The New York Irish

Rating:
Summary: Exhaustive and Significant
Review: I received this book as a gift from a friend who knew I was fascinated with the history of New York City. She was hesitant to give me this gift because she figured I knew just about everything about the history of Irish immigration to New York. She need not have hesitated. This exhaustive and significant collection of essays and excerpts, brilliantly edited by Ronald Bayor and Timothy Meagher, will offer several nuggets of the Irish experience in NYC that that previously had been ignored, overlooked or misinterpreted.

The essays are arranged chronologically from the first Irish to come to America through to the modern era. I particularly enjoyed the sections surrounding the roles of New York Irish during the era surrounding the American Revolutionary War. The discussions about how Protestant Irishmen defended the rights of Catholic Irishmen is extremely interesting and important, as these court decisions cemented the barrier between church and state.

Also, the book is sprinkled with dozens of well-chosen and well-rendered illustrations. But this is by no means a coffee table book. It's demanding reading but the pay-off is extraordinary. You will learn a lot about one of the many groups that helped make New York City, and for that matter, America become great.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points