Networking Respectability: Class, Gender and Ethnicity among the Irish in South Wales, 1845-1914

Irish migrants in nineteenth-century Britain are often seen as embodying the antithesis of the hegemonic values of respectability, temperance, self-help and mutuality that became entrenched among sections of the British working class from c.1850. This essay argues that Irish friendly and temperance societies in south Wales embraced these values and acted as networks for the dissemination of such ideals in Irish communities, assisted by the Catholic Church. A consideration of the activities of Irish societies reveals the complex interplay between ethnic, class and gender identities in a minority ethnic group. These identities are explored through an examination of the nature of ethnic networks and the messages they sought to convey. The study also examines the performative aspect of identity formation by considering Irish public processions, the dress of processionists and the responses to them.