The Irish-American Experience in New Jersey and Metropolitan New York

Cultural Identity, Hybridity, and Commemoration

Contributions by Linda Dowling Almeida, Nicole Anderson, Augustine J. Curley, Alan Delozier, Brendan Dolan, Paul Ferris, Maura Grace Harrington, Ray O'Hanlon, Dermot Quinn, William B. Rogers, John B. Wefing Edited by Marta Deyrup, Maura Grace Harrington

Publication date:

29 November 2013

Length of book:

214 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739187814

This book is a collection of nine essays exploring the Irish-American experience in the New Jersey and New York metropolitan area, both historically and today. The essays place the local Irish-American experience in the wider context of immigration studies, assimilation, and historical theory. Using case studies, interviews, scholarly research in primary historical documents and theory, and first-hand experience, the authors delve into what it has meant, and means, to be Irish American in the New Jersey and New York area, projecting what this ethnic identity will signify in years to come. Representing a variety of scholarly and professional disciplines, from archivists; to historians; to lawyers; to scholars of literature and theology; the authors share their own unique perspectives on the significance of the contributions of Irish-Americans to American life in various arenas. Each chapter is interdisciplinary, revealing the interconnections among cultural history, biography, contemporary events, and literary appreciation. It is through these intersections of disciplines, of past and present, of individual and community, that we can best analyze and appreciate the ways that Irish-Americans have shaped life in the New Jersey/New York area over the past two centuries.

Foreword: Maura Grace Harrington and Marta M. Deyrup
Introduction: Dermot Quinn
Part I: Irish Americans in the Newark Area
Chapter 1: The Irish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark—Augustine J. Curley, O.S.B.
Chapter 2: "Keeping the Tradition Alive"—William B. Rogers and Nicole Anderson
Chapter 3: Perspectives on the Easter Rising—Maura Grace Harrington
Part II: Arriving and Thriving
Chapter 4: Irish Immigration to the United States in the 20^th Century—Linda Dowling Almeida
Chapter 5: American Irish in Service to Community & Country: A Vocational & New Jersey Perspective—Alan Delozier
Chapter 6: An Irish-American Politician: Governor Richard Hughes—John B. Wefing
Chapter 7: The Writing Irish—Ray O’Hanlon
Part III: The Greater New York/New Jersey Region
Chapter 8: Music in the Mountains: The Irish Catskills and Traditional Music—Brendan Dolan
Chapter 9: “With Pick and Shovel”: Commemorating the Workers Who Died Building the Delaware and Raritan Canal, 1830-1834—Paul Ferris

This collection offers new insight into the experience of the Irish in New Jersey. The essays remind us of the Irish contribution to the state's history, culture, and politics. You'll learn something new on every page.