How the Irish Became American: Reflections on the History of the Irish in the United States

Time-based art from Ireland spanning the last 30 years responds to different aspects of Ireland's political, economic and social climate. Jaki Irvine's The Silver Bridge is one time-based work that explores migration. This chapter argues that The Silver Bridge manipulates the existing hierarchy of humans over animals by deploying this relationship as a lens to project the relationship between mobility, migrancy and memory. Irish art reflects different aspects of migration that shape understandings of the socio-political and cultural conditions of Ireland. Emilie Pine's analysis of return migrants in contemporary Irish theatre provides a template for understanding how this specific migration phenomenon is addressed in the Irish cultural register and what cultural tropes are deployed. The emergence of vampirism in Irish gothic literature references the political situation in Ireland during the nineteenth century and the devastating effects of the Great Famine.