Irish Migrants in Modern Wales

Until relatively recently, immigrant and ethnic minority groups were relegated to one of the silences in the history of modern Wales. Where they were mentioned at all it was as outsiders who added a dash of colour and exoticism to the story of the majority but who had little to contribute to our understanding of developments in the ‘mainstream' of society. In recent years this picture has begun to change, and historians, sociologists, novelists and the media have all given sustained attention to the immigrant and ethnic minority experience. The essays in this volume examine the experience of Irish migrants to Wales, comparing their experience with that of other migrants and offering case studies of Irish settlement in a number of Welsh towns. Attention is also given to anti-Irish protest movements in the late nineteenth century and to the later imprisonment of Irish Republicans. The essays examine in depth the social and cultural impact that Irish migrants have made on Wales, and show more broadly the ways in which the study of such migrant groups poses searching questions about the nature of society as a whole.

Neil Evans is joint editor of Llafur: The Journal of Welsh People's History, and has published extensively on Welsh history, especially on racial and ethnic issues John Hickey was Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the Dominican University, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Sadly, he died in 2002 Peter Jones is a former PhD student at University College Chester Louise Miskell is a Lecturer at University of Wales, Swansea Frank Neal is Professor in the School of English, Sociology, Politics and Contemporary History, University of Salford Paul O'Leary is Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and Welsh History, University of Wales Aberystwyth Jon Parry is a former Vice-Principal of the Working Men's College in Camden, London Chris Williams is Professor at the Centre for Modern and Contemporary Wales at the University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd