Follows the Irish from their first arrival in the American colonies through the bleak days of the potato famine, the decades of ethnic prejudice and nativist discrimination, the rise of Irish political power, and on to the historic moment when John F. Kennedy was elected to the highest office in the land.

Discusses the reasons Irish people left their homeland to come to America, the experiences immigrants had in the new country, and the contributions this cultural group made to American society. Includes sidebars and activities.

"3 story paths, 43 choices, 15 endings"--Cover.

This book explores the changing relationship between Ireland and America in the modern world. Its main themes examine the shifting patterns of Irish migration over time and the implications of these changes for the political and cultural relationship between the two countries. The historic connection between Ireland and America is at a transitional point, and that while Irish-America is not disappearing altogether, it is changing in fundamental ways, mediated by the forces of globalisation and modernity. Conceptually, the book focuses on Irish-America as an evolved diaspora - a migrant community that has moved into the political, economic and cultural mainstream within US society. A number of important issues lie at the heart of this book for all of us. Where do we belong? Why do we belong there? Can we mediate between where we are from and where we live, to transcend territorial restrictions and live our lives beyond, or in between, the country of our birth and where we've made our ho

Between 1600 and 1929, perhaps seven million men and women left Ireland and crossed the Atlantic. Ireland and Irish America is concerned with Catholics and Protestants, rural and urban dwellers, men and women on both sides of that vast ocean. Drawing on over thirty years of research, in sources as disparate as emigrants' letters and demographic data, it recovers the experiences and opinions of emigrants as varied as the Rev. James McGregor, who in 1718 led the first major settlement of Presbyterians from Ulster to the New World, Mary Rush, a desperate refugee from the Great Famine in County Sligo, and Tom Brick, an Irish-speaking Kerryman on the American prairie in the early 1900s. Above all, Ireland and Irish America offers a trenchant analysis of mass migration's causes, its consequences, and its popular and political interpretations. In the process, it challenges the conventional 'two traditions' (Protestant versus Catholic) paradigm of Irish and Irish diasporan history, and it illuminates the hegemonic forces and relationships that governed the Irish and Irish-American worlds created and linked by transatlantic capitalism.

The Irish struck out across America's frontiers, built its railroads, fought on both sides of the civil war, captured its major historic moments in print, paint and bronze, led many of its religious denominations, policed its streets, set up its banks, educated its masses, entertained America on its stages and screens and in its sporting arenas, and made ground-breaking contributions in science and engineering. This collection documents fifty Irish people who made an indelible mark on American society, politics and culture. People like the pirate Anne Bonney and Gertrude Brice Kelly, one of New York City's first surgeons, feature alongside more familiar names such as Maureen O'Hara, Maeve Brennan, Rex Ingram and the architect of the White House James Hoban.About the Dictionary of Irish Biography: The Dictionary of Irish Biography, a research project of the Royal Irish Academy, is the most comprehensive and authoritative biographical dictionary yet published for Ireland. It comprises over 10,000 lives, which describe and assess the careers of subjects in all fields of endeavour, including politics, law, religion, literature, journalism, architecture, music and the arts, the sciences, medicine, entertainment and sport.

Explains the reasons for the large Irish emigration, and examines the problems they faced adjusting to new lives in the United States.