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Introduction – Ireland and Finland, 1860–1930: comparative and transnational histories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2017

Richard Mc Mahon  and
Andrew G. Newby
Richard Mc Mahon
Affiliation:
Trinity College Dublin and Aarhus University, Denmark
Andrew G. Newby*
Affiliation:
Trinity College Dublin and Aarhus University, Denmark
*
*Department of History, Trinity College Dublin, [email protected] and Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark, [email protected]
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Irish Historical Studies , Volume 41 , Issue 160: Ireland and Finland, 1860–1930: Comparative and Transnational Histories , November 2017 , pp. 166 - 179
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© Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 

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References

1 For a call to locate the Irish Revolution within wider transnational frameworks, see Whelehan, Niall, ‘The Irish Revolution, 1912–1923’ in Alvin Jackson (ed.), The Oxford handbook of modern Irish history (Oxford, 2014), pp 621–644 Google Scholar.

2 See, for example, Tepora, Tuomas and Roselius, Aapo (eds), The Finnish Civil War 1918: history, memory, legacy (Leiden, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ozinsky, Pavel and Eloranta, Jari, ‘Historicising divergence: a comparative analysis of the revolutionary crises in Russia and Finland’ in Jari Eloranta, Eric Golson, Andrei Markevich and Nikolaus Wolf (eds), Economic history of warfare and state formation (Tokyo, 2016), pp 103–116 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sulkunen, Irma, ‘An international comparison of women’s suffrage: the cases of Finland and New Zealand in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’ in Women’s Journal of History, xxvii, no. 4 (Winter 2015), pp 88–111 Google Scholar.

3 Helsingin Sanomat, 26 Mar. 2016.

4 Newby, A. G., Éire na Rúise: An Fhionlainn agus Éire ar thóir na saoirse (Dublin, 2016)Google Scholar.

5 Jackson, John Hampden, ‘Suomi ja Irlanti: eräitä vertauskohtia’ in Suomalainen Suomi, vi (1937), pp 415–421 Google Scholar. See also Coyne, Edward J., ‘Finland and its lessons for Ireland’ in Studies, xxviii, no. 112 (Dec. 1939), pp 651–661 Google Scholar.

6 Rokkan, Stein, ‘The growth and structuring of mass politics in western Europe: reflections on possible models of explanation’ in Scandinavian Political Studies, v (1970), pp 68–75 Google Scholar. Rokkan is also quoted in Kissane, Bill, ‘Nineteenth century nationalism in Finland and Ireland: a comparative analysis’ in Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, vi, no. 2 (2000), p. 25 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Ó Gráda, Cormac, Ireland: a new economic history (Oxford, 1994), p. 208 Google Scholar.

8 Ngai, Mae M., ‘Promises and perils of transnational history’ in Perspectives on History, l, no. 9 (Dec. 2012)Google Scholar (online edition: https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/december-2012/the-future-of-the-discipline/promises-and-perils-of-transnational-history) (16 Aug. 2016).

9 See ‘Transnational Ireland’ (http://www.transnationalireland.com) (10 July 2016).

10 See ‘History of society: re-thinking Finland, 1400–2000’ (http://www.uta.fi/yky/coehistory/index.html) (10 July 2016).

11 Whelehan, Niall, ‘Playing with scales: transnational history and modern Ireland’ in idem (ed.), Transnational perspectives on modern Irish history (Abingdon, 2015), p. 7 Google Scholar. See also Friberg, Katarina, Hilson, Mary and Vall, Natasha, ‘Reflections on trans-national comparative history from an Anglo–Swedish perspective’ in Historik Tidskrift, cxxvii, no. 4 (2007), pp 717–737 Google Scholar; Levine, Philippa, ‘Is comparative history possible?’ in History and Theory, liii, no. 3 (Oct. 2014), pp 331–347 Google Scholar.

12 As Koccka and Haupt note ‘the most mature comparative history of Europe analyses similarities and differences in respect to convergence and divergence between national identities, national societies, and national cultures. There are good reasons for such an approach that are related to the huge importance of national borders, identities, cultures, and politics in structuring both the life of the past and the present images of history’ ( Haupt, Heinz-Gerhard and Kocka, Jürgen, ‘Comparison and beyond: traditions, scope, and perspectives of comparative history’ in idem (eds), Comparative and transnational history: central European approaches and new perspectives (New York, 2009), p. 19)Google Scholar.

