline is going to tell us everything we want to know about the Irish Diaspora. Irish Diaspora Studies is, by its nature, critical of formal academic disciplines, with their boundaries and 'turf wars. Irish Diaspora Studies is welcomingly inter-disciplinary. When a new or unexpected academic discipline contributes to our field of study, we hold a welcoming party. Indeed, the inter-disciplinary nature of Irish Diaspora Studies was one (but only one) of the things that drew me to this field of study in the first place - my six volume Leicester University Press series, The Irish World Wide, was at one level an attempt to drive an exploratory trench through all the academic disciplines that might contribute to Irish Diaspora Studies.(2)
It follows that one of the tasks facing Irish Diaspora Studies is to work out ways through which differing academic disciplines can talk to each other. I would value observations from people who have thought more deeply about this problem than I have. Briefly, my own thoughts about the issue conclude that there is a problem here that cannot be solved by electing one particular academic discipline 'the master discipline', to which others defer. I have done some work on the ways that differing academic disciplines use specific methodologies - the interview, for example. I wonder if anyone has done any work on a 'protocol' through which practitioners of differing academic disciplines might begin to communicate.(3)
The rest of this Web site is given over to examples of the ways that Irish Diaspora Studies might use the Web: Reviews, Discussion Papers, Notes & Queries. This Web site connects with other developments - still under discussion - here at the University of Bradford. Ultimately I envisage something that would be of help to all Irish Diaspora scholars - especially the more isolated scholar. Cumulatively, over time, we can create our own Irish Diaspora Studies knowledge base and research agenda.
Patrick O'Sullivan (4)
Bradford, February 1997
Notes
- This Irish Diaspora Studies Web page was created by Patrick O'Sullivan, in connection with other Irish Diaspora Studies developments - still under discussion - at the University of Bradford, Yorkshire, England.
The Irish Diaspora Studies Web page is hosted by the Computer Centre at the University of Bradford. We thank the University of Bradford for its hospitality.
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- My major contribution to Irish Diaspora Studies - so far - is the 6 volume Leicester University Press series, The Irish World Wide, 1992-97, which I created, developed and edited. The six volumes of The Irish World Wide are:
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Patterns of Migration, Leicester University Press, Leicester, London & New York, 1992;
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The Irish in the New Communities, Leicester University Press, Leicester & London, 1992;
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The Creative Migrant, Leicester University Press, Leicester, London, New York, 1994;
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Irish Women and Irish Migration, Leicester University Press, London & New York, 1995;
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Religion and Identity, Leicester University Press, London & New York, 1996;
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The Meaning of the Famine, Leicester University Press, London & Washington, 1997.
There is a Web page, giving fuller information about The Irish World Wide series, under construction at the University of Rennes, France. As soon as that site is ready we will put a link here...
Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4 are now (1997) available in paperback. I am told that Volumes 5 and 6 will soon be available in paperback.
Leicester University Press is now an imprint of the Cassell group. I am told that a Cassell Web site is under construction. Meanwhile the mail address is:
Cassell
Wellington House
125 Strand
London WC2R 0BB
0171 420 5555 Telephone
0171 240 8531 Fax
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- When I begin my own negotiations with an academic discipline I find myself asking prosaic questions... What counts as evidence in your discipline? How far back should a literature search go? How can we make explicit the rituals and conventions of your discipline?
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- By the nature of things 'Patrick O'Sullivan' is not an unusual name amongst Irish people and people of Irish heritage - 'Patrick' is the most common Irish first name, 'O'Sullivan' is the third most common family name in Ireland. (Since you ask... O Murchu/Murphy and O Ceallaigh/O'Kelly/Kelly.)
I guess there is the possibility of confusion. I am not confused - I have been called 'Patrick O'Sullivan' all my life. But perhaps we should have a Patrick O'Sullivan Web page - with links to all the Patrick O'Sullivans in the world?
Anyway, for one of Patrick O'Sullivan's interests - THIS Patrick O'Sullivan - outside Irish Diaspora Studies - see the Yorkshire Playwrights Web site.
http://www.poptel.org.uk/unholy/yp
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