This volume comprises forty-one essays by scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds: Anthropology, English, History, Irish Studies, Journalism, Labour Studies, Literature, Politics, Sociology and Women’s Studies. Seven chronological sections, beginning in the colonial era to the present day, examine the many factors that created and informed the Irish experience in the United States. This chronological structure distinguishes it from an encyclopaedia as does the conceptual framework based on key themes: identity, labour, race, gender, slavery, family, migration, religion, nationalism, war, sexuality, disability, environment and culture. Another important feature is the continuity between sections as each focus on three questions: ‘Where were the Irish at this time? What were they doing? And how were they perceived by both themselves and others?’ (6–7). Typical entries run from 5-7,000 words, divided by five or six subheadings, and along with footnotes, further space is assigned to a bibliography of primary and secondary sources. Immediately this ground-breaking and extensive volume signals its value as a resource to students, scholars and general readers in Irish America while revealing the breadth of Irish American diasporic history, culture and identity during this longue durée. From the seventeenth century to today, more than 6 million Irish people settled in the U.S., and the 2021 U.S. census reveals that approximately 32 million Americans claim Irish ancestry.

From the beginning, the work emphasises the complexity of Irish-America and challenges existing narratives. For example, while Gaelic Ireland was subjected to English colonial rule, Irish people participated in the expansion of English rule across the Atlantic in the same period. Audrey Horning forcefully argues that such existential relationships question historical myths embedded in understanding the origins of Irish America and indeed, current Irish political beliefs. Extrapolating the narrative of the early Irish settlers further progresses through Peter Gilmore and Judith Ridner’s respective essays on Presbyterian emigrants and settlers. The latter’s analysis of Presbyterian women’s work in urban and rural settings, inside and outside the household, demonstrates that this work was vital to the success of the families who also depended on the labour of indigenous peoples and African Americans. Danielle Phillips-Cunningham hopes that lessons from cross-racial alliances of the early twentieth century are relevant today.

‘After the Famine’ (part 3) examines mass migration to the U.S. The 1845–53 Famine emigrants settled in the host country taking opportunities to progress or not, economically, politically and socially in turn restyling Irish America. Despite sharing the same heritage, the last essay in this section by Colm Toibín on the families of Protestant Irish descendants of Robert Emmet’s brother and Henry James provides further evidence for a multiplicity of Irish American identities. Many of the varying facets of Irish America is examined in ‘The turn of the twentieth century’ (part 4). New views are offered regarding the international dimension of Irish American nationalism, unionism in Ireland and the U.S., Irish female activists in the U.S., Irish American leadership in the labour movement and Catholic Church. Maria McGarrity’s fascinating essay on transnational literary connections between Irish and Caribbean authors emphasises the flexibility of ethnic identity. ‘After World War II’ (part 5) examines the period when Catholic Irish American political control arguably reached its height during the Kennedy presidency, subsequently declining to re-emerge when Presidents Carter and Clinton engaged with the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ from the 1970s onwards. The chronological elongation of the volume into the 2000s in parts 6 and 7 broaden the collection’s appeal. Among the features of transatlantic connections in the twenty-first century are the technologically driven media and economic and financial ties. Moreover, as loyalties to the Catholic Church — eroded by child sex abuse scandals (see Barr Ebest’s chapter 14) — the Democratic Party and the labour movement diluted, other more inclusive Irish American identities formed, with space for the LGBTQ+ and disability communities. Individual essays focus on the study of the Irish language and changing contexts in Irish music in the U.S. and new themes in Irish American poetry and literature such as what it means to be ‘human among creatures’ (520), and how identity evolves in the context of the physical environment. A small quibble is the absence of a dedicated chapter taking the long view on Irish-America’s role in U.S. foreign policy from 1922 to the present.

The editors note that the ‘broad outlines’ of Irish American emigrant experience are long understood but this volume with its new research and innovative insights indicates that the surface had just been scratched. Each essay, whether on a known or new theme, provocatively forces the reader to engage with what is Irish America and what is Irish American identity, something that is not static but shifting and fluid.