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On Every Tide: The Making and Remaking of the Irish World
A sweeping history of Irish emigration, arguing that the Irish exodus helped make the modern world
When people think of Irish emigration, they often think of the Great Famine of the 1840s, which caused many to flee Ireland for the United States. But the real history of the Irish diaspora is much longer, more complicated, and more global.
In On Every Tide, Sean Connolly tells the epic story of Irish migration, showing how emigrants became a force in world politics and religion. Starting in the eighteenth century, the Irish fled limited opportunity at home and fanned out across America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These emigrants helped settle new frontiers, industrialize the West, and spread Catholicism globally. As the Irish built vibrant communities abroad, they leveraged their newfound power—sometimes becoming oppressors themselves.
Deeply researched and vividly told, On Every Tide is essential reading for understanding how the people of Ireland shaped the world.
When people think of Irish emigration, they often think of the Great Famine of the 1840s, which caused many to flee Ireland for the United States. But the real history of the Irish diaspora is much longer, more complicated, and more global.
In On Every Tide, Sean Connolly tells the epic story of Irish migration, showing how emigrants became a force in world politics and religion. Starting in the eighteenth century, the Irish fled limited opportunity at home and fanned out across America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These emigrants helped settle new frontiers, industrialize the West, and spread Catholicism globally. As the Irish built vibrant communities abroad, they leveraged their newfound power—sometimes becoming oppressors themselves.
Deeply researched and vividly told, On Every Tide is essential reading for understanding how the people of Ireland shaped the world.
563 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 11, 2022
68 people are currently reading
691 people want to read
About the author
Sean Connolly
301 books33 followersSean Connolly will be familiar to listeners of BBC Radio Five Live and Radio Wales. Among his more than 50 books aimed at children and adults are Wholly Irresponsible Experiments and Witness to History: The Industrial Revolution. He has also written for the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia. His three children are either collaborators or guinea pigs, depending on the project.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
June 5, 2024
Incredibly well researched but also very boring. A good examination of Irish immigration to the USA. Except for the shipbuilding, Ireland was a farming country and was hit hard by a potato famine. Ironic that they immigrated mostly to the northern industrial coastal cities.
February 24, 2023
This is much more serious research and analysis than introduction to the topic, which meant this was quite a bit to try to handle over audiobook as someone who was just mildly curious. (That's not a critique, just an FYI for anyone looking at reading this)
March 17, 2023
Although the writing is smooth, this felt like endless pages reciting facts; a textbook rather than a narrative. I wouldn't have finished it if I didn't have a personal connection to the Irish diaspora. The author challenges pat narratives of exclusion and discrimination among Americans of Irish descent and reveals how such overblown grievances and the combination of hard-core Catholicism and nationalism made many of them ripe for recruitment by conservatives in recent decades. 175 years after my ancestors (apparently) set out on foot from County Limerick to escape the famine, I'll still be wearing green tomorrow, but it will be in support of modern Ireland's progressive transformation rather than some performative nostalgia.
April 5, 2025
The social studies section of our Indiana academic Superbowl competition chose this book to read this year, so I assure you I have spent plenty of time with it. I cannot warn others enough about the pure wretchedness that will befoul anyone who dares to open the cover. It is obvious that "On Every Tide" was written by someone who is solely a historian because it is not an enjoyable read. It is very non-linear, not as a whole, but within chapters. I find ten or so pages talking about the 1970s, and then it skips back to the 1830s, similar to when a movie cuts to a flashback scene, but one does not know they are in a flashback. The book also violently oscillates between providing increasingly vague details about Ireland and Irish people to hyper-specific details about people who have no importance. I say they have no importance, not because I am ignorant, but because they are just there to add another pointless name. For instance, on page 345, "A biography of the Boston politician James Curely, himself the son of an immigrant labourer, recalls that the only occasion on which he struck his son was when the boy dared to greet him as 'Dad' rather than 'Father'." This detail adds nothing to the idea of the Irish dispora that the previous 344 pages had not. This book has a serious problem with redundancy and throws out so many percentages on virtually every single page that one cannot possibly deduce the meaning. Another quote from page 346, "In New Haven, Connecticut, in 1930 three-quarters of men and women of Irish descent married others of the same background... In the population as a whole, the indications were that religion rather than ethnic background was becoming the main limitation on the choice of partner. Here, however, the Irish departed significantly from the general pattern." The passage used a percentage and said this is what the Irish are doing and then immediately said they vary from said pattern, which, in my mind, raises the question of why one would even include the cumbersome statistics. Additionally, one cannot judge the behaviors of the Irish population as a whole from a study done on a town of 160,000. Out of our group of five self-proclaimed history nerds, not one of us finds value in this book. Maybe it is because I have entered a depressive state while reading, but I cannot recite a single interesting detail from the book. I am bamboozled that the book continues to get more and more boring. Anyways, I am scared for the day we compete with this book because not one of us knows more than a Wikipedia search can give us.
