Forging Identities in the Irish World

Sophie Cooper is Lecturer in Liberal Arts at Queen's University Belfast. Sophie was a William McFarlane Fellow at the University of Edinburgh where she completed her PhD in 2017. Prior to that, she studied at Trinity College Dublin and the University of Exeter. Sophie has previously published on material culture, female travel in the British empire, and ideas of belonging in the Irish diaspora.

• Acknowledgements; Figures; Abbreviations; Introduction Melbourne and Chicago: An Introduction Building Bonds: Secular Club Life. Church and Club: Religious Parish Life Sisters and Schooling: Public and Religious Education. Different Fighting Styles: Political Nationalism St Patrick’s Day and the Public Performance of Identity Conclusion; Bibliography

Cooper identifies some very subtle ways in which the communities varied or, in some cases, subtle ways in which their experience was more similar than would initially appear. In part, this is Cooper’s sensitivity to the difference between the Australian experience when for much of the time of the analysis Australia was a colony and then a dominion within the British Empire, while Chicago was part of a fully independent state throughout the period studied. Equally important, as the notes and bibliography show, the research base for the book is extensive. Cooper delved deeply into both the contemporary sources and the historiography of both cities. This will be a useful book for those interested in the Irish diaspora and how the nature of Irishness developed in two of the major destination for Irish, Catholic emigrants.