Chapter 7 charts how community-based activism led to a pragmatic move into mainstream politics. Initially this meant the Labour Party, which was then dominant locally, was most immigrant friendly, and had also been supportive in the independence struggle. Bengalis subsequently joined all main parties, despite the Liberals’ notoriously racist campaigns in the 1990s, and became a major part of the council establishment. The chapter looks at how resistance to Bengali membership of the Spitalfields Labour Party was overcome by intervention of left-wingers, and how, when the party wouldn’t choose a Bengali to stand as a councillor, one got elected as an independent. It looks at patronage networks, prejudice encountered by political women, continued distrust of the ‘white left’, potential conflicts between representing the Bengali community and representing all constituents, and the demand for a Bengali MP. It ends by looking at the use of multiculturalism as a progressive veneer, and the impact of partnership governance in strengthening ethnic and faith organisations and tying them to council norms.

This chapter examines the phenomenon's historical context and some of the broad cultural currents which inspire and shape it. The Scots of Europe are agents in the memory boom, a time of heightened public interest in the past and its commemoration. The Scots of Europe uphold musical, athletic, and sartorial traditions which they believe are rooted in distant Scottish history. The Scots of Europe dress up in colourful costumes and march down the high street, play the drums and pipes, make bystanders stop and marvel. The self-professed Highlanders engage in a Scottish masquerade. Like the play-acting Scots, the knights and princesses often hold views of their period which are not fully congruent with historical scholarship. Much more than a similarity of historical experience, the proximity of the Scottish and Indian mythologies indicates the Romantic preoccupation with archaic warrior societies and their colourful costumes and symbols.

Chapter 3 looks at the war for Bangladeshi independence and the support given by the Bengalis in London. It chronicles the mass mobilisation and public demonstrations, and examines the roles played by students and by women and by traditional patriarchal links. It looks at organisational structures and conflicts, and it gives a critical account of the Bengalis’ propaganda and fundraising – including their thwarted plans to provide financial aid to the liberation army. It also looks at those who argued against independence. The chapter highlights the different political understandings of the nationalist and socialist parties, and the continued impact of popular-front policies in submerging socialist aims beneath the nationalist struggle.

This chapter probes the commonalities and divergences apparent in a cross-national comparison of Irish and US Catholicism and assesses how and why national context influences the particularised expression of a universal Catholicism. The resurgence of public Catholicism is driven both in Ireland and the US by what church officials see as secular threats undermining Catholic teaching in the domain of sexuality. The shared public enthusiasm of Catholics on both sides of the Atlantic during Pope John Paul II's 1979 tour suggested a shared Catholic reality that was largely independent of societal context. The defensive Catholicism of the Irish bishops in contrast to the proactive sociopolitical engagement of the US bishops points to the relevance of societal context. This relevance of societal context helps in shaping of how Catholic teaching is articulated and used to maintain the public presence of a universal Church.

Loyola University of Chicago is a Jesuit institution of higher education whose main campus is located in a crowded urban setting. The university has organized a satellite campus for both undergraduate and graduate students that focuses on restoration of the environmentally sensitive wetlands that surround the property as well as supporting life off the grid with organic farming practices supporting a healthy food system. This takes place in a context of moral and ethical focus, unusual in most universities. This chapter highlights the challenges of listening to community and establishing relationships as they integrate sustainable practices in an innovative and unconventional curriculum.

Chapter 7 reflects on the key findings of the study. It explores the interaction of political opportunity structures, organisational resources and the cultural framing process which encompasses both the construction of collective identities and the framing of age-based policy and constructs such as ‘older people’ and ‘representation’.

This chapter demonstrates how the theory of micro-mobilisation applies to and explains the emergence of punk in London during 1976. The theory of micro-mobilisation begins with the claim that the collective action generative of a music world requires a critical mass of suitably motivated and resourced potential participants. The chapter offers a preliminary analysis of the social network which underpinned the London punk world. It argues that punk took shape in London appears to have had their own critical mass of proto-punks, because the critical mass of proto-punks in the capital formed a network. A network is a crucial prerequisite of any form of collective action. Manchester had a critical mass of proto-punks in the mid 1970s, which assembled to generate a punk world within months of first making contact with the London punks.

Manchester remained ‘suffrage city’, and needed a regional WSPU organizer. Jessie Stephenson, a great admirer of Emmeline Pankhurst, was dispatched north. Her job included looking after the stellar suffrage speakers who arrived in Manchester ~ like Laurence Housman. She also had to persuade one of the city's most influential men, C. P. Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian, to cover WSPU activities in his newspaper. Not an easy job. Then on 6 February 1911, the King's Speech was read to the House of Commons. Its omission of women's suffrage was the trigger for the WFL to publicize its census boycott plans. Speakers and writers like Laurence Housman were now even more in demand. But the boycott publicity quickly provoked fierce opposition. Professor Michael Sadler of Manchester University lambasted the WFL: ‘to boycott the Census would be a crime against science’ ~ that is, against social science and the accurate collection of data on which to base future reforms. Battle was joined.

This chapter summarises some of the most significant trends in the critical approaches to the work of Caryl Phillips, David Dabydeen and Fred D'Aguiar. It then emphasises important points made throughout the study. It notes that slavery has been overlooked in received historical narratives of Britain, and that the texts of these three writers that were studied in this book have tried to redress the silence surrounding slavery and show why it is important that this past is not forgotten.

In addition to providing a summary, the conclusion offers thoughts on how to take the study forward. In particular, there is some tentative analysis of texts which makes use of discourse analysis. The conclusion also discusses the use of autobiography and oral history as means to capture memories of teaching and learning history. Finally, the conclusion returns to the contemporary politics of history teaching and assesses these debates within the context of discussion on citizenship and national identity.

This chapter focuses on the last Marlow novel, Chance. Through a consideration of the implications of a narratology that has its basis in the double negation of literary language, it argues that rather than rendering literature meaningless, Blanchot's doubling of death generates the possibility of locating meaning in the narrating act itself. Accordingly, the discussion sees a shift of emphasis away from death as impossibility towards a reading of Chance in terms of truth and gender that engages with a number of critical readings that both challenge and exemplify this emphasis on narrative structure over, and as, the content of story.

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on concepts discussed in this book. The book shows that espionage is not only a matter of collecting highly restricted information and enemy plans. Some of the Irish and Northern Irish information contained in the System der Informationsrecherche der Aufklärung (SIRA, Information Research System of the HVA) system was very sensitive, but much got only an average grade assessment, below average occasionally. The history of diplomatic recognition between Ireland and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), involving the repatriation of Frank Ryan's remains, was a most extraordinary one. But travel restrictions imposed by the East German authorities, rather weak national economies and distance between the two countries meant that mass tourism was never going to develop. As Markus Wolf wrote, East German intelligence 'graded Britain as only a Category 2 country'. The mass of intelligence obtained was rather diverse ranging from industrial espionage to terrorism.

Many traditional historical and literary studies of Irish nationalism insist on its unique characteristics. Some focus on the unusual mixture of ethnic and civic ideas that have historically underpinned nationalist narratives and practices in Ireland. The author argues that despite some superficial differences Irish nationalism is not unique. Irish nationalist ideologies and movements have originated and developed in a similar historical period and under similar structural conditions to other European nationalisms. The author contests the idea that nationalism in Ireland is experiencing a gradual decline. As nationalism requires the presence of strong organisational and ideological scaffolding and well-established cross-class ties of solidarity, the existence of strong nationalism entails intensive social development. In contrast to its post-Independence incarnation associated with poverty, insularity and nationalism, contemporary Ireland is often depicted as being the hub of modern global trends.

This chapter concerns the relationship between ageing and disability and whether there exists the possibility of a common approach to thinking about policy questions in relation to ageing and disability and their various interfaces. As more people age with disability, the medical model of ageing will come under increasing scrutiny from people demanding a social model of care provision. The chapter explores the implications of a more integrationist approach for older people and their families. Older people with disabilities in Ireland include people with a disability acquired at a younger age and those who acquire a disability later in life. Citizenship and entitlement are equally relevant to people with disability and to older people if only because so many people with disabilities are older. Most people agree that the importance of the person with a disability needs to be emphasised in the provision of health and social care.