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

Examines the autobiographical literature of the Irish in Britain from 1700 to the present day, drawing on the work of a wide range of writers from a diversity of backgrounds and social classes. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgements......Page 11 Map......Page 15 Introduction: Migration and Autobiographical Authorship......Page 16 History, textuality, referentiality......Page 22 Themes, motifs, representations......Page 31 The personal dimension......Page 37 Editorial Note......Page 40 1 The Merry Wanderer (1725)......Page 42 2 Memoirs of Mrs Laetitia Pilkington, Wife to the Reverend Mr Matthew Pilkington, Written by Herself (1748)......Page 45 3 Recollections of the Life of John Binns: twenty-nine years in Europe and fifty-three in the United States (1854)......Page 51 4 'Fifty Years' Experience of an Irish Shoemaker in London' (1869)......Page 56 5 The Life and Adventures of a Limb of the Law (1836)......Page 61 6 The Autobiography of a Beggar Boy (1855)......Page 65 7 Memoirs of Jane Jowitt, the Poor Poetess, Aged 74 Years, Written by Herself (1844)......Page 70 8 'Life of an Irish Tailor, Written by Himself' (1857)......Page 74 9 The Reminiscences of Robert Crowe, the Octogenerian Tailor (1902)......Page 78 10 Recollections of William Hammond, A Glasgow Hand-Loom Weaver (1904)......Page 83 11 Extraordinary Confessions of a Female Pickpocket (1850)......Page 86 12 'Memoir' (1912)......Page 90 13 The Story of an Irishman (1904)......Page 95 14 Jim Blake’s Tour from Clonave to London (1867)......Page 101 15 The Life of Frances Power Cobbe by Herself (1894)......Page 105 16 The Life Story of an Old Rebel (1910)......Page 110 17 Memoirs and Medleys: The Autobiography of a Bottle-Washer (1934)......Page 115 18 Reveries over Childhood and Youth (1916)......Page 120 19 My Struggle for Life (1916)......Page 124 20 The Story of a Toiler's Life (1921)......Page 129 21 The Hard Road to Klondike (1962)......Page 133 22 'Ireland in London – Reminiscences' (1921)......Page 137 23 At Scotland Yard: Being the Experiences during Twenty-Seven Years' Service of John Sweeney (1904)......Page 142 24 'Reminiscences of "Casey"' (1931)......Page 147 25 Adventures of an Irish Girl at Home and Abroad (1906)......Page 152 26 My Story (1945)......Page 156 27 Myself – and Others: An Autobiography (1944)......Page 162 28 Pictures and Conversations (1975)......Page 166 29 A Bolton Childhood (1973)......Page 170 30 Hyde Park Orator (1934)......Page 175 31 Children of the Dead End: The Autobiography of a Navvy (1914)......Page 180 32 The Name's Phelan: The First Part of the Autobiography of Jim Phelan (1948)......Page 184 33 Heat the Furnace Seven Times More (1967)......Page 190 34 The Autobiography of a Liverpool Irish Slummy (1934)......Page 194 35 Saintly Billy: A Catholic Boyhood (1988)......Page 199 36 'The Wild Freshness of Morning' (1978)......Page 203 37 The Silver Fleece: An Autobiography (1936)......Page 207 38 A Chronicle of Jails (1917)......Page 211 39 An Irish Childhood (1963)......Page 216 40 The Strings Are False: An Unfinished Autobiography (1965)......Page 221 41 With O'Leary in the Grave (1986)......Page 226 42 Rose and Crown (1952)......Page 229 43 A Plain Tale from the Bogs (1937)......Page 234 44 The Threshold (1958)......Page 239 45 Memories of the Long Distance Kiddies (1994)......Page 243 46 'Autobiography' (1987)......Page 248 47 The Yellow Rock (1950)......Page 253 48 An Irishman's England (1937)......Page 257 49 An Ulsterwoman in England, 1924–1941 (1942)......Page 260 50 Hello, Is It All Over? (1984)......Page 265 51 Memoirs of a Revolutionary (1975)......Page 270 52 Three Villages: An Autobiography (1977)......Page 275 53 Technical Virgins (1998)......Page 280 54 Self-Portrait (1964)......Page 283 55 An Irish Navvy: The Diary of an Exile (1964)......Page 286 56 Apple on the Treetop (1980)......Page 292 57 Galloway Street: Growing Up Irish in Scotland (2001)......Page 296 58 The Grass Arena: An Autobiography (1988)......Page 300 59 Out of Our Minds (1994)......Page 304 60 Is That It? (1986)......Page 307 61 The Falling Angels: An Irish Romance (1999)......Page 311 62 'Blockley, Gloucestershire' (1981)......Page 315 63 'Catford' (1993)......Page 319 List of Primary Works......Page 323 Select Bibliography......Page 326 B......Page 330 C......Page 331 D......Page 332 F......Page 333 H......Page 334 K......Page 335 L......Page 336 M......Page 337 O......Page 338 R......Page 339 S......Page 340 W......Page 341 Z......Page 342 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. This is a critical survey which offers a provocative introduction to the themes, preoccupations and narrative strategies of a diverse range of writers of Irish birth or background who lived and worked in Britain between 1725 and the present day