In his 1966 book Irish-American Nationalism, Thomas N. Brown noted that “perhaps the greatest difficulty which confronts the historian of the Irish is that of differentiating between the specifically Irish and specifically Catholic aspects of their lives” (34). This holds for Irish-American Catholics, too, and Thomas Rowland contends that they forge their religious and ethnic identity in such a way as to make them inextricably linked. The Church's largely Irish-American hierarchy has had an obvious role in this, but their own proclivities were often tempered by national and international concerns, including sentiments expressed by other bishops in Ireland, the methods of Irish nationalists, and opinions of the wider American public. On the question of Irish Home Rule or eventual independence, by 1900, many Irish Americans proved to be cultural Catholics, or nominally Catholic, striking a discordant note between their political aspirations and their church, whether in the hierarchy or not. In the hope to overthrow the British yolk, Irish-American Catholics could appear fractured.

Nearly a third of the text is devoted to events, personages, or sociological data that emerge long before the turn of the century. In the first two context-setting chapters Rowland selectively surveys existing literature on American Catholics and the place of the Irish immigrant in that story. The presence of nativism and other forms of anti-Catholic bigotry loom large from the 1840s to the end of the century. Irish arrivals bore a significant burden to assimilate and counteract the stereotypes that attached to them, forming what Reginald Bryan called the “creolization” of the Irish in America. Rowland's supplies a dizzying explanation of the Irish-American character as shaped by notable figures – cartoonist George McManus (Bringing Up Father, aka Jiggs), John Millington Synge's play The Playboy of the Western World, and pugilists John L. Sullivan and “Gentleman Jim” Corbett. Although one can appreciate the gestation period, as well as the manifold references to cultural icons, sometimes this portion feels cluttered with anecdotes that really have no bearing on the subject of Irish-American Catholic patriotism. Do we really need to know about James Jeffries’ six-year retirement from the ring and his “bloated 227 lb. frame” as contributing to his loss, in the fourteenth round, to Jack Johnson (59–60)?

Far better are Rowland's next five chapters, which deal with the question of American neutrality, the relationship the United States had with Great Britain and Germany as seen through the eyes of Irish Americans, the relationship Irish-American Catholics had with the American president before and after the Easter Rising of 1916, and the internecine battles and propaganda wars that took place on American soil even as Irish freedom hung in the balance. What is especially masterful in these chapters is the close attention paid to the role the Catholic press had in shaping the opinion of first- and second-generation Irish Americans. Consequently, as war in Europe approached, Irish-American editors urged their readers toward broader tolerance for Germany, whose Catholic sons and daughters were thickly settled across American cities, and to hold Britain in contempt. Neutrality in the face of British occupation in Ireland was warranted. However, on May 7, 1915, when a German U-boat sank the Lusitania, even the Catholic press decried the injustice of it and US foreign policy quickly favored Britain. Even the calamitous 1916 Easter Rising, together with Britain's harsh reprisals, could not reverse the trend. By that time, the editors were subordinating the cause of Irish independence; their new rallying cry was American Catholic patriotism and a full-throated denunciation of German aggression. War meant that Irish-American Catholics were now on the side of saving civilization. When it was finished, some of the agitators for Irish independence believed they could now have their moment but the Wilson administration remained indifferent. For their part, the Catholic hierarchy felt no need to press it. Rowland lays out this drama skillfully.

Readers will look in vain for aspects of lived religion. There is hardly any hint of a woman's voice, excepting one paragraph on Mary Harris “Mother” Jones. Rowland neglects the work of scholars like Senia Pašeta, whose important study Irish Nationalist Women, 1900–1918 (Cambridge University Press, 2013), would have helped round out the narrative. Even if some mention were given to the significance of suffragist sisters Mary and Jane Campbell of Philadelphia – notable journalists in their day and deeply Catholic – would have helped fill out the author's text. Although Rowland often gives attention to the role played by New York Supreme Court Judge Daniel Cohalan – a major figure in American movements interested in Irish independence and a staunch Catholic (his son was Monsignor Florence Cohalan, who wrote a history of the Archdiocese of New York), he could have made use of Michael Doorley's Justice Daniel Cohalan, 1865–1945 (Cork University Press, 2019). Rowland does supply interesting source material from the New York Public Library, but up Fifth Avenue at the American Irish Historical Society sit reams of documents left to it by Cohalan's heirs. Rowland inexplicably passed over this trove. Accuracy is sometimes a problem, as with occasional misspellings of names, but also the incorrect promotion of the titular Archbishop of Pittsburgh, John Canevin, to the College of Cardinals (87, n.13). Rowland also uses the term “professional” Irish, which would imply class distinction, but uses it rather indiscriminately in his narrative. A definition of the term could have helped. And, finally, for the amount of time he spends discussing the professionals – especially Roger Casement, John Devoy, Joe McGarrity, and a host of other affiliates of the Clan na Gael or Friends of Irish Freedom – we have no better understanding of their Catholicism, that is, how they understood themselves as Catholics, or the role it played in their patriotic sensibilities, either individually or as a group. For this, we'll wait for another book.