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The first comprehensive analysis of the Irish-Argentine community in a century, this book uses the archive of the Southern Cross , the Irish-Argentine newspaper, to analyse the divisions that opened up in the Irish-Argentine community in response to 1916, the two World Wars, Peronism, the military dictatorship, and the Falklands/Malvinas war.

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The Irish immigrants who arrived in Argentina between 1840 and 1890 were welcomed. Argentina was different from the English-speaking destinations familiar to other Irish emigrees: the historical antagonism between Catholicism and Protestantism was absent, and Irish immigrants were spared the discrimination experienced by those who settled in America. Argentina was regarded as part of Britain´s "informal empire", and the Irish benefitted economically and socially from being designated ingleses . The co-incidence of interest that developed between Irish-Argentines and British and American capital produced an economically successful community that was keen to protect its social status.

This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the Irish-Argentine community in a hundred years. Using the archive of the Southern Cross , the Irish-Argentine newspaper, it analyses the divisions that opened up in this community as it responded to 1916, the two World Wars, Peronism, the military dictatorship, and the Falklands/Malvinas war.

For generations the Southern Cross reflected and reinforced the conservative values of the community. But in 1968 a new editor would challenge the community over its failure to live up to what he considered to be the essence of being Irish: support for human rights and empathy with the poor.

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CONTENTS: Identity formation in the Irish-Argentine diaspora - The background to Irish emigration to Argentina - The Irish put down roots in Argentina - The Southern Cross equivocates between assimilation and
ethnic separatism - World affairs through the lens of the Southern Cross - The Irish and Peronism - The Irish-Argentines the Southern Cross ignored - Tensions between the Irish and Irish-Argentine Pallottines - Fr Richards and the Southern Cross during the Dirty War.

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"A fascinating excursion into a still relatively little-known part of the Irish diaspora, which explores, with assuredness and insight, how the Irish retained an identity into the post-WWII period. An excellent contribution to both diaspora history and the history of Argentina." (Professor Don MacRaild, Professor of British and Irish History, University of Roehampton)

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