Unintended Consequences: The Story of Irish Immigration to the US and the Making and Breaking of Irish America

Description

Unintended Consequences reveals, for the first time, how America’s door closed on significant legal Irish immigration in the 1960s, and how America’s Irish mounted a counterattack when nation-changing political forces were sweeping the United States during the era of civil rights, political assassinations, and the Vietnam War.

Immigration, once the well-source for a new nation, is today a word that is increasingly used to arouse political rancour and division while thousands of Irish yet live in the shadows. Here, Ray O’Hanlon examines the full historical background to Irish migration across the Atlantic and how it helped shape the young and expanding republic. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, ironically the brainchild of Ireland’s cherished US President, John F. Kennedy, brought a near total halt to this westward Irish flow. Nevertheless, the Irish would not be denied and continued to make the journey, no longer into the light of a full and legal American life, but rather into the shadows of an undocumented existence.

Ray O’Hanlon has spent over three decades reporting on battles over comprehensive US immigration reform, and Unintended Consequences is the story of the Irish past, its present, and most uncertain future in the land of the free, home of the brave.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ray O’Hanlon is the editor of the New York City-published Irish Echo newspaper. A native of Dublin, O’Hanlon has reported from four continents in a newspaper career spanning forty-one years. In addition to his work as a reporter and editor, O’Hanlon has been a frequent contributor to US, Irish and British media outlets reporting on Ireland, Irish American affairs, and Anglo-Irish relations. His book, The New Irish Americans (1998) was the recipient of a Washington Irving Book Award, and The South Lawn Plot, his first fiction work, was published in 2011.

CONTENTS

 Preface

1. Searching for a Savior
2. Mustering for Battle
3. 1965: The Year of the New Divide
4. The Fading Drumbeat
5. Teddy
6. The Fighting Irish in Retreat
7. The Irish Fight Back
8. Revulsion, Rejection, Retreat
9. Restless, Ever Restless
10. Annie Moore and the Power of Sentiment
11. Cold Prose Loudly Proclaimed
12. A New Divide
13. Read All About It!
14. Saved Amid Depression
15. Cometh the Hour
16. The Hour Cometh
17. Back to Boston
18. On Wings and Prayers
19. A Favorite Son Rises
20. A Favorite Son Falls
21. The Torch is Passed
22. Paddy Goes Marching Away
23. Aliens Ahoy!
24. All Aboard!
25. Finally!
26. An Explanation of the Problem
27. Attention Ladies and Gentlemen
28. The Road to Washington
29. To the Hill
30. The Swinging Door
31. A Stunned Loudness
32. Peaks and Fallows
33. A Measure of Success
34. Troubles Behind, Troubles Ahead
35. The Boys from Massachusetts
36. To the Banner Born
37. Numbers Up, Numbers Down
38. Like Summer Leaves
39. Christmas Postponed
40. One Big Bust
41. The Morrison Express
42. The Train Arrives
43. McCain on McLean
44. No Going Back
45. Legalize the Irish!
46. McCain’s Embrace
47. Yes We Can, Well Maybe
48. A Last Full Measure
49. An Anniversary Falls
50. A State O’ Chassis
51. ‘Afterwords