13 For a neat summary of the transnational history of nationalism, see Bayly, C. A., The birth of the modern world (Oxford, 2004), pp 199–243 Google Scholar.

14 See ‘Decade of Centenaries’ (http://www.decadeofcentenaries.com/) and ‘Suomi Finland 100’ (http://suomifinland100.fi/info/?lang=en) (10 May 2016).

15 Leerssen, Joep, National thought in Europe: a cultural history (Amsterdam, 2006), p. 169 Google Scholar.

16 Akenson, Donald H., Ireland, Sweden and the great European migration (Liverpool, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Whelehan, Niall, ‘Youth, generations and collective action in nineteenth-century Ireland and Italy’ in Comparative Studies in History and Society, lvi (2014), pp 934–966 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, , ‘Revolting peasants: southern Italy, Ireland and cartoons in comparative perspective, 1860–1882’ in International Review of Social History, lx (2015), pp 1–35 Google Scholar; Healy, Róisín, Poland in the Irish nationalist imagination 1772–1922: anti-colonialism within Europe (Basingstoke, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, , ‘Irish–Polish solidarity: Irish responses to the January Uprising of 1863–4 in Congress Poland’ in Whelehan (ed.), Transnational perspectives, p. 149 Google Scholar; Zách, Lili, ‘Ireland, Czechoslovakia and the question of small nations in the context of Ireland’s wartime neutrality’ in Aidan O’Malley and Eve Patten (eds), Ireland, west to east: Irish cultural connections with central and Eastern Europe (Berne, 2014)Google Scholar; Zarka, Zsuzanna, ‘Irish nationalist images of Lajos Kossuth and Hungary in the aftermath of the 1848–49 Revolution’ in Brian Heffernan (ed.), Life on the fringe? Ireland and Europe, 1800–1922 (Dublin, 2012)Google Scholar; Nagle, Shane, ‘Confessional identity as national boundary in national historical narratives: Ireland and Germany compared’ in Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, xiii, no. 1 (2013), pp 38–56 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kabdebó, Thomas, Hungary and Ireland: historical contrasts, historical parallels (Dublin, 1992)Google Scholar.

17 Graham, Colin and Litvack, Leon (eds), Ireland and Europe in the nineteenth century (Dublin 2006)Google Scholar; Heffernan (ed.), Life on the fringe?

18 See, inter alia, O’Malley, & Patten, (eds), Ireland, west to east; Gerald Power and Ondřej Pilný (eds), Ireland and the Czech lands: contacts and comparisons in history and culture (Berne, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hunt, Una and Pierse, Mary (eds), France and Ireland: notes and narratives (Berne, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Keatinge, Benjamin and Pierse, Mary (eds), France and Ireland in the public imagination (Berne, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Maher, Eamon and Maignant, Catherine (eds), Franco–Irish connections in space and time (Berne, 2012)Google Scholar.

19 See, inter alia, Cullen, Louis M. and Christopher Smout, T. (eds), Comparative aspects of Scottish and Irish economic and social history, 1600–1900 (Edinburgh, 1977)Google Scholar; Devine, Thomas M. and Dickson, David (eds), Ireland and Scotland, 1600–1850: parallels and contrasts in economic and social development (Edinburgh, 1983)Google Scholar. More recent volumes demonstrate the extent to which Irish–Scottish studies has become a very refined and self-reflective comparative project. See: Morris, Robert J. and Kennedy, Liam (eds), Ireland and Scotland: order and disorder, 1600–2000 (Edinburgh, 2005)Google Scholar; MacIlvanney, Liam and Ryan, Ray (eds), Ireland and Scotland: culture and society, 1700–2000 (Dublin, 2005)Google Scholar; Ferguson, Frank and McConnel, James (eds), Ireland and Scotland in the nineteenth century (Dublin, 2009)Google Scholar.

20 Jackson, Alvin, The two unions: Ireland, Scotland, and the survival of the United Kingdom, 1707–2007 (Oxford, 2012)Google Scholar.

21 See, for instance, Cullen, L. M. and Furet, François (eds), Ireland and France 17th–20 th centuries: towards a comparative study of rural history (Paris, 1981)Google Scholar; Gough, Hugh and Dickson, David (eds), Ireland and the French Revolution (Dublin, 1990)Google Scholar.