September 29, 2023
Connolly does a good job taking the reader from the first immigration from Ireland through the years of JFK and Clinton's interactions with Northern Ireland in the 1990s.
November 17, 2022
On a recent visit to Dublin, I visited the EPIC Museum and was drawn into the history of the emigration of the Irish and the contributions of the migrants and their descendants to the world - the world being primarily the United States. Sean Connolly in his book On Every Tide tackles describing the migrations - mostly during the Famine years - to British North America, the United States, Australia and New Zealand and to a much lesser degree Argentina and Great Britain.
The Irish were poor farm labourers, usually unskilled or semi-skilled, and the conditions in Ireland were frightful. Connolly makes it clear that in the new lands the migrant Irish were on the bottom tier, the men employed as labourers and the women as domestic help. In the United States, the Irish faced severe discrimination and abuse - the US being as nativist then as it is now. But over time the Irish obtained some influence through political organizations and, in the Catholic church, high representation as the clergy.
My interest, though, was in Irish arrivals to Canada. Passage to Canada was cheaper and Canada never denied the Irish entry - it was also more accepting - but the numbers arriving in Canada were much lower. In 1842 there were 160,000 Irish-born in the Canadian provinces. The United States had an estimated 700,000. Protestant Irish from Ulster arrived in the earlier 1800s - many settling in Upper Canada. During the Famine, a larger number were Catholic with many settling in Lower Canada.
Anyone wanting to learn more about the patterns of migration and the adjustments for settlement will find much in this book. I, however, found it scrambled in accounts of the periods - more chronological treatment would have helped my understanding. Examination of the Irish arrivals in Canada was not as detailed regarding settlement as I had hoped - or the contributions the Irish made to Canadian society.
But Connolly does explain that the Irish in Canada didn't carry the same grievance against the British as the Irish nationalists in the United States. That so many Irish in Canada came from Ulster is a factor in this. They contributed to establishing the Orange Order, strong in its anti-Catholicism, and influential in all spheres of business and government. This took decades to dissipate.
The United States had the Fenians and sympathizers to the Irish nationalist cause at work through much of the 1800s - going so far as to attack Canada at least once and plot numerous other times with an impractical agenda to attack Britain through Canada and free Ireland.
I confess that I stopped at Chapter 11 War and Revolution and passed on the last 150 pages. I got the drift. Let me propose that to appreciate the Irish contribution to the world it would be better to read more of the literature and study the early monasteries. And visit the EPIC museum if you are ever in Dublin.
The Irish were poor farm labourers, usually unskilled or semi-skilled, and the conditions in Ireland were frightful. Connolly makes it clear that in the new lands the migrant Irish were on the bottom tier, the men employed as labourers and the women as domestic help. In the United States, the Irish faced severe discrimination and abuse - the US being as nativist then as it is now. But over time the Irish obtained some influence through political organizations and, in the Catholic church, high representation as the clergy.
My interest, though, was in Irish arrivals to Canada. Passage to Canada was cheaper and Canada never denied the Irish entry - it was also more accepting - but the numbers arriving in Canada were much lower. In 1842 there were 160,000 Irish-born in the Canadian provinces. The United States had an estimated 700,000. Protestant Irish from Ulster arrived in the earlier 1800s - many settling in Upper Canada. During the Famine, a larger number were Catholic with many settling in Lower Canada.
