In this paper the political fortunes and identities of Irish Catholics in US and Canadian cities are explored through a comparative study of Buffalo and Toronto. Local spaces of political administration in the urban arena, such as wards, were significant in affecting the generation of sociopolitical networks of power which in turn had implications for the sense of political identity and involvement felt by Irish Catholics within these two places. The importance of such spaces, however, was also contingent on the interaction between these cities' Irish Catholic populations and wider geographies of social, economic, and ethnoreligious relations over time as well as on the topographies and traditions of political power that extended beyond the municipal scale in both societies.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AkensonD H, 1996The Irish Diaspora: A Primer (P D Meany, Toronto).
2.
AnbinderT, 2003, “‘We will dirk every mother's son of you’: Five Points and the Irish conquest of New York politics”, in New Directions in Irish-American History Ed. KennyK (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI) pp 105–121.
3.
AndersonJ D, 1972, “Nonpartisan urban politics in Canadian cities”, in Emerging Party Politics in Urban Canada Eds MassonJ KAndersonJ D (McClelland and Stewart, Toronto) pp 5–21.
4.
ArmstrongCNellesH V, 1977The Revenge of the Methodist Bicycle Company: Sunday Streetcars and Municipal Reform in Toronto 1888–1897 (Peter Martin Associates, Toronto).
5.
BakerW M, 1977Timothy Warren Angiin 1822–96: Irish Catholic Canadian (University of Toronto Press, Toronto).
6.
BlomleyN K, 1994Law, Space and the Geographies of Power (Guilford Press, New York).
7.
BodnarJ, 1985The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants to Urban America (University of Illinois Press, Chicago, IL).
8.
BourdieuP, 1984Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).
9.
BourdieuP, 1986, “The forms of capital”, in Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education Ed. RichardsonJ G (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT) pp 241–258.
10.
BourdieuPWacquantL, 1992An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology (Polity Press, Cambridge).
11.
BridgesA, 1986, “Becoming American”, in Working Class Formation Eds KatznelsonIZolbergA (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ) pp 157–196.
12.
ByronR, 1999Irish America (Clarendon Press, Oxford).
13.
CampbellM, 1995, “The other immigrants: Comparing the Irish in Australia and the United States”Journal of American Ethnic History143–22.
14.
Canada, 1883Census of Canada, Volume 1 (S E Dawson, Ottawa).
15.
CarelessJMS, 1984Toronto to 1918 (James Lorimer, Toronto).
16.
ClarkeB P, 1993Piety and Nationalism: Lay Voluntary Associations and the Creation of an Irish-Catholic Community in Toronto 1850–1895 (McGill–Queens University Press, Montreal).
17.
CochraneD, 1995–96, “Ethnic diversity and democratic stability: The case of Irish Americans”Political Science Quarterly110587–604.
18.
CottrellM, 1988Irish Catholic Political Leadership in Toronto 1855–1892: A Study of Ethnic Politics unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon.
19.
CurtisB, 2001The Politics of Population: State Formation, Statistics, and the Census of Canada 1840–1875 (University of Toronto Press, Toronto).
20.
DagenaisM, 2000, “Urban governance in Montreal and Toronto in a period of transition”, in Urban Governance: Britain and Beyond Since 1750 Eds MorrisR JTrainorR H (Ashgate, Aldershot, Hants) pp 86–100.
21.
DahlR, 1961Who Governs? (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT).
22.
DelaneyDLeitnerH, 1997, “The political construction of scale”Political Geography1693–97.
23.
DenisonG T, 1920Recollections of a Police Magistrate (The Musson Book Co Ltd, Toronto).
24.
DennisR, 1997, “Property and propriety: Jewish landlords in early twentieth-century Toronto”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series22377–397.
25.
DennisR, 2000, “Historical geographies of urbanism”, in Modern Historical Geographies Eds GrahamBNashC (Longman, Harlow, Essex) pp 218–247.
26.
DineenJ, 1976Ward Eight (Arno Press, New York); first published in 1936.
27.
DuisP, 1983The Saloon: Public Drinking in Chicago and Boston 1880–1920 (University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL).
28.
FanningC, 2000The Irish Voice in America: 250 Years of Irish-American Fiction (University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY).
29.
FoucaultM, 1980a, “Powers and strategies”, in Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings Ed. GordonC (Pantheon Books, New York) pp 134–145.
30.
FoucaultM, 1980b, “Questions on geography”, in Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writing Ed. GordonC (Panthean Books, New York) pp 63–77.
31.
FredmanL E, 1968The Australian Ballot: The Story of an American Reform (Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, MI).
32.
GarnerJ, 1969The Franchise and Politics in British North America 1755–1867 (University of Toronto Press, Toronto).
33.
GerberD A, 1989The Making of an American Pluralism: Buffalo, New York 1825–60 (University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL).
34.
GlascoL A, 1980Ethnicity and Social Structure: Irish, German and Native-born of Buffalo NY, 1850–1860 (Arno Press, New York).
35.
GlazerNMoynihanD P, 1970Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).
36.
GoheenP G, 1993, “The ritual of the streets in mid-19th-century Toronto”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space11127–145.
37.
GoheenP G, 1997, “Honouring ‘one of the great forces of the Dominion’: The Canadian public mourns McGee”Canadian Geographer41350–362.
38.
GoheenP G, 1998, “Public space and the geography of the modern city”Progress in Human Geography22479–496.
39.
GoldmanM, 1983High Hopes: The Rise and Decline of Buffalo, New York (State University of New York Press, Albany, NY).
40.
GraceR J, 2003, “Irish immigration and settlement in a Catholic city: Quebec 1842–1861”Canadian Historical Review84217–251.
41.
HarneyR F (Ed.), 1985, Gathering Place: Peoples and Neighbourhoods of Toronto (Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 43 Queen's Park Crescent East, Toronto M5S 2C3).
42.
HarrisR, 1996Unplanned Suburbs: Toronto's American Tragedy (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD).
43.
HarveyD, 1989The Condition of Postmodernity (Blackwell, Oxford).
44.
HaugaardM, 1997The Constitution of Power: A Theoretical Analysis of Power, Knowledge and Structure (Manchester University Press, Manchester).
45.
HaysS P, 1973, “The politics of reform in municipal government in the progressive era”, in Social Change and Urban Politics: Readings Ed. GordonD N (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ) pp 107–127.
46.
HodginsB W, 1997, “The attitudes of the Canadian founders toward Britain and the British connection: A personal re-examination”, in Imperial Canada 1867–1917 Ed. CoatesC (University of Edinburgh Press, Edinburgh) pp 20–42.
47.
HolliM, 2004, “Celtic politics in America's big cities”, paper presented to the Tenth Maple Leaf and Eagle Conference on North American Studies, Renvall Institute for Area and Cultural Studies, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, May 5–7, http://www.helsinki.fi/hum/renvall/birold/celtconnection2004/abholli.html.
48.
HoustonC JSmythW J, 1980The Sash Canada Wore: A Historical Geography of the Orange Order in Canada (University of Toronto Press, Toronto).
49.
HoustonC JSmythW J, 1990Irish Emigration and Canadian Settlement: Patterns, Links and Letters (University of Toronto Press, Toronto).
50.
HubbellM, 1893Our Police and Our City (Bensler and Wesley, Buffalo, NY).
51.
IgnatievN, 1995How the Irish Became White (Routledge, New York).
52.
IsinE F, 1992aCities Without Citizens: The Modernity of the City as a Corporation (Black Rose Books, Montreal).
53.
IsinE F, 1992b, “Canadian federalism and cities: A colonial legacy”, in Political Arrangements: Power and the City Ed. Lustiger-ThalerH (Black Rose Books, Montreal) pp 39–68.
JenkinsW, 2001Geographical and Social Mobility Among the Irish of Toronto, Ontario, and Buffalo, New York, 1880–1910 unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Geography, University of Toronto, Toronto.
56.
JenkinsW, 2002, “In the shadow of a grain elevator: A portrait of an Irish neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries”Eire-Ireland3714–38.
57.
JenkinsW, 2003, “Between the lodge and the meeting house: Mapping Irish Protestant social worlds in late Victorian Toronto”Social and Cultural Geography375–98.
58.
JenkinsW, 2005, “Deconstructing diasporas: Networks and identities among the Irish in Buffalo and Toronto 1870–1910”Immigrants and Minorities23359–398.
59.
KatzMDoucetMSternM J, 1981The Social Organization of Early Industrial Capitalism (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).
60.
KatznelsonI, 1981City Trenches: Urban Politics and the Patterning of Class in the United States (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL).
61.
KatznelsonI, 1985, “Working-class formation and the state: Nineteenth-century England in American perspective”, in Bringing the State Back In Eds EvansP BRueschemeyerDSkocpolT (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) pp 257–284.
62.
KealeyG S, 1980Toronto Workers Respond to Industrial Capitalism 1867–1892 (University of Toronto Press, Toronto).
63.
KellerM, 1977Affairs of State: Public Life in Late Nineteenth Century America (Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA).
64.
KennyK, 2000The American Irish (Longman, Harlow, Essex).
65.
KennyK, 2003, “Diaspora and comparison: The global Irish as a case study”Journal of American History90134–162.
66.
LefebvreH1991The Production of Space (Blackwell, Oxford).
67.
LevineE M, 1966The Irish and Irish Politicians (University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, IN).
68.
LevyS H, 1940, “The grain scoopers of Buffalo: An essay in local labor history”, unpublished MA dissertation, Department of History, University of Buffalo, Buffalo.
69.
LightbodyJ, 1972, “The rise of party politics in Canadian local elections”, in Emerging Party Politics in Urban Canada Eds MassonJ KAndersonJ D (McCleland and Stewart, Toronto) pp 192–202.
70.
McAreeJ, 1953Cabbagetown Store (Ryerson Press, Toronto).
71.
McCarthyR D, 1966, “A tribute to Buffalo's First Ward Irish”, speech delivered at the Transportation Club of Buffalo, Hotel Buffalo, March 17, manuscript A66–4, Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, 25 Nottingham Court, Buffalo, NY 14216.
72.
McCormickR L, 1981From Realignment to Reform: Political Change in New York State 1893–1910 (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY).
73.
McDowellL, 1983, “Towards an understanding of the gender division of urban space”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space159–72.
74.
McDowellL, 1999Gender, Identity and Place: Understanding Feminist Geographies (Minnesota University Press, Minneapolis, MN).
75.
McGerrM E, 1986The Decline of Popular Politics: The American North 1865–1928 (Oxford University Press, Oxford).
76.
McGowanM G, 1999The Waning of the Green: Catholics, the Irish, and Identity in Toronto 1887–1922 (McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal).
77.
McIntyreJ T, 1902The Ragged Edge: A Tale of Ward Life and Politics (Phillips, New York).
78.
MacRaildD M, 2000, “Crossing migrant frontiers: Comparative reflections on Irish migrants in Britain and the United States during the nineteenth century”, in The Great Famine and Beyond: Irish Migrants in Britain in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Ed. MacRaildD M (Irish Academic Press, Dublin) pp 40–70.
79.
MagnussonW, 1983, “Toronto”, in City Politics in Canada Eds MagnussonWSanctonA (University of Toronto Press, Toronto) pp 94–140.
80.
MannM, 1986The Sources of Social Power. Volume 1: A History of Power from the Beginning to AD 1760 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).
81.
MarstonS, 1988, “Neighborhood and politics: Irish ethnicity in nineteenth century Lowell, Massachusetts”Annals of the Association of American Geographers78414–433.
82.
