The Italian Community

Crangle, Jack

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-18821-3_4

Jack Crangle⁶

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Migration History ((PSMH))

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Abstract

Chapter 4 is the first chapter dedicated to each of the book’s four respective community case studies, all of which foreground oral history testimony. Italian immigrants began settling in Northern Ireland during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and quickly moved to towns and cities across the region. The vast majority entered the catering trade, opening ice-cream cafés and fish and chip shops. This chapter traces the community’s origins, experiences and collective identities. It examines how austere, puritanical conceptions of Ulster morality sparked classism and xenophobia towards Italian caterers, inciting allegations of criminality and degeneracy. It also considers the especially harsh treatment Northern Irish-Italians experienced during the Second World War, where anti-Italian jingoism was exacerbated by Unionist anti-Catholicism. The chapter assesses the liminal position of Italian immigrants in relation to the sectarian divide, whereby they were simultaneously “neutral” on account of their nationality, but also visibly Catholic. During the post-war decades, later-generation Italians have increasingly become assimilated into the Irish Catholic-nationalist community. However, Italian descendants remain proud of their heritage. The chapter concludes by considering how this Italian legacy manifests within oral history narratives and continues to shape individual and collective identities.

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Notes

1.
David Young, ‘New Sailortown banner honours part of city that will be forever “Little Italy”’. Belfast Telegraph, 5 July 2019 (https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/new-sailortown-banner-honours-part-of-city-that-will-be-forever-little-italy-38283912.html).
2.
Carla De Tona, ‘Gente di passaggio: liminality and representation of Italianness in Ireland’. Borbála Faragó and Moynagh Sullivan, eds. Facing the other: interdisciplinary studies on race, gender and social justice in Ireland. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2008, 99.
3.
Ugolini, ‘Spaghetti lengths’, 215.
4.
S.J. Connolly and Gillian McIntosh, ‘Whose city? Belonging and exclusion in the nineteenth-century urban world’. S.J. Connolly, ed. Belfast 400: people place and history. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012, 266.
5.
Brian Reynolds, Casalattico and the Italian community in Ireland. Dublin: UCD Foundation for Italian Studies, 1993, 27.
6.
Marianne Hirsch, ‘The generation of postmemory’. Poetics Today 29, no. 1 (2008), 103.
7.
Howard Goodall, ‘Narrative inheritance: a nuclear family with toxic secrets’. Qualitative Inquiry 11, no. 4 (2005), 472–9.
8.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Nino Morelli. 14 September 2016.
9.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Giovanni Marsella. 8 March 2017.
10.
See, for example: the Magliocco family (http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Falls/Falls_Road/173238) or the Rossi family (http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/St__George_s/Donegall_Road/162622).
11.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Dora Fusco (married name Dora Fasana). 22 January 2017.
12.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Daniela Morelli-Kerr. 7 September 2016.
13.
David Cesarani, ‘The myth of origin: ethnic memory and the experience of migration’. Aubrey Newman and Stephen Massil, eds. Patterns of migration 1850–1914. London: Jewish Historical Society of England, 1996, 251.
14.
Interview with Giovanni Marsella.
15.
See, for example: letter: Ministry of Labour, Belfast to Ministry of Home Affairs, Belfast 7 March 1929 (PRONI HA/5/788); Correspondence relating to a residency application for Maria Forte, 1929–1930 (PRONI HA/5/792).
16.
Interview with Dora Fusco.
17.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Michael Fiorentini. 14 November 2016.
18.
Kushner, We Europeans?, 35.
19.
Kushner, ‘Racialization’, 210; 216.
20.
Ugolini, Experiencing war, 25–8.
21.
Sponza, Italian immigrants, 235.
22.
Irish Times, 15 May 1923, 8.
23.
Irish Press, 8 August 1933, 8.
24.
