Professor Louise Ryan on migration, oral history and the Irish in Britain; plus Darragh Gannon on Irish Nationalism in Britain in the revolutionary decade.

Professor Louise Ryan on migration, oral history and the Irish in Britain

Migration is a subject that's never far from the headlines — whether it’s debates about borders, workers, or questions of belonging and identity. But behind the politics and the statistics are human stories – stories about what it actually means to leave home, and build a life somewhere new - something Irish people know a lot about.

Louise Ryan, Senior Professor of Sociology at London Metropolitan University has researched this subject for decades. She’s a leading expert on migration and social networks — how people move across countries; and how they build relationships, support systems, and communities from scratch, in unfamiliar places.

Her work has explored the experiences of migrants from all over the world — Irish, Polish, Caribbean, African — and how they’ve built their lives in London – creating new networks, friendships, and support systems along the way. She first began this research back in the early 2000s, talking to older Irish women migrants about their experiences emigrating to London in the 1930s.

She discusses her work, as explored in the recently published book Irish Nurses in the NHS: An Oral History, which is published by Four Courts Press; and her 2022 book Social Networks and Migration: Relocations, Relationships and Resources which is published by Bristol University Press.

Irish Nationalism in Britain, 1912-1922

When we picture the struggle for Irish independence, we most often recall events that unfolded on Irish soil – in the GPO for example, in rural ambushes - or in the halls of Dáil Éireann. But during that same period, another front in that struggle took shape across the water, in the Irish communities of Britain.

The book, Conflict, Diaspora, and Empire: Irish Nationalism in Britain, 1912-1922, invites us to rethink the geography of Irish nationalism and to consider what occurred in the streets and meeting halls of London, Liverpool and Glasgow – where Irish migrants were gathering, organising, and even smuggling arms in support of Irish independence.

They played a vital role in shaping public opinion, influencing political debates, and creating a new Irish identity - at the heart of the British Empire. Myles is joined by the author, historian Dr Darragh Gannon, Associate Director of Global Irish Studies at Georgetown University. The book is published by Cambridge University Press.