Overview

With a raucous St Patrick's Day dinner at Fort Salisbury (Harare) in 1891, a mere seven months after the Pioneer Column raised their flag on Cecil Square, the Mashonaland Irish Association was founded. Not only is it the oldest expatriate association in Zimbabwe, the MIA is the oldest Irish association on the African continent. The association developed into a vehicle for celebrating Irishness through a busy social calendar and welfare programmes. For over a century, the MIA has weathered the various challenges and upheavals of a shared colonial experience and Zimbabwe's struggle for independence. Today, it continues to celebrate all things Irish while embracing its diaspora as it approaches its thirteenth decade of existence. This Miscellany charts the association from its inception to the present day with contributions from historians, scholars, writers and poets, priests, nuns, missionaries, ex-MIA Presidents and members; the diverse contributions range from the colonial Anglo-Irish to the Jewish-Irish experience and throughout, personalities have been resurrected, colourful ones recorded and even the Minute books examined; all attest to the richness of the association, its events but above all its members. Cumulatively, and beyond the stories of individuals, the narrative provides new insights into the layered complexity of the colonial experience, and the adaptation (or not) of people of a different culture and belief into a foreign setting.

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9781779223548

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Reviews

"""Despite being under the yoke of colonialism, many Irish came out to Rhodesia and quickly settled and often prospered, but the MIA rallied those who wanted to retain something of their heritage and came to stand for a certain diversity of experience. This Miscellany provides rich insights on the history of the MIA offering another lens through which to perceive a different layer of Zimbabwe's complex history. A compelling read for those interested in the history of the MIA which to this day remains a vibrant Irish Association."" - HE Liam MacGabhann Ambassador of Ireland to South Africa This book is to be warmly welcomed. It is an important and timely contribution to our knowledge of the greatest under developed resource Ireland possesses---her Diaspora. Though the Irish had of necessity to work under a colonial regime it is a demonstrable fact that they left the continent better than they found it. After the winds of change had blown though the continent in the sixties how many of the new leaders and old freedom fighters were found to have been educated by Irish missionaries? They did this not for reasons of colonial aggrandisement but, in the words of the Irish poet, Tom Kettle: ... for a dream born in a herdsman's shed, And the secret scriptures of the poor. Their work was worthy and so is this book."" - Tim Pat Coogan, Irish historian, writer and broadcaster"

Despite being under the yoke of colonialism, many Irish came out to Rhodesia and quickly settled and often prospered, but the MIA rallied those who wanted to retain something of their heritage and came to stand for a certain diversity of experience. This Miscellany provides rich insights on the history of the MIA offering another lens through which to perceive a different layer of Zimbabwe's complex history. A compelling read for those interested in the history of the MIA which to this day remains a vibrant Irish Association. - HE Liam MacGabhann Ambassador of Ireland to South Africa This book is to be warmly welcomed. It is an important and timely contribution to our knowledge of the greatest under developed resource Ireland possesses---her Diaspora. Though the Irish had of necessity to work under a colonial regime it is a demonstrable fact that they left the continent better than they found it. After the winds of change had blown though the continent in the sixties how many of the new leaders and old freedom fighters were found to have been educated by Irish missionaries? They did this not for reasons of colonial aggrandisement but, in the words of the Irish poet, Tom Kettle: ... for a dream born in a herdsman's shed, And the secret scriptures of the poor. Their work was worthy and so is this book. - Tim Pat Coogan, Irish historian, writer and broadcaster

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