Description
The historiography of the Irish in Britain has lingered on themes of prejudice, discrimination and alienation. This historiography has been a key means of exploring Britain and Ireland’s postcolonial relationship, with Irish migrants sometimes presented as an exiled community in a hostile and condescending nation. This paper presents a very different framing of Britain’s Irish diaspora by focusing on Black Irish migrants, a population that had a very different relationship with Ireland and Irishness.Despite being an overwhelmingly white country, a small Black population of African descent lived in Ireland from the 1940s. Usually the children of Black African men and white Irish women, Black Irish people were marginalised from mainstream society. Most grew up in institutional settings such as industrial schools, where they experienced appalling abuse and racism. Black people were excluded from Irish national identity, routinely subjected to racial slurs and anti-Black stereotypes. Unsurprisingly, many Black people departed Ireland, mostly heading to large English cities, an experience that often proved revelatory and radicalising. Facing exclusion from diasporic Irish spaces, and living alongside an established Black community for the first time, these migrants embraced their Black identity and became involved with anti-racist activism. Having been rejected by white Ireland, they found an alternative home in Black Britain, one where Blackness was celebrated rather than denigrated.
Utilising a series of recent oral histories, this paper explores Black Irish migration journeys to establish an alternative narrative of movement between Ireland and Britain, one which departs from the established framing of exile and discrimination. Black Irish migrants were enthusiastic about the diverse vibrancy of urban Britain, presenting it as an escape from racism and isolation in Ireland. By focusing on the intersection of Irishness and Blackness, the paper complicates our understanding of how Irish migrants existed within the tapestry of multicultural Britain.
| Period | 26 Jun 2025 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Britain and the World Conference |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Liverpool, United KingdomShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |