| The history
of the Irish press in Britain goes back to the first decade of the nineteenth
century, but it was not until the 1860s that there was a serious attempt
at establishing newspapers which reached beyond a small ' , political and
mercantile elite. This was made possible by the massive immigration during
and after the Famine of 1845-50. In Ireland itself, but significantly, across
the diaspora as a whole, this period saw the growth of movements which aimed
at various degrees of separation from Britain. At their centre was the press,
as Irish nationalists self-consciously used newspapers to create and sustain
political/cultural organisations with these objectives. One such organisation
was the National Brotherhood of St Patrick and this paper examines the role
of the Irish press in England in its development. |
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