“A Pole of Differentiation”: Pasts and Futures in Irish Working-Class Writing

Michael Pierse

doi:10.16993/bbf.h

Abstract

The chapter outlines the current state of play in the scholarly study of Irish working-class writing. It explores issues with regard to the historiography of the Irish working class, analyses its diasporic and colonial contexts, and provides a brief introduction to Irish working-class writing over the past three centuries and its study in the academy. The chapter also suggests some of the prominent themes across this literature, which suggest points of commonality (as well as contrast) with working-class writing in other international contexts.

Highlights

As Declan Kiberd has observed, the Irish working class has often been characterized by its apparent belatedness, forming much more slowly in a less industrialized setting than many of its European neighbors (2017a)
“Ireland had a role as part of the United Kingdom (UK) economy”: “There has been some debate about how much this role was engineered, or whether it was accidental, but Ireland was useful to British industry as a source of food and of cheap labour” (Ibid.)
The Irish working class must be viewed in relationship with that island, colonialism, and emigration, and with regard to the particularities of class in other common destinations for Irish workers

Summary

Introduction

As Declan Kiberd has observed, the Irish working class has often been characterized by its apparent belatedness, forming much more slowly in a less industrialized setting than many of its European neighbors (2017a). Was the Irish working class integral to trans-Atlantic capitalism over the past century, its worker emigrants and their descendants continued to exert considerable influence on life in “The Old Country”.

Results

Conclusion