"Nash’s rigorous examination of the political, cultural, and material effects of Irish genealogy and genetics and the numerous examples she provides of ordinary Americans, Canadians, and Northern Irish who are using genealogy to transform outmoded ideas of a pure point of ancestral origin are cause for optimism."—Journal of American Ethnic History
"A thoughtful, comprehensive book that examines the theoretical connections and empirical disjunctions within the Irish diaspora. Recommended."—Choice
Description
What does it mean to be of Irish descent? What does Irish descent stand for in Ireland? In Northern Ireland? In the United States? How are the categories of “native” and “settler” and accounts of ethnic origin being refigured through popular genealogy and population genetics?
Of Irish Descent addresses these questions by exploring the contemporary significance of ideas about ancestral roots, origins, and connections. Moving from the intimacy of family stories and reunions to disputed state policies on noble titles and new applications of genetic research, Nash traces the place of ancestry in interconnected geographies of identity—familial, ethnic, national, and diasporic. Underlying these different practices and narratives are potent and profoundly political questions about who counts as Irish and to whom Ireland belongs.
Examining tensions between ideas of plurality and commonality, difference and connection that run through the culture and science of ancestral origins, Of Irish Descent is an original and timely exploration of new configurations of nation and diaspora as communities of shared descent. The expanded edition includes a new foreword by the author.
About the Author
Catherine Nash is professor of geography at Queen Mary, University of London. She has written numerous articles in the fields of feminist cultural geography, geographies of relatedness, and Irish studies. She is the author of Genetic Geographies: The Trouble with Ancestry.
February 2027