Ireland's Opportunity

Global Irish Nationalism and the South African War

Shane Lynn

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Hardback

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English

New York University Press
29 April 2025

British & Irish history; African history; Nationalism

Series: The Glucksman Irish Diaspora Series

How the South African War transformed nationalist politics across Ireland's global diaspora

In 1899, the British Empire embarked on a deeply controversial war against two small Boer Republics in South Africa. To many Irish nationalists, the Boers were fellow victims of British mistreatment. Defeat for the Boers, they worried, would mean defeat for the principle that small, white nations like Ireland were entitled to govern themselves. Widespread outrage sparked a dramatic resurgence in Irish nationalism after a decade of disunity and decline.

The shape and strength of this revival varied throughout Ireland's vast global diaspora. Ireland's Opportunity traces the impact of ""Boer fever"" across Ireland and the diaspora networks that connected Irish communities in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Home Rulers reunited to oppose the war, even as those in Britain's colonies asserted their loyalty to the empire and its racist underpinnings. Fenian revolutionaries, meanwhile, saw ""England's difficulty"" in South Africa as ""Ireland's opportunity"" to strike for independence. Explosive conspiracies hatched in Ireland and the United States failed to kindle the desired revolution. But the lessons and legacies of the South African War years would shape their fateful response when ""England's difficulty"" returned after 1914.

Blending global perspectives with intimate portraits of individuals whose lives were forever changed by the war, Shane Lynn reveals how Irish nationalism was a global phenomenon with a tangled and paradoxical relationship to empire.

By: Shane Lynn
Imprint: New York University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 680g
ISBN: 9781479835607
ISBN 10: 1479835609
Series: The Glucksman Irish Diaspora Series
Pages: 277
Publication Date: 29 April 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Shane Lynn is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at McMaster University.

Reviews for Ireland's Opportunity: Global Irish Nationalism and the South African War

""A nimble and discerning work on a complicated international story, that of the reaction of Irish nationalists to the Second Anglo-Afrikaner War (sometimes called the Boer War). The players are treated with respect, the scholarship is sound, and one learns a good deal.""--Donald H. Akenson, A.C. Hamilton Distinguished University Professor, Queen's University ""A seriously impressive debut by a brilliant young historian. Shane Lynn conjures a world of secret agents and transatlantic Fenian plots in vivid prose, and opens up a contentious debate about the contours of global Irish nationalism at the fin de siècle.""--Ciaran O'Neill, Trinity College Dublin ""It is the brave historian who tackles the politically sensitive quicksands of Irish-South African historical contacts. Shane Lynn, with great dexterity, has undertaken this admirably, building on the pioneering work of the last generation of groundbreaking scholars in the field who worked in the shadow of apartheid. Lynn has added to the knowledge field, especially in relation to Irish-America and the South African War, but has also infused the racial complexities of the situation into this bubbling mix. It is a fascinating and contradictory tale contained in this once-in-a-generation volume.""--Donal P. McCracken, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa