Celtic Poets Burns and Moore in Ballarat
_Writing from Melbourne, I can officially report that some truly wonderful resources for Irish studies can be found right here in south Victoria. Historically, the Irish made up approximately 15% of the Victorian population by the third quarter of the nineteenth century, the highest percentage in all of Australia. Given the astounding growth of Melbourne itself during the gold rush of the 1850s--within months of the gold discovery, its population had nearly doubled--this made it a particularly populous Irish center with all sorts of interesting global connections such as those to the similarly gold-crazy U.S. west coast. Irish, along with English, Scottish, Australian, German, and Canadian miners, were also involved in the defining event in the push for universal male suffrage for whites in Victoria, the
Eureka uprising of 1854.
Few scholars could now claim, as the historian Donald Akenson once said nearly two decades ago, that there has been willful ignorance of the wider Irish world of North America outside of the cities of New York, Boston, and Chicago ("denial" is how he termed it). Essays, books, and conference papers on the history of the Irish experience in the rural U.S., in Canadian North America, in South America, and in the American South are increasingly visible.
I thought it would be worthwhile to give a little plug for the National Library of Ireland's new
Sources Database. Historians like to grumble from time to time about catalogs and finding aids, but in this case the features and functionality are definitely deserving of high praise.
I was able to spend last Sunday with yet another cemetery organization that is putting together some great history-related programs, providing internship opportunities for preservationists and historians, and working to improve surrounding neighborhoods--all while maintaining the grounds of important historic sites.
I've managed to survive two weeks in what has been the coldest winter in Ireland since the early 1960s . . .
The publication of the 2009 inaugural lecture delivered by Cambridge Regius Professor of Modern History Richard J. Evans has sparked a brief firestorm of controversy regarding perceived slights against non-British academics, but such reactions have missed a more interesting question at the heart of Evans's lecture: is a historian's national identity relevant to his or her field of choice?
A few weeks back I had the good fortune to pitch in over at
Congressional Cemetery here in southeast Washington, DC by helping with the latest burial vault restoration being undertaken at this historic site.
Between this project and another volunteer opportunity I had with the cemetery earlier in September, I am beginning to appreciate just how much work goes into keeping these types of landmarks in top shape.
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