New Perspectives on the Irish in Scotland

Abstract

This volume does exactly what the title suggests and provides new perspectives on the Irish in Scotland. It does not limit itself to studying the experience of Catholics, but also addresses the experience of Irish Protestants. Prior to the nineteenth century Scotland was predominantly Presbyterian, but by 1841 some 4.8 per cent of the population were Irish-born (predominantly Protestant but not necessarily Presbyterian). By 1851 the figure stood at 7.2 per cent and was increasingly Catholic. The editor estimates that Catholics constitute 16 per cent of Scotland's population today, though this does not take account of the Irish origins of a section of the Protestant population. At the heart of this experience are the issues of integration, intolerance and assimilation. How did a society with a dominant cultural identity respond to the rapid influx of a sizeable population with a distinctive religious and ethnic identity? The general assumption has been that Irish Protestants were easily assimilated but that Irish Catholics were met with hostility and racism. Many of the chapters in this remarkable book question these interpretations and at least suggest that the answer is more complex and multifaceted.

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