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
Politics Archives
Digging Up the Past
Robert Schmuhl takes us behind the scenes on a decade-long research project that culminated in his book Ireland’s Exiled Children: America and the Easter Rising.Facts are stubborn things,” John Adams famously remarked. Less known, though, is a clause he added to complete the thought – “and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they … [Read more...] about Digging Up the Past
Famous Irish of the American Revolution
Irish nationals were instrumental in helping secure American independence from England during the Revolutionary War. Edythe Preet explores the key figures.John Barry County Wexford Driven from their ancestral home by the British, the Barry family relocated to the American colonies, where John Barry became a prosperous transatlantic trading captain. In December 1775, he was … [Read more...] about Famous Irish of the American Revolution
The Last Rebel of the 1916 Rising
By Irish America Staff
January 20, 2016
January 20, 2016
The last remaining person in the U.S. to have fought in the 1916 Rising in Ireland died in Seattle, Washington, at the age of 99 on January 21, 1996. Elizabeth "Lily" Kempson McAlerney, who threatened a man at gunpoint when he wanted to leave the scene of the fighting, was exiled to the U.S. when the uprising was suppressed, but supported the cause of a united Ireland until … [Read more...] about The Last Rebel of the 1916 Rising
Irish Aid for Europe’s
Refugee Crisis
On September 3rd this year, the photograph of Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian three-year-old whose body washed ashore on a Turkish beach, ran across the front pages of newspapers world-wide, putting a horrifying human image to the crisis that has embattled Syria for almost five years. Many periodicals, such as the Irish Times, debated whether or not to censor the image, but ultimately … [Read more...] about Irish Aid for Europe’s
Refugee Crisis