“’Tis yourself is a skeleton”: deathbed scenes and ethnic identity in Irish-American short fiction, 1895–1910

Given the putatively axiomatic connection between Irishness and Catholicism, it is not surprising that ubiquitous deathbed scene in Irish-American fiction imbricated with issue of ethnic identity. In romantic didactic fiction, scenes are just religiously coded, but also consolidate diasporic figurations Irishness. However, this article argues tradition only guise which feature fiction. As we show, some late nineteenth- early twentieth-century writers urban realist criticise or satirise convention to disrupt dour moralism essentialism such as Mary Anne Sadlier Hugh Quigley. Exploring dynamics memory by Clara E. Laughlin, James W. Sullivan, Harvey J. O’Higgins, Kate M. Cleary, demonstrates used structure ethno-religious identities, question subvert constructions.