For the second straight White House election, the Democratic and Republican candidates for vice president grew up in strong Irish American and Catholic families. Eyebrow-arching in itself, the fact that these four figures share a similar heritage helps illustrate what you might call the Irish political diaspora within the U.S. From the time of the Great Hunger through the early … [Read more...] about Continuity and Change: The Irish Role in American Politics
Last Word
Last Word: An Irish Rebel Girl
A laudable feature of this year’s Easter Rising commemorations is the conscientious effort to recognize the role women played in the insurrection for independence. Books, articles, and documentaries present the distaff side of history, creating (if you will) the “her” story of 1916. Current attention, however, doesn’t mean that members of Cumann na mBan and like-minded women … [Read more...] about Last Word: An Irish Rebel Girl
The United Irishmen and their American Legacy
By Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
When the rebellion of 1798 failed, many of The United Irishmen, including Thomas Addis Emmet, came to the United States where their influence was enormous.
You may well wonder why a historian of the United States should presume to write about the United Irishmen of 1798. There are two reasons: one personal, the other historical.
The personal reason is that I had the great good … [Read more...] about
The United Irishmen and their American Legacy
The Last Word:
Who the Irish Really Are
The shocking news leapt across the airwaves and sped along the Internet – the Irish, by national vote, had declared gay marriage equal to the straight version. Gay marriage, something virtually unknown just a few years ago, had been approved as fully lawful and valid within the borders of the Irish Republic. Had been approved, not just by a majority of Irish voters, but by … [Read more...] about The Last Word:
Who the Irish Really Are
Last Word:
Great Hunger in the North
A Window on the Past: Historian Christine Kinealy debunks the myth that Ulster was untouched by the Great Hunger.
The myth of Ulster exceptionalism and affluence has roots in the Great Hunger itself. As early as 1849, Protestant loyalists were laying the foundation for a binary, two-nation view of the Famine. Objecting to a new tax that was to be levied on all parts of … [Read more...] about Last Word:
Great Hunger in the North