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- Title
Constituting the Diasporic Collective: Irish-Americans at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century.
- Authors
McCue-Enser, Margret
- Abstract
Through close examination of speeches dedicated to Robert Emmet, the Irish Nationalist, Republican, and rebel leader, on the centennial of his death, I reveal how Irish-American civic and religious leaders marshaled his memory into the ideographs of land and liberty, and in doing so mitigated diaspora and constituted Irish-Americans as not only a decent but also an exceptional part of the burgeoning American socio-political landscape. First, I examine the state of Irish-American diaspora in early twentieth century America and the role epideictic speeches celebrating the legacy of Robert Emmet played in constructing the Irish Americans as a collective. Next, I delve into the unique challenges faced by second and third-generation Irish-Americans who found themselves at a time in which claiming any identity other than full-fledged American rendered them suspect and insubordinate. Finally, 1 demonstrate how the ideographs of land and liberty provided a way for Irish-Americans to leverage their dedication to land and their devout fight against tyranny with the American Frontier Myth, producing a people who were not only full-fledged but actually superior Americans.
- Subjects
IRISH Americans -- History; IRISH Americans; TWENTIETH century; SOCIAL history
- Publication
Iowa Journal of Communication, 2015, Vol 47, Issue 1/2, p154
- ISSN
1537-1824
- Publication type
Article