Liverpools Irish Connection

Michael Kelly's writing is driven by love of his native Liverpool, which reaches back to his ancestral Ireland. In this collection of short biographies, Michael becomes the friend of his subjects, rather than a mere researcher. He writes of them because he is one of them, an Irish Liverpudlian in the grand old tradition.

The Easter Rising was an implosive rebellion that, although a failure, resulted in partial Irish independence in 1921 and later an Irish Republic in 1949. Within the implosion was the Liverpool Irish Volunteers whose role has been overlooked significantly by historians. This book explores in-depth the role of the Liverpool Irish Volunteers both before, during and after the Easter Rising with some interesting findings. Declan Doolin is a PhD student in Modern History at the University of Galway. This book was originally submitted by Declan as an MA thesis at Liverpool Hope University in 2020, later turning into a book in 2022.

Tracing Your Liverpool Ancestors' gives a fascinating insight into everyday life in the Liverpool area over the past four centuries. Aimed primarily at the family and social historian, Mike Royden's highly readable guide introduces readers to the wealth of material available on the citys history and its people. In a series of short, information-packed chapters he describes, in vivid detail, the rise of Liverpool through shipping, manufacturing and trade from the original fishing village to the cosmopolitan metropolis of the present day. Throughout he concentrates on the lives of the local people on their experience as Liverpool developed around them. He looks at their living conditions, at poverty and the laboring poor, at health and the ravages of disease, at the influence of religion and migration, at education and the traumatic experience of war. He shows how the lives of Liverpudlians changed over the centuries and how this is reflected in the records that have survived. His useful book is a valuable tool for anyone researching the history of the city or the life of an individual ancestor.

Liverpool in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was the mirror of Ellis Island: it acted as the great cultural melting pot and processing point of migration from Europe to the United States. Here, for the first time, acclaimed historian John Belchem offers an extensive and groundbreaking social history of the elements of the Irish diaspora that stayed in Liverpool—enriching the city’s cultural mix rather than continuing on their journey. Covering the tumultuous period from the Act of Union to the supposed “final settlement” between Britain and Ireland, this richly illustrated volume will be required reading for anyone interested in the Irish diaspora.

Beryl Bainbridge, Clive Barker, Terence Davies, and J. G. Farrell represent only a handful of the fascinating and provocative writers who have emerged from the Liverpool literary scene in the past seventy-five years. Published in commemoration of Liverpool’s 800th birthday in 2007 and in celebration of its status as a European City of Culture in 2008, Writing Liverpool presents a selection of essays and interviews with the filmmakers, journalists, cultural critics, and novelists who have called the city home—asking if there is a distinctive Liverpool voice, and if so, how we identify it.

Liverpool Sectarianism: the rise and demise is a fascinating study that considers the causes and effects of sectarianism in Liverpool, how and why sectarian tensions subsided in the city and what sectarianism was in a Liverpool context, as well as offering a definition of the term 'sectarianism' itself. By positioning Liverpool amongst other 'sectarian cities' in Britain, specifically Belfast and Glasgow, this book considers the social, political, theological, and ethnic chasm which gripped Liverpool for the best part of two centuries, building upon what has already been written in terms of the origins and development of sectarianism, but also adds new dimensions through original research and interviews. In doing, the author challenges some longstanding perceptions about the nature of Liverpool sectarianism; most notably, in its denial of the supposed association between football and sectarianism in the city. The book then assesses why sectarianism, having been so central to Liverpool life, began to fade, exploring several explanations such as secularism, slum clearance, cultural change, as well as displacement by other pastimes, notably football. In analysing the validity of these explanations, key figures in the Orange Order and the Catholic Church offer their viewpoints. Each chapter examines a different dimension of Liverpool's divided past. Topics which feature prominently in the book are Irish immigration, Orangeism, religion, politics, racism, football, and the advance of the city's contemporary character, specifically, the development and significance of 'Scouse'. Ultimately, the book demonstrates how and why two competing identities (Irish Catholic and Lancastrian Protestant) developed into one overarching Scouse identity, which transcended seemingly insurmountable sectarian fault lines.