Southern Cultures: The Irish Issue

In the Spring 2011 issue of Southern Cultures — The Irish Issue — Front Porch by Harry L. Watson
“The authors in this special issue on Ireland and the South argue that the Irish left an outsized imprint on the cultures of the American South and forged a persistent affinity between Ireland and the South.”

“A lengthening chain in the shape of memories”
The Irish and Southern Culture by William R. Ferris
“Irish rockers U2 are committed fans of B.B. King and wrote the song ‘When Love Comes to Town' at his request. The song introduced King to important new rock audiences.”

Tara, the O'Haras, and the Irish Gone With the Wind by Geraldine Higgins
“Into the debate about place, race, and the second-best-selling book of all time, we can also bring Irishness.”

Another “Lost Cause”
The Irish in the South Remember the Confederacy by David Gleeson
“As there had been only two prominent Irish generals, and only one, Cleburne, had had a very distinguished record, the story of the common soldier was the story of the Irish Confederate.”

Blacks and Irish on the Riverine Frontiers
The Roots of American Popular Music by Christopher J. Smith
“One of the realities of American life is that certain features of African American performance style will remain strange and alluring to those outside the culture. Not least among such features is the making of hard social commentary on recurring problems of life, often through cutting and breaking techniques-contentious interactions continually calling for a change of direction.”

Smoke 'n' Guns
A Preface to a Poem about Marginal Souths, and then the Poem by Conor O'Callaghan
“Addressing a jubilant crowd in Belfast shortly after the declaration of the original ceasefire in 1993, Gerry Adams reminded his audience that ‘they haven’t gone away, you know.' He meant that even as ‘the cause' was dwindling, its upholders-‘the boys'-were still among us. He might just as easily have been talking about the Klan.”