Anyone wanting to learn more about the patterns of migration and the adjustments for settlement will find much in this book. I, however, found it scrambled in accounts of the periods - more chronological treatment would have helped my understanding. Examination of the Irish arrivals in Canada was not as detailed regarding settlement as I had hoped - or the contributions the Irish made to Canadian society.
But Connolly does explain that the Irish in Canada didn't carry the same grievance against the British as the Irish nationalists in the United States. That so many Irish in Canada came from Ulster is a factor in this. They contributed to establishing the Orange Order, strong in its anti-Catholicism, and influential in all spheres of business and government. This took decades to dissipate.
The United States had the Fenians and sympathizers to the Irish nationalist cause at work through much of the 1800s - going so far as to attack Canada at least once and plot numerous other times with an impractical agenda to attack Britain through Canada and free Ireland.
I confess that I stopped at Chapter 11 War and Revolution and passed on the last 150 pages. I got the drift. Let me propose that to appreciate the Irish contribution to the world it would be better to read more of the literature and study the early monasteries. And visit the EPIC museum if you are ever in Dublin.
April 21, 2024
There is a strong historical argument that it was the Irish who were the global pioneers of mass migration, who from the early 1800s were fleeing in huge numbers from the economic catastrophe of their homeland to build new lives across the world. And this is the contention of Sean Connolly in “On Every Tide”, the historian’s account of the creation of the Irish diaspora.
The primary focus of “On Every Tide” is on the millions of Irish who migrated to North America - particularly the tidal wave escaping Ireland during and after ‘The Great Hunger’ of the 1840s & 1850s - with Connolly paying comparatively scant attention to those who settled in Britain. These Irish were essentially refugees from a collapsed economic system, with much of Ireland’s societal order practically collapsing during the famine years.
Sean Connolly demonstrates how these bedraggled migrants carved out a place for themselves in American politics, becoming embedded in the social structures of their adopted country (such as the Labour movement and the notorious Tammany Hall), gradually crawling their way up the racial pecking orders and forging a new Irish middle class.
Connolly presents an interesting theory that these Irish migrants prior experience of democratic politics in Ireland (through, for example, Daniel O’Connell’s campaign for Catholic Emancipation) allowed them to build influence and social mobility more quickly than other European migrant groups. But “On Every Tide” is no adulatory ‘American Dream’ fairytale; it is to credit of Connolly that he is unafraid to give due space to the Irish diaspora’s often lamentable record on race-relations (and how they could be “both victims and oppressors” in their adopted lands).
While Sean Connolly has a superb command of the statistics on migration patterns, religious observance, and economic performances, this emphasis on demographic trends can make for a rather dry and uninvolved narrative. It is not that I wanted Connolly to pour on the misery, but an approach with more emotional heft might have provided a more compelling insight into the Irish migrant experience, as well as pulling at the heartstrings. And other than considerations of space, the lack of attention on the Irish migrant experience in Britain is puzzling. But for a reader looking to get an overview of the history of the Irish diaspora across the last three centuries, “On Every Tide” is a good starting point.
The primary focus of “On Every Tide” is on the millions of Irish who migrated to North America - particularly the tidal wave escaping Ireland during and after ‘The Great Hunger’ of the 1840s & 1850s - with Connolly paying comparatively scant attention to those who settled in Britain. These Irish were essentially refugees from a collapsed economic system, with much of Ireland’s societal order practically collapsing during the famine years.
Sean Connolly demonstrates how these bedraggled migrants carved out a place for themselves in American politics, becoming embedded in the social structures of their adopted country (such as the Labour movement and the notorious Tammany Hall), gradually crawling their way up the racial pecking orders and forging a new Irish middle class.
Connolly presents an interesting theory that these Irish migrants prior experience of democratic politics in Ireland (through, for example, Daniel O’Connell’s campaign for Catholic Emancipation) allowed them to build influence and social mobility more quickly than other European migrant groups. But “On Every Tide” is no adulatory ‘American Dream’ fairytale; it is to credit of Connolly that he is unafraid to give due space to the Irish diaspora’s often lamentable record on race-relations (and how they could be “both victims and oppressors” in their adopted lands).
While Sean Connolly has a superb command of the statistics on migration patterns, religious observance, and economic performances, this emphasis on demographic trends can make for a rather dry and uninvolved narrative. It is not that I wanted Connolly to pour on the misery, but an approach with more emotional heft might have provided a more compelling insight into the Irish migrant experience, as well as pulling at the heartstrings. And other than considerations of space, the lack of attention on the Irish migrant experience in Britain is puzzling. But for a reader looking to get an overview of the history of the Irish diaspora across the last three centuries, “On Every Tide” is a good starting point.
January 22, 2023
Despite its poetic title, this book is more survey course than storytelling. Covering 300 years, Connolly determinedly quotes every statistic about Irish immigration, Irish independence movements, Irish Canadian settlement, and Irish labor patterns that could be found. It became a bit tedious. I wished for a more living, breathing narrative about people from Ireland. I craved a story of Irish immigration from a more individual point of view, possibly sampling the life of an Irish maid in a Boston household or an Irish boxer in New York City. The statistics painted the broad strokes of a picture, but I wanted more.
I was especially fascinated by the Irish immigrants who came to America in huge waves during the potato famine of the 1840s – Ireland went from a population of 8.5 million to 4 million in the 1800s; by the 1950s, Ireland dipped to 3 million and even today is not above 6 million. That is stunning; an entire country decimated forever by the famine. And yet their mythological effect on our society is still outsized. Most of the Irish Americans stayed on the America’s northeastern in large cities rather than pioneering across the west. I wanted to know more about that. One tantalizing comment was that Irish immigrants wanted nothing to do with farming in their new lives. Of course not – being traumatized by the devastation of the potato famine, they never wanted to plant another field.
Another intriguing idea was that Irish immigrants were the most common US immigrant throughout the 1800s. How did that define the early US immigrant experience? Because Irish immigrants were white, Christian, and spoke English, their options for assimilation were profoundly different than later immigrant waves from other parts of Europe and the world. Finally, I devoured the chapter entitled “Tammany to Camelot” which explored the Irish political machine and the path to JFK’s presidency. So many big ideas in this big book and I still felt like it only scratched the surface.
I was especially fascinated by the Irish immigrants who came to America in huge waves during the potato famine of the 1840s – Ireland went from a population of 8.5 million to 4 million in the 1800s; by the 1950s, Ireland dipped to 3 million and even today is not above 6 million. That is stunning; an entire country decimated forever by the famine. And yet their mythological effect on our society is still outsized. Most of the Irish Americans stayed on the America’s northeastern in large cities rather than pioneering across the west. I wanted to know more about that. One tantalizing comment was that Irish immigrants wanted nothing to do with farming in their new lives. Of course not – being traumatized by the devastation of the potato famine, they never wanted to plant another field.
Another intriguing idea was that Irish immigrants were the most common US immigrant throughout the 1800s. How did that define the early US immigrant experience? Because Irish immigrants were white, Christian, and spoke English, their options for assimilation were profoundly different than later immigrant waves from other parts of Europe and the world. Finally, I devoured the chapter entitled “Tammany to Camelot” which explored the Irish political machine and the path to JFK’s presidency. So many big ideas in this big book and I still felt like it only scratched the surface.
December 22, 2022
On Every Tide is a masterful summary of over two hundred centuries of Irish emigration. Anchored in demographic statistics, historian Sean Connolly provides a wealth of social, political, religious, and economic context that is both fascinating and interpretive and aimed at a broad non-academic audience.
As a US reader, much of the discussion of Non- US immigration was less well known. While I had previous exposure to both the US context, the role of the Catholic Church on Irish society, and The Troubles, the content and depth of analyses provided were exemplary. The narrative and details of US immigration and contemporary Northern Ireland were not only well presented but included a number of details previously unknown or misunderstood.
The book’s concluding chapters not only address the currently unfolding impact of Brexit, but offer thoughtful discussion comparing the Irish immigration waves of the past with those of new populations currently seeking safety and opportunities beyond their homelands.
While driven by statistical analyses, clear writing, crisp organization, and solid referencing abound. Hard to not like a chapter on post WW2 Irish in the US titled “We’ve married Italian girls and moved to the suburbs”?
