Of Irish Descent: Origin Stories, Genealogy, and the Politics of Belonging

Irish Studies, Syracuse University Press

by Catherine Nash

What does it mean to be of Irish descent? What does Irish descent stand for in Ireland? In Northern Ireland? In the United States? How are the categories of “native” and “settler” and accounts of ethnic origin being refigured through popular genealogy and population genetics? Of Irish Descent addresses these questions by exploring the contemporary significance of ideas about ancestral roots, origins, and connections. Moving from the intimacy of family stories and reunions to disputed state policies on noble titles and new applications of genetic research, Nash traces the place of ancestry in interconnected geographies of identity—familial, ethnic, national, and diasporic. Underlying these different practices and narratives are potent and profoundly political questions about who counts as Irish and to whom Ireland belongs. Examining tensions between ideas of plurality and commonality, difference and connection that run through the culture and science of ancestral origins, Of Irish Descent is an original and timely exploration of new configurations of nation and diaspora as communities of shared descent.

Genres: Ireland

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Tim Morrissey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating and honest book on the desire to explore Irish genetics and its implications within Ireland, Irish America, and the Irish diaspora at large. It’s not perfect, and you can tell, for example, that the research on Irish America is a view from Britain (she says Albany is the capital of New Jersey at one point). But overall it largely refrains from the diaspora bashing that defines so much academic criticism on the topic, allowing it to explore the full breadth of its subject matter, good and bad.