22 On medieval Ireland, see, for example, Crooks, Peter, ‘Medieval Ireland and the wider world’ in Studia Hib., xxxv (2009), pp 167–186 CrossRefGoogle Scholar and, more recently, Moran, Pádraic and Warntjes, Immo (eds), Early medieval Ireland and Europe: chronology, contacts, scholarship (Turnhout, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the early-modern period, see Canny, Nicholas, ‘Early modern history: Ireland, Britain and the wider world’ in Hist. Jn., xlvi, no. 3 (Sept. 2003), pp 723–747 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also: O’Connor, Thomas (ed.), The Irish in Europe, 1580–1815 (Dublin, 2001)Google Scholar; O’Connor, Thomas and Lyons, Mary Ann (eds), Irish communities in early modern Europe (Dublin, 2006)Google Scholar.

23 Delaney, Enda, ‘Our island story? Towards a transnational history of late modern Ireland’ in I.H.S, xxxvii, no. 148 (Nov. 2011), pp 599–621 Google Scholar. For a discussion of the contrast between the strong comparative focus of some key studies of early-modern Ireland and the often narrower focus of late-modern histories, see Whelehan, ‘Playing with scales’.

24 See Alvin Jackson’s Foreword in this issue.

25 Mauranen, Tapani, Economic development in Hungary and Finland, 1860–1939 (Helsinki, 1985)Google Scholar; Vehviläinen, Olli and Pók, Attila (eds), Hungary and Finland in the 20 th century (Helsinki, 2002)Google Scholar; Branch, Michael, Hartley, Janet and Mączak, Antoni (eds), Finland and Poland in the Russian Empire: a comparative study (London, 1995)Google Scholar; Pullat, Raimo, Suomi ja Puola: Suhteita yli Itämeren, 1917–1941 (Helsinki, 1997)Google Scholar. For past comparative work on Ireland and Finland, see below footnotes 26–29.

26 Kissane, Bill, ‘Democratization, state formation, and civil war in Finland and Ireland: a reflection on the democratic peace hypothesis’ in Comparative Political Studies, xxxvii (Oct. 2004), pp 969–985 Google Scholar; idem, , ‘Victory in defeat? National identity after civil war in Finland and Ireland’ in John A. Hall and Siniša Malešević (eds), Nationalism and war (Cambridge, 2013), pp 321–340 Google Scholar.

27 Coleman, Michael, ‘“You might all be speaking Finnish today”: language change in nineteenth century Finland and Ireland’ in Scandinavian Journal of History, xxxv (2010), pp 44–64 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 Nurmi, Kati, ‘Imagining the nation in Irish and Finnish popular culture in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries’ in Heffernan (ed.) Life on the fringe?, pp 39–61 Google Scholar.

29 Newby, Andrew G., ‘Overcoming amnesia? Memorializing Finland’s “Great Hunger Years”’ in Emily Mark-FitzGerald, Oona Frawley and Marguérite Corporaal (eds), The Great Famine and its impacts: visual and material culture (Liverpool, forthcoming 2017)Google Scholar; idem, Éire na Rúise; idem, , ‘“Acting in their appropriate and wanted sphere”: the Society of Friends and Famine in Ireland and Finland, c.1845–68’ in Christine Kinealy, Patrick Fitzgerald and Gerard Moran (eds), Irish hunger and migration: myth, memory and memorialization (Quinnipiac, 2015), pp 107–120 Google Scholar; Newby, Andrew G. and Myllyntaus, Timo, ‘“The terrible visitation”: Famine in Ireland and Finland, 1845–68’ in Declan Curran, Lubomyr Luciuk and Andrew G. Newby (eds), Famines in European economic history: the last great European Famines reconsidered (Abingdon, 2015), pp 145–165 Google Scholar; Newby, Andrew G., ‘“Rather peculiar claims on our sympathies”: Britain and Famine in Finland, 1856–68’ in Marguérite Corporaal, Christopher Cusack, Lindsay Janssen and Ruud van den Beuken (eds), Global legacies of the Great Irish Famine: transnational and interdisciplinary perspectives (Berne, 2014), pp 61–80 Google Scholar; idem, , ‘“Neither do these tenants or their children emigrate!” Famine and transatlantic emigration from Finland in the nineteenth century’ in Atlantic Studies, xi, no. 3 (2014), pp 383–402 Google Scholar; idem, , ‘“The cold, northern land of Suomi”: Michael Davitt and Finnish nationalism’ in Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies, vi, no. 1 (2013), pp 73–92 Google Scholar; idem, , ‘“The manly spirit of the Finlanders”: Michael Davitt, Finland och irländsk nationalism, åren 1904–5’ in Peter Stadius, Stefan Nygård and Pirkko Hautamäki (eds), Opera et dies: Festskrift till Lars-Folke Landgrén (Helsingfors, 2011), pp 131–146 Google Scholar.