MarstonS, 1989a, “Public rituals and community power: St. Patrick's Day parades in Lowell, Massachusetts”Political Geography Quarterly8255–269.
83.
MarstonS, 1989b, “Adopted citizens: Discourse and the production of meaning among nineteenth century American urban immigrants”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series14435–445.
84.
MeagherT J (Ed.), 1986From Paddy to Studs: Irish-American Communities in the Turn-of-the-century Era (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT).
85.
MeagherT J, 2001Inventing Irish America: Generation, Class, and Ethnic Identity in a New England City, 1880–1928 (Notre Dame University Press, Notre Dame, IN).
86.
MillerK, 1985Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (Oxford University Press, Oxford).
87.
MitchellD, 1995, “The end of public space? People's Park, definitions of the public, and democracy”Annals of the Association of American Geographers85108–133.
88.
MitchellD, 2000Cultural Geography: A Critical Introduction (Blackwell, Oxford).
89.
MunroW B, 1919The Government of American Cities (Macmillan, New York).
90.
NugentW, 1992Crossings: The Great Transatlantic Migrations 1870–1914 (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN).
91.
O'ConnorT, 1995The Boston Irish: A Political History (Northeastern University Press, Boston, MA).
92.
O'DriscollRReynoldsL, 1988The Irish in Canada: The Untold Story (Celtic Arts Press, Toronto) 2 volumes.
93.
PowellS R, 1996Rushing the Growler: A History of Brewing in Buffalo (E S Ferguson Library, Buffalo).
94.
PowerT P (Ed.), 1991The Irish in Atlantic Canada, 1780–1900 (New Ireland Press, Fredericton, NB).
95.
ReedyG E, 1991From the Ward to the White House: The Irish in American Politics (C Scribner's Sons, New York).
96.
RosenzweigR, 1983Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City 1870–1920 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).
97.
ShapleyR, 1970Solid for Mulhooly: A Political Satire (Arno Press, New York); reprint of the 1889 edition; first published in 1881.
98.
SheltonB K, 1968, “The Buffalo grain shovellers' strike of 1899”Labor History9210–238.
99.
SheltonB K, 1976Buffalo in the 1890s: Reformers in Search of Yesterday (State University of New York Press, Albany, NY).
100.
SmithN, 1992, “Geography, difference and the politics of scale”, in Postmodernism and the Social Sciences Eds DohertyJGrahamEMalekM (Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hants) pp 57–79.
101.
SternM, 1987Society and Family Strategy: Erie County, New York 1850–1920 (State University of New York Press, Albany, NY).
102.
TaylorSJL, 1998Desegregation in Boston and Buffalo: The Influence of Local Leaders (State University of New York Press, Albany, NY).
103.
United States, 1886Report on the Social Statistics of Cities, Part 1: The New England and Middle States (US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC).
104.
United States, 1910Census Special Reports: Religious Bodies, 1906: Part 1: Summary and General Tables (US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC).
105.
WattsR L, 1987, “The American constitution in comparative perspective: A comparison of federalism in the United States and Canada”Journal of American History74769–791.
106.
WeaverJ C, 1977aShaping the Canadian City: Essays on Urban Politics and Policy, 1890–1920 (Institute of Public Administration of Canada, Toronto).
107.
WeaverJ C, 1977b, “Order and efficiency: Samuel Morley Wickett and the urban progressive movement in Toronto, 1900–1915”Ontario History69218–234.
108.
WickettS M, 1907, “The municipal government of Toronto”, in Municipal Government in Canada Ed. WickettS M (University of Toronto, Toronto) pp 37–63.
109.
WinderG M, 2000, “Trouble in the North End: The geography of violence in Saint John 1840–1860”Acadiensis2927–57.
110.
WingerdM L, 2001Claiming the City: Politics, Faith, and the Power of Place in St Paul (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY).
111.
YoxA P, 1985, “Bonds of community: Buffalo's German element 1853–1871”New York History66141–163.
