Tom Deignan looks at the rich and diverse influence of the Irish in the South
Statistics regarding the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Savannah, Georgia, are well known. When the 2006 festivities kicked off on March 17 at Abercorn Street, not far from Forsyth Park, it was the 182nd time the Irish in and around Savannah celebrated their heritage. “This parade has been named the second largest Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the United States and rates as the largest annual single day celebration in the Southeastern United States,” parade chairman Jay Burke noted, adding that attendance to the parade has swelled to 400,000 in recent years.
particular instance. well, times have changed, and i m here to recognize the sweet of this change and try to understand resistance to it. i m somewhat of an outsider, for the exception of my one-year job at what is now the schlesinger, and my job at the teaching. i ve lived and worked outside of harvard. ive come back many times to research. was a fellow at the radcliffe institute, as you know, and continue today my long and happy association with the schlesinger as a reader. of course, i ve studied and written about higher education in women s colleges. so my talk today will focus on these things. and i want you to pay attention for it really is complicated. i m going to talk about origins and exclusion, history and tradition, prestige and privilege, innovation, access, accommodation and invisibility. and struggle and equity. let me begin with origins and exclusion. i don t think it really began as a taboo, but rather as professor jeanie suggested, though perhaps exaggerated