It's quite unlikely that Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau could have comprehended the scope of their undertaking in 1764 when they laid out the settlement on the western banks of the Mississippi that was to become the metropolis of St. Louis. Founded by the French, governed by the Spanish, and heavily populated by the English and Germans, the role that the Irish had in making St. Louis what it is today is often overlooked. The Irish are steeped in tradition, and that trait did not leave the Irish immigrants when they arrived in St. Louis and called this place home. Like many other cities in America, the heritage of Ireland is alive and well in St. Louis. This book visually captures their Irish spirit, and portrays a few of the Irish "movers and shakers" alongside the "Irish commoner" in their new and challenging lives here in St. Louis.

It took a long time before St. Louis finally accepted its Irish population. When the first waves of Famine Irish arrived on the landing in the 1840s, the city was appalled by their poverty. As subsequent waves of Irish fled political oppression after the Civil War, anti-Catholic sentiment sparked bloody riots in which the Irish gave as good as they got. But after seven centuries of enslavement in their own country, nothing would stop them from creating a place in their adopted city. The story of their assimilation is as multifaceted as the Irish character itself. From Shanty to Lace Curtain introduces us to a range of St. Louis Irish, from priests like Timothy Dempsey and Charles Dismas Clark (the "Hoodlum Priest") to gangsters from the Bottoms Gang and Egan's Rats. We meet artists and revolutionaries, entrepreneurs, and entertainers. It takes us to the rough and tumble neighborhoods of 19th-century Kerry Patch and Dogtown, where immigrants and their children forged paths into the city's mainstream while preserving their Irish identity. We visit contemporary Irish St. Louis, where Irish dance and music thrive. At McGurk's Pub and the Pat Connolly Tavern we discover what makes an Irish pub truly Irish. We also learn the behind-the-scenes story of why St. Louis has two St. Patrick Day Parades. Local author and artist Patrick Murphy uses photos, interviews, and photos to compile this comprehensive collection dedicated to the Irish immigrants who helped make St. Louis what it is today.

A French-founded frontier village that transformed into a booming nineteenth-century industrial mecca dominated by Germans, the city of St. Louis nonetheless resounds from the influence of Irish immigrants. Both the history and the maps of the city are dotted with the enduring legacies of familiar celts--John Mullanphy, John O'Fallon, Cardinal John J. Glennon--but the true marks of the Irish in St. Louis were made by the common immigrants--those who fled their homeland to settle in the Kerry Patch on St. Louis's near north side--and their battle to maintain cultural, ethnographic, and religious roots. Popular local historian William Barnaby Faherty, S.J., offers readers a look into the history and effects of the Irish immigration to St. Louis. The author can now be placed within a rich Irish heritage in the world of publishing: Joseph Charless, editor of the first newspaper west of the Mississippi, the Missouri Gazette; William Marion Reedy, editor of the Mirror and nineteenth-century literary mogul; Joseph McCullagh, editor of the Globe-Democrat in the late nineteenth century; and controversial author Kate (O'Flaherty) Chopin. The Irish in St. Louis is an enticing ethnographic history of one nationality clinging to its roots in a melting- pot American city. Both visitor and native St. Louisian, Irish or not, will relish this history of one of St. Louis's most enduring communities.

This is the 30th title in the very popular, award-winning series of Vision Books on the lives of saints and heroes for youth 9 - 15 years old. Louis IX of France, who took the throne in 1226, had one aim in life - to be a good king. Guided by the advice of his mother, he ruled well and was beloved by his people. At the age of twenty-eight he took the cross of the crusade and, with his army, set out for Egypt to defeat the Saracens, the most energetic enemies of the Holy Land. Instead, the Saracens charged to victory and imprisoned Louis, whose saintly conduct while in prison shamed his captors. Released, and after another miserable failure in Palestine, he returned to France broken in health but still fired with the desire to liberate the Holy Land. And so again, St. Louis led his men out from France, this time on the last crusade.

The first history ever written on the Irish in Kansas City, St. Louis, The Irish Wilderness and Missouri at large. Includes the early settlers and settlements, family history, parades, organizations, politics, from the earliest times to modern day. This is the only enlarged and updated edition ever in print. Sources for futher study included. Indexed. Authored by the most published author in the field. Free "Missouri Irish" companion podcast series to this book, hosted by the author, at www.Irishroots.com

Explores the history of the Irish in America, offering an overview of Irish history, immigration to the United States, and the transition of the Irish from the working class to all levels of society.