Western People, 18 June 1938, 8.
25.
Sale of Ice-Cream Act (Northern Ireland), 1937 (PRONI CAB/4/375).
26.
Hansard NI (Commons), 26 November 1936, volume 19, 133.
27.
Roger Davidson, Dangerous liaisons: a social history of venereal disease in twentieth-century Scotland. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000, 31.
28.
Francis McKee, ‘Ice cream and immorality’. Harlan Walker, ed. Proceedings of the Oxford symposium on food and cookery 1991: public eating. London: Prospect, 1992, 203.
29.
Ibid., 201.
30.
Ibid., 203.
31.
John Walton, Fish and chips and the British working class, 1870–1940. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1992, 77.
32.
Gribbon, Edwardian Belfast, 34.
33.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Leo D’Agostino. 23 February 2017.
34.
Irish Times, 6 November 1924, 8.
35.
Irish Examiner, 27 July 1904, 5.
36.
Irish Times, 19 September 1912, 7.
37.
Letter: Italian Embassy, London to Marquess Curzon of Kendleston, London, 30 November 1921 (PRONI HA/5/873).
38.
Letter: Italian Consul, Dublin to Chief Secretary for Ireland’s Office, Dublin, 19 October 1921 (PRONI HA/5/873).
39.
Irish Press, 22 July 1935, 2.
40.
Ibid.
41.
Irish Independent, 23 July 1935, 10.
42.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Olive Cafolla. 24 February 2017.
43.
The Shankill Road is a working-class loyalist stronghold.
44.
Interview with Leo D’Agostino.
45.
Irish Times, 6 November 1924, 8.
46.
Colpi, The Italian factor, 87–8.
47.
Claudia Baldoli Exporting fascism: Italian fascists and Britain’s Italians in the 1930s. Oxford: Berg, 2003, 7.
48.
Ugolini, ‘Experiencing war’, 55.
49.
Irish Times, 22 March 1932, 4.
50.
See, for example: Irish Press, 8 August 1933, 8; Irish Independent, 16 August 1935, 10.
51.
Interview with Dora Fusco.
52.
Interview with Michael Fiorentini.
53.
See, for example: Strabane Chronicle, 7 December 1935, 8; Irish Press, 13 June 1933, 7; Irish Independent, 29 July 1933, 9.
54.
‘Enemy aliens. telephone message from London’, 1 September 1939 (PRONI CAB/9/CD/2/2); Letter: R. Gransden, Belfast to C.G. Markbreiter, Belfast, 2 September 1939 (PRONI CAB/9/CD/2/2).
55.
Belfast News Letter, 7 January 1932, 11.
56.
Irish Times, 11 June 1925, 5.
57.
Belfast News Letter, 7 January 1932, 11.
58.
See: Irish Independent, 16 August 1935, 10; Evening Herald, 16 August 1935, 9; Irish Examiner, 12 November 1936. 9.
59.
Letter: RUC Inspector General’s Office, Belfast to ‘Pim’, 9 September 1926 (PRONI HA/32/1/509).
60.
Irish Examiner, 22 January 1927, 7.
61.
Telegram from London to Government in Belfast, 11 June 1940 (PRONI CAB.9CD.2.2).
62.
Letter: Ministry of Home Affairs, Belfast to R. Gransden, Belfast, 4 January 1944 (PRONI CAB/9/CD/2/1); Letter: Ministry of Home Affairs, Belfast to J.W. Blake, Belfast, 10 September 1948 (PRONI CAB/3/A/86).
63.
Irish Independent, 12 June 1940, 9.
64.
Correspondence also conflicted regarding how many Italian men and women lived in Northern Ireland. One sourced recorded 155, while another recorded 180.
65.
Letter: A.J. Kelly, Belfast to J.G. Hill, Belfast, 12 September 1949 (PRONI CAB 9/CD/2/6).
66.
Ugolini, Experiencing war, 94.
67.
See: Ugolini, Experiencing war; Colpi, The Italian factor; Colin Hughes, Lime, lemon and sarsaparilla: the Italian community in south Wales, 1881–1945. Bridgend: Seren, 1991; Paul Di Felice, ‘Manchester’s Little Italy at war, 1940–1945: “enemy aliens or reluctant foe?”’. Northern History 39, no. 1 (2002): 109–23; Lucio Sponza, ‘The British government and the internment of Italians’. David Cesarani and Tony Kushner, eds. The internment of aliens in twentieth century Britain. London: Routledge, 1993: 125–44.
68.
Brian Barton, The Blitz: Belfast in the war years. Belfast: Blackstaff, 1989, 281.
69.
Ibid., 267–8.
70.
Robert Fisk, In time of war: Ireland, Ulster and the price of neutrality, 1929–1945. Dublin: Gill, 1996, 461.
71.
Brian Barton, Northern Ireland in the Second World War. Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1995, 2.
72.
T.G. Fraser, Ireland in conflict, 1922–1998. London: Routledge, 2000, 6.
73.
John Blake, Northern Ireland in the Second World War. Belfast: Blackstaff, 2000 (previous ed. 1956), 82.
74.
Letter: RUC Inspector General’s Office, Belfast to Home Office, London, 7 January 1941 (PRONI HA/8/586).
75.
