A Vision of ‘Home’. An Investigation into the role of Nostalgic Memory in Irish American Identity Formation 1899 - 1904

This study examines the Irish American community’s efforts to construct a collective memory and identity for themselves at the turn of the twentieth century. Through the examination of magazines, newspapers, and books from the period 1899-1904, I have endeavoured to reconstruct their attempts to find a way of being both Irish and American. This was a formative period for the Irish American community, as they emerged from the traumatic memories of famine emigration and just as they were beginning their rapid rise through American society. It will be argued here that as it became more established, this now multigenerational diasporic community chose to construct a highly nostalgic and easily accessible shorthand that both transported them back ‘home’ and provided an acceptable ethnic identity for their new lives. It was in this period that they tried to find and understand their place and invent for themselves a new identity - keeping hold of what was deemed important, letting go of other elements they had brought from home. I have also extended my study outside the US and taking a transnational perspective - examining the Irish Australian community where I have found evidence of an exchange of ideas, and shared visions of home between the two diaspora geographies.