Irish ‘ingleses’: The Irish Immigrant Experience in Argentina, 1840-1920

This is the first book length analysis of the Irish in Argentina. The experience of the Irish in Argentina was qualitatively different from that of Australia, Britain or the United States and this study employs a comparative methodology both in relation to the more established Irish immigrant destinations as well as to European immigration as a whole. Against established destinations of nineteenth-century Irish settlement, Argentina was unique. Separated immediately from the native populace by language and culture, Irish immigrants were quickly identified by the governing Argentine hosts into the broader English-speaking community with ambivalent consequences for the Irish migrants. The distinct socio-economic advantages experienced by ‘Ingleses’ within a particularly Euro-centric Argentina facilitated and encouraged the diminution of ethnic distinctions. But the conflicting identities, which emerged contributed to the distinct development of the Irish community within this unique nineteenth-century Latin environment.