On Every Tide: The Making and Remaking of the Irish World

Irish immigrants who left home in the 19th and 20th centuries created and maintained a “shared transnational culture,” according to this sweeping account. Historian Connolly (Divided Kingdom) traces to the roots of Ireland’s “outward movement” to 1816, when the eruption of an Indonesian volcano created a “worldwide ecological crisis,” and traces migration patterns through the Great Famine (1845–1851) and the first and second world wars, detailing how Ireland’s economic hardships, combined with the abundance of opportunities abroad, fostered immigrants’ desire to make the long and often arduous journey to Australia, Canada, the U.S., and elsewhere. He also shows how religion simultaneously united Irish migrants separated by geography and alienated them within their new locales; describes the violent draft protests, labor disputes, and political rivalries that gave rise to enduring perceptions of the Irish as “an alien and threatening presence” in 19th-century America; and analyzes how grief over the loss of “ethnic identity and historical memory” provoked support for Irish republicanism among later generations of Irish Americans. Throughout, Connolly draws on an impressive array of primary evidence, including census records, personal testimonies, and popular fiction, without getting bogged down in statistics and minutiae. This is a seamless and well-rounded study of a consequential historical trend. (Oct.)