The Geographies of Military Inculcation and Domesticity: Reconceptualising Masculinities in the Home

This chapter advances research on the Irish Diaspora by examining working-class masculinities in the context of intergenerational family relations. The discussion is based on a study with 38 men of Irish descent living on Tyneside, the regional term for the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and its surrounding areas to the North and South of the River Tyne, in the United Kingdom. The chapter discusses the cultural fusion of the Irish Diaspora and indigenous Tyneside; it uses the narratives of one family to chart how the legacies of working-class masculinities have changed over time. In bringing together Peter's family narratives the author has articulated how the places of Tyneside and the Irish Diaspora have helped to shape their working-class masculinities. He outlined why Peter's family has become 'less Irish' over time, and that a significant factor in the evolution has been the ease in which they have become integrated with the host community.