Life History and the Irish Migrant Experience in Post-War England. By Barry Hazley. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2020, xvi + 253pp. ISBN 978-1-5261-2800-3, £80
This work is a refreshing analysis of the Irish in England that keeps the Irish people themselves in the foreground. As Hazley rightly points out in his introduction, the history of the Irish in England has repeatedly been told through the prism of political events, and as a result, the human dimension has been somewhat lost. By using oral histories and the innovative use of Popular Memory Theory, a first for studies in the Irish Diaspora, Hazley ensures that those Irish who migrated during the post-war years are front and centre in this history, allowing an insight into the psychological adjustments of an Irish migrant in England during this period.