The Literature of the Irish in Britain Autobiography and Memoir, 1725-2001

The first critical survey of an unjustly neglected body of literature: the autobiographies and memoirs of writers of Irish birth or background who lived and worked in Britain between 1725 and the present day. It offers a stimulating and provocative introduction to the themes, preoccupations and narrative strategies of a diverse range of writers.

Liam Harte teaches Irish and Modern Literature at the University of Manchester, UK. He has published widely on contemporary Irish fiction and was Armstrong Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto in 2008. His recent books include Modern Irish Autobiography: Self, Nation and Society and Ireland Beyond Boundaries: Mapping Irish Studies in the Twenty-First Century

Acknowledgements
Map
Introduction: Migration and Autobiographical Authorship
Editorial Note
Mary Davys, The Merry Wanderer (1725)
Laetitia Pilkington, Memoirs of Laetitia Pilkington, Wife to the Reverend Mr Matthew Pilkington, Written by Herself (1748)
John Binns, Recollections of the Life of John Binns: twenty-nine years in Europe and fifty-three in the United States (1854)
John O'Neil, 'Fifty Years' Experience of an Irish Shoemaker in London' (1869)
Michael Fagg, Life and Adventures of a Limb of the Law (1836)
James Dawson Burn, The Autobiography of a Beggar Boy (1855)
Jane Jowitt, Memoirs of Jane Jowitt, the Poor Poetess, Aged 74 Years, Written by Herself (1844)
J. E., 'Life of an Irish Tailor, Written by Himself' (1857)
Robert Crowe, The Reminiscences of Robert Crowe, the Octogenerian Tailor (1902)
William Hammond, Recollections of William Hammond, A Glasgow Hand-Loom Weaver (1904)
Ellen O'Neill, Extraordinary Confessions of a Female Pickpocket (1850)
Owen Peter Mangan, 'Memoir' (1912)
Justin McCarthy, The Story of an Irishman (1904)
Jim Blake, Jim Blake's Tour from Clonave to London (1867)
Frances Power Cobbe, The Life of Frances Power Cobbe by Herself (1894)
John Denvir, The Life Story of an Old Rebel (1910)
Tom Barclay, Memoirs and Medleys: The Autobiography of a Bottle-Washer (1934)
William Butler Yeats, Reveries over Childhood and Youth (1916)
Joseph Keating, My Struggle for Life (1916)
James Mullin, The Story of a Toiler's Life (1921)
Michael MacGowan, The Hard Road to Klondyke (1962)
Francis Fahy, 'Ireland in London – Reminiscences' (1921)
John Sweeney, At Scotland Yard: Being the Experiences during Twenty-Seven Years' Service of John Sweeney (1904)
Walter Hampson, 'Reminiscences of 'Casey'' (1931)
Maureen Hamish, Adventures of an Irish Girl at Home and Abroad (1906)
Patrick Gallagher, My Story (1945)
Annie M. P. Smithson, Myself – and Others: An Autobiography (1944)
Elizabeth Bowen, Pictures and Conversations (1975)
Alice Foley, A Bolton Childhood (1973)
Bonar Thompson, Hyde Park Orator (1934)
Patrick MacGill, Children of the Dead End: The Autobiography of a Navvy (1914)
Jim Phelan, The Name's Phelan: The First Part of the Autobiography of Jim Phelan (1948)
Patrick McGeown, Heat the Furnace Seven Times More (1967)
Pat O'Mara, The Autobiography of a Liverpool Irish Slummy (1934)
Bill Naughton, Saintly Billy: A Catholic Boyhood (1988)
Margaret McAloren, 'The Wild Freshness of Morning' (1978)
Robert Collis, The Silver Fleece: An Autobiography (1936)
Darrell Figgis, A Chronicle of Jails (1917)
Elizabeth Hamilton, An Irish Childhood (1963)
Louis MacNeice, The Strings are False: An Unfinished Autobiography (1965)
Kevin FitzGerald, With O'Leary in the Grave (1986)
Sean O'Casey, Rose and Crown (1952)
Rearden Conner, A Plain Tale from the Bogs (1937)
Michael Stapleton, The Threshold (1958)
John Neary, Memories of the Long Distance Kiddies (c.1994)
Matt McGinn, 'Autobiography' (1987)
Peter Donnelly, The Yellow Rock (1950)
J. S. Collis, An Irishman's England (1937)
Nesca A. Robb, An Ulsterwoman in England, 1924-1941 (1942)
Mauyen Keane, Hello, Is It All Over? (1984)
Seán MacStiofáin, Memoirs of a Revolutionary (1975)
Dónal Foley, Three Villages: An Autobiography (1977)
Elaine Crowley, Technical Virgins (1998)
John B. Keane, Self-Portrait (1964)
Dónall Mac Amhlaigh, An Irish Navvy: The Diary of an Exile (1964)
Richard Power, Apple on the Treetop (1980)
John Boyle, Galloway Street: Growing Up Irish in Scotland (2001)
John Healy, The Grass Arena: An Autobiography (1988)
George O'Brien, Out of Our Minds (1994)
Bob Geldof with Paul Vallely, Is That It? (1986)
John Walsh, The Falling Angels: An Irish Romance (1999)
William Trevor, 'Blockley, Gloucestershire' (1981)
Desmond Hogan, 'Catford' (1988)
List of Primary Works
Select Bibliography
Index
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Index