30 On the idea of ‘routes of exchange’ between Ireland and Europe, see McDiarmid, Lucy, ‘Irish men and French food’ in Graham and Litvack (eds), Ireland and Europe, pp 186–198 Google Scholar; Graham and Litvack, ‘Introduction’ in ibid., pp 13–15.

31 On the Irish Act of Union, see, for instance, Brown, Michael, Geoghegan, Patrick and Kelly, James (eds), The Irish Act of Union: bicentennial essays (Dublin, 2003)Google Scholar.

32 Particularly in comparison with its Scandinavian neighbours, Finland is well served by English-language accounts of its history. For overviews of the nineteenth century, see inter alia Kirby, David, A concise history of Finland (Cambridge, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lavery, Jason E., The history of Finland (Westport, CT, 2006)Google Scholar; Meinander, Henrik, A history of Finland (London, 2010)Google Scholar.

33 See, e.g. McRae, Kenneth D., Conflict and compromise in multilingual societies: Finland (Waterloo, ON, 1997), pp 49–51 Google Scholar. For late-imperial conflict over the language question, see Polvinen, Tuomo, Imperial borderland: Bobrikov and the attempted Russification of Finland, 1898–1904 (London, 1984), pp 133–151 Google Scholar.

34 Nurmi, ‘Imagining the nation’, p. 45.

35 Vaughan, W. E. and Fitzpatrick, A. J. (eds), Irish historical statistics: population, 1821–1971 (A new history of Ireland, ancillary publications ii: Dublin, 1978), p. 27 Google Scholar; Annuaire Statistique de Finlande (Helsinki, 1909), p. 7.

36 Newby & Myllyntaus, ‘“The terrible visitation”’, pp 145–65.

37 For an overview of the ‘land question’ in Ireland, see Dooley, Terence, ‘Land and the people’ in Jackson (ed.), The Oxford handbook, pp 107–125 Google Scholar. For the comparison with Finland, see Sami Suodenjoki’s article in this issue.

38 See Kissane, ‘Nineteenth century nationalism’; idem, ‘Democratization, state formation, and civil war’.

39 Kissane, ‘Nineteenth century nationalism’, p. 40.

40 John Bull, 17 Jan. 1891.

41 Manchester Guardian, 11 Feb. 1891.

42 [C. Harold Perrott], ‘Ireland and Finland’ in Finland: An English Journal Devoted to the Cause of the Finnish People, no. 3 (Sept. 1899), p. 11.

43 See Lee, J. J., Ireland, 1912–1985: politics and society (Cambridge, 1989), p. 69 Google Scholar. Lee notes a (‘probably exaggerated’) figure of 4,000 fatalities arising from the Irish Civil War and offers a figure of 25,000 fatalities for the Finnish Civil War – over six times the Irish total in a country with a smaller population. More recent estimates suggest the death toll in the Finnish Civil War was even higher at 36,000 – nine times Lee’s estimate for the Irish Civil War. See: Haapala, Pertti and Tikka, Marko, ‘Revolution, civil war, and terror in Finland in 1918’ in Robert Gerwarth and John Horne (eds), War in peace: paramilitary violence in Europe after the Great War (Oxford, 2012), p. 72 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Deaths from lethal political violence in Ireland, including periods of warfare, over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, are difficult to estimate precisely but were, even with high estimates, unlikely to have exceeded 12,000 in number.

44 Newby, Éire na Rúise, pp 76–90.

45 Liam Tannam statement (N.A.I., Bureau of Military History, WS 242).

46 Freeman’s Journal, 13 Aug. 1885. See also, The Nation, 15 Aug. 1885.

47 MacRaild, Donald M. and Taylor, Avram, Social theory and social history (London, 2004), p. 68 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The editors acknowledge the support of the Academy of Finland (grants #1264940 and #1257696) in the development of this collection. We are grateful too for the support of Carlow College as this collection emerges, in part, from a new inter-institutional arrangement between Trinity College Dublin and Carlow College and, in particular, the development of a new comparative and inter-disciplinary programme in Irish history and culture entitled ‘Reimagining Ireland’.