Entangled Islands

Since the seventeenth century, Ireland and the Caribbean have been connected through migration, trade, and a shared experience of colonisation. Irish men and women found their way into almost every level of Caribbean society, from the labourers transported to Barbados and Montserrat in the first decades of English settlement to the merchants and plantation owners who kept people enslaved in Jamaica, Dominica, and Antigua.

Entangled Islands highlights the long history of Irish interaction with the Caribbean, exploring Ireland’s role in the transatlantic world of slavery and abolition, in colonial rule and anti-colonial agitation, and in modern expressions of Caribbean identity. It showcases stories of connection and solidarity but also recognises Irish participation in brutality and imperialism, complicating understandings of the Irish diaspora as a historically marginalised people.

Irish migration to the Caribbean peaked more than three centuries ago, but the ties between us have endured in other ways. Ireland’s nationalist traditions have informed decades of Caribbean activism and political thought, just as many Irish people have supported and related to the region’s struggles. Caribbean writing has likewise been enriched by a deep and creative engagement with Irish literature. Many people now claim both Irish and Caribbean heritage, expanding what it means to be of Ireland.