Outside the Pale

This chapter explores the historical specificity of the experiences of women born in Ireland who settled in the United States, and of their female descendants who continued to define themselves, or to be constructed, as ‘Irish’. The analysis is begun ‘outside the Pale’ for two reasons. First, by far the largest number of women leaving Ireland in the nineteenth century settled in the United States, so that their descendants constitute over half of those now claiming an Irish identity. The historical span of five or sixth generations provides a relatively long and well-documented period over which to study changing socio-economic positionings and socio-cultural constructions, and thus to provide a framework for considering the diaspora as a whole. Second, establishing the contours of Irish women’s experiences in the United States provides a point of contrast with Britain, both for analytical purposes and as an integral part of Irish women’s own understandings of their circumstances.