Connolly, an academic historian writing for a broader audience, anticipated that some readers may want more specific information on some of the topics he covered. To meet this possibility he included sections on the basis of statistics used and additional readings on selected topics he addressed. Both are worth reading too.
As a US reader, much of the discussion of Non- US immigration was less well known. While I had previous exposure to both the US context, the role of the Catholic Church on Irish society, and The Troubles, the content and depth of analyses provided were exemplary. The narrative and details of US immigration and contemporary Northern Ireland were not only well presented but included a number of details previously unknown or misunderstood.
The book’s concluding chapters not only address the currently unfolding impact of Brexit, but offer thoughtful discussion comparing the Irish immigration waves of the past with those of new populations currently seeking safety and opportunities beyond their homelands.
While driven by statistical analyses, clear writing, crisp organization, and solid referencing abound. Hard to not like a chapter on post WW2 Irish in the US titled “We’ve married Italian girls and moved to the suburbs”?
Connolly, an academic historian writing for a broader audience, anticipated that some readers may want more specific information on some of the topics he covered. To meet this possibility he included sections on the basis of statistics used and additional readings on selected topics he addressed. Both are worth reading too.
March 12, 2025
(Audiobook) For the Indiana State Academic Team Competition this was the book that was assigned to the Social Studies team. On paper this book was tough to get through if you did not have much time to read, so I finished it on audiobook. However for a college history class, I would have been able to read this on paper and I think it could be used well for a college Irish History course especially focused on Irish immigration. I really did not have much background knowledge on Ireland and I really, really enjoyed learning from this book! It is always important to look back at how incredibly hard peoples lives were in comparison to today. It is crazy how much the Irish and Irish immigrants went through during the 19th and 20th centuries. The book was slightly overwhelming but very satisfying now that I have completed it. It also helps that I had to teach my team about it too so I had a deeper understanding on select topics. I'm really happy about this one, but just wouldn't suggest it as a casual read.
November 27, 2024
I'm planning a trip to Ireland soon, and so reading up on all things Irish, old and new. In addition, my forefathers came through Ellis Island during the Famine. Such things cause me to have an interest in Irish immigration, its causes and effects. Connolly's book purported to furnish that. The question is, did it?
Yes, provided you prefer an academic answer. There is nothing wrong with the work, per se, other than the fact it is relatively tedious to read. It is accurate, wide-ranging, and yet thorough. Connolly saves the best for last with an extensive examination toward the end of how all this emigration has positioned Ireland for growth/soft power in our own generation.
...but, yeah, academic. I think he would have been much better off to recite the various statistics, and then focus in on the life stories of real life examples that tracked those statistics. It would have humanized a rather sterile work if he had.
Yes, provided you prefer an academic answer. There is nothing wrong with the work, per se, other than the fact it is relatively tedious to read. It is accurate, wide-ranging, and yet thorough. Connolly saves the best for last with an extensive examination toward the end of how all this emigration has positioned Ireland for growth/soft power in our own generation.
...but, yeah, academic. I think he would have been much better off to recite the various statistics, and then focus in on the life stories of real life examples that tracked those statistics. It would have humanized a rather sterile work if he had.
June 18, 2023
For those of Irish descent in the U.S. and (to a lesser extent) in Canada, this should be a fascinating read. In my case, it helped me put the various Irish emigrants in my own family in place in the historical calendar -- the "Scotch Irish" (Ulsterwomen and men) on my father's side, the first of whom arrived in the 18th century, my direct ancestor from County Leitrim on my mother's side, who came in the latter part of the 19th century and settled in western Iowa, and even my French-Canadian forebears (also on my mother's side) whose departure from Quebec for Iowa seems to have coincided with the Irish influx into Quebec during the famine years. Some may find the many facts and figures offputting, but I am an historian, and I relish them.
January 31, 2025
Finished On Every Tide: The Making and Remaking of the Irish World by Sean Connolly written in 2020. This book has a lot of numbers delivered in a way that provides context to the impact of Irish migration upon America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand Britain. The Irish influenced politics, religion and economic success in these countries. The common language to these countries made assimilation more complete after several generations but they were not always greeted warmly. Like America today, they did jobs the native population wouldn’t do. They fueled the economic engine as these overseas countries expanded. This book is throughly researched and told well. It really helped me understand the world my ancestors left and the world they joined across the ocean to the present day.
