y separately published work icon I Asked Cathleen to Dance single work   autobiography  
Is part of Autobiographical Memoirs Gerard Windsor , series - author autobiography
Issue Details: First known date: 2000... 2000 I Asked Cathleen to Dance
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Notes

  • Book Three of the Autobiographical Memoirs Series.
  • Epigraph: several quotations from W.B. Yeats, Francis Ledwidge, Samuel Beckett and the Gospel of Luke.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.

Works about this Work

Woman the Hero Graham Little , single work review
— Review of I Asked Cathleen to Dance Gerard Windsor , 2000 single work autobiography
Life-Writing and Diaspora II : The Autobiographical Writings of the Irish in Britain and Australia Patrick Buckridge , Liam Harte , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: A History of Irish Autobiography 2018; (p. 331-347)

'There is no more common Irish journey than that made by generations of people ‘across the water’ to Great Britain. A complex set of factors, from the countries’ geographical proximity to the colonial nature of their historical relationship, combine to ensure that Irish migration to Britain ‘comprises a very large, very special case’.  Australia, too, has claims to exceptionalism as a receptor of Irish migrants. Oliver MacDonagh proposes three respects in which the Irish-Australian diaspora differs from its counterparts in Britain and North America: its historically high percentage of the total population of the new country, its very even demographic distribution and the somewhat special status of the Irish as a ‘founding people’, arriving in Australia – mainly as convicts and soldiers – at the beginning of its European colonization, thereby exercising a potentially stronger influence over the shape and destiny of the new nation than the other Irish emigrations could hope to achieve. Although points of commonality co-exist with these markers of difference – particularly for Catholic Irish migrants, who have a shared historical experience of being a denigrated out-group in both countries – any joint examination of the autobiographical writings of the Irish in Britain and Australia must expect the contrasts to eclipse the correspondences. Yet, as this chapter will show, despite being shaped by highly distinctive diasporic histories and sociocultural conditions, these respective literary corpuses reveal certain narrative preoccupations that illuminate the shifting meanings of home and belonging for those whose identities are forged across boundaries and heritages.' (Introduction)

Nothing Succeeds Like Failure Sarah Nuttall , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: Antipodes , December vol. 15 no. 2 2001; (p. 145-146)

— Review of I Asked Cathleen to Dance Gerard Windsor , 2000 single work autobiography ; Family Lore Gerard Windsor , 1990 single work autobiography
Untitled Terry Monagle , 2000 single work correspondence
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 224 2000; (p. 4)
Paperbacks Debra Adelaide , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 3 June 2000; (p. 10)

— Review of I Asked Cathleen to Dance Gerard Windsor , 2000 single work autobiography
Emerging from the Chrysalis Dianne Dempsey , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 13 November 1999; (p. 7)

— Review of The Twelfth of Never : A Memoir Louis Nowra , 1999 single work autobiography ; I Asked Cathleen to Dance Gerard Windsor , 2000 single work autobiography
Of Women and Ireland Frank O'Shea , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 23 October 1999; (p. 24)

— Review of I Asked Cathleen to Dance Gerard Windsor , 2000 single work autobiography
Paddy-Whackery Edmund Campion , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian's Review of Books , November vol. 4 no. 10 1999; (p. 23)

— Review of I Asked Cathleen to Dance Gerard Windsor , 2000 single work autobiography
Woman the Hero Graham Little , single work review
— Review of I Asked Cathleen to Dance Gerard Windsor , 2000 single work autobiography
The Ireland Inside Peter Craven , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: Eureka Street , April vol. 10 no. 3 2000; (p. 37-38)

— Review of I Asked Cathleen to Dance Gerard Windsor , 2000 single work autobiography
Untitled Terry Monagle , 2000 single work correspondence
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 224 2000; (p. 4)
Life-Writing and Diaspora II : The Autobiographical Writings of the Irish in Britain and Australia Patrick Buckridge , Liam Harte , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: A History of Irish Autobiography 2018; (p. 331-347)

'There is no more common Irish journey than that made by generations of people ‘across the water’ to Great Britain. A complex set of factors, from the countries’ geographical proximity to the colonial nature of their historical relationship, combine to ensure that Irish migration to Britain ‘comprises a very large, very special case’.  Australia, too, has claims to exceptionalism as a receptor of Irish migrants. Oliver MacDonagh proposes three respects in which the Irish-Australian diaspora differs from its counterparts in Britain and North America: its historically high percentage of the total population of the new country, its very even demographic distribution and the somewhat special status of the Irish as a ‘founding people’, arriving in Australia – mainly as convicts and soldiers – at the beginning of its European colonization, thereby exercising a potentially stronger influence over the shape and destiny of the new nation than the other Irish emigrations could hope to achieve. Although points of commonality co-exist with these markers of difference – particularly for Catholic Irish migrants, who have a shared historical experience of being a denigrated out-group in both countries – any joint examination of the autobiographical writings of the Irish in Britain and Australia must expect the contrasts to eclipse the correspondences. Yet, as this chapter will show, despite being shaped by highly distinctive diasporic histories and sociocultural conditions, these respective literary corpuses reveal certain narrative preoccupations that illuminate the shifting meanings of home and belonging for those whose identities are forged across boundaries and heritages.' (Introduction)

Last amended 14 Apr 2008 09:59:52
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