New York University's Glucksman Ireland House opened a quarter-century ago to foster the study of Ireland and Irish America, and since then has led and witnessed tremendous changes in Irish and Irish-American culture. Alice McDermott writes about her son's Irish awakening; Colum McCann's Joycean essay is a brilliant call to action in defence of immigrants and social justice; Colm Tóibín's first visit to New York coincided with the first St Patrick's Day parade led by a woman; Dan Barry reflects on Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes; and a new poem by Seamus Heaney written not long before his death. Through deeply personal essays that reflect on their own experience, research and art, some of the best-known Irish writers on both sides of the Atlantic commemorate the House's anniversary by examining what has changed, and what has not, in Irish and Irish-American culture, art, identity, and politics since 1993.

As one of the country's oldest ethnic groups, the Irish have played a vital part in its history. New York has been both port of entry and home to the Irish for three centuries. This joint project of the Irish Institute and the New York Irish History Roundtable offers a fresh perspective on an immigrant people's encounter with the famed metropolis. 37 illustrations.

As they entered their 600th year of British occupation, the Irish looked to America. By the 1840s, America was the oasis that the Irish sought during a decade of both famine and revolution, and New York City was the main destination. The city would never be the same. Refugees of the famine found leadership in Archbishop “Dagger” John Hughes, who built an Irish-Catholic infrastructure of churches, schools, hospitals, and orphanages that challenged the Protestant power structure of the city. Revolutionaries found a home in NYC, too: Thomas Francis Meagher would later become Lincoln’s favorite Irish war general; John Devoy and Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa continued their fight from the city after the failed Rising of 1867; two men killed in the Easter Rising, Tom Clarke and James Connolly, spent substantial time in New York. From there, the Irish rose and helped shape New York politics, labor, social activism, entertainment, and art. W. R. Grace was New York’s first Irish-Catholic mayor, followed by Tammany rogue James J. Walker, and then William O’Dwyer of County Mayo. On the labor side, Michael J. Quill, ex-IRA, of the Transport Workers of America, found his perfect foil in WASP mayor John V. Lindsay. Dorothy Day and Margaret Sanger became famed social activists. While the Irish made up much of the NYPD and FDNY, there was also the criminal element of the 1860s. The toughness of the New York underworld caught the eye of Hollywood, and James Cagney would become one of America’s favorite tough-guy movie characters. Irish gangs would be made famous in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. Today, Eugene O’Neill, Jimmy Breslin, Pete Hamill and Frank McCourt populate our literary canon. These Irish influenced every phase of American society, and their colorful stories make up Real Irish New York.

'...from time to time a study comes along that truly can be called ‘path breaking,’ ‘seminal,’ ‘essential,’ a ‘must read.’ How the Irish Became White is such a study.' John Bracey, W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachussetts, Amherst The Irish came to America in the eighteenth century, fleeing a homeland under foreign occupation and a caste system that regarded them as the lowest form of humanity. In the new country – a land of opportunity – they found a very different form of social hierarchy, one that was based on the color of a person’s skin. Noel Ignatiev’s 1995 book – the first published work of one of America’s leading and most controversial historians – tells the story of how the oppressed became the oppressors; how the new Irish immigrants achieved acceptance among an initially hostile population only by proving that they could be more brutal in their oppression of African Americans than the nativists. This is the story of How the Irish Became White.

An "overview for anyone wishing to trace [his or her] Irish ancestors within the five boroughs of New York City. It is especially beneficial for those researching ancestors from the beginning of the 19th century to the early 20th"--P. 11.

Providing a vivid example of how newcomers encountered America, this is the story of Irish immigrants and their descendants in New York--a history almost as old as the city itself. The authors examine Irish-American life in the city while addressing issues that affected immigrants throughout the U.S. 32 illustrations.

They came from the poorest parts of Ireland and Italy, and met as rivals on the sidewalks of New York. In the nineteenth century and for long after, the Irish and Italians fought in the Catholic Church, on the waterfront, at construction sites, and in the streets. Then they made peace through romance, marrying each other on a large scale in the years after World War II.An Unlikely Union unfolds the dramatic story of how two of America's largest ethnic groups learned to love and laugh with each other in the wake of decades of animosity.The vibrant cast of characters features saints such as Mother Frances X. Cabrini, who stood up to the Irish American archbishop of New York when he tried to send her back to Italy, and sinners like Al Capone, who left his Irish wife home the night he shot it out with Brooklyn's Irish mob. Also highlighted are the love affair between radical labor organizers Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Carlo Tresca; Italian American gangster Paul Kelly's alliance with Tammany's “Big Tim” Sullivan; hero detective Joseph Petrosino's struggle to be accepted in the Irish-run NYPD; and Frank Sinatra's competition with Bing Crosby to be the country's top male vocalist.In this engaging history of the Irish and Italians, veteran New York City journalist and professor Paul Moses offers an archetypal American story. At a time of renewed fear of immigrants, it demonstrates that Americans are able to absorb tremendous social change and conflict—and come out the better for it.