The Global Dimensions of Irish Identity

Though Ireland is a relatively small island on the northeastern fringe of the Atlantic, 70 million people worldwide — including some 45 million in the United States — claim it as their ancestral home. In this wide-ranging, ambitious book, Cian T. McMahon explores the nineteenth-century roots of this transnational identity. Between 1840 and 1880, 4.5 million people left Ireland to start new lives abroad. Using primary sources from Ireland, Australia, and the United States, McMahon demonstrates ho