April 9, 2025
This book has no direction. For a book about Irish people, it is incredibly reluctant to actually talk about Ireland. This book does not mention the end of the troubles with the Good Friday Agreements when discussing the resurgence of Ireland in the late 20th and 21st century. The author overuses personal accounts and then often follows them with vague generalizations. He then follows up with the counter arguments. There is absolutely no linearity in this story. It starts around the start of the 19th century and follows a very very very brief move towards the modern day however, the book constantly jumps forwards or backwards decades at a time.
A slog to get through and a slog to follow anything other than the general themes the author is trying to convey.
A slog to get through and a slog to follow anything other than the general themes the author is trying to convey.
July 26, 2022
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. This was a very in-depth and informative book on the Irish. It was interesting to read about the Irish coming to the United States,Canada and Australia, to name a few countries. I think as most people would assume that many coming to the United Stares would be as families but this wasn’t necessarily the case. Many were under 14 and men left their families back in Ireland. They sent money back home in hopes that their families would join them when they had saved enough money.
June 11, 2023
I can't recall who recommended this to me or why, and in reading it I didn't connect it with any particular event or other book. So as a random adventure, it was a pretty good read. Deep diving into how Irish people ended up all over the British world (focused sections on Canada, Australia, USA, and UK) and the events and people that shaped their culture, and of course how Irish culture permeated each of these countries.
October 8, 2023
This is a fascinating historical account of the diaspora of the Irish--for centuries, to many countries, for many reasons. The impact these immigrants have had on the world is astonishing. While many think just of the Potato Famine, this book covers a longer and broader range of causes and choices. This is a slow, careful read, full of data. But it is certainly worth the effort.
July 3, 2024
Good history of mostly 19th century migrations from Ireland to U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and Great Britain. Irish integrated differently in each. Learned some new things beyond the impact of the 1840s potato famine. Would give this 4 stars if there weren't so many stats that are reused over and over again.
January 23, 2023
A solid review of the history of the Irish abroad, the so-called “diaspora”. I was largely familiar with the American history, but wasn’t aware of the sizable Irish emigré communities in Australia and New Zealand.
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April 22, 2023This was a very interesting but very academic book about the Irish diaspora. I visited Ireland in September and a highlight of the trip was visiting EPIC, the Irish Emigration museum. Fascinating topic but the book was certainly a bit dry and academic.
February 20, 2023
Really excellent book. Authoritative, objective and also very readable.
March 17, 2023
For feck’s sake, that was detailed! Christ on a bicycle!
Seriously, this is an outstanding work.
Seriously, this is an outstanding work.
August 19, 2024
If you have a drop of Irish blood in you, you should read this book regarding the Irish influence on all the world since the 1700s.
March 11, 2025
This is a text book. Way, way, way too much detail and data for a non-fiction entertaining read. Skip it.
April 9, 2025
I can't even believe how bad this book was. Every first hand account was absolute rubbish, there was so many statistics on things that didn't need statistics because the "shocking change" was like .00002 percent, and much much much more. It felt as if the author was writing the chapters years apart because he kept repeating himself EVERY CHAPTER. The book itself sounded like the author was trying to meet a page requiremnt, but ran out of information on page 10. I don't hate many books but I sure hated this one. If it wasn't required reading I would never touch it again.
May 22, 2025
I read this for my History Academic Bowl. Really informative but I fell asleep every time I tried to read it at night.
September 23, 2022
This is a wonderful ‘warts and all’ history of Irish migration. In fact I was surprised by the number of warts. The Irish influence on US politics has not always been especially enlightening. The same can be said for Irish attitudes to non-white minorities, to say nothing of American frustration with Irish reluctance to help during World War II. It is well written, the book flows as facts spring from each page. Excellent for anyone interested in Irish history.
September 19, 2022
Fascinating insight into Irish history, in the context of immigration. Great for historical readers and writers as well as students of history.
April 13, 2023
This is an important book that should be read by anyone interested in modern Irish history.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews