Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 489-531, v. 2). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Contemporary conventional wisdom suggests that a radical change in environment produces a variety of conflicts for an individual’s perception of the world. Certain geographical, social or cultural environments are seen as either supporting or threatening corresponding value systems and life-styles, and alteration of one’s environment, such as moving to the suburbs, integrating schools, etc., is often sought as a reinforcement for a particular way of life. Correspondingly, value changes seen as undesirable are frequently attributed to environmental change, such as moving to the big city, ghettoization, etc. Indeed, environmental change itself, whatever its substance or direction, is usually assumed to produce some impact on the outlook and values of a person undergoing such change. This study seeks to examine such assumptions with reference to a group which underwent dramatic environmental and occupational change: Irish women immigrants employed in factories in the United States, 1870-1914. Did these Irish immigrant women who labored in factories retain their traditional set of personal values once they reached the highly industrial urban scene of the factory? Or did these values disintegrate under the strain of change? Did these women develop a new set of values? Or did their traditional values stretch to encompass the new demands of city and factory, retaining their initial character, but regenerating deep unresolved tensions? Close examination will point up some important aspects of personal adaptation to historical upheaval and perhaps suggest a legacy.

The objective of this project was to come to a clear understanding of Irish-American culture--and how that culture expresses itself in individuals. The text considers the role of myth, religion, language, tradition, stereotypes and to a lesser degree gender in the molding of character. Although autobiographical in nature many of the themes are those that encompass the Irish-American experience as a whole. Questions asked throughout the process include, what makes one hyphenated? How is this culture passed from generation to generation? And is it multifaceted? Is there more than one way to express being Irish-American. The text is presented is a narrative which is also part of the tradition it presents and makes the assertion that Irish-Americans have a unique culture within the larger American whole. It asserts, like Maxine Hong-Kingston and Richard Rodriguez that the tradition from whence we come shapes who we are.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1993. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 281-296).

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

A full understanding of nineteenth century Irish America requires close examination of emigration as well as immigration. Knowledge of Irish pre-emigration experiences is a key to making sense of their post-emigration lives. This work analyzes the regional origins, the migration and settlement patterns, and the work and associational life of the Catholic Irish in Brooklyn between 1850 and 1900. Over this pivotal half century, the Brooklyn Irish developed a rich associational life which included temperance, Irish nationalism, land reform and Gaelic language and athletic leagues. This era marked the emergence of a more diverse, mature Irish-Catholic community, a community which responded in a new ways to a variety of internal and external challenges. To a degree, the flowering of Irish associational life represented a reaction to the depersonalization associated with American industrialization. However, it also reflected the changing cultural norms of many post-famine immigrants. Unlike their pre-1870 predecessors, these newcomers were often more modern in outlook - more committed to Irish nationhood, less impoverished, better educated and more devout. Consequently, post-1870 immigrants tended to be over-represented in the ranks of associations dedicated to Irish nationalism, Irish temperance, trade unionism, and cultural revivalism throughout Kings County. Unsurprisingly, over 70 of Brooklyn's 96 Catholic churches in 1901 were built after July 1, 1870. The internal diversity of the Brooklyn Irish was extensive. The opportunities and experiences of some Irish differed markedly from those experienced by others. Gender, county of origin and skill level all served as factors in post-emigration success. Moreover, generation was especially pronounced as a socioeconomic agent in Brooklyn. Economic prospects for the Irish-born remained as poor in Brooklyn as anywhere in the nation, but improved more rapidly for the American-born Irish then anyone might realistically have considered possible. Increased opportunities for land ownership seemed to support the socioeconomic prospects of thrifty Irishmen, but occupational mobility strongly favored the second generation, more so than in other locales. Why do both popular and scholarly accounts tend to portray all nineteenth century Irish Americans as either an undifferentiated mass of unskilled proletarians or as nouveau riche "lace curtain" aristocrats when significant variation clearly existed? In Philadelphia, Detroit and Brooklyn, at least 30 percent of Irish-born male workers in 1880 could be classified as "skilled craftsmen." In five other major cities, from San Francisco to Providence, the corresponding figure was roughly one-fifth in the same census year. Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Irish displayed a curious pattern of halting socioeconomic progress among foreign-born men (55% nonskilled in 1850, 51% nonskilled in 1900) alongside impressive progress for their American-born sons (35% nonskilled in 1880, 22% nonskilled in 1900). Irish American socio-economic mobility paled in comparison to that of their German peers, especially among the foreign born. Their intra-urban geographic mobility patterns differed as well. Irish Americans, in Brooklyn and other Northeastern and Midwestern cities, tended to move out of the older core wards as soon as they enjoyed a degree of economic success. German Americans, conversely, seem to have reinvested their new wealth in "a nicer house in the old neighborhood." Germans tended to separate themselves, whether they lived in the tenement districts of New York's Germantown and Brooklyn's Williamsburg, or the single-family homes of Riverdale just south of the Bronx. By 1890, the Irish were virtually ubiquitous, inhabiting all areas and all housing types of Brooklyn.

<p dir="ltr">This is a nineteenth and early twentieth century history of Irish politics in the United States. This study focuses on political identity, culture, gender, and the use of political violence. It is also a transnational history which blends the history of the United States with the history of Ireland. This study particularly examines the roles of ordinary men and women of the Irish American community throughout the United States in global efforts to bring about Irish independence. </p>