Letter: RUC District Inspector, Belfast to The Under Secretary of State, Home Office Alien’s Department, London, 29 November 1943 (PRONI CAB/9/CD/2/1).
76.
Letter: A.J. Kelly, London to R. Gransden, Belfast, 15 December 1943 (PRONI CAB/9/CD/2/1).
77.
Evening Herald, 14 August 1940, 1.
78.
James Loughlin, Ulster Unionism and British national identity since 1885. London: Frances Pinter Publishers, 1995, 130–2.
79.
Brendan O’Leary and Paul Arthur, ‘Northern Ireland as the Site of State-and Nation-Building Failures’. John McGarry and Brendan O’Leary, eds. The Future of Northern Ireland. Oxford: Clarendon, 1990, 23.
80.
Belfast Telegraph, 2 October 1942, 3.
81.
Irish Press, 3 October 1942, 1; Evening Herald, 2 October 1942, 1; Irish Times, 3 October 1942, 1.
82.
Interview with Dora Fusco.
83.
Interview with Olive Cafolla.
84.
Ugolini, Experiencing war, 97.
85.
Donna Nagata, ‘The Japanese-American internment: perceptions of moral community, fairness and redress’. Journal of Social Issues 46, no. 1 (1990), 139–42.
86.
Irish Press, 11 June 1940, 1; Irish Independent 12 June 1940, 9.
87.
Letter: A.J. Kelly, Belfast to W.M. McWilliam, Belfast, 31 May 1957 (PRONI CAB/9B/94/2).
88.
Letter: A.J. Kelly, Belfast to R. Gransden, Belfast, 2 July 1957 (PRONI CAB/9B/94/2).
89.
Interview with Leo D’Agostino.
90.
Interview with Nino Morelli.
91.
Interview with Leo D’Agostino.
92.
Terri Colpi, ‘The impact of the Second World War on the British Italian community’. David Cesarani and Tony Kushner, eds. The internment of aliens in twentieth century Britain. London: Routledge, 1993, 185.
93.
Interview with Leo D’Agostino.
94.
De Tona, ‘Gente di passaggio’, 85.
95.
Leo Lucassen and Charlotte Laarman, ‘Immigration, intermarriage and the changing face of Europe in the post war period’. History of the Family 14, no. 1 (2009), 52–3.
96.
Stephen Castles, ‘How nation-states respond to immigration and ethnic diversity’. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 21, no. 3 (1995), 297.
97.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Marino Fresch. 10 April 2017.
98.
Interview with Nino Morelli.
99.
Interview with Giovanni Marsella.
100.
Irish Press, 10 February 1989, 5; Irish Examiner, 13 February 1989, 18.
101.
Irish Examiner, 10 October 1987, 20; Irish Independent, 10 October 1987, 6.
102.
Interview with Giovanni Marsella.
103.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Paul Rosato. 6 December 2017.
104.
See Twitter post and photographs by Clanmil Housing Association, 15 August 2018 (https://twitter.com/ClanmilHousing/status/1029681645908099073).
105.
Interview conducted by Jack Crangle with Filomena Fusciardi. 30 March 2017.
106.
Interview with Olive Cafolla.
107.
Dominic Bryan, ‘Titanic town: living in a landscape of conflict’. S.J. Connolly, ed. Belfast 400: people place and history. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012, 334–7.
108.
Interview with Leo D’Agostino.
109.
Ibid.
110.
Interview with Nino Morelli.
111.
Interview with Daniela Morelli-Kerr.
112.
Jennifer Lee and Frank Bean, The diversity paradox: immigration and the color line in twenty-first century America. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 2010, 144–5.
113.
Interview with Michael Fiorentini.
114.
Interview with Daniela Morelli-Kerr.
115.
Interview with Dora Fusco.
116.
Interview with Paul Rosato.
117.
Interview with Dora Fusco.
118.
Interview with Daniela Morelli-Kerr.
119.
Interview with Giovanni Marsella.
120.
Ibid.
121.
Interview with Michael Fiorentini.
122.
Interview with Daniela Morelli-Kerr.
123.
Marco Giudici, ‘A bridge across ethnic lines? Italian cafes in Welsh popular culture and public history’. Welsh History Review 26, no. 4 (2013), 666.
124.
Interview with Paul Rosato.

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Department of History, Rhetoric House, South Campus, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland
Jack Crangle

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Crangle, J. (2023). The Italian Community. In: Migrants, Immigration and Diversity in Twentieth-century Northern Ireland. Palgrave Studies in Migration History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18821-3_4

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18821-3_4
Published: 01 January 2023
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-18820-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-18821-3
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