The Unstoppable Irish: Songs and Integration of the New York Irish, 1783–1883

by Dan Milner

This unique book captures the rise of New York's passionately musical Irish-Catholics and provides a compelling history of early New York City. The Unstoppable Irish follows the changing fortunes of New York's Irish Catholics, commencing with the evacuation of British military forces in late 1783 and concluding one hundred years later with the completion of the initial term of the city's first Catholic mayor. During that century, Hibernians first coalesced and then rose in uneven progression from being a variously dismissed, despised, and feared foreign group to ultimately receiving de facto acceptance as constituent members of the city's population. Dan Milner presents evidence that the Catholic Irish of New York gradually integrated (came into common and equal membership) into the city populace rather than assimilated (adopted the culture of a larger host group). Assimilation had always been an option for Catholics, even in Ireland. In order to fit in, they needed only to adopt mainstream Anglo-Protestant identity. But the same virile strain within the Hibernian psyche that had overwhelmingly rejected the abandonment of Gaelic Catholic being in Ireland continued to hold forth in Manhattan and the community remained largely intact. A novel aspect of Milner's treatment is his use of song texts in combination with period news reports and existing scholarship to develop a fuller picture of the Catholic Irish struggle. Products of a highly verbal and passionately musical people, Irish folk and popular songs provide special insight into the popularly held attitudes and beliefs of the integration epoch.

Genres: History

324 pages, Hardcover

Published April 30, 2019

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book deals with the Irish Catholic population of New York City and their assimilation into American society from the one hundred year period from 1783 to 1883. The Unstoppable Irish integrates the period ballads and songs of Ireland with the history of the Irish in New York City. I love Irish history as my paternal grandfather was from "the old country". And I grew up with the history and culture of Ireland as a big part of my life. History is made in the Unstoppable Irish and it shows the birth of a strong and vibrant culture that came to New York City and went on to shape America. This is the culture of my people. And I am proud to give this staple book of history 5 stars. Thank you to University of Notre Dame Press and Edelweiss+ for the advanced review copy. Enjoy this great nonfiction history book coming out in April 2020

[CR · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are looking for information about this time period I would totally recommend this book. It gave easy to follow and understand information about the unstoppable Irish and I would love to see another one about another time in history. It was based primarily on the time ranging from 1780's to around the 1880's or so.